News: Wii U "Summer" Update is Live, Includes Offscreen Mode for Wii Games Page 1

Wii U "Summer" Update is Live, Includes Offscreen Mode for Wii Games

The long awaited Wii U summer update, which became the fall update after several delays, the second of two major operating system upgrades featuring system stability and performance improvements, is now live. It does indeed include well publicized improvements to system stability and speed. Switching applications is much snappier, as when going from the eshop to the home screen.

However an interesting new feature allows Wii games to be streamed offscreen to the GamePad, a favorite of many gamers and seen in numerous games such as Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101. The only catch is that Wii games can still not be played with the GamePad itself, which only acts as the screen. So don't get rid of those Wii Remotes just yet, Nintendo faithful.

Other highlights of the update include...

USB Keyboard Support (good news for Miiverse posters and web browsers alike)
Dolby Pro Logic® II Surround Sound in Wii mode
A friend list icon on the Wii U menu
Numerous improvements to the already excellent internet web browser, including the ability to view PDFs

So far no reports of systems exploding, so rush on out there and download the new update!

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Sonic_13 01.10.2013#1

I'm looking forward to trying out playing Wii games on the GamePad screen. This feature may be the thing that convinces me to transfer over my Wii settings (though I do somewhat prefer keeping consoles as they are individually).

I believe this is the first time the GamePad's built in sensor bar is utilized!

So don't get rid of those Wii Remotes just yet, Nintendo faithful.

Well, Wii Remotes are standard controllers for Wii U.

( Edited 01.10.2013 07:46 by Sonic_13 )

jb 01.10.2013#2

Awesome stuff Smilie It downloaded for me automatically over night, so just updating now - Off TV Wii is great, I think that'll feed nicely into Nintendo's advertising campaign for this holiday season.

If only they enabled DVD support + off TV DVD play, that'd be extra sweet.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

Canyarion 01.10.2013#3

Sonic_13 said:
I believe this is the first time the GamePad's built in sensor bar is utilized!

Nope, that was Pikmin 3! If you selected off-TV mode, you could play with a Wiimote and the game would use the built in sensor bar. Smilie

I discovered it by accident.

Anyway, awesome, my source was right. Smilie I should talk to that guy more. Smilie Nah.
Downloading the update now.

SirLink 01.10.2013#4

Lovely, now we can listen to endless complaining about the Wii Off-TV mode because it doesn't let you use the GamePad as a controller (yet?). Glad to hear about the system stability and speed improvements, as that's the only thing I really care about when it comes to the OS. Other than that, it's all about the games.

Twitter | Backloggery

RudyC3 01.10.2013#5

Shouldn't be "too" hard to make the gamepad controls to pass for a wii classic controller pro methinks, but let's give Nintendo at least the benefit of finally giving us off screen play for Wii games, which is something I personally never really expected them to do

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer

JayUK 01.10.2013#6

Me hopes gamepad controlled wii games(which use the classic controller) will be on the way soon. Then they can just do away with the wii menu, and have a fully integrated system.

RudyC3 01.10.2013#7

By the way, how do u actually force the game to display on the gamepad? Cause I just tried it myself and nothing was displayed on the gamepad at all! (tried with Kirby's Epic Yarn)

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer

Sonic_13 01.10.2013#8

Canyarion said:
Sonic_13 said:
I believe this is the first time the GamePad's built in sensor bar is utilized!

Nope, that was Pikmin 3! If you selected off-TV mode, you could play with a Wiimote and the game would use the built in sensor bar. I discovered it by accident.

Oh cool! I'll have to try that!

Mush 03.10.2013#9

Canyarion said:
Sonic_13 said:
I believe this is the first time the GamePad's built in sensor bar is utilized!

Nope, that was Pikmin 3! If you selected off-TV mode, you could play with a Wiimote and the game would use the built in sensor bar. I discovered it by accident.
Anyway, awesome, my source was right. I should talk to that guy more. Nah.
Downloading the update now.

Actually, believe it or not, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the first game to make use of the GamePad's sensor bar. Smilie