9. The Wii U’s GamePad Is Revolutionary
While the Wii U’s GamePad, admittedly the main draw of the system, may look completely unwieldy and awkward, it must go on the record that it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite controllers of all time. Yes, the screen on the GamePad’s face could have probably supported multitouch, and yes, the battery could have definitely been a tad better, but overall, there are very few blemishes about Nintendo’s controller.
The GamePad is lightweight and fits into your hands quite nicely, with grooves that feel natural in your palms and a shelf for the trigger buttons and your pointer fingers. The sticks are well-built and have a solid click to them, while the buttons don’t feel mushy and cheap like the original 3DS’s. The screen is wonderful, and while it’s not as vibrant or luminous as the Vita’s OLED, I’m impressed with the build. However, the sheer coolness of the controller is in the way that the Wii U and it’s software use it.
Using the GamePad as a sonar/scanner in ZombiU and the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines adds that extra bit of tension and immersion. Nintendoland (the pack-in for the black 32-gig system) is a wonderful tool to help new owners find their way around the GamePad and its potential uses. I can plug in some headphones and jump into an online match in Black Ops II without having to turn on my TV and disturb my sleeping roommate.
While not every game released uses the GamePad to its fullest extent, there is so much potential that Nintendo should be able to harvest from the odd controller that could.
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3 Comments
i got a chance to play it. it was pretty cool, specially the pad controller. good article
I probably will get a Wii U later on down the road but not right now simply because it’s not that the wii U doesn’t have a somewhat decent selection, but a good chunck of those games are already on other conoles that I already own. No need to buy another system to purchase the same game twice (even if it adds a couple neat functions, it still doesn’t make it worth another $60)
Thank you for your feedback. I completely agree, that while a lot of the games have been made for other consoles, besides the off-tv functionality, there’s not much reason to buy it again for the Wii U (although, online not withstanding, I prefer Black Ops on the Wii U). I think the fact that games like AC3 are on the Wii U is most appealing to those who had only a Wii this past gen. Hopefully developers will make bigger incentives to buy the Wii U version over the others; an example that comes to mind is Aliens: Colonial Marines, in which Gearbox has stated the Wii U version will be the definitive one.