One of the biggest complaints for the Wii U is there are few games that creatively use the Gamepad and therefore there isn't much reason for it. I agree with the sentiment, but I seriously don't get it.

The Nintendo DS was overflowing with new and unique ideas for games using two screens until the end of it's life. You would think that there would be at least rehashed ideas from the DS pouring over, but no. Just maps and inventory management now. That's the best anyone is willing to come up with. And this is all devs, Nintendo included. Why aren't there games like The World Ends With You or Ghost Trick or Nintendogs on the Wii U? Even the 3DS is lacking in software creativity. Look, I love my 3DS, it's my favorite current system, but literally every game I have for it plays like a small console game with a menu on the bottom. I didn't have a problem with it at first, but looking back now, there where such crazy games on the DS, and now the unique games are harder to come by.

I'm not saying that all games for those systems should be crazy unique, but there are games that came out for the DS that couldn't be done anywhere else. I don't get that feeling with most of the games on the 3DS and Wii U. In fact, the only game I can think off right now is maybe Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Maybe.

No wonder they aren't selling as well. No one is taking a risk. They are trading off visuals for creativity. Thoughts?

I think the issue is that all the 'imaginative' uses when the DS came out where essentially a collection of cheap gimmicks that you each offered about 5 minutes of gameplay.

If you were to try similar gameplay ideas now it would be written off.

The maps/inventories/menus work with more complex gameplay ideas without needing to find a new gimmick every 30 seconds to keep the player interested.

If you look at Zombi U for instance, (a game I've not played btw), a lot of the reviews disliked the repetitive nature of the gimmicks used on the touchscreen. If you look at NintendoLand you have 12 different games each using the pad in different ways, presumably because no one way was big enough to justify an entire game. Look at Wonderful 101, where although you could draw the shapes to use your abilities, by the end of the game you just used the right stick as it was more convenient.

However, in defence of the gamepad (because I do think it's brilliant), using it for maps, menus etc does free up TV space and decreases HUD clutter. It was brilliant in Pikmin 3 (played with wiimote and nunchuck) to give a real time over view of what was going on, in Windwaker it gave a nice tactile element to your inventory. And off-tv play is superb for those of us who aren't cheeto-stained basement dwellers who have families we share the tv with.

My partner is in love with the gamepad as a 2nd screen for playing Xenoblade on when I want to watch TV for example.

Some franchises from the DS/3DS would make a great transition to Wii U. I would be all over Professor Layton U, the story and setting could be on a grander scale with the better hardware, whislt retaining the charming puzzles on the touchscreen. A hotel dusk game would obviously work well too.
Also im surprised more strategy games havent been on Wii U, the set up is there to make a great strategy game like Advance/Battalion Wars for example. Fatal frame, Minecraft, Monkey Ball are all games that could make interesting use of the second screen.

Trauma Centre is another old DS game that would be superb on the Gamepad.

But I think another issue is that the scope of these sort of games aren't suited to a £40-50 retail. I'd pay £25 tops for a new Trauma Centre, mainly because it's not a game that screams 'console' at me.

But that said, it could make a very good digital title, and I think that the eShop is maybe somewhere that bigger publishers should be looking at tapping as somewhere to put the 'b-list' IPs that don't necessarily deserve the expense of the retail supply chain.

3DS and Wii U aren't getting those games because Nintendo devs aren't interested in making them.

We got the gamepad because Nintendo wanted to get core gamers back, so they went back to dual analog to please third parties and get them on board. Adding the touchscreen was an attempt to attract the Wii audience, not because they had in mind games that could take advantage of having two screens.

That's not true at all. Kirby: Canvas Curse and Mass Attack weren't gimmicky. Okamiden wasn't gimmicky. Pokemon Ranger wasn't gimmicky. The games I listed above weren't gimmicky. They 

I've not played any of those games, so I will take your word that they weren't gimmicky.

I did find Nintendogs a little gimmicky, but then, I was hardly the target audience for it. My sister loved it though.

I do think though that finding innovative gameplay that stays interesting and holds the audiences attention is a lot harder for developers to do in todays market than it was almost a decade ago.

Etrian Odyssey works well dual screen

The what?  What did they do!?  Don't you die on my, dammit!!!  Don't you die!!

He is already gone.