Renegade Kid, KnapNok, Yacht Club, and 13AM talk about the lack of innovative GamePad usage
The Wii U GamePad is a perfectly fine controller, but it’d be tough to argue that developers have tapped into its potential. Even Nintendo has not yet produced a string of titles that truly show what it’s capable of. For the most part, titles we’ve seen thus far use the GamePad for off-TV play or as a map.
NintendoWorldReport reached out to four indie developers as part of a new article that touches on the lack of proper GamePad usage. You can find a collection of their comments below.
Renegade Kid’s Jools Watsham
“Nintendo helps promote…as much as the game helps to promote the innovative qualities of the Wii U.”
“If you’re going to dedicate your time and effort to taking advantage of the unique features of the Wii U, you need for it to pay off in sales if you’re going to be able to continue making games for a living.”
“The GamePad is clearly not the revolution that the Wii Remote was. There, I said it.”
“The Wii U never lived up to its own potential, even from its creators. You have to lead [by] example, and Nintendo are the kings of doing this, but they failed to deliver with the Wii U in terms of utilizing their own platform, which has resulted in a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“It’s not like the Wii U has failed gamers in a general sense, but in regards to how well the GamePad has been utilized, overall [it] has unfortunately been somewhat of a failure. And that is Nintendo’s burden to bear.”
Knapnok’s Lau Korsgaard
“(a lot of Wii U exclusive titles don’t) feel like they are ‘fulfilling the potential.’”
“I think the problem (if it is a problem) is deeper rooted in the design of the Wii U. The Wii U does a bunch of cool things: It has this GamePad that makes two-screen play possible, it lets you play with your old Wii Remotes, so local multiplayer is easy and cheap, off-screen play makes it possible to continue playing on your GamePad while mom is watching TV. These features are really unique, but also mutually exclusive!”
“If I want to make a game that supports local multiplayer, like Mario Kart, I can’t at the same time make the controls depend on a lot of GamePad features. If I want to make a game that lets you continue play if the TV is turned off, like New Super Mario Bros., I can’t make the gameplay be dependent on the GamePad either. I think that is why there hasn’t been made a single game, even by Nintendo, where everything made sense as it just clicked for the system. You simply can’t do everything at the same time.”
Yacht Club Games’ David D’Angelo
“Introducing such a bizarre, unique gameplay design element exponentially increases that riskiness in both game quality and financial aspects. Incorporating such a unique hardware feature also means the Wii U is pretty much the only option for sales. Cutting off other huge sections of the market is very scary.”
“We felt Miiverse was also a big part of the Wii U experience, so that’s how we ended up with the Digger’s Diary. We spent a very large amount of time coming up with this feature. We wanted to create something we thought would be fun and engaging, but at the same time not create something so big and unique that you’d be disappointed if you owned the 3DS or PC versions.”
13AM Games’ Alex Rushdy
“I think it’s really worth it to put in that extra effort. Wii U owners are looking for games that make use of the hardware beyond off-TV play and a lot of people have been really pleased with ColourMaster and its unique use of the GamePad. Heck, even just the fact that the GamePad allows us nine players instead of eight is something that is really cool and only possible on Wii U.”
“I also believe Nintendo really takes notice when you put in the extra care to make your game a Wii U game, as opposed to a game that is simply appearing on Wii U.”
