4 ms·

I really liked the Wii U pad and used it a lot. The Switch is a more fully realized version of the concept, but it has its downsides -- it's not as comfortable

by djur 4y ago

I really liked the Wii U pad and used it a lot. The Switch is a more fully realized version of the concept, but it has its downsides -- it's not as comfortable to hold and play for long periods, and the lack of a two-screen mode makes certain concepts less effective. Mario Maker, for instance, worked perfectly with the Wii U and feels compromised on the Switch in comparison. The battery life was completely irrelevant to me. I just kept it plugged in.

ThatPlayer 4y ago
Another example of the two-screen mode I liked was asymmetrical local multiplayer like Nintendo Land. It's not that it's impossible now, with two switches, but I haven't seen any games do it (with 4 players on a single switch, and 1 on the other).
- morelisp 4y ago
  The Wii U's model doesn't really open up that many interesting asymmetrical multiplayer game designs, compared to multiple individual devices. There's a psychological effect of everyone being in the "same space" when most people are on one screen, but mechanically most of the time you'll want the opposite of what the Wii U can do - one person can see everything but everyone else can only see some limited view (c.f. Pac-Man Vs). With individual devices, you can make a game where N people see something different, or N-1 people see the same thing and 1 sees something different, or where N people see the same thing (and maybe also something different, c.f. the Four Swords GBAs+GC model). With the Wii U, you can make a game where everyone sees the same thing, or N-1 people see the same thing and 1 person sees that and something else. Even if you try to make the 1 person see something disjoint, it's too easy to cheat. And if you try to make everyone but one person see their own thing - too bad. I always wondered why they never built something to render simple (or even complex, it can't be that costly) scenes out to multiple connected (3)DSs - relatively everyone with a Wii U must have had at least one...
  - comex 4y ago
    Smash Bros. for Wii U let you use a 3DS as a controller. It was awkward - you had to download the “Smash Controller” app onto the 3DS from the eShop - and didn’t have any kind of video streaming, but the connectivity was there at least.
frosted-flakes 4y ago
Zelda Wind Waker was also great. You could assign weapons or items to the buttons whilr you were walking, or scroll through the map.
- GloriousKoji 4y ago
  Breath of the Wild development started on the WiiU and I'm convinced it would have been better if they didn't have to shoe-horn in Switch support. The inventory menu of BOTW is horrible and totally was meant to be used real time on the gamepad.
  - andrekandre 4y ago
    i was surprised by that too especially since the switch has a touchscreen, why is the inventory screen not using it?

by djur 4y ago

ThatPlayer 4y ago

Another example of the two-screen mode I liked was asymmetrical local multiplayer like Nintendo Land. It's not that it's impossible now, with two switches, but I haven't seen any games do it (with 4 players on a single switch, and 1 on the other).

morelisp 4y ago
The Wii U's model doesn't really open up that many interesting asymmetrical multiplayer game designs, compared to multiple individual devices. There's a psychological effect of everyone being in the "same space" when most people are on one screen, but mechanically most of the time you'll want the opposite of what the Wii U can do - one person can see everything but everyone else can only see some limited view (c.f. Pac-Man Vs). With individual devices, you can make a game where N people see something different, or N-1 people see the same thing and 1 sees something different, or where N people see the same thing (and maybe also something different, c.f. the Four Swords GBAs+GC model). With the Wii U, you can make a game where everyone sees the same thing, or N-1 people see the same thing and 1 person sees that and something else. Even if you try to make the 1 person see something disjoint, it's too easy to cheat. And if you try to make everyone but one person see their own thing - too bad. I always wondered why they never built something to render simple (or even complex, it can't be that costly) scenes out to multiple connected (3)DSs - relatively everyone with a Wii U must have had at least one...
- comex 4y ago
  Smash Bros. for Wii U let you use a 3DS as a controller. It was awkward - you had to download the “Smash Controller” app onto the 3DS from the eShop - and didn’t have any kind of video streaming, but the connectivity was there at least.

frosted-flakes 4y ago

Zelda Wind Waker was also great. You could assign weapons or items to the buttons whilr you were walking, or scroll through the map.

GloriousKoji 4y ago
Breath of the Wild development started on the WiiU and I'm convinced it would have been better if they didn't have to shoe-horn in Switch support. The inventory menu of BOTW is horrible and totally was meant to be used real time on the gamepad.
- andrekandre 4y ago
  i was surprised by that too especially since the switch has a touchscreen, why is the inventory screen not using it?