You can’t play Wii games on the Wii U GamePad

Nintendo loves innovating with its gaming controllers – and the Wii U is no exception, with its whopping GamePad. You can even play your console games on the GamePad controller, letting others watch the TV – which should prevent a few family rows this Christmas. But sadly, when it comes to original Wii games that won’t be possible.

The Wii U is backwards compatible with Wii games, but only when played on the big screen. And it gets worse – you won’t even be able to play that TV-based Wii game with the GamePad as a controller, you’ll need the original Wii Nunchuck and WiiMote.

This cloud does have a silver lining, though. Nintendo says it will release a Wii U Virtual Console emulator for older Nintendo games – but don’t expect to see it at launch. So, is the Wii U still top of your Christmas list?

[via Gizmag]

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Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home