Games
All the ways we’d make Nintendo’s innovative controller even better.
Nintendo’s Wii U console is a marvel, packed with must-play games, like Mario Kart, Zelda and Smash Bros, but the Japanese gaming giant is still struggling to shift the little white box in bulk. Nintendo’s sold 9.2 million at the last count, while the Sony PS4 has surged to 18.5 million sales despite the year-long head-start its rival has enjoyed.
It’s not hard to see where the problem comes from. Nintendo has always favoured first-party games and its own cheaper, if quirky, technology, making it all but impossible to play the latest multi-platform blockbusters on its hardware. But Nintendo doesn’t help itself, confusing consumers with a strange marketing message that never quite makes clear if the Wii U is a new console, or an add-on to its 2006 mega-hit Wii. (Remember what happened to the 64DD?).
Part of that confusion comes down to the Wii U GamePad, originally the only part of the console that Nintendo showed off at the console’s debut back in 2011. It’s an integral part of the system, and we love its touchscreen centrepiece. But it could still do with a few changes to really help it stand out: be sure to tell us in the comments what you’d fix too.
A better, sharper touchscreen
While we’d dearly love to swap out the resistive touchscreen of the Wii U GamePad for a more finger-friendly (if stylus unfriendly) capacitive touchscreen as you’d find on your smartphone or tablet, we know in our heart of hearts this is unlikely to happen any time soon. Not only would it raise the price of the Wii U as a whole, it would break support with games that rely on the stylus input, including Nintendo Land, Mario Maker and even Bayonetta 2.
What doesn’t seem so out of the question, however, is an updated resolution: the 854x480 6.2-inch display on the GamePad is grainy and washy, which is hardly surprising when you consider this is the same resolution smartphones from 2008 ran. Games played Off-TV looked cruddy, and smaller text is almost illegible: we’re not looking forward to trying to make out our health bar and other important info in Xenoblade Chronicles. Technology has come on leaps and bounds since then (some smartphones now have displays with a staggering resolution of 2048x1536) so we’d love to see the GamePad mirror the HD support the console can muster, even at the expense of streaming range from the Wii U itself.
A built-in sharing button
Here’s a fun fact: despite Nintendo’s general reticence towards game-streaming services like Twitch you can actually watch streams right on your GamePad quite easily through the Wii U browser. You can even skip adverts with a tap of the R button. But what if services like Twitch, Ustream and Hitbox played even nicer with the Wii U? Even if we couldn’t live-stream, at the very least we’d love to be able to capture clips of all gameplay and upload them to YouTube painlessly for posterity. All that would be required is a simple Share button, much like that found on the PS4’s DualShock 4.
It’s not as if this would be entirely implausible either. Nintendo is trying to work with Let’s Play YouTubers on a revenue-sharing program for videos of its games, if not entirely successfully, and it has made crude game streaming, upload and video-editing services available for Mario Kart 8 players through its Mario Kart TV service. All it would need is an extra button and a software update to offer similar support to all games.
NFC to tag in the new 3DS as a controller
The Wii U GamePad has NFC (Near Field Communication) support, which is how Nintendo is able to detect what amiibo toys you’ve plonked on top of it. You just tap them and the data is transferred instantly. You know what also sports NFC though? Nintendo’s updated new 3DS handheld. We’d love to be able to join in a party game just by tapping one to the other and using it as an extra controller alongside the GamePad.
This, too, does not seem like a complete stretch. The new 3DS now boasts twin thumbsticks like the GamePad, so it’s not missing any buttons. And you can already use the original 3DS as a controller in Smash Bros on Wii U, though each player does need to own the 3DS cartridge as well in order to join in. Drop those restrictions, though, and suddenly the Wii U and 3DS seem as natural a fit as the PS4 and thePS Vita.
Support two GamePads at once
Part of the confusion and clutter around Wii U multiplayer is the fact that you can only use one GamePad with the console at a time. All other controllers need to be regular ol', touchscreen-free, classic controllers and fiddly Wii Remotes.
All that could be changed if Nintendo just added support for a second Wii U GamePad. It’s not just the possibility of two-player Off-TV support that excites us either: two screens away from the TV could open up all sorts of exciting options for asymmetrical multiplayer gameplay. Don’t just take it from us: that’s straight from Nintendo genius Shigeru Miyamoto himself. "It's very interesting from a gameplay perspective idea because there are a lot of possibilities with two GamePads,” he told IGN at last summer’s E3. Imagine a game of Splatoon with six people all in the same room, or a Star Fox game where two Arwing pilots try to stealthily take down Andross’ forces, who have greater manpower but no idea of their location. Miyamoto must have a whole list of similar ideas stuffed in a drawer somewhere.
Don’t tell us it isn’t technically possible to pair two GamePads to one system either. It is. "From a technical standpoint, I think if we decided to pursue that, technically we would be able to and we can perform system updates that would allow for that," Miyamoto explained.
Let us buy them separately already
This one’s a natural follow-on from the previous one. If Nintendo can add support for two GamePads, it can certainly sell you them separately too, something it steadfastedly refuses to do currently. If you lose or break your GamePad in any way, you’ll either have to ‘fess up to a Nintendo repair centre or try your luck with the eBay grey market for GamePads. This is not to knock Nintendo’s excellent customer service in any way, but it could certainly be made easier to acquire replacement GamePads. It just so happens we’d just like them to be additional GamePads as well.
What would you change or add to Nintendo’s Wii U GamePad? Tell us in the comments below, and get the best gaming stories delivered straight to your inbox with the Red Bull Games newsletter.
