Wii U Update Brings Off-Screen Play To Original Wii Games

[Steven Bogos]

Wii U Update Brings Off-Screen Play To Original Wii Games

Japanese gamers can now play their original Wii games on the Wii U's gamepad using remote play, but still must use a Wiimote to control them.

A brand new system update just hit for Wii U users in Japan, and among all the regular bugfixes and stability updates was a rather interesting new feature. It appears that remote play, the act of playing a Wii U game exclusively on the Wii U gamepad's screen, has been brought over to the system's "Wii Mode", meaning Japanese gamers can now play original Wii games on their Wii U gamepad screen.

The one significant caveat seems to be that you can't actually use the gamepad to control the Wii games. You still need to use a Wiimote. This means you'll effectively have to rest the gamepad on your lap, or put it on a stand, while you play the game using a Wiimote.

NeoGaf users are reporting [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688363] that this remote play functionality works with Virtual Console and WiiWare titles as well as retail Wii games. The Wii U's gamepad has a little camera built in that acts as a sensor bar, so you won't even need to be in the same room as your console.

There's no word on whether or not this feature will make it stateside, but i don't see why it wouldn't. While it would be a hell of a lot of work for Nintendo to go back and code gamepad controls into all of those Wii games that were built around the Wiimote, here's hoping that at least the Virtual Console games will get gamepad support in the near future.

What do you guys think? Will you use this, or do you find it ultimately pointless to have to use a controller to control your controller.

Source: Neogaf [http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wiiu/support/system_update/index.html]

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[xyrafhoan]

According to a friend of mine, the system update has already hit North America. I haven't checked myself as it's kinda late at night. Judging from the discussion of the source, seems like it's true. Presumably the Nintendo Direct tomorrow morning (today?) will officially kick things off for North America. It's kinda silly for any game that uses motion controls but this isn't so bad for any VC game or games like Xenoblade or Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn that perform terribly/have no motion controls.

Source: IGN has reported on the update http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/10/01/wii-u-system-update-enables-wii-games-to-display-on-gamepad

 

[Omega Pirate]

Yo dawg we heard you like controllers. So we made you control your controller with a controller.

OT: Cool, I'll get some use out of this.

 

[Ensayia]

Just tried out this new feature, and I don't see a lot of use for it unless you just have to play a Wii game and the television is occupied.

Even games that don't require Wii motion controls (Sonic Colors, Monster hunter, etc.) can't be controlled with the pad, which is the one thing I was really looking forward to. All this does is make your Wii U pad into a little screen, the pad itself is in total lockdown in Wii mode.

 

[Tanis]

I see this as being pointless, and even kind of insulting.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

Wait wait wait, what? Didn't they already have this ages ago? Or maybe I'm just thinking of Wii U games :/ The only memory I have of that kind of functionality is a Tablet playing Super Mario, so I suppose it was just the newer version being played.

 

[GoaThief]

Controller played with a controller, meta.

More importantly, where is TVii for the UK and other major EU countries? It's still the big annoying red button that does nothing but stare at me whenever I press home. Think this will be my last Nintendo console, it was a good run but a fucking poor end.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Decent idea, flawed execution I would say. I think they should've maybe tried to code the Wii games (or at least some of them) for the Wii U gamepad. Would've made it that much more attractive for me.

 

[hazabaza1]

...woooo?
I can now use the inprecise janky controller on a smaller screen than the ones I already had issues using.

 

[Dragonbums]

It's too early for me for this.

This has got to be the biggest time warp I've ever read.

I guess that's cool and all.

But I'm not gonna even discuss how such a thing can be...problematic for some games that do much better with larger screens (like Skyward Sword)

Then again, most move controls were "waggle" physics anyway so for a good portion of videogames this wouldn't even matter.

Besides. The only update I care about is the unified account system.

 

[Dragonbums]

Decent idea, flawed execution I would say. I think they should've maybe tried to code the Wii games (or at least some of them) for the Wii U gamepad. Would've made it that much more attractive for me.

Outside of first party and second party titles, that probably would be too much effort. Especially how some third party devs even now don't want anything to do with Nintendo anyway.

Would be much better though as opposed to regulating Wii games to obsolete ghetto land on the Wii U.

 

[Juste Goose]

"Oh wow, that's really cool!"

"...you can't actually use the gamepad to control the Wii games. You still need to use a Wiimote."

"Oh wow, that's really dumb."

That's really disappointing. Some of my favorite wii games don't have waggle and would be great to play on the pad (REmake, Brawl, Epic Yarn, Metal Slug...) But hey, it's not Nintendo unless they're making bad decisions.

 

[Covarr]

They can't at least make the gamepad mimic a Classic Controller or GameCube controller for supported games? C'mon, Nintendo, you have the technology.

As an aside, does this update make the system menu faster? Or did they already fix that and I didn't notice?

P.S. Thanks

 

[Ensayia]

The interesting thing about this is the virtual console and wiiWare games that don't tend to use the motion controls. With the Wii Pro controller and Virtual Console, you've got essentially a semi-portable SNES system.

You can't control ANY Wii game with the pad, even those without waggle. The whole pad is locked while you play.

 

[dynath]

I'd like my Wii U a whole lot more if they would do a system update that eliminated the wiimote entirely. I know it's hard to do but all this bull about you can use this controller but not that controller and then nonsensical features like the controller being controlled by a controller plugged into another controller is just retarded. I'll never use a feature like this which is sad because I wouldn't mind playing the wii zelda games on my limited edition zelda classic controller, let alone on the sophisticated WiiU tablet controller that has all the same buttons.