Wii U Brings Gamers Multi-planar Gaming

The Wii U features a video screen, as you probably already know. The recent Pre-E3 2012 presentation that Nintendo streamed on Sunday demonstrated some of the uses of this screen.

As expected, there are ways to use the Wii U gamepad, by itself, but some of the more interesting ways to use the Wii U gamepad involved using this second screen as a way to extend the virtual game world beyond the single plane of the television screen, creating a multi-planar gaming experience.

One interesting example was a golf game, in which the Wii U was placed on the ground, displaying the ball (on the ground plane) and providing a physical location of the ball. To swing, the player used what appeared to be a Wii-mote as a golf club. The player swings the club at the Wii U Gamepad's screen, knocking the ball towards (and onto) the television's screen, making the golf experience more realistic, by adding a second visual element to the gaming area.

In another example, the player is playing a ninja game, holding the Wii U Gamepad as if it were a "tray of throwing stars," held horizontally, facing the television. When targets went by on-screen, the player simply flicked his finger across the throwing star on the Wii U in order to launch it to the targets on the television screen.

These are, of course, simply demonstrations, but with this multi-planar gaming experience, the Wii U could be bringing a taste of the more immersive gaming experience found in simulators to the living rooms of mainstream gaming.