Yesterday I got my Wii U system.
I got the basic (white) set, along with Scribblenauts: Unlimited and Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition. I also have New Super Mario Bros. U on the way (I should have it by Monday).
After charging the gamepad (2.5 hours), I set up the system and downloaded the day-one system update, which took just over an hour. I then played some Scribblenauts: Unlimited for a little bit. I don’t fully know how to use the object editor quite yet, but this is my first attempt at making a banana stand from Arrested Development.
Later, I played some Batman (B:AC:AE is too long of a title, so I’m just going to call it Batman). I have not played the game on PS3/360, so it’s all new to me. After that, I decided to look into doing the system transfer, to move my Wii data to my Wii U. These screens detail what will and will not be transferred:
And then you are treated to a scene in which Pikmin pick up and carry your data from your Wii to a rocket ship, and then from their rocket to your Wii U. In my case, the transfer took about 45 minutes. Of course this will vary depending on how much data you are moving.
Online data does transfer. So your game friend rosters will still be intact and you can still play online.* But any features that use WiiConnect24 (such as the Mario Kart Channel for Mario Kart Wii) will no longer work. Also, remember that the Wii U does not have GameCube controller ports. So if you exclusively used GameCube controllers in games like Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros. Brawl, you might want to think long and hard about whether or not you want to transfer your data. Remember, you can’t selectively choose what to transfer or what not to transfer. It’s basically all or nothing.
There are things that don’t transfer though. Things like the weather channel, news channel, your message board posts, and so on. Thankfully, things that don’t transfer remain on the Wii. They are not deleted. This is contrary to what some sites previously reported, some of which said the Wii is basically formatted. That caused me some alarm at the time, but fortunately it’s not the case.
Also, your Miis are moved from Wii to Wii U. If you want to keep some of your Miis on your Wii, there is a way! Most people probably forgot about this, but a Wii remote has the ability to store up to ten Miis. Copy those Miis to a Wii remote before doing the Wii-to-Wii U transfer. Then after you’re done, move them back from the Wii remote to your Mii plaza. These Miis will have also been moved to the Wii U, so you will have those Miis on both systems.
*Update/reminder: This entry was written in 2012, and Nintendo no longer supports online play for regular Wii games.