Topic: My hands on with the Wii U experience

Yeah, great area. From being in busy cities in America on holiday, it actually relieves me that I live in a small city like Adelaide!
Anyways, we're going off topic! Back to the topic!

I can't wait for the Wii U!

Alright then! back to the better topic

'AUSSIE VADER' I will call him GARTH

His desert cruiser is made by Holden and the giant walker thingies are badged Ford Explorer

Also his lightsaber is on the blink and the mechanic can't look at it until next wednesdy... Maybe... We will see what happens between now and then... But he might as well just buy a new one because its gonna cost twice as much to repair anyway

Aussie Vader also has a long lost son and daughter who were taken away by Dingoes when he was camping on Tatooine.

How could we forget about poor little Kevin R. and Julia G. My mind is blown

This is my fear for the WIi U, you can only focus on one thing at a time. So how can we expect developers to do anything mind blowing if we're still only looking at one screen at a time. And I also fear the inventory or mapping gimmick, adding an inventory system to a second screen isn't innovative, it's annoying and hurts the games flow. I also can't help but feel that it's ironic that Nintendo has built a console that some what limits interaction/multiplayer by allowing only 2 gamepads and even another person looking at a separate gamepad. Unfortunately i'm sure their online presence won't make up for this fact either. I really want to be hopeful but I don't see this being the game changer that the Wii was.

We evolve a second set of eyeballs from our noses?
We'd have to grow another brain too.

@rdej47

Just so you know, I heard the audible calling in Madden 13 on the Wii U uses the GamePad, and it works extremely well. Keeps the flow of the game going, and it's all at your finger tips. I think the WIi U GamePad, will help certain genres more than others, but it gives developers another option to create new gameplay type of experiences. I'm just hoping for an Eternal Darkness on it...is that so much to ask Nintendo?

@rdej47: Pretty sure asymmetrical gaming is meant to be the flagship notion of multiplayer on the Wii U, not the option for two GamePads. The fact that you can have five people playing different roles in one game sat together on one couch sounds pretty much like a game changer to me. It's even re-invented multi-player to a significant extent. _{Rayman Legends or Chasing Aurora, anyone?}

Anyway, a part of me thinks that if you need to look that far away from the TV/GamePad and back again, you just aren't holding it right. Maybe that's just my unpopular prerogative, but seeing as the Deluxe/Premium Bundle includes a GamePad Play Stand accessory, I'd say that we have a solution for these worries.

@GameLord08
Asymmetrical gameplay isn't a new idea nor is five player multiplayer. Having it as high quality as the Wii U does it and in the box is a new thing but that doesn't make it a new idea. Roadie Battle mode in Guitar Hero 5 is probably the best example I can think of but there's also Four Swords and a couple of others. I don't think you could have done a Rayman Legends like that before but that's more a hardware limitation than a control limitation. Possibly just a limit on how much devs were willing to do on platforms that had limited audiences.

And the "can't see a second screen" thing is a fun point isn't it. I remember hearing that about the DS around the time it was fairly new. I've heard people say the same about my multi-monitor setup. The truth is it is fairly difficult, if not impossible, to have your full attention on multiple views at once..... but it is easier to swap between views by simply moving your eyes. Much easier than having to press a button to pause the first view and bring up a menu.

@skywake: True, but the notion has never been blown so far to the forefront of console gaming as the Wii U is now aiming to do, nor was it ever the primary method of multiplayer gaming as with the Wii U. You've only been able to mention two examples using this concept (though I'm sure there're more, I'm just using the lack of many as an example) in the past, which just goes to show how the possibilities of asymmetrical gaming have been out of main sight to the gaming public up until now. To me, I think it's more of a very lucky choice of restraint by Nintendo; having five GamePads lying around in the living room isn't as cost-effective or efficient as Wiimotes, so why not use the advantage of the more cost-friendly availability of Wiimotes in the next gen? Being more of a family console, the majority of Wii-owning households are bound to have at least two Wiimotes lying around the house, so if they choose to upgrade to the Wii U, the option for multiplayer is open to them from the get-go - and best of all, it's still not wholly something they can get with the Wii.

I know asymmetrical gaming isn't exactly new to gaming, but if you look at the points I just stated as well as the make-up of the Wii U as a whole, I don't think the console's intention is to be something all that new at all; "it's all about the experience." I think Nintendo's statement with the Wii U is that not everything new must be composed of new, expensive technology (the GamePad) or concepts exclusive to the new generation (asymmetrical gaming); it's practically just a re-invention of what we currently have at our disposal for another opportunity for a new experience in gaming. Old toys, new ways to play.