Darksider’s II lead designer Haydn Dalton was asked about whether he thinks the Wii U GamePad is innovative compared to Microsoft’s SmartGlass. Dalton says that although Nintendo’s competition is making the Wii U GamePad seem less innovative, Nintendo are masters at making full use of their hardware. Dalton likes how Nintendo use their technology in ways that force players to physically interact with it in different ways.

Do you think having the screen on the Wii U GamePad really innovates as much as things like the analogue stick did? Now you’ve got Microsoft looking at SmartGlass, and you’ve got the competition competing directly with Nintendo’s innovation.

Haydn Dalton: “It does make it more difficult now, definitely. Because other people are doing more. They’re doing peripherals that can be added to existing or even more advanced technologies, whereas who knows what the Nintendo guys are doing. The thing that Nintendo are absolute masters at is that they harness their hardware like nobody else.”

“If you look at any of their titles where they’re using the touch screens on the NDSs and things like that, they use it in beautiful and creative ways that make you think as a designer and a game player. They’ve given me something that I couldn’t get anywhere else. Just simple things like finding something with dust on it and having to blow onto the screen to reveal what’s written. It’s just really simple things like that but they’ve used their technology in a unique way and forced the player to physically interact with it in a different way. There’s a magic about that. I only get that magic a lot when I’m playing Nintendo games.”

 

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/07/28/nintendo-harness-their-hardware-like-nobody-else/

I dont like they the word "force" but I see where he is coming from. Zelda SS is a grear example of nintendo using the hardware to create an immersive experience.

Nintendo uses their hw better than anybodyelse
not surprising

I disagree, after witnessing the Wii generation.

Too bad third parties were/are unable to catch up with them. (I mean come on, they didn't even try.)

Who knows what numbers the Wii would have reached?

I am genuinely interested to read about examples of third parties harnessing the Wii's power better than Nintendo.

Nah.

RARE harnessed the N64's power better than Nintendo.

Factor 5 harnessed the Gamecube's power better than Nintendo.

Shin'en harnessed the Wii's power better than Nintendo.

No. You are right about Rare and Factor 5 but Shin'en managed to harness its power to a level that was on par with some of Nintendo's games, not better.

I do believe that Shin'en was the best 3rd party dev for the system though.

Factor 5 likely would have done it for the Wii as well, but as we all know, they went bankrupt while whoring themselves to Sony like Free Radical.

I haven't played any Nintendo games on Wii that match the material effects Shin'en pulled off in Jett Rocket for surfaces like water, metal, and ice. Not to mention the game also did dynamic global lighting, soft shadowing, and a host of other effects while running at 60fps.