Unfortunately (and to my extreme bafflement) Nintendo does not let you charge the GamePad by plugging it into the console via USB. The GamePad has a battery life of about 3-5 hours, which means you'll want to charge it as much as you can. Photo: Alex Washburn /Wired Alex Washburnīut you need to plug it in a lot. If your living room and bedroom are close together, you won't have to choose between playing more games and going to bed. Your mileage may vary, but I was able to walk into adjacent rooms while still playing games, and that's a big deal. I walked into the bedroom and sat on the bed. I wanted to test an important real-life scenario, so I took the GamePad into the bathroom and closed the door. While playing Mario, I walked out of the living room. With the GamePad, you're mobile enough to make a difference. Am I just weird, or is Nintendo really onto something? Would we rather pull our games closer to us, even if the screen is much smaller? I just find it odd that, as near as I can figure, I actually prefer doing that.
Maybe it's more immediate because it's closer? Maybe having the GamePad screen active in my peripheral vision distracted me, pulling my attention away from the TV? I sit on the couch and play Nintendo 3DS games all the time anyway, so it's hardly weird to play Wii U games while looking only at the pad. Why, when I had a great big television in front of me, would I stare at the tiny screen in my hands? I don't know. Only a few games support this right now, but I actually have a feeling it's going to be a big request from players around the world for future Wii U content.Ĭome to think of it, given the choice, I've been looking at the pad. You can even plug a headset right into the GamePad for personal audio. The massively multiplayer game Dragon Quest X will let you play on the pad, which will let MMO addicts get their fix for as long as they like – without bothering the rest of the family in a typical small Japanese home. There's a killer app coming for this feature, but right now it's only in Japan. You can power on the Wii U and start playing a game without ever, ever turning the television on.
#WII GAMES SYSTEM TV#
In fact, you don't even need a TV period. (Anyway: Yes it's a new platform, no the controller is not the game system.) I showed the GamePad to an acquaintance and he asked if "the games just go in here." The idea of a separate controller with a screen on it that takes video wirelessly from another source, but does not function by itself, might just be so alien to consumers that they can't wrap their heads around it. Perhaps there's something about the unique nature of the GamePad itself that throws people for a loop. Then again, maybe this is not a failure of messaging. Perhaps it's because Nintendo has put all of its efforts into showing and explaining the GamePad controller and has barely talked at all about the tech specs of the Wii U box beyond repeatedly noting that it finally outputs HD video, but many people seem to think that the company is introducing a new accessory for the legacy Wii console, not a new machine. I begin with this point knowing that a fair amount of you will think me belaboring the painfully obvious, but something about Nintendo's early marketing for Wii U seems to have confused the hell out of the other half of you.
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