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Wii U GamePad Officially Announced

Satoru Iwata announced during the Nintendo Direct pre-E3 stream that the Wii U controller/tablet will officially be called Wii U GamePad, a nod to the NES gamepad, and it will be slightly different than the prototype unveiled at least year’s E3.

More details after the break.

I think my favorite part about the Wii U gamepad...

…has to be that although it’s huge, Nintendo took time to make sure the control sticks, the buttons, the D-pad, the triggers, were all soft and comfortable. Everything’s so big and spongy on this control, it’s a relief on the fingers when it comes to games that has them in a frenzy.

First Thoughts: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U)

Well, this was an unexpected purchase. After I played the downloadable demo of MH3U, I decided that I was not as amazed with the title as I first thought and that I would leave March solely to Luigi’s Mansion 2, but here we are a few days after the launch and I have already put a few hours into it. So, I thought I would share my thoughts about the game so far.

Watch the Wii U GamePad's latency put to the test

If you haven’t gotten your hands on the Wii U GamePad by now, either through industry event or Nintendo’s Wii U experience tour, then you might not be totally convinced how smooth the video on the GamePad really is. But this video might help do away with any fears you might have of input lag and latency.

Wii U GamePad Concepts

Stage Customization (Pictured: Super Smash Bros.)

Using the controller as the menu system for customization is step one. Using motion in the controller to view the stage at different angles would be a nice touch. An added bonus in the case of Super Smash Bros. would be to allow the additional players to run around freely as you edit the stage in real time.

RTS Mini Maps (Pictured: StarCraft)

PC gaming is nearly perfect for RTS games. The one improvement that could be made are the mini maps. The GamePad could improve this by providing a larger map with more detailed terrain.

Changing Killstreaks on the fly (Pictured: Call of Duty)

Such a small change could make a significant impact in competitive play.

Air Strikes and Guided Missiles & Leader Boards (Pictured: Call of Duty)

Character Select (Pictured: Street Fighter X Tekken) & Playbook (Pictured: Madden)

Two different concepts with the same distinct advantage. Sometimes you don’t want the person next to you seeing which character or play you’re selecting. In the case of sports games like Madden it may add to the spectator aspect, with the TV free to show a somewhat realistic representation of the game.

Move Lists (Pictured: Street Fighter X Tekken)

This should be the default setting for all fighting games on the Wii U. If you’re playing the CPU you don’t want to have to pause the game and navigate through all the menus just to get to a specific section of your specific character(s) move list. If you’re playing another person you simply can’t do that. This fixes all of that. The characters you select, on your screen, with their important moves.

Interactive Maps (Pictured: The Elder Scrolls)

In games where you’re traversing large maps as you please it would be nice to be able to get a more accurate idea of where you want your character to go without having to pause the game. It’s a small tweak to games like Skyrim, but a very welcome tweak.

Dual-Wield Item Select (Pictured: The Elder Scrolls) & HUD (Pictured: Dead Island)

Inventory (Pictured: Diablo)

Drop-in/Drop-out Co-op

If you saw the Nintendo Direct video that aired on Nintendo’s website then you likely noticed the messaging system built into New Super Mario Bros. Wii U and the map on the controller. I would love to see companies take this one step further and allow us to drop in and help our friends. NSMB is a perfect template for it. Imagine you’re scrolling through the map and you see indicators that show each of the levels that your friends are currently playing on. You could then select one and join them.