It seems to be the case that analogue sticks, similar to the ones on the GameCube, had been planned for the Wii U controller. A pre-E3 version of the controller shows analogue sticks raised from the controller’s surface. This differs from the version we know of now, which has sliding circle pads similar to those found on the Nintendo 3DS.

There were a few other changes as well such as the relocation of buttons and the stylus. With E3 2012 still a few months away, we could see some more changes to the controller.

Are you happy Nintendo have changed the controller to circle pads or would you like them to revert to the original plan of analogue sticks?

Codemasters still haven’t announced which DiRT game will be coming to the Wii U. It could be a port of DiRT 3, a previous game, or a new addition in the  series. However, game designer Paul Coleman still had some ideas to share on how the Wii U could enhance the rally racing game franchise.

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Super Meat Boy was originally meant to come to the Wii, but the idea faded away because of the file limitations and so the game never materialised on WiiWare. Tommy Refenes explained that:

Super Meat Boy would have been on WiiWare if we could have had just a few more megabytes of space – you can only compress stuff so much before you have to start cutting out huge parts of your game. Unfortunately, at that point, it just isn’t worth the time.

An attempt was also made at a retail release of Super Meat Boy for the Wii but publishers showed little interest, so that title did not materialise either.

However, all hope is not lost as Refenes seems keen to bring Team Meat’s next game to the Nintendo Wii U.

If we can in the future, we’d like our next game to be on Wii U as well as everything else.

Will Overstrike come to the Wii U?

I’m quite sceptical of this piece of news, as I am with all rumours, and I would advise you to take this one with a pinch of salt. But it is still worth mentioning.

According to GameOn.net’s sources, a Dead Space game will be making its way to the Wii U. The source is apparently a concept artist for a game development studio associated with Electronic Arts and they have told GameOn that a new Dead Space game will be coming to the Wii U as well as other consoles. However, this game will not be shown at E3. Last year, a job listing for Dead Space did reveal the game would be coming to the PS3, Xbox 360 and an ‘unannounced’ console.

GameOn have also been told by their anonymous sources that TimeSplitters 4 will be making its way to the Wii U as well as other platforms and that the game will be announced at E3. Last but not least, the website has heard that Overstrike, developed by Insomniac Games, is also coming to the Wii U.

When asked last year by Industry Gamers whether the Wii U would receive Overstrike,  CEO of Insomniac Games, Ted Price, said “you never know”.

Tekken 3D: Prime Edition was recently released on the 3DS, but what of the Wii U version? Tekken Wii U was looking to be a promising title; and at E3, series producer Katsuhiro Harada shared some ideas on how Tekken could use the controller such as it being used to create custom stages to be shared online, using the screen to draw up information on moves and being able to draw on your opponents face if you win a match.

However, it is still unclear whether the Tekken game will be a port of a previous title or a new outing. Also, in a recent interview, Harada explained that they were still in the early stages with the Wii U and would not fully understand the hardware until “next year” which doesn’t sound too promising for Tekken Wii U being a launch title, seeing as the Wii U is coming out later this year.

We’re still in the research phase of the capabilities of the hardware so we’re not sure about which aspect is really going to stand out. We probably won’t understand that fully until some time next year.

The upside of this, of course, is that they will have longer to work on the game, which is always preferable to a rushed launch title.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is shaping up to be quite an interesting Wii U game and I was intrigued by the preliminary ideas that they had for utilising the Wii U’s controller. Their ideas also opened up the interesting topic for how sci-fi games could benefit from the Wii U’s controller.

While speaking to Nintendo Gamer, Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software shared his hopes that the Wii U would be more powerful than the hardware already available on the market.

The controller of the Wii U is obviously where there is new opportunity for innovation in interactivity. Meanwhile, our hope at Gearbox is that the final specification for the hardware is much more powerful than the current competitive consoles so that studios like ours can bring a better standard of high definition image not only to television, but to the controller’s screen at the same time.

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Wii U controller to have video streaming?

According to AdWeek, Nintendo are in talks with a number of content companies, including cable companies and web video producers, in the hope of generating video content for their next home console the Wii U. Excitingly, if true, it could mean that Wii U owners could get live TV streamed to the consoles controller.

Though this information comes from unnamed sources it doesn’t seem completely unrealistic. Hulu Plus was recently added to the Wii, and the Wii already has BBC iPlayer and Netflix capabilities.

Love him or hate him, Michael Pachter has been sharing more thoughts on Nintendo’s handling of the Wii U. During his keynote at the Ayzenburg A-list Summit 2012, Pachter mentioned that he believes that Nintendo have “blown it” by not telling people what the price is going to be and that Nintendo have to launch their next home console at $249:

It’s going to launch at $249 because it has to. I think they’re dead anyway because Xbox with Kinect will be priced below that by the time they launch. Wii was a bubble and that the Wii bubble has burst.

Pachter also went on to mention that Nintendo have waited too long to release the Wii U:

Nintendo is in disarray because they waited too long to launch the Wii U. I know that this sounds like sour grapes because they didn’t launch the Wii HD in 2009 or 2010 as I ‘predicted’ – they should have, and because they didn’t, the decline in Wii and DS hardware and software sales drove them into generating losses.

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Super Smash Bros. was announced for the Wii U and 3DS back at E3 2011. Since then, it has become one of the most anticipated games coming to the Wii U even though development hadn’t even started.

It now seems that Masahiro Sakurai is finally ready to get to work on the titles. Over the months after E3, Sakurai has teased some ideas for Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS. However, he said that he would not start work on the titles until Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS was finished.

With the Kid Icarus release date now less than a month away, Sakurai has tweeted that he is looking over Smash Bros. Dojo, the official site of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as a start. Seemingly happy with that game, he tweeted: “It’s tremendous. How did we make this?”

It’s great to see work may have finally started. Now all we have to do is wait for the first details to come out.

Ninja Gaiden 3 will be making its way to the PS3; Xbox 360; and later, the Wii U. A new trailer shows off several minutes of gameplay.

You can watch the video right after the break.

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