At 3pm on Thursday 13 September, I tuned into Nintendo’s Wii U announcement with my mind already made up. The Wii U is a next gen console that doesn’t excite me and has been created with casual and family gamers in mind. I was watching the presentation simply in a professional capacity rather than a gaming fan.

Initially, there was nothing to deter me from my standpoint. The pricing point for the basic package was cheap in my opinion and the 8GB memory suggested the console was targeted at those who like to play games on their tablets. There is nothing wrong with playing games on your tablet, my iPad is loaded with them, but it isn’t a true gaming experience.

My attitude, however, suddenly flipped with the announcement of the games available on 30 November. Initially, Super Mario Bros U caught my eye. From the short clip, I was immediately taken back to my childhood where I had hours of fun with Mario, only this time improvements had been made to the game and with highly improved graphics. Next my attention turned to the announcement of Ubisoft’s Rayman Legends. I started to read the list of games set to be launched. Game after game I was getting rather excited.

Suddenly, my perception had changed. This console isn’t going to be sitting in Jamie and Louise’s front room like the Wii. This is a console that will bring core gamers back to Nintendo. Granted, there will be some games and gimmicks that will entice casual gamers – the fact that you can use the control pad as the console and have something else on the TV screen being one. However, I think Nintendo have got the balance right this time. The Wii alienated core games, the Wii U might just lure them back.  

Ravi Vijh hasn’t owned a Nintendo console since the N64. Find out if he goes for a Wii U on Twitter @ravivijh