How 2011's best games could work on Wii U

We've had a great year for games, arguably one of the best ever. And while next year has a rock hard act to follow, the likes of Lollipop Chainsaw, Bioshock Infinite, Dishonoured and Street Fighter X Tekken should make sure we've got plenty of great games to play.

But the biggest event of 2012 will undoubtedly be the launch of the Wii U, which is Nintendo doing what Nintendo do best - blazing their own obtuse trail and giving everyone a headache in the process.

The controller is the big 'thing' about the Wii U. This unique design tears a gulf in the middle of a traditional controller and fills it with a touch screen. Or it applies buttons to a tablet, depending on which way you want to look at it. Needless to say it offers a lot of potential, so let's analyse what it could mean for gaming by asking the question "how could it have improved some of 2011's biggest titles?"

But before getting into that, here's a quick recap on what the Wii U Controller do:

-It has a single input touch-screen that can stream information from the Wii U console.
-It has built in motion controls – a gyroscope and accelerometer - allowing it to respond to tilts, shakes and elaborate waves.
-The motion controls also allow the controller to function as a camera within a 3D space, and work in conjunction with the TV, giving it more flexibility than the DS' second screen.
-The controller also features a player-facing camera and microphone.

So with those features in mind let's try applying this controller's unique concepts to some of 2011's biggest games, asking how it could make them even better experiences.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is pretty amazing - we've established that already in our Skyrim review - but if we were pressured into pointing out one 'fault' in Bethesda's gigantic, glorious, gorgeous fantasy sandbox then - ignoring the sort-of-broken PS3 version - our fingers would be quickly shoved in the direction of its combat. The way you have to continuously pause and trip through any scuffle against any foe mightier than a diseased mollusc is annoying.

Continuously pulling up the menu to swap your lightning sword for your fire sword; Umm-ing and ahh-ing over which flavour of magic you want to stuff down a goblin's throat; Freezing an opponent mid-leap so you can root through your bottomless bag for those precious health potions. It can all add up and sometimes ruin the sense of epic heroism and the only thing that could make it worse would be some quaint elevator music playing behind every pause.

Skyrim Wii U could quickly eradicate this issue thanks to that lovely touch screen. Keep the concept of favourites and let the player fill the screen with their most used items and weapons. This would let you swap to any of your trusty tools with a quick jab at the middle of the controller. No fuss, no mess, just quick, intuitive gameplay without those awkward breaks every few seconds. Skyrim is the perfect example of how a controller screen inventory could improve what is already a brilliant game.

Plus – voice activated dragon shouts. Fus, Roh DAH!

Controller-swinging combat? No, that would be one addition too far...

Battlefield 3
This one is easy, mostly because EA's Frank Gibeau has already spoken about a few ways the screen would be best implemented in Battlefield 3 Wii U.

“You can imagine that there are new ways of playing the game from a commander mode or for being able to drive from a different position inside of a vehicle. “

For us, the Commander mode has it. Commander mode was a feature of Battlefield 2 that allowed one player of each team to utilise an overhead map to issue orders to his team, drop supplies, and call in artillery strikes. It was like an RTS game where you told real people to go somewhere and they would waddle off in the complete opposite direction. This was a rare occurance, however, and when people weren't calling for mutiny it was ace.

Okay, so adding a true Commander mode would be a bit of a drastic overhaul for Battlefield 3 Wii U but how about letting a leading member of each squad set waypoints and scrawl quick doodles on his Wii U controller's map for his group's eyes only? Ignoring the likelihood of your map being covered with crude depictions of male genitalia this would effortlessly enhance a squad's teamwork, and do something on Wii U that the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers genuinely couldn't manage.

Most players hate talking to others - it's because of the internet diseases - so non-vocal communication could prove rather successful.

Portal 2
Portal 2 is a great game, and one of its truly stand-out features is that of co-op puzzles. How the Wii U could possibly improve such a streamlined design is a tough one but it's these two-player rooms that give the most clear example, because it's technically already a part of the game.

Portal 2's online co-op lets you activate a boxout that streams a real-time view of your buddy's screen, and this lets you give them precise advice. You're both able to more easily work out what you are both doing at all times, almost as if it were a split screen game. Imagine that this boxout takes up the entire Wii U controller screen; there'd be no more screen clutter and a bigger display of what your friend is up to. Easier co-operation, less clutter on your screen.

In single player it could just be used to show GlaDOS taunting you with tasty bakery goods. Portal 2 Wii U increasing sales of Mr. Kipling products confirmed!

The controller screen would help both players see more easily where the other is messing up the trickier rooms. It's always the other player.

Assassin's Creed Revelations
Assassin's Creed is a game that keeps adding more and more and more and more with each passing year, but the Wii U could actually add more without resorting to odd segues such as Assasin's Creed Revelation's sub-par tower defence distraction.

One thing the Wii U controller could easily enhance is Eagle Vision. The Assassin's super-power identification vision could be activated by holding the Wii U controller over the screen, letting you tap characters to target them and swap back instantly by lowering the device. Let's face it, pushing the left stick in is a rubbish input for anything, and this would feel ten times cooler.

UbiSoft could even have the controller screen react to exploration and cutscenes, showing location, architecture or character biographies as and when the player nears points of interest. No more sifting through options and menus to find out about something, just walk past it and bang, info attack. The Assassin's Creed games don't get enough credit for their historical accuracy, and for many players it's this aspect that is the most interesting aspect of the series. Assassin's Creed Wii U could easily improve the accessibility and appeal of this historian-impressing side-effect of the Animus' time travelling adventures.

Most players rush through the Assassin's Creed games without thinking to appreciate Ubi's great design effort.

Dark Souls
Dark Souls has some easy ways for the Wii U controller to be applied. For one, you could have easier item selection to avoid the D-pad fumbling that can sometimes lead to you looking foolish - left, left, left, left, oh dang that was the item I wanted? Left left left left left... gone past it again... ARGH! And for two, you could add easier interface-tinkering and message-leaving, and reading could also be sped up. And that's just for starters.

But FROM Software are never a studio to do things 'normally' so it's exciting to think what else they could wring from the Wii U controller. Imagine holding the Wii U controller up to the TV screen and seeing a selection of recorded 'shades' of past players overlapping your screen, the controller acting as a trans-dimensional window for enhanced voyeurism that develops on the game's existing bloodstain and phantom system.

Or what about improving the message system through rudimentary picture applications, letting players etch hurried scratchings on walls to try and deliver a message they couldn't through mere words. Although considering the amount of 'Need Head' messages littering the world of Dark Souls right now, perhaps letting players add pictures isn't the best idea...

Despite this, Dark Souls Wii U would have incredible potential.

Dark Souls is cripplingly difficult - our Mick bursts into nervous sweats at mere mention of the game - so any extra entertaining 'asides' could help.

Xenoblade Chronicles
One of the Wii's last titles was also one of its best, but Xenoblade Chronicles was actually better played on a traditional classic controller and side-stepped the whole motion mumbo jumbo altogether, making it a perfect port for the Wii U.

The Wii U controller could effortlessly improve the game by offering a far clearer radar - finding some of the quest-givers was a pain – and also take away much of the obnoxious screen clutter that would appear in battles. At times it was like playing through a forest of menus and bars, and shifting them down to an extra display would be very welcome.

Combat could give you easier access to party member abilities, and being able to simply tap the skill you want to unleash would be far more intuitive that the existing menu system. The microphone could even be applied for swifter tactical changes – Attack! Defend! Heal! It doesn't matter if you feel like a berk just as long as it all works.

Exploration, combat, aesthetics. Improvements all around really.

In truth we just want this in glorious HD-ness. It needs it. It deserves it.

Minecraft
Minecraft is a startlingly simple concept. It's a game about discovering fun in a field of LEGO. Carving your own adventure through a custom landscape, discovering weapons, tools and vile monsters as you write your own tale of strife and survival in an effort to tame this alien world. Your alien world. It's like a narrative and NPC-free Elder Scrolls rendered in 80's-o-vision.

So how could the Wii U controller possibly hope to enhance such a simple concept? How could Minecraft Wii U possibly better what is already so simply sublime? Easy – It's a notebook.

Minecraft is a game built on experimentation, investigation and personal adventure, so having a virtual notebook that you doodle on with the pen-like stylus and attach screenshots to - if you discover the recipe for a camera, natch - would help enhance the feeling of playing as a cuboid Sir Walter Raleigh.

This would be even better if you left your notebook where you died, as you already do with all your items, meaning every recovered notepad would feel like discovering the precious scrawling's of a previous adventurer. Then imagine if dropped notebooks could occasionally appear in other worlds, in an Animal Crossing/Dark Souls style twist, seeing another player's terrified, Creeper-filled decent into insanity. Getting ahead of ourselves, yes, but it would be AMAZING and the touch screen would make perfect sense for it. Doodling with a stylus trumps a mouse any day.

There's a reason so many Minecraft blogs exist, it's a game you just want to talk about.

Batman: Arkham City
Batman is a bit of a detective at times, in case you hadn't realised, and Bruce does enjoy getting his crime scene investigation on in Arkham City. However these first-person sections are somewhat jarring, and it would feel far more immersive if you could move the Wii U controller around you to search for evidence and turn your living room into your own personal, grimy square of Gotham.

We're also sure that Rocksteady could come up with some other brilliant fourth-wall-breaking elements if they were to bring back the Scarecrow, using the controller's camera and microphone combination for some short, bizarre, player-scaring scenarios.

It would also be nice to not have to pause every five seconds to bring up the map in search of Riddler trophies. That started to get really annoying by trophy 153.

The  thing about the Wii U controller is that it should enhance existing games in more meaningful ways than, say, achievements.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The obvious application of the Wii U controller in Modern Warfare 3 on Wii U would be as a map; the smaller arenas mean the Wii U controller could show a hyper-detailed UAV readout for pinpoint knowledge of where your opponents are coming from, exponentially enhancing the abilties of any player.

Moving away from the expected, consider this – Pointstreaks. When you use the Recon Drone or AC130 in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Wii U, the controller becomes the camera for controlling said Pointstreak, while the TV continues to show your character in his current, static position. This would allow you to retain spatial awareness around your squishy meatbag of a soldier on the big screen whilst raining hell upon your foes on the controller screen, able to drop out and defend yourself should you catch an enemy sneaking up on you. Cheating? We wouldn't think keeping an eye on two screens would be particularly easy...

That map in the top left, trash. Make it big and on the controller and most players will improve instantly.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Uncharted has always been a franchise heavily inspired by the movies but, as we know, cinematic camera angles can sometimes work against genuine gameplay. But what if the Wii U controller could act as a secondary camera? Giving a new angle on a situation or showing additional story content from further in the level - in the fashion of a boxout - while you run through the level yourself on the TV. Imagine Uncharted 3's boat scene with the Wii U controller showing you the boat sinking and being spun around. Exciting!

Sure, Uncharted Wii U will never happen - it's a Sony series after all - but the idea of cinematic gameplay being enhanced through the Wii U's controller is a tantalising prospect.

Just imagine if you could use the Wii U controller to look 'outside' the cinematic frame as well. Kojima best be making a Wii U title...

U better believe it
Wii U is about removing clutter and hurdles, making smoother and more immersive gameplay experiences without compromising gameplay depth. Quite the contrary in fact, the Wii U controller should offer a far more adaptable console experience and one that will be able to offer players far more gameplay options than are available on current consoles with minimal fuss; touch screen controls are easy to understand.

This is just a small glimpse of how the Wii U could genuinly make some of 2011's best titles even better. Can you think of any more? 2012 will be the year we find out how it's all going to work and how strongly publishers and developers will support Nintendo's new machine but one thing is for certain already – the Wii U has mountains of potential, let's hope it doesn't take five years to realise it...

Words by James Bowden.

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