Wii U and pinball

[MAT]

What do you think about Nintendo's new console? Seems like the new controller would be quite good for pinball games, it has shoulder buttons and the grip is wider, somewhat closer to a real pinball machine (but of course it can't compete with the homemade solutions seen on this forum). The mini screen could be ideal for some creative mini games, or it could offer another view to the table.

And the power to do 1080P graphics. Not so much detail would be lost in full table view and Zen could build even more awesome tables with more objects, animations and sound too

[Solitude]

It should be good for pinball, in that it should have the processing power to run our current tables at 60fps/1080p. I'm not too sure what the controller screen would be used for in single player, since taking your eyes off the main screen would be disaster at worst and gimmicky at best (e.g., having mini-playfields appear on the controller rather than the main screen). Might be good for PS3-style nudging. Also might be good for simultaneous local multiplayer, depending on whether it's powerful enough to render to both screens at a decent clip and whether any lag issues arise from the wireless transmission of the video stream. The control layout is not ideal for vertical mode on the controller, unfortunately, but it should still be workable.

[MAT]

I'm not too sure what the controller screen would be used for in single player, since taking your eyes off the main screen would be disaster at worst and gimmicky at best (e.g., having mini-playfields appear on the controller rather than the main screen).

True.. but Nintendo might require (or request) that the screen is always used just for something. Maybe just static graphics fitting to the table's theme (animated would be too distracting I guess). Or maybe the dot matrix display? I hope the user can turn it off altogether to save battery. But then it's a touchscreen and part of the control scheme for many other games, Nintendo might be too "user friendly" to offer it to be switched off, or that option is given to the game developer instead.