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Official YouTube app arrives on Nintendo Wii U

The Wii U is now out and officially buyable in the US, ahead of Nintendo’s homeland of Japan and the UK and Europe. However, a selection of video apps that Ninty had originally promised were absent on launch, including YouTube, Hulu and Netflix.

Google has remedied the lack of YouTube by launching the official app for Wii U today, and it looks pretty great so far. The interface has been designed around the Wii U and looks completely unique, with a sleek and smooth layout that suits large HD TVs and the GamePad controller itself.

The touchscreen GamePad controller is the Wii U’s unique selling point if you like, and the hope is that developers and game makers will come up with new and exciting ways to use it. Google has implemented it well with the YouTube app, bringing second screen content to the 6.2-inch LCD display.

For example, when searching for a video you’ll be given a full QWERTY keyboard on the GamePad’s screen, allowing easy text entry – much less painstaking than using an analogue stick and a button to select, a la Xbox 360 and PS3.

With the Wii U Nintendo has at long last gone HD, and as such the YouTube app supports up to 1080p Full HD content. You’ll need to be using a HDMI connection to your TV of course, but it means you’ll be able to use the app to watch videos in the highest quality. Furthermore, when watching a video the GamePad will display a bunch of second screen content, such as comments, likes and other information about the video itself.

The main menu of the YouTube for Wii U app gives you a vertical scrolling bar with options for different categories, settings, channels, subscriptions and featured content. Once in one of these menus, videos are displayed in a neat, horizontal scrolling menu which looks very neat.

Hopefully Nintendo can bring along other video apps such as Netflix and Hulu very soon to bulk up the Wii U’s on-demand capabilities. The YouTube app is available as a free app from the main menu now, and the console itself launches in the UK and Europe on November 30th.

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