What are your thought's on this Gamepad thing for the Nintendo Wii U?

[archbrix]

The quality of the Gamepad is outstanding to me, both as a device and a controller. I don't get the whole "it's heavy" or "it's uncomfortable" stance. It is nicely ergonomic to me and it's not too heavy in the least. I played Wind Waker for hours straight and never had a problem. Battery life can be an issue but seriously, it's not like it's a full-on portable where you're far from an outlet; is it that hard to plug in the AC adapter for a little while when the light turns red? Oh, and the D-pad is PERFECT in both quality and placement.

The off-TV play is great as well. The screen quality is very good - of course it can't compare to the image quality of my plasma but for a 6.2 inch screen the 480 resolution is perfectly fine. And while I couldn't care less about the TVii functionality (very gimmicky IMO), as a web browser the Gamepad is fantastic.

So I have a lot of praise about the device itself, I'm just still waiting for Nintendo to prove to the world why it's a mandatory inclusion as opposed to a optional luxury. One thing's for sure - after the benefits of playing Wind Waker HD with the Gamepad (map always displayed, accessing my inventory on the fly, etc), going back to the old way of having to pause the game every time feels like a step backwards to me.