Well, well, well Iwata we meet again. Earlier today during a very special Nintendo Direct, the man himself, Satoru Iwata, gave us eagerly waiting Nintendo fans a glimpse at whats to come on Tuesday.
Let us first start off with the Wii U tablet controller. The official Nintendo name is the “Wii U GamePad”. The fact that it is called a “GamePad” should ease the worry that Nintendo is leaving us gamers in the dust. Next is some great news, GOOD BYE SLIDE PADS! The controller now features clickable thumb sticks, which by my standards, is a welcome addition.
Moving along, to help ease not only the transition of multi-platform games but also gamers that haven’t been to fond of the Wii controller set-up is the Wii U Pro pad. It resembles an Xbox 360 but the configuration of the right thumb stick has been swapped with the buttons. Now me and one editor on the site had an intense argument about the pro pad and his main fighting point was why reinvent the wheel, just leave the thumbstick down on the bottom. My response was, well if Nintendo never “reinvented the wheel” I guess we wouldn’t have shoulder buttons, analog sticks, rumbling controllers, motion controllers, hell they were even the first, first-party to go wireless with the wavebirds! I think think the controller looks great and can’t wait to get my hands on it!
The next major announcement was for the Mii Universe, or as Nintendo calls it the Miiverse. The is what you will see when you first boot up your system. It looks like a Wii channel/Android/Ios baby with the ability to see your friends, or really anyone that is playing the games that you have. The feature is accessible at anytime and you can even leave your game paused back out to the Miiverse and then go back to the game. The Miiverse access will be available on your cell phones, 3DS and Pc’s shortly after launch as well. I have the feeling Nintendo is really trying to get gamers connected by all means possible, let’s just hope their infrastructure is ready for this!
Another cool little quirky feature is the in-game help option from players all around the world. They demonstrated it with a Mario title, so I’ll just let you see the video below:
New details regarding the Wii U internet browser were also revealed during the Nintendo Direct. By using the Wii U GamePad, players can input text, browse the web, and also share what they are browsing with others who are watching the television. Sharing the content is easy all you need to do is swipe the content from your Wii U GamePad towards the television and the content will be displayed for all to see. And If you don’t want everyone seeing what you’re viewing online, then you have the option to pull a digital curtain hiding what’s on the television screen.
Well that is all until UbiSoft’s conference tomorrow. Nintendo’s will be on Tuesday and I’m sure all details will be releaved then. I think UbiSoft will drop a few surprises in their presentation as well as they look to be “All In”.
