Remote Play: Nintendo Style
Another exciting use that Ive yet to see concretely confirmed by Nintendo is the ability to play Wii U games solely on the controller's screen without needing a TV. Obviously this diminishes the unique asymmetric (as Nintendo call it) gameplay opportunities available when using the GamePads screen and the TV in tandem, but its still a great additional perk to owning a Wii U, and a unique selling point. Especially compared to Sonys poor support of the Remote Play (streaming PS3 games to PS Vita) functionality they had originally touted before PS Vitas release, and subsequently failed to provide in any convincing fashion. Though Sony has redeemed itself slightly with PlayStation 1 Classics support added to Vita and a patch to allow streaming of God Of War and Ico & Shadow Of the Colossus HD to the handheld. I'm also hoping that Wii U will not have to deal with the latency issues that PS Vita and presumably Microsofts SmartGlass will suffer from when trying to stream content from one device to another. The reason why I'm optimistic isn't just because the controller can be directly linked by cable to the Wii U, but also due to Nintendo's time and effort in trying to maximise its functionality as Wii Us main selling point. Its not merely an app, but potentially the crux of the hardware.