Wii U. If you can get over how uncomfortable it is to say, or even look at, the name starts to make sense when you think about what Nintendo is aiming to do with its next console. The Wii was named to sound like "we", to represent Nintendo's goal of allowing everyone, gamer or not, to have fun playing video games. Of course, the problem is that they focused a little too much on the non-gamers, leaving their usual gaming audience with reason to look elsewhere for the deeper gaming experience they craved.
Nintendo's new console has retained the Wii name, most likely as they want to continue to be inviting to the massive casual player base that contributed to the commercial success of the Wii. The company has now stated that they want to bring core gamers back, hence "Wii U", as in this console is catered for "U" (you) personally, rather than everyone in a general sense.
Nintendo Needs a New Controller Pun - "Umote" Won't Cut It
So far we've only seen the controller, and what an elaborate controller it is. What could be described as a handheld tethered to your console, the Wii U's controller features both buttons and a 6 inch touch screen. Already there's a lot of potential for more traditional controls in games rather than the ultimately restrictive motion control scheme of the Wii. Buttons are important. They give us the necessary amount of feedback to let us know that we've pushed them. At the same time, touch control has seen a lot of success on the DS, as well as in non-gaming technology such as smart phones. The combination of the two could allow for some very specialised controls, where buttons and touch are used for the specific tasks they're most suited to.
From the tech demos at E3, it seems that at the moment, there are only a handful of simple ideas floating around as to the use of the screen. Having the controller display interactive menus, inventories or maps will surely be a nice convenience, but not exactly revolutionary. The demos in which objects were being flung from the controller to the TV screen were also mildy interesting, but give that sense of yet another control scheme that actually hinders gameplay rather than enhances it. And yes, transferring a game from the TV to your controller will definitely be useful when, for whatever reason, the TV isn't an option, but again, it's just a cool trick rather than a strong selling point.
Having a controller with its own screen invokes memories of GBAs being linked up to the Gamecube to play multiplayer games, such as Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and it's this sort of feature that might have been of big interest to many gamers. Local multiplayer is dying a slow death thanks to the accessability of online gaming these days, and it would've been a bold move for Nintendo to try and revive it. Alas, for the moment, it appears that the console only supports one touch screen controller at a time.
So for now, we haven't really seen enough to form a full opinion of the Wii U's controller. Hopefully we'll see more in the coming months.
Playing Catch-up
One other major feature of the Wii U that was announced is that it'll be Nintendo's first step into HD, all the way up to delicious 1080p. It's not surprising, as HD gaming has become standard since the start of the current generation.
What is a tiny bit surprising is that there were a fair few third party games announced for the console; games that you would usually only see released on the PS3 and Xbox 360. For instance, Darksiders 2 and Arkham City are both set for a Wii U release.
While it's great to see more traditional games being released on a Nintendo system, one has to question whether this will bring back as many core gamers as Nintendo is hoping. For starters, these games are going to have to wait until the console itself is released, and will most likely have been available on the other consoles long enough for anyone that's interested in them to have already played them.
Furthermore, showing off games from the generation that'll be coming to an end in 2 or 3 years almost seems backwards for the first console of the next generation. It's currently known that the Wii U will be at least more powerful than the PS3, but how will it compare to Sony and Microsoft's next offerings? Third party support isn't going to last long if Nintendo once again gets left in the dust when Sony and Microsoft announce their new consoles within the next few years. As we've seen in the past, developers are much more likely to focus on the higher spec consoles.
Of course, we haven't seen everything yet. The purpose of Nintendo's press conference was clearly to ease us into the idea of a controller with a screen. With no actual games shown off yet, we should perhaps hold back our full judgement until Nintendo lays all its cards on the table.
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