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Octane on 18 October 2015
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MikeRox said:
Octane said:


GamePad is required for many games; Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World, Captain Toad, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Super Mario Maker, Splatoon, upcoming Star Fox Zero out of the top of my head. It's vital to most of the Wii U library, and don't suggest that Nintendo is going to patch all those games in some way or form. 


It's a huge exageration to say it's vital to most of the library, you've basically listed a few of the handful of games reliant on the pad. NSMB-U, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros Brawl, Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors, The Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD. There's 8 games just off the top of my head that someone may want a Wii U for that don't require the gamepad in the slightest.

Here's a list of Pro Controller compaible Wii U games:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_U_games_that_use_the_Wii_U_Pro_Controller

Though I do note Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse are all listed as supported (source being Nintendo e-shop) though I'm really not sure how Kirby would work without the pad.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game pad, I just don't think removing it is going to be much of an issue for any future backwards compatability simply because barely any Wii U games truly utilise it.


Kirby support various other controllers for local multiplayer. Same holds true for 3D World, although some levels can be played without the GamePad, several levels require the GamePad. Pikmin 3 also requires the GamePad, despite the fact that you can use other controllers to play the game. I for example played it with a Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuck, but the GamePad was also required occasionally.

I don't disagree on the fact that there are plenty of games that can be played without the GamePad, but since you can't access the full Wii U library without a GamePad, I doubt Nintendo is going to include half-arsed backwards compatibility, where some games are playable and some aren't. It's not really Nintendo's way of doing that. It's everything or nothing usually.