Don't expect much from the Wii U's tablet controller

Bitmob - Reviewers are extremely intrigued by the thrilling potential of this tablet. They shouldn’t be. We actually already know what game developers will do with it -- not much.

Since the days of the NES Power Glove, gimmick controllers have promised new frontiers of immersion and interactivity they could not possibly deliver. The mighty 8-bit mitt purported to “track the position of your hand in space” with “3D sensors.” “Now you don’t just guide the action. You’re in the action,” the ads hilariously lied.

[ape007]

to be honest I never ever think of any motion or touch thing to replace traditional style, they are almost always an afterthought

[darthv72]

for something like kinect or move. Both of which were in fact afterthoughts instead of being the initial release.

Thing about the wii and wii-u is both the wiimote and the gamepad are standardized controllers for their respected platforms. Meaning that someone developing a game for the wii knew every person who had a wii had the controller. So it gave them more of an unquestionable stance on if they should include support for it or not.

its when something is released later as an option that it has the tough road of convincing everyone else into getting it. Now if we look at the original PS controller, it lacked the dual analog sticks.

Sony developed that controller which later became the standard but until it was a standard you still had the developers on the fence of adding support for the dual analog or not.

The wii-u gamepad would only become a gimmick if the parent company themselves (nintendo) did not use it. That would show a complete lack of support from the originating company. a good example of something released and NOT getting parental support would be something like ROB the robot (only 2 games supported). Or the exercise pad or something more current...the PSeye/eyetoy.

In the example of the pseye, it wasnt until the move controller that it gave a reason for people to get one but there is still a lack of 100% backing by sony when it comes to something like this. Hell, even sega backed the sega cd which many feel was a failure of an add-on. A failure that garnered over 200 titles released for it.

Traditional control for games has been questioned for almost 30 years. We have played the same way for so long that when something tries to be different, people wont give it a chance for fear that A) it will suck or B) they will actually like it and wish their older games supported the new way as well.

i personally dont see anything wrong with new ideas. its when they take this new idea and tack it on to old ways of doing things that is wrong. If the idea is to move forward then these companies need to take these new ideas and actually do something creative with them. Otherwise we will get the 3D effect all over again.

And by that i am referring to the ton of movies that get the 3D treatment when we know damn well they dont need it. Thus flooding the market and pulling down legitimate 3D efforts into the same hole that crappy efforts go.

[Zhipp]

Yeah. Regardless of how good the U-pad is, I can't see very many games(especially 3rd party) making any real, substantial use of this controller. The little conveniences, like the minimap, inventory, or two-screen multiplayer might be enough for some games, though. I'll just have to wait and see.

[Neonridr]

Wow, this article is a complete fail. The author completely failed to give any real reasons why the Wii U tablet controller isn't very good. All they did was point out previous Nintendo controllers and tried to identify their flaws.

The Wii U tablet can offer so many possibilities, but it's up to the developer to actually create the different implementations for it. If a developer designs the tablet to be a map or an inventory screen, that isn't the fault of the gamepad, but the developers inabilities or laziness to actually use it properly.

The augmented reality functions, which allow you to use the gamepad independently from the TV (see the scanner function in ZombiU) create unique experiences and offer a level of control that isn't available anywhere else.

Not to mention you can create a more cinematic experience by removing uselss clutter and information on the screen and transfer it down to the gamepad instead. Games like Dark Souls didn't allow the game to pause when you were messing around in a pause screen, so Ubisoft took that one step further and gave you an interactive inventory management screen to add to the immersion.

Who cares about the Power Glove, that was 25 years ago??

[Gazondaily]

I'm seriously growing tired of all these hit seeking articles that just pour scorn over the Nintendo Wii U.

This article should read 'Don't expect much from modern day "journalists".

[ThePsychoGamer]

Reading compression is really an underrated skill.

The article isn't saying don't expect much from the WiiU's gamepad because the gamepad it's self is flawed.

It's saying don't expect much from it because developers most likely won't do much with it. The talk about other controllers is to establish that there is a trend to support this concern.

[NexGen]

Yes, developers will ignore this just like they ignored that whole "dual screen" Nintendo DS fad. That new gimmick failed so hard...........

/s if you can't tell.

[Neonridr]

It's hard to make that connection when every single device he mentions minus the Wii remote is an add-on accessory. The Power Glove wasn't mandatory, nor was the GBA connectivity with the Gamecube. I am not defending the Virtual Boy, that thing was 100% a mistake.

He sure doesn't seem to think much of the Wii U with a comment like :

"Or maybe it’s not that complicated. Maybe you’re just conning casuals into blowing $299.99 on another hideously underpowered, flimflam system."

The fact is, he talks about a couple of mistakes Nintendo made with their controllers to try to make you believe he has a case, but he forgets how Nintendo brought us the SNES Controller (making shoulder buttons a necessity), the Analog Stick with the N64 controller (making it become a standard on all controllers), and the analog triggers on the Gamecube controller (a popular trend with today's controllers). The Wii offered us a new way to interact, regardless if you didn't enjoy the system or not, that controller is pretty revolutionary. And the DS, with it's 150+ million units sold clearly shows that a dual screen is popular and desired by gamers.

The Wii U takes a lot of what Nintendo did right and puts it all together. Nintendo will offer us unique ways to use it's gamepad, but it's also up to developers to try to set their games apart from the rest.

Having the screen alone and giving me the ability to walk downstairs and continue playing my game (I have tested it and I can go to the bathroom or my bedroom - both one floor down, with no slowdown of any kind) or giving up the main TV to my wife while I continue playing on the screen is an incredible feat itself.

But sure, we can't expect much if developers are only going to utilize it as a map screen..

If the guy is going to actually make a case for not expecting much from the gamepad, he has to actually come up with specific examples related to the GAMEPAD ITSELF. Maybe something to do with the actual system it is utilized on.

How does saying that the Powerglove sucked and failed make any connection to saying that the gamepad won't do much. Those were very poor examples.

I say again, fail.

[iamnsuperman]

@nextgen "Yes, developers will ignore this just like they ignored that whole "dual screen" Nintendo DS fad. That new gimmick failed so hard...........

/s if you can't tell."

There is a big difference in budget when developing a DS game and a HD game. I really don't see developers spending more time and money thinking of innovative way to use the new gamepad but instead be used for menus if Sony or Microsoft's next console doesn't have a similar device (of course I am talking about third part multiplat games and third party exclusives are going the way of the dodo).

[kirbyu]

People need to stop complaining about the Gamepad doing nothing special. I'd like to see those complainers come up with a good idea for it. Anyobdy got one? No? I didn't think so.

And the Gameboy Pac-Man thing. Just because it existed doesn't mean everyone had it. I didn't have it. I had never even heard of it. And, think of all the kids who were born after the GameCube's time.

[millzy102]

play rayman legends and zombiu if you want an idea of how developers can use the gamepad Ubisoft seem to be coming up with really good ideas, real time strategy and RPG would be the best genres suited for it.

apart from the obvious of taking the HUD off the screen and local multiplayer without split screen imagine a game like mgs where on the tv it is fully 3d with moveable camera angles and on the gamepad could be the old school top down view where you could tap sentries to map them out on the tv so you can keep track of them even when they move behind objects and when they walk off screen an arrow indicator comes up on the side of the screen showing what direction there in. sneak up behind them and take them out. the gamepad view would still be on when in a locker or cardboard box so you can see everything that is going on but when you go in alart the gamepad screen goes static blocking the other view and all other Intel so your on your own. get out of alart the gamepad comes back on. map out the enemies again and start again. pull out a sniper rifle, scope on gamepad move it infront of tv (give the gamepad a quick shake for penzatamine) aim for the head and take out the enemy. put ruffle back, gamepad goes top down again and move onto next area.

[Thepcz]

...

[jmc8888]

So let's see, the guy says motion gaming is a gimmick? I'm pretty sure Wii showed it worked pretty well. The gamepad works, I mean it REALLY works!

You don't even need a motion sensor on the screen to track you, the gamepad is the motion controller AND the sensor in one. It is also very responsive and has lots of features to be used.

The powerglove sucked. I had friends that had it, it sucked. One of them even destroyed it later just to make it part of a costume (the cord).

It's sort of like the guy didn't understand what the Wii accomplished and is judging the gamepad not on it's own merits but on visions of bad 1980's technology.

Also when he describes the failings of the 'motion controls', he talks about them in relation to regular controllers. Well that's not motion controls. That's a lack of having another 'regular control' embedded with the motion controls.

It's like saying the car's engine sucks because the tires are old. What he really should mean to say is that the motion controls weren't advanced too much and quality of play overall was held back by the lack of a 2nd analog stick. That's not on motion controls.

Meanwhile he says how MS and Sony will ship with a traditional controller. No one ever said these new controllers were going to be the only way in the future to play a game. Even the Wii had a regular controller you could buy. Or close to it.

But also Microsoft's new console IS ALSO launching their console with motion gaming in mind...so much so...that they're releasing it WITH a Kinect TWO AND a hand manipulator. There might even be pressure for them to make their own gamepad. We'll see if they try to do some of the easy stuff with smart glass and leave it at that.

Either way you look at it, the gamepad is not the powerglove. Wii sold about 100 million consoles. Sony and MS copied them somewhat this generation. MS (at the very least) is upgrading their copy significantly and packing it in with every 720 they sell. (which because of it's costs might actually cause the overall power of the system to be decreased).

So if you're going to talk about not expecting much, the question is, how big do you think people are expecting it to be? It's going to add great functionality to games. It's not some ethereal thing. It's open ended, but there are plenty of ideas that are easily achieved. 1 frame latency is really, really good.

So what exactly is 'don't expect much'? Inventory...check. 2nd screen gaming...check. Drawing plays on screen....check. Change loadouts and kill streaks...check.

There's tons of ways to use it, and they're already showing up. Is it much? That all depends on who the person is. Sure it's much when you consider how each one enhances the gameplay and/or ease of use. But does it add to the power of the games? No. So what are people really expecting? Because having dozens of ways to enhance various games is definitely 'much'.

[wiiulee]

lol dont expect much are you a game developer or nintendo for that matter....just because you're a hater already clouded your vision....take a nap

[AO1JMM]

I don't think much of any controller.

[OneAboveAll]

Dumb article. So far from what i'v played using it's proven it isn't a gimmick in my opinion. Nintendo Land alone show's what will be capable with this controller.

<3 DK Crash Course and Metroid!