Halfway through the Wii's life I wondered what the next console would be like. I mean, after the wacky mote+chuck thing, what could they possibly have up their sleeves? When the U was first announced, and the gamepad controller was revealed, my honest first reaction was, "That's what they're doing for a controller? How stupid!" But after reading more and more about the console and gamepad, and watching videos of gameplay and whatnot, I eventually changed my mind to the gamepad being awesome. It's basically like a consolized DS.
What's more, I think Nintendo finally got the whole controller thing down right. The Wii and its Classic Controller had a mess of problems. The original design wasn't very good for modern games, the "Pro" version was great but wasn't supported like it should have been, it had to plug into the remote, had no force feedback, but the lack of support in games was probably my biggest complaint.
The gamepad really changes this, though. Game developers might have looked at the Wii's remote/nunchuck and Classic Controller and thought, "Pffft, I'm not doing all that programming." The U's gamepad has the exact same button names and even placement as the U's Pro controller, making it really easy for developers to just support both.
I picked up the Pro controller when I picked up the U, I figured I'd mostly be using it as it would be a lot more comfortable. Yes and no. My first reaction taking the gamepad out of the box was, "Holy shit, this is light!" I was really shocked to see how little it weighs. Also, I was kinda surprised to see how comfortable it is to hold. I know, when you're used to playing with an Xbox or PS3 controller and you look at the gamepad you think, "I don't wanna use that piece of shit!" But honestly, if GTA5 was on the U and the gamepad's screen was a map or whatever, I think it would be awesome. And if a hater just gave it a try, I think they would like it. I say that being a person that didn't like the gamepad when I first saw it, and now I love it.
Going back to what I said about the U being like a consolized DS, it's been a while since we've had a handheld console adapter (Super Gameboy, Gameboy Player). I think the U is *perfect* for a DS/3DS adapter. I always wanted one, but knew it would be impossible because of the second screen being a touch screen. Well guess what, now there's a touch screen in the controller. The U has 4 USB ports and an SD slot, make it happen!
Speaking of things I want Nintendo to make happen... Mario Paint! When the Wii came out, I thought it'd be cool to get a new Mario Paint for it. When that uDraw thing came out, I thought, "Oh, perfect! Use this to make a Mario Paint!" Nintendo probably looked at that accessory and thought, "Fuck, we should have thought of that first! We could just buy it, nah, fuck it." But now the U has the gamepad controller, I really think they could make a Mario Paint U happen. I'd love to see it. Searching Google for "Mario Paint U" shows that at least a few others want it as well.
