One of my Christmas presents this year was a $20 eShop card, so I thought I’d be able to get two $9.99 games from the Wii U eShop. Not so. The eShop is different from the Wii Shop before it: Rather than using Wii Points, it uses actual dollar amounts. That alone is not the problem…but I have an issue with the way tax is charged. Tax is charged when you purchase a game, not when the initial gift card is bought. So the tax comes out of your balance.
The problem with that is that games are generally priced in multiples of $5.00 ($9.99, $14.99, $19.99). By charging tax this way instead of at the time the card is purchased, they are ensuring your $20 card is not worth $20. If you want $20 worth of games (two $9.99 games for example), you are forced to buy at least $30 in credit! Yes, you’ll still have the remaining balance in your account, but you can’t just pay $22 to cover the cost. This way, they make sure you have a remaining balance. And to use that balance, you’ll more than likely need to buy even more credit. This may not be a big deal for those who will be using the eShop frequently, but it’s a pain for people who want to occasionally buy a game or two. This is not a very consumer-friendly change.
The Wii Shop did not work this way. On Wii, a $20 card would be charged tax at the time of purchase, not when you go to download a game. So the card would cost around $21.50 or so, depending on your local tax rate, but you would get the $20 worth of Wii Points you were expecting. So if nothing else, this is a heads-up and a warning to those planning future eShop purchases: Be prepared to overspend.
I did use $10.76 of my gift card balance to buy Nano Assault Neo. It’s a two-stick shooter on a microscopic scale. Your ship is extremely tiny…in fact, each level takes place on a single cell. You have to shoot 90% of the creatures on each cell to purify the cell and clear the level. You can move completely around each cell, much like Mario running on a planetoid in Super Mario Galaxy.
The action is pretty intense, with enemies, lasers, projectiles, and mini-explosions happening all around you. The graphics are impressive…and shiny. It definitely looks good, although sometimes you’ll get some awkward camera angles. You can grab power-ups and credits, which you can use to upgrade your ship between levels.
It’s fairly fun, but each time I seem to die on the third level (Epsilon 3). I’m going to need some more practice.