E3 2011: Nintendo removes the TV with Wii U

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 08 June 2011 11:01

Opinion and Analysis

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo show in Los Angeles, Nintendo has revealed the snazziest piece of new gaming hardware the show has to offer.  Powering up the Wii to high definition levels and introducing a game changing controller that provides an alternate view for each gaming experience.  The Wii U and new touch-screen based controller may silence the Nintendo nay-says.

If there is one thing consistent about Nintendo, it is their ability to continually wow a crowd with innovation.  There have been some misses in the past (when will that vitality sensor see the light of day?), but generally Nintendo's engineers thinking outside of a paradigm approach to hardware design captures the imagination.

Despite the leaking of most of the relevant details, Nintendo's E3 showing of the Wii U (the legendary Wii HD we have been waiting for) received a fantastic reception from the amassed gaming press.

But again, it is not so much the hardware specifications (see below), more so it is the potential and the concepts brought to the milieu that Nintendo has achieved with the Wii U.

Much of the excitement centres on the new controller.  Nintendo has taken much that it has learned in developing hand-held gaming devices and brought it into the living room.  The New Controller (as it is known right now) looks like a blown up 3DS (sans 3D capable screen), with trigger and shoulder buttons accessible underneath the unit.

It sports twin circle pads along with the obligatory A,B,X & Y buttons and D-Pad.  It contains cameras, gyroscope, accelerometer, microphone and most noticeably a 6.2 inch wide format touch screen.

Nintendo presented a tech demo of the Wii U's processing power, showing off a small bird traversing a blossoming orchard above a tranquil pool.  The demonstration now has Nintendo joining HD gaming along with Microsoft and Sony.

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