“What we experienced with the Wii U is probably what a lot of developers experienced with the Wii U, which is, ‘What do we do with it?. It was this really neat secondary controller that has a screen and you can do different things on it. When I talked to my friends who were designing games for the Wii U, it’s like, ‘We don’t quite know what to do with it’. It’ll probably be about a year before you start to see games just completely nail exactly what that controller is for.” – ‘The Cave’ dev Ron Gilbert

I can understand his point and he’s probably right, but if you’re a game developer who can’t think of things to do with the Wii U Gamepad then I’d say don’t do anything with it beyond menu scrolling and item selection! Nothing wrong with a game just being a regular ol’ game.

Via My Nintendo News

Note: Yarn Yoshi name not final. Tentative name from Nintendo of America/Europe.

– Graphical improvements are not just an upscale to HD
– Models have been changed, updated, etc
– For example, a first aid kit that Chris carries in the mountains now shows scissors, medical equipment on its model instead of a bland box
– New creature type that was in the trailer will cause players to make decisions about what the best way to approach the situation is
– Takenaka hinted at the creature being a recurring encounter
– New weapons, HUNK confirmed for ‘Raid’ mode
– Enemy positions have been fine tuned for ‘Raid’
– The team is working on ways to implement the Streetpass functionality

Via Polygon

We don’t know much about Monolith Soft’s Wii U project, but here’s a tidbit for you: it looks like it’ll have online play. The screenshot above indicates that you’ll be able to get together with others online. Now the wait begins for more information…

Source

Virtual Console games are now a thing on Wii U. The first title of the trial program, Balloon Fight, can be purchased today for 30 cents.

You may be interested to hear that these titles offer a significant amount of control options. Tap the touch screen (or press ZL+ZR), and you’ll come across the VC menu, which contains the control options, restore point, and game reset. Players can experience VC games (well, Balloon Fight at least) with the GamePad, Wiimote, Wii U Pro Controller, or Wii Classic Controller – and each lets you set the function of every button. Joystiq notes that the GamePad, Wiimote, and Classic Controller all served as the player 1 controls, and the Pro Controller defaulted to player 2.

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This week’s GameStop deals are as follows: