I agree with people here about the lack of a a pointer being a gross deficiency in the design of the Wii U controller, BUT I think a lot of you are neglecting the fact that the pop genres are changing right now, and have been ever since Gears of War.
The FPS is oversaturated, the TPS is growing much much stronger, so with that in context, the Wii U controller is infinitely more user friendly.
Scenario -
Keep it on your lap, control stick movement with one hand, while the other hand controls weapons/item selection and tap screen shooting. This idea that it would be difficult to remember button placement, and consequently force neck strain, is ridiculous.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
