Nintendo E3 2011: Wii U Hands On

It took me a while, but I finally got my hands on Nintendo's new system: Wii U. Odd name aside, I really wanted to see what this new system is bringing to the table besides high definition Nintendo gaming. Some of the simpler features, such as being able to play entirely on the Wii U controller's 6.2" touch screen and switch between it and a television as needed, are obvious enough to not require much demonstration or discussion. The technical details leave nothing out: 4 usb ports, HDMI, component, composite, and S-video ports, SD card slot, and support for USB hard drives are all important inclusions. A little note that the controller is rechargable is a huge deal for anyone who is sick of AA batteries. I had about half an hour to try out the new controller and its coordination between touch screen, multiple controls, and dual analog sticks. Keep in mind that the games shown are technical demonstrations, and not necessarily in development.

The first and perhaps most important aspect of the controller is its weight. It is not heavy at all. It feels perfectly comfortable to hold, even for long periods of time. Despite being bigger than the old Xbox controllers, it is much thinner and is more like a tablet than a traditional game controller. However, it still has the buttons a normal controller would have in comfortable reach, even if you don't have giant hands. It has dual analog sticks, two shoulder buttons. two trigger buttons, a D-pad, the normal four control buttons (X,Y, A, and B) on the right side of the face, and a row of system control buttons (start, select. home, power) along the bottom right. The touch screen is very large and bright. Of the games I tried, it was only used to control the HD Experience by changing the lighting between day and night, moving the camera, and moving the map between the large television display and the smaller controller display. The HD video displays with extraordinary clarity on the small screen, and in the games where you use it as a different view into the world, it does not feel lower quality as it may have in the past with similar ideas like the Gameboy Advance to Gamecube connectivity.

The most impressive use of the new controller is also the highest fidelity Wiimote and Nunchuck experience I have had so far. Battle Mii has two players controlling their Miis on foot dressed in Samus costumes, as the run around a futuristic, but cartoony, city shooting laser cannons. Their target is the ship of the third player, who uses the Wii U touch screen controller's motion sensitivity and dual analog sticks to control a Samus's ship in an attempt to hunt down the other two players and shoot them with lasers. The ship has 5 hit points while each player has 3, and hit points can occasionally be regained by collecting a heart. The ship has the advantage of the sky, but it's also a sitting duck if it stays up too long. It fires faster bursts of a laser cannon with a longer cool down. The game might need some adjustments to change the balance, but as a tech demo it is a ton of fun. One analog stick controls the height of your vehicle and the other controls its forward and backward movement. To control the ship's targeting you move the Wii U controller itself around you to look in different directions. The trigger button is used to fire. Camera panning is very smooth and precise, apparently utilizing the same technology as Wii Motion Plus. There is a lot to think about of course, so it's still very hard to control the ship, but that's part of the fun. Running around with the Wiimote Plus and the nunchuck was equally as fun and a bit easier. It uses the standard control scheme for all motion control shooters: Point and shoot with the Wiimote, while running, jumping and rolling with the nunchuck. It works very well in this third person shooter, especially since the make you hold the A button to pan the camera. This prevents you from accidentally shifting the camera while you are trying to aim, and gives it a feel of more precise control. Compared to the Move controls I tried in Resistance 3, this the motion implementation in Battle Mii is much more comfortable.

New Super Mario Bros. Mii shows off very little of the Wii U capability, but it does show the ability to view the game on the Wii U controllers touch screen. I chose instead to engage in the four player platforming madness that made the original Wii game so much fun to begin with. Playing with 2 attendees and a booth girl was as fun as ever. The levels do not feel derivative and the ability to use Mii heads on Mario character costumes (I only saw different color plumber costumes) is pretty cool. The booth girl seemed bored with playing and I guess I wouldn't blame her on her third day of the show only working at this station. I think she decided it was more fun picking me up and trying to throw me off the moving bone dragon platform we were on. And she was right! She apologized and said "Ok ok I won't do it again", but I just laughed, picked her up, and jumped off the platform. We ended up being (according to the Nintendo rep running the demonstration) the 13th team to finish that level. I feel so very proud of my team .

The last game I tried was the Shield Pose game which has you holding up the Wii U controller as a shield to catch suction cup tipped arrows that pirates shoot at you from one of three ships. It is cool how you see the center ship on the television and the rest of the world, including the sky, moon, and left and right ships, by moving the tablet to face those imaginary locations to the left and the right or above the screen. The camera pans very smoothly again and allows easy targeting of the correct location. I never felt that I was pointing in the right spot and failing to catch the arrows. I also like how you see, feel and hear the arrows at they hit the display. What I find odd and slightly disappointing about Shield Pose is that it is a rhythm game without any actual music. I guess I should have expected that. I am no longer sure what I was hoping for. However, it isn't supposed to be a game, but a technical demonstration of the Wii U's touch screen tablet controller, and in that it succeeds beyond expectations.

Beyond just being an HD Wii with more powerful hardware, the Wii U has it's own unique contribution to gaming in its touch screen motion control tablet controller. These technical demonstrations show numerous ways in which this controller can be used to create an experience not found on any other console. Nintendo has again found a way to separate itself from the pack. I think adoption will largely be a question of cost (touch screens ain't cheap), but the intention doesn't seem for people to go out and purchase four touch screen controllers per household. Instead it seems that they will use Wiimotes along with the new controller to allow a new variety of local multiplayer to the mix.