Nintendo Announces the Wii U.....'s controller.

So, for everyone that was awake and watching Nintendo's conference at whatever ungodly hour it was on (I'm kidding, of course, 9 AM PDT isn't bad), you got the first look at the new controller for Project Cafe', revealed today to be the "Wii U".  The idea behind the name is that "we" got our chance to play together at parties and such, and this next one is just for "you".  Or something to that effect.  Anyways, Nintendo went around this in a bit of an odd way, as they really did only show off the controller.  And while that's all well and good, when we see This, and are told it's actually the console behind the controller, we're only left to wonder why.  Is it not finished?  It certainly looks a little sterile and....not 'generic', but you know what I'm driving at here, which, let's face it, that's how the Wii looked as well, so it could very well be the final design. 

But that's not really important.  What's important is what the Wii U can do and, by proxy, what the controller can do.  Because apparently the controller's screen is capable of outputting the exact same images as the Wii U can put on the TV.  Because a main selling point is that when someone else wants to use the TV, you get to say, "SURE, OKAY, LET ME JUST SWITCH THIS AND" BAM, you're playing your game, but on the controller.  Like...not only -with- the controller, but -on- it.  Like Remote Play, but Nintendo has assured us it will have no latency issues.  Pardon me if I'm a bit skeptical on that, though, Nintendo.

While the Wii U touts complete backwards compatibility with the Wii, I can't help but be left wondering how.  Especially using the controller.  Will you even be able to?  Like, are you going to be able to play a Wii game on the controller?  If so, are you expected to replace the Wiimote's pointing with the stylus? What does this say for the controller style of the Wii U; have they abandoned the Wiimote as a pointer, or will some games still default to Mote-Chucking?

None of these questions were answered.  None of any of the questions were answered, for that matter.  Releases sometime in 2012.  No price.  No specs given (in the keynote, there is a site up now) and nothing much else beyond "Here's what this looks like.  Cool, right?  Alright, see you next year."  Which is a little disappointing, considering how good it honestly could be.  So what we're left with is a good step forward, rather than a leap into the now, and the 'better-than'.

Nintendo pushed a lot of good buttons with this one, and while I'm excited for it, I'm nowhere near as excited as I should be.  So while this wasn't, by far, Nintendo's entire E3 show, this should have been the thing that put it in writing that Nintendo had the best E3 showing, and it didn't.  Still good, but only second place good, for me.