Topic: Wii U gamepad, Pros and Cons

I really like the idea of the gamepad but to me it seems best suited for one player games and those times you may want to play your games on the pad. I actually dont, I love playing nintendo games with friends and I prefer the wii mote. Can we please get an update where we can access other wii u functions using the wiimote? Like netflix and mii maker. What do you guys think?

I find Nintendo Land is a perfect use of multiplayer with the gamepad, I do think they missed a huge trick by not having Mario Kart 8 as two seperate screens in 2 player though.

The gamepad is easily one of my favorite controllers of all time. Its incredible comfortable, great for multiplayer (Nintendoland, Pikmin 3, Game & Wario, etc.), & being able to console game while my girlfriend uses the TV has been incredible. The only cons I have with it are the distance you can be from the TV (not nearly far enough, wanna be able to carry it around the whole house...unrealistic I know, but still what I want) & the battery life. If you charge it whenever you're not using it, you're good. But miss a charge once & you're likely to receive a low battery light next time you game.

I don't like the L & R buttons. Very hard to play fast. It's too flat and not much of a design for hand.

too bad it can't be WiFi.... I agree with your assessment. Even with the short battery life, as far as gaming, it's not an issue for me b/c I rarely play a game more than 20-30 minutes. It becomes an issue when I use the GP for surfing and Netflix, which is quite a bit at times.

I agree the off tv option is a great feature but I dont ever seem to use it. I prefer the wii mote for mario kart and platform games like donkey kong I just wish I didnt have to carry both remotes when I want to switch to netflix lol, this can be changed with a simple update.

Really disappointed that you can't play NSMBU two-player with a Gamepad and a Wiimote. As a whole, though, I'm super impressed with the Gamepad. Especially off-TV play. I'll play Wii U for hours at times without ever bothering to turn on the TV.

Nintendo should have made it clear to developers the console should support other controllers.

Netflix is the big one for me....you either need to go charge it while your watching something or else you will kill your battery. Would be so much better if they added controller support beyond the gamepad. I think Netflix made the app though and it's doubtful they would update it...maybe if Nintendo asked them to.

System Settings and passwords are another one....the most annoying thing about the Wii U is constantly being forced to switch controllers for no good reason.

They also should have made off TV play a uniform experience...too many games access off tv play in different ways which is annoying.

And yeah not allowing multiplayer with a gamepad and wii remote in NSMBU is just plain silly. Really they should have allowed independent movement in this scenario to take advantage of the console can do with the gamepad....have one person playing on the TV with the other not confined to the same screen would be cool. They could have thrown in some cool multiplayer stuff like they did on the DS New SMB.

It seems like Nintendo missed the boat on plenty of opportunities to do cool things with the gamepad. Off TV play is the #1 feature for me and I love it. I prefer a different controller while playing mario kart though.

I agree 100% with you.

Pros:

Comfortable
Light
Off-TV Play
Remote functionality

Cons:

It's huge
Battery life is way too low

The hugeness could be fixed in one of two ways, shrinking the screen and the overall design with it or give it a higher rez screen, 720p would be nice

The only cons I have are that the battery life sucks, and that you can't really look down at the screen when playing on the TV during fast paced games. Analog triggers would've also been nice.

Other than that, it's a great controller.

Con: Does not double up as a Wii Balance Board alternative. I tried it once and it just didn't work out well.

I guess there's no substitute for the almighty Balance Board.

i can actually confirm this myself as well.

The Gamepad comes packaged with an AC power supply. The battery life criticism has never quite made sense to me. Why not just plug it in when you're not using it? Heck, why not plug it in when you are using it?

pros: off screen play, good for asymetric multiplayer
cons: adds too much to the cost of the console, battery life is shorter than a regular controller, bad or at least useless for symmetric local multiplayer (because you can't have more than one)

Well technically it IS using WiFi. When you use your Wii U you're basically streaming video to the GamePad using a 5Ghz band access point built into the Wii U. They do it so they can guarantee performance. They don't have to rely on you having a decent connection between Wii U/Router AND you having a fairly decent router. Something which I assume most people have neither.

Just look at the whine on these forums about having to buy a $50 external HDD so they can store games on it. Imagine how much more whine there would be if the GamePad was shaky if you didn't have a wired connection between Wii U and router PLUS at least an N600 class router. Two things which together will cost you more than the Wii U itself if you don't have them already. Or they could just put a dual band NIC in the Wii U instead of a single band NIC, use the 5Ghz band for the GamePad....

You can demand that sort of thing of high end maybe... not the average consumer.

@skywake that's why I don't think off screen gameplay is going to take off... Wii U solution is reliable but does not have range, Sony's solution with the Vita has range but its not reliable..... unless someone finds a solution that is as reliable as the Wii U's gamepad but has a range as good as the Vita's offscreen play would never be a major thing.

@skywake that's why I don't think off screen gameplay is going to take off... Wii U solution is reliable but does not have range, Sony's solution with the Vita has range but its not reliable..... unless someone finds a solution that is as reliable as the Wii U's gamepad but has a range as good as the Vita's offscreen play would never be a major thing.

1. Personally I've never found the Wii U GamePad's range as a major issue
2. Dual band wireless wasn't a thing 10 years ago, were $250AU five years ago and now start at ~$120AU
3. The price of dual-band routers has got to the point where major ISPs are starting to use them
4. Pretty much every new portable device that comes out on the market now can use the 5Ghz band

I dream of it being optional, for those who enjoy the gamepad a lot we can navigate the wii u with it and for those who don't care much we can use the wii motes. I dont think that would be hard to do, heck maybe it can give the wii u a price drop in units with out the gamepad.