My faith in Nintendo has been restored this Holiday season with the release of some halfway decent games for the Wii U. My husband and I were gifted several fun games for Christmas, and while I haven't had a chance to play very many of them yet, I figured I'd drop by here and post about them.

Scribblenauts. I know this game has been around for a while on various platforms, but this is the first opportunity we've had to play it. It's hilarious. If you haven't played it, think of Mad Libs in video game form. You're a character who has the power to create items that you write on a notepad. So you come up to a guy who needs a ride to pick up a date, you could write a limo or you could write a zebra-striped blimp. The particular game my husband was playing got interesting in a hurry when he created a doppleganger, and this doppleganger actually went around to all of the people and started creating some very weird and random things and then vanished. We don't know where in the game he went. Anyways...

Pikmin. The only version of Pikmin I've ever played was on Nintendoland, and therefore it's a mini-game without a lot of story. I'm not far into the game yet, but so far so good.

Super Luigi Bros. I don't know how many have played Super Mario Bros for the Wii U, but this game is tweaked a bit. First of all, you only have 100 seconds to complete the level. Second, no Mario, instead you get the Nabbit. The Nabbit is immune to enemies (though you can still die from falling, getting crushed, etc), but also can't be buffed. However, any buff you pick up will turn into a 1Up should you complete the level. So you can either be quite an asset to your team, or the worlds worst video game troll if you're playing this character. Much hilarity ensued when we were playing all five players.

Zelda: The Windwaker. Again, this isn't a completely new game, I think it's been out for the DS for a while, but this is my first time playing it and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Much better than that irritating, hand-holding, Skyward Sword. I've only just made it to the first dungeon where I dropped by sword and am making my way through by hiding in barrels.

Has anyone else dabbled in any of these games?

I'm surprised nobody is talking about the PS4 or X-Box One. We haven't purchased either yet, and we may not as we simply don't have much time for video games with a little one, but my brother-in-law has a One and he and my hubby were playing a bit over Christmas. Looks nice. Has anybody gotten either of these consoles? What do you think?

My brother and i are sort of co-saving up for the PS4. I'm much more of a PC gamer than a console gamer, though, so i'm not really familiar with any PS4 titles that have been or will shortly be released, and don't really feel like i'm missing out on anything.

We've never owned an xbox. I think my brother might like one, but he doesn't have a job yet, so i don't know if we'll be getting One anytime soon; or ever.

X-Box 360's a great game platform, at least now that the mechanical defects are all pretty much worked out of the system . There's a wonderful selection of games too, although you'll never find a decent RTS on it because the controllers just aren't made for that type of gaming. And turn-based strategy games tend to be a bit lackluster on it too. Civilization Revolution for the 360 was fun but it was a flash in pan compared to Civ IV.

PC games are still the best as far as graphics and quality go (unless one is playing a console port, which tend to generally bite), but you're never going to get the range of titles that you would with a console. Those days are long gone.

@Fantasia I have played windwaker for wii u( I do not have the gamecube version). I am yet to complete it due to working full time and other things. In week I am on holidays and will complete it than. I am enjoying the game so far and those pig/boar guards made me and my sister laugh.

I received another zelda game for my birthday( A link between worlds). I have hardly got into the game for the reasons stated above. It looks promising however.

I beat Wind Waker last week. A few thoughts...
~When I sat down to play this game, I was determined not to cheat at all. No peeky at the internet. I am proud to say that I didn't have to look at the internet once for the main storyline! There were a couple places I really got stuck too but after my hubs and I put our heads together, we figured it out. I was pretty proud of myself. *beams*
~The two things I did look up were... What was I doing wrong with the merchants because I couldn't get any new trades. Turns out I had apparently not traded the one flower I needed to with the one merchant who will give me something new. Grrr.... And I also looked up the location of the last three treasure maps I was missing. Before doing that, I had all but 7 heart shards. I finished the game missing 4 heart shards. No idea where those were, I didn't look it up.
~Ganon fight. omgoodness.... First of all, it took a while to get past the first stage of the boss fight with the puppets, but that didn't nearly kill Link, just my patience. Couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do.

But then when you actually fight him mano y mano... I went in there with 19 full hearts, 5000 rupees on my magic armor, a full thing of soup from Granny, 2 blue potions, and a fairy-in-a-jar. I won with 4 hearts left and half a soup from Granny. Boy he was rough...
~That was THE MOST FUN game I have played in a long, long time.

My husband has been trying to get through Skyward Sword, but it drives both of us crazy. (Fi needs to shut up and go away.) We must be missing something cause all of the online reviews are very high... we don't like it at all. So last night he fired up A Link to the Past on our emulator. I only ever played it for 10 min on my cousin's Super Nintendo way back in the day. But I might have to give it a proper try. I'm also ready to play Twilight Princess again. I never beat that one cause I saw both my husband and brother beat it. But now that I don't remember all the details, I'd like to give it another shot. I'm definitely in Zelda mode right now. Sorry Shadowlander.

I am still playing a link between two worlds for 3ds. It is a good game but I rather large console games over handheld.

I have completed skyward sword . I enjoyed the game and since it has been 2 years since completing it I may play it again. I must admit that fi was rather annoying at times. How far into the game is your are you?

I haven't played twilight princess in sometime though I remember enjoying and completing the game.I think the companion midna was the best off all the companions(the least annoying).

I didn't get very far IlF, only to the first dungeon. My husband has made it a lot further though I'm not exactly sure how far along he is.

I did fire up Twilight Princess the other day. I sure do love this game. But it has been put on hold for the Olympics. I'm determined to beat it this time.

I am on holidays, finished preparing for uni in march and have no interest in the Olympic games. I have a lot of time to play zelda.

I have been playing mario kart online on the 3ds against others around the world. The lagging is a slight issue. I throw a shell at someone it goes through them and a little further down the track they go up in the air which is funny. Also sometimes the internet catches up and suddenly people speed past you or really close behind you.Often you cross the line in one position and may end up being one position a head or behind that.

Haha, I remember those fun days of lag back when I was playing World of Warcraft. I experienced pretty much the exact same sort of thing you're describing IlF. I especially loved when people would just keep running straight until they hit a wall... or a boss.

I don't play online anymore. It shows just how horrible of a gamer I really am. I still have WoW cravings now and then, but it's such a different game than it used to be, there's no point in playing it now.

Oh, and MarioKart is really fun. Waiting for the Wii U version (if one is even in the works. I think it is.)

WoW is still fun....it's just a letdown (which I cannot really articulate) when one picks up a purple ring that has positive stats in the hundreds and no one is impressed anymore. Pandaria is very cool, though. My wife still plays. (she's playing even now!)

I've been rumbling through Fallout: New Vegas on my PC, and loving every minute of it, but what I miss more than anything else in the world is my WW2 flight sim. I miss my old Stuka and dropping bombs on tanks, and flying my Wildcat on dogfighting sorties. *sigh*

My brother was once a wow addict. He is not anymore because suddenly he just lost interest in the game. I never played it myself.

Ha fantasia I always see them darting all over the place and think are they really that bad at controlling the kart or is it the lag?

@SL, glad to hear the Wifester is still playing. I used to know tons of people who played, but I only hear of a few now and then. It's kind of sad.
I should know what type/style of game Fallout is, but I'm drawing a blank. Is it FPS?

@IlF, I know. But after a while you start to be able to tell pretty well what's lag, and what's horrible driving. How good are you at Rainbow Road? (Assuming 3DS has that track.)

@fantasia I am good at mario kart(I have been playing since 1999 so you have to expect that). The rainbow road on 3ds is one long track(markers are placed throughout the track for the start of the 2nd and 3rd laps). I only fall off when another player knocks me off. I do remember falling off lots when I was a kid playing the Nintendo 64 version on a number of tracks.

They should have a video game Olympics and one of the sports should be mario kart. Than people like me who have little interest in sport can get excited about the olympics.

I should know what type/style of game Fallout is, but I'm drawing a blank. Is it FPS?

It's got FPS trappings but with a healthy dose of RPG attached to it. My avatar is a bit of an icon from the game series . It is my favorite video game series hands down. It's from the same folks that did Oblivion and Skyrim, so if you've played those imagine them in the trappings of a retro-futuristic sci-fi post-apocalyptic setting and you'll get the gist.

Is the world as large as the Morrowind worlds? I tried playing Morrowind a couple times, but it was too big and too difficult for me to get into. My husband loved that game. I'll have to look into getting him Fallout at some point in time. Cause you know... we have so much time to play video games right now.

Admittedly, I have been going through Twilight Princess again... very slowly. It took me 2-3 days to beat the second dungeon. I guess that's what having kids does to you. But this game is soooo much fun. Hoping to beat it this time.

My husband has been playing A Link to the Past which neither of us have ever played. He's about done with it and he's having a blast. Isn't this typically considered one of the best, if not the best Zelda game of all time?