From a pure conceptual perspective, which is the better "Gimmick controller", Wii U Gamepad, or Joy-Con?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Jumpin said:

The dual screens worked with DS/3DS because you could actually look at the two at the same time. That isn’t the case with Wii U, you’re either looking at the TV or looking at the Gamepad. So 3DS/DS style 2-screen games do not work on Wii U at all. Not to mention the two screen play completely defeats the purpose of off TV play... if that purpose wasn’t already defeated by the fact that it was like a 5-8 meter range.

The stuff that the gamepad did do as a two screen device works no more efficiently than going into another menu screen on a single screen device. Games like EBA can’t be done on Wii U the way they can on DS... not unless they fit it all on one screen.

One sort of game that could conceivably be done better is a game where a person has a screen hidden from other players, and they compete against each other... and the Switch can do that way better since you can have multiple people with their own hidden screens.

It's true that not every game on DS/3DS would transfer well.  But that ignores the fact that a lot of games have the top screen as the primary screen, and the second screen can often be things like inventory or map or something else that you only look at occasionally.  Really most of the games that I've seen on the DS/3DS are like that.  For example I would really like to play New Super Mario Bros on a big screen.