Topic: Lack of Wii Mote Pisses Me Off

At the time I said it was a must to include a wii remote, everybody said I was wrong.

Wii Remotes aren't required to play Wii U games, the GamePad is your main controller. Expecting it to come with a Wii Remote to play Wii games, is the same as expecting a Wii to come with a GameCube controller. I think it's a pretty solid choice on Nintendo's part. Multiplayer requires Wii Remotes, but so does the Wii. Besides, the GamePad is its unique feature, the last thing Nintendo wants to do is draw the attention away from the GamePad.

Except for the fact that this a very big change in terms of controllers. Going from the Gamecube controller to the Wii Mote, you can still just turn the Wii Mote around and use it like a normal controller where as the Game Pad is a very large piece of hardware, which I am very fond of but obviously not everyone feels the same way. Why take a chance on it? What about those people that were maybe interested but then thrown off by the fact that out of the box, they HAD to use the Game Pad, whether they liked it or not. It was a big chance for Nintendo to take and we can't deny that the Game Pad has affected their sales, if even a little.

Plus as far as I know, every game made for the Wii U uses a Wii Mote which was not the case for the Gamecube controller. If I were Nintendo I'd want to appeal to as many people as possible and throwing in a Wii Mote + Nunchuck to give the player a choice in the matter would have helped because some people weren't exactly sure how they were gonna like the Game Pad.. Yes they banked on a lot of people already owning Wiis in the past but obviously that isn't the case. I just feel like it would have been easier to put it in the box with the console.

Go buy one.

Most WiiU games don't require the Wiimote, so it's understandable why it's not there.
I think the pamphlets in the system tell you that if you want to use Wii mode you need to have a Wii Accessory to play on it, Not a big deal though, just go out and buy the Wiimote and Nunchuk. You're only going to be using them for Wii games mostly.

As others have said, you can get the Wii Remote+ w/Nunchuk for $20 a pop if you don't mind refurbished. I bought a black and blue set and they've both been fantastic. Definitly a steal at that price compared to what just a Wiimote+ on its own costs.

The basic SKU didn't come with a sensor bar so I don't know what that does to your point. Personally I really didn't mind because I already had quite a lot of Wii accessories. And now I have even more because the Mario/Luigi/Yoshi WiiMotes are hard to pass.

At least the Wii remote isn't REQUIRED. Imagine buying a regular Vita at launch and not getting a memory card

Over 100 million people have owned Wiimotes at some point (most probably still do), so adding the peripheral controller to the Wii U would add unnecessary cost, and it would do so at almost no benefit. Wii U games all use the Gamepad aside from a select few (such as Pikmin 3), although there are a few others that offer it as an additional control scheme, so it's more or less an optional controller at this point. Even Pikmin 3 has a control scheme without the Wiimote, granted it's inferior.

Personally, I think Nintendo has nailed it with the Wii U. For one, the Gamepad is just amazing. It's great, and I love it. But they were smart to offer a VERY nice wireless Pro Controller this time around, which is extremely ergonomic and offers 80 hours of play from a single charge, as well as keeping Wiimote integration for the select games which benefit from it over a traditional dual analogue setup.

I bought two of the Wiimote rapid charging cradles from Nintendo's online store, as well as two of the extended batteries for the Gamepad. Yeah, it was expensive, but if you're only buying one of each the combined cost is about $70. Which to me is WELL worth what you're getting. See, to me battery life is important. I HATE having to worry about charging my controllers and I REALLY HATE using batteries in the Wiimote. There's 3rd party charging packs but they all suck and lose their charge rather quickly. I should note that the Wiimote rapid charge base and battery pack is $40, however, once you buy that you can purchase additional battery packs for around $20 each for your other Wiimotes, and just use one charge base.

The rapid charging base and battery pack for Wiimote is rated for about 13 hours of play, and for every 9 minutes on the charger, you get another hour of play time. It's VERY efficient. The extended battery for the Gamepad is rated for 5-8 hours of play time (compared to the 3-5 of the included battery), although I keep my brightness turned all the way up (with power saving on), and I still probably get a good 6+ hours from it. Which is usually more than enough for a single play session. Even if it's not, that's TWICE what I was getting before.

Sorry for getting off-topic a bit, I just thought I'd share that info for anyone who's buying a Wiimote.

Yes, but 100 million people is still limiting. The major reason console makers include things like the Wii Remote or Gamepad is to ensure developers (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) that they can use such innovative hardware without losing an audience. When you take into account the fact that the Wii U was initially targeted to a completely different audience than the Wii, there is substantial audience loss.

You also have to consider the fact that motion plus wasn't adopted as readily as the original Wii controller was, again because of the aforementioned "peripheral syndrome".

As an aside, the Gamepad is kind of failing in that main reason for including so-called "gimmicks", as it is severely underutilized.

It doesn't matter whether it is a big change or not. The Wii U came bundled with its controller, the GamePad. You can play every single Wii U game on the GamePad. There's no need for Wii Remotes. You need one if you want to play Wii games, but so did you need a GameCube controller for your Wii when you wanted to play GameCube games. That was what I wanted to explain.

A lot of games allow you to switch between Wii Remote and GamePad, but that shouldn't matter, the Wii didn't come with a Classic Controller (Pro) either, despite the fact that it could be used to play a lot of games with. Why? Because all the Wii games can be played with a Wii Remote. For multiplayer on the Wii U, yes, you need Wii Remotes, but that's the same for the Wii. You need to buy additional Wii Remotes.

Perhaps it would've been more convenient if it came with a Wii Remote, just like it would've been more convenient if the Wii came with an extra pair of Wii Remote + Nunchuck, or a Classic Controller, but you have to understand that this will create additional costs. Not everyone has the money to buy expensive consoles, and usually Nintendo is there with a relative cheap solution. Driving up these costs for a, technically, unnecessary controller isn't a great idea.

The solution is simple, if you want a Wii Remote, buy one. Just be glad that Nintendo offers different controllers, and allows you to switch between multiple controllers. When was the last time another console did that?

For me, the backwards compatibility with the Wii was a major selling point, so I bought a Wiimoite alongside my Wii U purchase. To me, not having a Wiimote basically disables a big portion of the Wii U's use (my Wii library is almost as large as my U library).

I think the Wii remote is still important, but it isn't really required. The only games that needed it were Nintendo Land, and NSMB.U(for a while).

I had 2 motion+ adapters when Wii U launched, but I eventually bought Wii remote+s in every color, because I wanted to make sure my family could play. I still play WiiWare games and Smash Bros, but that's about it, so I mainly bought them as options for Wii U software.

EDIT: Either way, you're going to have to buy a Wii remote or pro controller for multiplayer. The Wii remote isn't only for Wii mode, so you can get 2 uses from one controller(Wii and Wii U).

Saying the Wii U is gimped because it's not always bundled with WiiMotes is interesting. Especially when the main reason put forward for it is backwards compatibility or for use with games like Wii Party U which it's bundled with anyway. Nobody ever said that the Wii was lacking because it didn't come bundled with Gamecube controllers and memory sticks......

Especially when their competitors don't have any backwards compatibility at all.

I for one am glad the Wii U didn't come with a Wii Remote or Nunchuk, I'm up to 5 remotes now, thanks to special edition controllers. The last thing I needed was another plain black remote which I already had, driving the cost of the console up further. I think Nintendo believed that with 100 million Wii's out there, bundling an additional controller with the Wii U was unnecessary. Wii remotes aren't required for Wii U games, they're just optional extras like the GameCube or Classic Controllers were to the Wii. Nintendo even made Wii remote and nunchuk sets branded for Wii U at a lower price, so the barrier to entry wasn't as high. Plus the things are dirt cheap on ebay these days.

Also, if you managed to score a free Wii U which you were saving for anyway, then surely you can afford a Wii remote?

That's just BS! Wii mote is still very there in every game. This is still a second MAIN control which should be included.

That's why i don't like the idea that Nintendo is making profit this way with a system which is already a 7 year old xbox 360 with a little upgrade. Further it just doesn't justify the price they are asking for this while the PS4 is only 399 and you still get a 500GB HDD with it as well. Nintendo is very shortcoming.

The Wiimote is NOT the Main Controller for the System though. The Gamepad is and just about ALL games for the WiiU can be controlled using the Gamepad.
The Wiimote is secondary. Yes it is necessary to use it for the Wii Mode, BUT that Mode turns the WiiU into a Wii which makes sense why the Wii mote is necessary for that mode because the Wiimote and Nunchuk were the MAIN controllers for the Wii, NOT WiiU.
That's why the Wiimote is not included with WiiU, because the WiiU and it's games doesn't need it. You would really only need it if you wanted to play Wii games or are playing Party Games.

At this point my WiiMotes, as classy as they are, only come out for Wii Sports Club Golf.........

I"ve hooked up random USB gamepads to my PS3 and they've worked

Congratulations. It wasn't Sony, though, who made your USB gamepad. I was talking about first party controllers.