With its new console, Nintendo is looking to open a new window on video games.
Nintendo announced that the new system will be called Wii U, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles today as part of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Wii U sports a new wireless controller with a 6.2-inch touch-screen display and measures about 8 inches across. It has a left and right analog stick, traditional D-pad for up, down, left and right movement, as well as A, B, X and Y buttons. Left and right shoulder buttons, as well as left and right triggers, are on board. A built-in gyroscope and accelerometers will let players affect game play by moving the display, even in a 360-degree manner. The controller also has built-in speakers and a microphone.
“It is a fully functioning controller in terms of all of the buttons and input devices that any type of developer or any type of gamer would want,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.
But the controller is also a self-contained gaming device that can play games without using the TV as a display. One video demonstration showed how a player whose father took control of the TV to watch a program could simply continue the game on the controller’s screen.
And the controller’s screen can be used to interact with fully three-dimensional worlds that extend beyond the TV set. For instance, during a private showing before the E3 press event, Game Hunters got to play a game featuring pirates firing rubber-tipped arrows as the player used the display like a shield. First, the player blocks the arrows as they come first from straight ahead, then from above. Then players block arrows fired from ships on the left and right — not on the screen, but on the virtual horizon that extends from the screen — seen by turning with the controller’s display headed those directions. “It goes beyond even what you can see on the TV screen,” Fils-Aime says.
Paired, the TV and the controller’s display provide “two different windows into the game world,” said Nintendo’s JC Rodrigo, who helped conduct the advance briefing. “You can even turn behind and see the (rear) deck.”
Note: The games are not 3-D in the manner of Nintendo’s new 3DS handheld, nor do the games shown require a 3-D TV.
Nintendo plans to launch the system sometime after April 1, 2012 (no price set).
The console delivers 1080 progressive high-definition video on proprietary discs that are the same size as current Wii game discs. A video shown during Nintendo’s E3 press event showed that the controller display could be used as a Web browser and a video chat device.
In development is a Super Smash Bros. game that can be played simultaneously with Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS handheld. Wii U will also support use of current Wii remotes, the Wii balance board and other Wii peripherals. “To weigh yourself with Wii Fit, there is no need to use the big-screen TV,” said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
Also shown in the private demonstration: how current Wii remotes could be used in Wii U games. A game prototype called Chase Mii let four players armed with Wii remotes, held horizontally to use the D-pad and buttons, teamed up to have their Miis chase a fifth player’s, who used the new controller to attempt to evade the other four.
Another game, Battle Mii, had two players using Wii remotes with nunchucks teamed up against a third on the new controller. The two players used standard movements via the nunchuck to maneuver their Mii and aimed with the remote. The player using the new controller used the its motion-sensing capabilities to track down his pursuers — turning left and right in real space to direct his space fighter’s flight path.
“We are calling these ‘experiences’ because they are not meant to be fleshed-out games,” Fils-Aime says. “What it is meant to show is this unique functionality between this controller, the TV and the broader environment in whatever room the system is placed.”
A remastered version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess showed off the system’s high-def visuals, A Disney-esque scene with Link entering a fully rendered cathedral-ceilinged castle appeared on the HDTV and the display (the touch-screen display is not HD but high-quality video).
Tinkerbell-like sprites float through the air and bats flitter about. Suddenly an emerald-eyed Shelob drops from above and towers over Link. It was undeniably impressive.
Using the controller, we are able to switch the scene from well-lit midday to night. The lighting effects from the torch sconces to light hitting the spider were top-notch. Players could also, on the fly, change to multiple camera views — top-down, third-person, up close and personal among them. A tap on the screen brought a map up on the right side of the TV display to help with navigation. Tap again and the map took over the controller display and disappeared from the TV.
With the new system, Nintendo aims to please gamers who are both experienced and casual, Iwata said. The goal: to provide games that are “equally satisfying for all players. … This is exactly what we intend to create with our new home platform. ”
In the works, he says, are deeper game experiences “than even the most passionate gamers have played up until now. It will let everyone see games in a different way.”
