So I got to play a demo Wii U and well it made me not want the system. It is inferior to the vita in an alarmingly large amount of ways.
At Best Buy the demo had lots of movies for games but the only playable demo was Rayman Legends. First off the software was really fun, I certainly enjoyed the game. What I didn't enjoy was the gamepad. This thing is huge and awkward to use even if it is light and good looking. Touching the screen requires letting go with one hand (similar to how beginners use a DS/3DS). Even ignoring the touch parts and just playing like a regular controller it didn't fit well in the hands. Plus the analog sticks are just weird and during my half hour of playing I never adjusted to them. Triggers and normal buttons were about as good as the vita and the screen looked almost comparable but as a whole the gamepad is just not a good thing to use. In my opinion making it smaller and more like a Vita would have been much smarter.
Now you know my opinion but it is in reality a fact. The gamepad is inferiour to the Vita and I'll prove it.
First off my issues with traditional holding.
See those vertical bumps on each side? They sure didn't work as good as I expected. When holding with just one hand they did a great job but with two hands I felt they were too small to really fill my hands. Keep in mind I'm the average Joe and have average sized hands.
On Vita this grip causes the hands to hold it in a much more open position which works a million times better. Console controllers however as we all know are big and round to fully fill your hands; everything except your thumb is designed to be against plastic. With the Wii U it has these bumps to "fill the fingers" but at the same time it makes them smaller to try and replicate holding a handheld. In my opinion the bumps are way too small for traditional control holding while too large for handheld style holding. The gamepad has an identity crises; is it a controller or a handheld. Sadly it fails at both. The Vita however is the greatest handheld ever made (that's a fact, its hardware gets universal praise) and at the same time works perfectly as a console controller. I tried playing PlayStation All Stars Battle Royal on a TV using my Vita and the experience was fantastic.
Along with those halfassed bumps comes the problem of using the gamepad touch screen. Everything on the controller is sized and shaped to make it impossible to use the touch screen while both hands are holding the gamepad.
Do you see all that unused space between the screen, buttons, and edge of the device? Factor in the vertical bumps on the back and the user is forced to awkwardly slid a hand over or completely let go to use the touch screen. Again the vita is much better.
On the Vita ther is no problem playing a first person shooter and quickly tapping the center of the screen. It is both smaller, compact, and designed to support this while the gamepad cannot. This isn't a problem in slow paced games which will be common on the Wii U but it does make a lot of experiences impossible for us true gamers. In Uncharted: Golden Abyss every once in a while Drake barely makes a jump so you quickly have to swipe up on the screen. In PlayStation All Stars Battle Royal a simple tap picks up an item. The gamepad cannot support this type of input because the hands just can't use the buttons and screen at the same time. Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Batman, and COD will all not be able to support the touchscreen during intense moments of gaming.
Do you guys now understand why the Vita is much better than the Wii U gamepad?
