I’ve put a fair share of mileage into Nintendo gaming over the years. NES, SNES, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, GameCube… you get the picture. I actually went to an overnight line outside of a Target for the original Wii launch. Now that the Wii U has plenty of great games out and with the recent announcement that Nintendo’s next console, the NX, will be both a home console and a portable, I figured now was as good a time as any to buy a Wii U.
So, how does it compare to the Wii? How does the tablet controller work? Let’s find out.






The GamePad tablet controller is the Wii U’s biggest leap. It’s got a six inch screen, standard A/B/X/Y buttons, two joysticks, a D-pad, and four triggers. The GamePad also has rumble support, speakers, and a front-facing camera. Not only can you use the GamePad as a controller, but you can also stream your Wii U gameplay directly to it. My wife was just playing Mario Kart 8 on it while something else was on the TV. Is this a half-step or beta test for the NX? Probably.
You can also set up the GamePad to control your TV. I haven’t bothered to do that yet, so I’m not sure how well it works.


I’ve only got Mario Kart 8 right now, so I’ll be writing up a review of that pretty soon. Mario Maker and a few other games will be making an appearance on my TV/GamePad in the near future.
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