This was something I posted before E3 2011. Many of the concepts now seem unlikely given that the Wii U might not even be able to support multiple gamepads, but I still think the ideas themselves had some potential.
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Super Mario - Some of the best moments in Super Mario Galaxy 2 were those sections where you dropped down one of those infamous mushroom kingdom pipes and found yourself on the other end playing a classic 2-D Mario level. What made these sections so cool was that one minute you could be flying in 3D space around a spherical planet and the next you would be jumping and hopping on a 2D plain as if the last 20 years of video game developement had never happened. It was great. So why not build upon and emphasise this concept by having those 2D portions put on the Cafe controller screen? You could even have simultaneous play on both screens ala Bower's Inside Story. It's true that this style of game play was seen on the DS and is likely to be seen on the 3DS, but if Project Cafe is (as is reported) more powerful than any of the home consoles currently on the market then the scope afforded to this sort of game would be significantly expanded.
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Metroid - Metroid: Other M may not be the most loved in the series, but it definitely had some cool and interesting ideas. One such idea was the concept of shifting between the third and first person perspective. Unfortunately this concept was hindered somewhat by Director Yoshiro Sakamoto's decision to cram all of the required gameplay mechanics onto a single Wii Remote (even refusing to utilise the nunchuck to provide an optional alternative control scheme for those who desired it). This choice had some pretty serious repurcussions for how the game played, as it effectively meant that the player was forced to continually change their grip on the Wii remote in order to point it at the screen. Enter Project Cafe. Third Person action game on the main screen, first person shooting with the touch screen on the controller. Problem solved.
Knowing what I now know about the controller's built-in gyroscopes I would also add that holding the controller up to the television screen might provide quite an elegant solution for scanning environments. As good as the method for selecting visors was in Metroid Prime 3, this could be even better.
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Pikmin - Pikmin 2 was a fantastic game. It took the original lite strategy elements of the original and expanded upon them in pretty much every way. The final level of the original, for instance, required our plucky protagonist Captain Olimar to move back and forth between several groups of Pikmin, each of which were performing different tasks which had to be timed in order to allow the other groups of pikmin to continue. Pikmin 2 took this idea and ran with it thanks to the inclusion of Captain Olimar's sidekick Louie. In Pikmin 2, therefore, the player was tasked with switching between both characters as each led their own band of Pikmin to perform various goals. Fun though it was, it did on occasion feel overwhelming as it was often difficult to find your bearings as the camera switched between the two locations. Having both groups of Pikmin viewable at any one time, one group on the television and another on the controller, would do much to mitigate this confusion.
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Bonus Idea - You can grow and tend to your Pikmin crop/farm on the controller screen without the need to go back to base. Damn it I'm good.***
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Street Fighter - We've all experienced it. You sit down with a buddy to play a friendly bout of Street Fighter. With each match, however, the testosterone in the atmosphere builds and both partys begin to take the virtual fight increasingly more serious. Eventually half your time is spent waiting for your 'buddy' who has paused the game in order to review their move list. Throw that stuff to the controller screen. Problem solved.
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Paper Mario/Yoshi's Island - Nintendo have a history of creating art styles which are patterned (pun intended) after real world arts & crafts, with games like Paper Mario, Yoshi's Island, WarioWare and most recently Kirby's Epic Yarn. When Ubisoft released the uDraw peripheral back in November I remember thinking how cool it would be if Nintendo were to use something similar to allow gamers to contribute their own art to a game. Think Mario Paint meets Okami meets Drawn to Life. I love the idea, for instance, of drawing some wacky little character only for them to return as an enemy later in the game. You've all seen that Spongebob episode right? Well, it would be like that but with Bowser instead of Squidward and Yoshi instead of Garry.
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Super Smash Bros. - Last but not least, Nintendo's flagship multiplayer mashup, Super Smash Bros. The best thing about Smash Bros. of course is getting three friends around the television (either with items on or off, depending on your preference) and beating the hell out of each other. There is, however, one thing about the current set-up which can kill some of the enjoyment, and that's being put out of the brawl at an early stage and being resigned to a mere spectator. That's where the controller screen comes in. Rather than making the losers sit there watching the more experienced players battle it out for the top spot, why not allow them to drop down to the controller screen to duke it out for third place? That way everyone's having fun.
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Topic: Epic uses for the Wii U gamepad! (mockups and concepts) (Read 21733 times)
