The GamePad Is The Future

Yes, it's that special time that comes about every five years: a new Nintendo console launch! This would encourage a universal hurrah from gamers across the globe, but after the Wii (and arguably the 3DS' abysmal start) people have grown skeptical of the gaming giant's newest ventures.

Personally, I wouldn't blame them. While I adored the Wii's motion control and believe it to be a revolution instead of a gimmick, there's no denying that most developers implemented them poorly into their games. The result was a mountain of shovelware that companies cashed in on because "ooh, motion controls are cool and make up for lack of effort."

Sony and their fluorescent lollipop seem to agree

And that, my friends, is truly sad, because the Wii produced some of the best new experiences this generation. Games like Skyward Sword and Wii Sports Resort pushed the Wii Motion+ to its limits, showing that simple button presses aren't even close to the way motion controls emulate golf tees, sword swings, drawing back arrows, and so on. Even an old port like Resident Evil 4 was enhanced to the point that many who played it prefer its motion-based control scheme to the standard dual analog set-up. Like it or not, motion control has revolutionized the way we interact with games.

This year, the fabled WiiU will be showing up on the scene with a new "gimmick" to back it up - a controller with a full-size touch screen. Cue a mass rolling of eyes from the gaming community as Nintendo presents a cute little trailer showcasing new control schemes. "It's just an iPad attached to a Wii," they say. "This won't add to gaming at all," they say. Except, it will. Those who already decry it as a sham either haven't thought of the uses it could have within games or are in denial over just how big of an impact they can have.

It's those floating triangles that
perpetually haunt 64-bit Link. Kind of
explains his... lack of enthusiasm.

The most obvious of the GamePad's applications is simple: cleaning up a cluttered TV screen by moving the menu and other details into the player's hands. The DS, which suffered a similar reputation for a while, has already proved that two screens are better than one in this regard. In console gaming, immersion is everything, and having numbers and symbols floating over your character's head is anything but immersive. The 3DS' version of Ocarina of Time is a great example, making your view of Link's adventures much more pleasant by moving the UI down to the touch screen. And if you thought that looked great, wait until the WiiU does the same in full, HD glory.

Having menus down on the GamePad not only adds to the aesthetic appeal, but to practicality as well. Pushing Start and going through five or six menus just to use a damned item is extremely slow and breaks the flow of the game. I was reminded of this after a recent play session of Tales of the Abyss, where characters' Artes not assigned to quick commands on the touch screen can only be cast by pausing the battle and going through a couple menus. Not that it detracts from the game in any way, but it does feel jarring to have to go from rapid button mashing to flipping through pages of text while the battle is conveniently halted.
With the GamePad, an extra UI away from the main screen will allow you to quickly manage stats, check the map, and what have you on the fly without interrupting the action. It may not sound like that big of a deal, but it finally removes one of the oldest hassles of gaming and brings us that much closer to total immersion.

Then there are the new and creative ways developers will implement the GamePad. Creativity amongst developers (or lack thereof) was one of many reasons why gamers have abandoned the Wii, also earning the Wiimote its nickname as the "wagglestick." When the motion controls are implemented right, they're implemented very right; otherwise, the only motion-based feature a game had was usually "shake the remote to jump!" or some other boring, specific action that a simple button press could have done. I wouldn't entirely blame the developers either - in many cases, motion controls just couldn't be added as an integral part of gameplay, so they had to be tacked on to a few features. Honestly, how would an RPG or 2D platformer make use of them without looking gimmicky?

Those pesky anteaters will never
catch you off-guard again!

The WiiU alleviates this problem by making its "gimmick" applicable to just about every game ever. Where the Wiimote could only be fully utilized in certain games, the GamePad's screen can always add to a gaming experience. Need an easy to access menu? Drop it into the GamePad. The player has to pinpoint something precisely? Have them use the touch controls. Want to give the player an encyclopaedia so they can research lore during a cutscene? Distribute the book right into their hands. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. In certain cases, the added screen could actually make certain genres playable when they weren't too great on consoles in the past - notably Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101, whose use of the smaller screen to manage and select units means Real-Time Strategy on a home console is finally possible! Not to mention the "asymmetrical gaming" style Nintendo's pioneered, allowing for an entirely new side to multiplayer gaming waiting to be explored.

All of this said, what really sold me on the idea of the GamePad was one of the launch titles, ZombiU. To me, this THE game to game to buy at launch, one of the reasons being its extraordinary use of the GamePad. Survival horror is one of the genres that is really crippled by menus taking place on the TV screen. Often when accessing them the in-game action pauses completely, even though in real life the zombies about to bite your head off wouldn't magically freeze in place while you switch gear or eat a piece of food.
ZombiU has found a cure to this plague by having the inventory and secondary commands take place on the GamePad's screen, while the time up on the big screen is constantly flowing, never waiting for your input. That alone easily makes the game more difficult and nerve-wracking, but Ubisoft took it a step further with a few small touches.

"Did you REALLY think we would wait for
you to finish saying your prayers?"

One of them was in an earlier trailer, where the player had to punch in a passcode while zombies crept up on him from behind. Other games would have the goons pause as you type in the number, but not in ZombiU - instead, you enter the code in from the GamePad's screen while the zombies continue advancing on your TV. It's a great way of adding tension, and having to look back and forth between the GamePad and the big screen seems to be a way of emulating looking over your shoulder (which is pretty damn cool). Looting also isn't a free action anymore; you have to manually drag the looted items into your inventory and leave yourself totally vulnerable during the whole process. In fact, the camera even zooms out to a third-person view during sequences like this to remind you that you can be attacked at any time. Speaking of the inventory, looking through it is no longer a calm, time-stalling experience. No, instead your list of items are brought up immediately on the GamePad and you have to manually switch between them and organize them as the game itself continues in real-time. With this 'no pause' mentality, I'm sure it'll bring a new kind of horror to the genre while bringing it eerily close to realism at the same time.

What I'm getting at with this super-long post is that the GamePad shouldn't be written off as another Wiimote. The Wii tried to change the way we play games completely, and while it had its heart in the right place, the game industry simply wasn't ready to realize its true potential. The WiiU, on the other hand, is adding more subtle upgrade to the tried-and-true control method we've known for decades in a way that is more practical than radical. The seemingly small changes the GamePad adds will actually make a huge impact on gaming. Its screen reflects the player's needed info and allow for management of certain features away from the meat of the game, a sort of 'personal notebook' that should have been incorporated long ago to ensure a more fluid gameplay experience. At the same time, it opens up a new branch of possibilities that encourage developers of any kind to experiment and dabble in new concepts that could never be realized until now. I'm not one for cliches, but frankly: don't knock it 'til you try it.

The Power is in your hands... next month.