Wii-U thoughts so far

[dsheinem]

I shall recount two things I experienced last weekend while trying a Wii U for the first time.

Playing New Super Mario Bros. U, I wanted to use the Gamepad to control Mario while I watched the game happen on the Gamepad's screen, meanwhile have my daughter use a Wii Remote to control Luigi on the HDTV's screen. You would think this would be possible, since we were on the same screen in the actual game. But no, no it is not. In multiplayer you cannot use the Gamepad to control one character while another uses a Wii Remote. You both have to use Wii Remotes and the Gamepad is relegated to "additional functionality". If it is possible to actually do this I couldn't get it to work thus it's unintuitive as hell and therefore broken.

Playing Mario Kart 8, I wanted to use the Gamepad as my own screen for the game, and use it for my kart controls as well. I wanted my daughter to use the HDTV and a Wii Remote for her kart view and controls. You would think this would be possible, but no, no it is not. If you play local co-op on Mario Kart 8, you're stuck with splitscreen on the HDTV and the Gamepad. They both show the splitscreen simply mirrored on the two devices. Why the hell would you do this Nintendo? The Gamepad should always show its own racing view. The HDTV should handle the splitscreen for the rest of the racers.

I was not blown away by the Wii U or either of the two games I tried.

Yup, this is a huge pet peeve of mine too. All the forced Wiimote stuff, for everything from Wii games to the kind of two player thing you are mentioning is really maddening.

[Stark]

Playing Mario Kart 8, I wanted to use the Gamepad as my own screen for the game, and use it for my kart controls as well. I wanted my daughter to use the HDTV and a Wii Remote for her kart view and controls. You would think this would be possible, but no, no it is not. If you play local co-op on Mario Kart 8, you're stuck with splitscreen on the HDTV and the Gamepad. They both show the splitscreen simply mirrored on the two devices. Why the hell would you do this Nintendo? The Gamepad should always show its own racing view. The HDTV should handle the splitscreen for the rest of the racers.

The WiiU pad doesn't really have any brains, so I wonder if it just doesn't have the oompf to do anything other than mirror whatever the video card output of the system is.

[ejamer]

.

[Exhuminator]

The WiiU pad doesn't really have any brains, so I wonder if it just doesn't have the oompf to do anything other than mirror whatever the video card output of the system is.

The Gamepad does allow you to go into this mode while you play Mario Kart 8:



It shows placement rankings, the item/horn button, a mini-view of the racing gameplay on screen, a real time track placement display, and the ability to swap the analog stick control. If it can do all that, why can't it just show one of the split screen windows solo for multiplayer? You can also go into the screen above while playing split-screen multiplayer as well. I think this is really more bad game design than lack of "oompf". The "oompf" comes from the Wii U itself anyway, with its ability to arbitrarily broadcast independent images to the Gamepad.

[fastbilly1]

Playing Mario Kart 8, I wanted to use the Gamepad as my own screen for the game, and use it for my kart controls as well. I wanted my daughter to use the HDTV and a Wii Remote for her kart view and controls. You would think this would be possible, but no, no it is not. If you play local co-op on Mario Kart 8, you're stuck with splitscreen on the HDTV and the Gamepad. They both show the splitscreen simply mirrored on the two devices. Why the hell would you do this Nintendo? The Gamepad should always show its own racing view. The HDTV should handle the splitscreen for the rest of the racers.

The WiiU pad doesn't really have any brains, so I wonder if it just doesn't have the oompf to do anything other than mirror whatever the video card output of the system is.

All well and good, but Sonic Racing Transformed allows for five player split screen doing what Exhuminator described.

[FerretGamer]

All well and good, but Sonic Racing Transformed allows for five player split screen doing what Exhuminator described.

Sonic Racing Transformed is the best kart racer ever. I said it.

[Stark]

The WiiU pad doesn't really have any brains, so I wonder if it just doesn't have the oompf to do anything other than mirror whatever the video card output of the system is.

All well and good, but Sonic Racing Transformed allows for five player split screen doing what Exhuminator described.

Ah, well that theory is out the window.

[fastbilly1]

All well and good, but Sonic Racing Transformed allows for five player split screen doing what Exhuminator described.

Sonic Racing Transformed is the best kart racer ever. I said it.

It plays more like an arcade racer than a kart racer though.

[Reprise]

It's really good, but it's not 'Mario Kart 8 good'. Not by a long shot.

[Xeogred]

I definitely wanted to check that one out, but yeah with Mario Kart 8 out now... it just seems hard to justify.