Miyamoto: Wii U's Second Screen Will Grow On You

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Oh wait...we've all been had.

It'll be exactly like the Pendant.

Everyone will rush to buy a Wii U upon his recommendation, and search in vain for the mysterious amazing benefit of having two screens, only to find he was trolling us and it's really just going to devolve into the same crap every other new feature of a Nintendo console has.

But serious comment: About the best use I can imagine of the handheld's screen would be putting inventory and status and those sort of things down there so the main game isn't cluttered with sprites and bars. Unobtrusive, but useful. The problem tends to come when games try too hard to integrate touch screen or motion controls into the game and end up with an obstacle.

 

[Negatempest]

Oh wait...we've all been had.

It'll be exactly like the Pendant.

Everyone will rush to buy a Wii U upon his recommendation, and search in vain for the mysterious amazing benefit of having two screens, only to find he was trolling us and it's really just going to devolve into the same crap every other new feature of a Nintendo console has.

But serious comment: About the best use I can imagine of the handheld's screen would be putting inventory and status and those sort of things down there so the main game isn't cluttered with sprites and bars. Unobtrusive, but useful. The problem tends to come when games try too hard to integrate touch screen or motion controls into the game and end up with an obstacle.

My focus of the argument isn't to put all information on the second screen. It is to put information you don't need right away on the gamepad. Give the player the option to customize, so it can keep players happy with what they want cluttered on the main screen.

 

[lapan]

So let me get this straight... You're in the middle of a battle or shoot-out, and you'd rather look away from the action to check your health and ammo on a second screen, than have your health and ammo perfectly visible in the corner of the main screen where you can focus on both it and the action?

It's like putting subtitles to a movie on a second screen; Your focus is being split.

I keep my healthbars and HUD on the mainscreen and use the second screen for quick access inventory and faster combining. Some japanese team uses it to kill monsters in record times by quickly combining and perfectly coordinating bombs.

You can customize yourself what you want to have on the second screen.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

snip

My focus of the argument isn't to put all information on the second screen. It is to put information you don't need right away on the gamepad. Give the player the option to customize, so it can keep players happy with what they want cluttered on the main screen.

Even better. As long as you don't have to aim with it, or slide your finger across it to reload your gun, or draw a circle to lock on or something.

 

[bificommander]

I'm not sure it's either good PR or buisness practice to announce you're banking on sales improving when consumer Stockholm Syndrome kicks in.

I'm a PC gamer, the Wii is the first console I ever bought. I took it because it was cheap and because I wanted to play me some Zelda games. I've had some fun with it, but not enough that I think I'll be buying the WiiU any time soon. Especially since Skyward Sword was a letdown despite it's glowing reviews, so I'm not likely to buy a whole new console just for one game series I'd really like to play. I'll just see if I can find an Okami-copy on the cheap somewhere.