Wii U Controller Gets a New Look

Ever since the Wii U......'s Controller was shown off at E3, completely overshadowing the actual Wii U console itself, there's been quite a bit of wonder for it, at least from me.  There's really been no specs to speak of, nor has there been any real news about it at all lately, aside from a recent patent idea that is....certainly a thing.  The only thing we've gotten recently is the above picture from a twitter account of a QA guy for TT Games, who have their hands in the various Lego franchise games.  People who have a good eye might notice that that controller looks a mite different from the one that was in all the glamor shots around E3-time, and from that we might be able to extrapolate a few things.  Of course, the information we might glean from such a manner is pretty minute, but we'll pretty much take anything at this point.

The biggest thing here to note is that the sticks, plural, on the thing are different in a very clear way.  Where the first pad had little analog slide-nubs that we were all apparently sick off back when the PSP was new (yet we don't complain about them for the 3DS...), the new design has something that resembles -actual- analog sticks.  As in the kind the Vita has, or perhaps some that can even be used as buttons themselves with a push-in, ala 360 and PS3 controllers.  The latter would certainly be a sign of jumping in whole-hog, but I'm not quite sure they can actually swing it.  Still, actual sticks, no matter what range you can use them, are better than not, I think we can all agree on that front.  Will it make the Wii U more tantalizing just on that alone?  Certainly not.

The next thing that I noticed is that the entire bottom section of the controller tablet (I'm calling it a tablet not because, come on, it's a friggin' tablet) has been shifted about and rethought out.  From left to right, the Wii U logo is there, the Select and Start buttons are no longer there,  there's a power ring around the Home Button, and between the battery light and power button, there is a strange new button.  The circle around the Home button is fairly standard nowadays, of course, so that's not really something to throw up arms about, and the logo is whatever, but the other stuff is pretty interesting to talk about in a way.  Thankfully the select and start buttons are where they are now, as they just seemed to be fairly awkward before (Much like the 3DS' awkward placement that unfortunately made it through), so there's another plus for the tablet.  Now, the last, unmarked button between the battery light and the power button is the weird outlier here if just for the fact that it is unmarked when it clearly looks like a button.

You'll notice that a similar thing is located beneath the D-Pad of the tablet, but, and I don't know if this is just a perspective thing or what, but it doesn't look like a button like the other one does.  Of course they could both be buttons, they could be not (though if not buttons, I haven't the faintest on just what they'd be) or one could be where the other isn't.  Aside from that, the overall shape might have changed a slight in the whole depth department, and there might be a few new things here and there, but that's about it unfortunately.  Overall, I still don't know what to think of the thing as we haven't seen a whole lot of anything substantial regarding the Wii U, but it is certainly still a thing.  I do kind of wonder how it feels to actually play with, however, but that's something we'll all find out eventually.

Of course, we won't be finding out much more from the guy who tweeted the above image, giving us a little look into Nintendo's closest guarded secret, apparently.  The tweet is gone (well, as gone as something on the internet can be, which is not much) and I -believe- he's taken down his twitter account even (but am too lazy to check), probably in an attempt to keep his job.  Not that Nintendo can directly do anything to him for just taking a picture of the thing, but I imagine it might violate this and that which can make Nintendo mad at TT Games which can in turn, turn all of that on this guy.  I hope not, of course, but I doubt we'll be hearing much about him.  In the meantime, I guess we can all just wonder just what we're going to see come E3, since Nintendo'll likely be going full-boar with this thing to try and 'win' the event.  And, given the, uh, Nintendo faithful opinion through the internet, I'm sure many will claim that they will.  But, as we all know, it's about time for some hard numbers, a price, release dates and such, which can all turn the public against them if it's outrageous enough.  (Moreso than $250 for a 3DS anyway.)