I have been playing around with Wii U a couple weeks now. As much I like the system, I do have a gripe. The gamepad has no real range! One of Nintendo's big selling points, is for the gamepad to be independent from the console. But what good is that when you have to be sitting in the same room as the person watching the tv? For example we live in a single level ranch home. The Wii U sits in the living room which is about center of the house. If I move to another room on either side of the living room the gamepad works. Any further and the gamepad gives me the out of the range of the console messege. So the kids cant take the gamepad back a bit further to thier room and play mario U. I can also not go very far in the other direction of the console. If we lived in a multi level home theres no way we could travel up or downstairs with the gamepad.

Odd, I heard about people who can play Mario in their bathrooms or in their bedroom when their Wii U is in the living room.

FALSE, GameXplain confirmed that the gamepad can remain connected over 30ft.

Nintendo never said it was "independent" from the console.

If you had nothing blocking the communication between the console and the gamepad, it'll extend pretty far. Appliances, and even the walls themselves (depending on their construction) can easily hinder the connection.

Mine works fine anywhere in the house. Even on the second floor while my system is in the basement. What are your walls made of, Lead? haha

Nintendo has never advertised it to do such a thing.
In saying that, I can play perfectly fine in my bedroom.

You know, I have one question that I should have asked before making any posts....

.....why is this in the DSiWare section?

a major factor is the number of OTHER Wifi sources in and around your house. I loose connection as soon as i get to the first floor. A pity but no real biggie

Mine doesn't get much range either, I go out of my room, then go to the left a little and go down 5ft on my stairs and the connection breaks and tells me to go to closer to the Wii U.

to Nintendo's credit, I don't think they ever even hinted that it had range. If they did, then I'd be genuinely annoyed at this news but I don't care about that so...?

there's things to make fun of the Wii U for, this is not one of them meethinks

That's a pretty good question, to be honest. I'm sorry you're disappointed in your gamepad, Nitendnut, but this really isn't the correct section of the forums for this thread.