Do they work well? As good as sticks?

Yeah...no.

The entry price alone tells you that isn't happening.

Nintendo thinks that slapping a touchscreen on their controller will be the same as the Wiimote, in that it'll allow for greater immersion and fun new gaming ideas. The problem there is that the Wiimote actually made games MORE accessible, while this Wii U controller seems to just make games more clunky and awkward to control.

this controller has near unlimited potential. it is just a question of if third parties will utilize it.

and sure it looks awkward now, but this thing has over a year before it releases. we could very well see a better design later. im personally very excited for this system. now if we could get a look at the console...

SILENT SCOPE RETURNS MOTHER FLIPPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

other than that I really think this opens up a whole lot of opportunities, for game like battalion wars would benefit a great deal where the touch screen could control the rts gameplay, otherwise use it for ds like uses.
fps it could be used for some cool things, precisions aiming, security cameras, review mirrors in racers, controlling multiple characters, complex command systems, frankly I think it is a fantastic idea, but it should be a little smaller screen, the controller looks a little cumbersome as it is.
Multiple sizes would be a-okay as well

And now Nintendo confirms local multiplayer won't be possible with the new controller, it won't even be sold separately according to current info...

I think it's genius, only in time will we see it's true potential

Going by this thread Nintendo really need to dumb things down so that people can understand the basics.. No wonder they aren't showing more info right now when people don't even understand the controller..

Also hands-on sessions have said it is really light so I don't think the size will be a major issue.

What are you talking about? Of course you'll see that! Even the tech demo's Nintendo have been showing people are perfect for that, watch the video here: http://e3.nintendo.com/videos/#/all/HW_demo

And people who already own Wii Remotes will be able to play multiplayer without having to buy anything other than the system and a game. That discredits the whole "expensive" part of your argument.

Please tell me what basics I didn't understand...

@kowenicki: Price won't be an issue because apparently you can't even buy the Wii U controller. There's one per console and that's it (which defeats many of the possibilities which were actually promising with this controller such as local multiplayer with or without hidden information).