Nintendo brings the tablet to the Wii

This pretty much seals it. 2011 is definitely the Year of the Tablet. Tablets are popping up left and right and consumers are finally getting warm to the idea of owning one. Recently, the tablet also made its way to gaming console in the form of the Nintendo Wii U.

As a console by itself, the Nintendo Wii U looks just like the original Wii with a little bit of design changes. On the inside, it’s expected to be as graphically-capable as that of the PS3 and Xbox with a custom AMD Radeon HD GPU. Imagine a Full HD 1080p Legend of Zelda gaming experience, but it’s not the exciting part of the new Wii.

The Nintendo Wii U can utilize a 6.2-inch touchscreen tablet as a controller (Wii Tab?). It looks like a huge controller with a display. The analog sticks, D-pad and the usual buttons are present along with sensors onboard which you can use to play your game. Remember playing a racing game and your body tilts along with the controller when you make turns hoping that the car will actually turn? Well it can happen now.

With the multi-purpose touch display, you can continue playing your game from the controller if mom wants to use the TV. Or you can bring your game with you to the toilet in favor of a newspaper. It can also act as a secondary display for the game, similar to what you’re used to on a Nintendo DS. Play Yu-Gi-Oh with a friend on the same TV with your cards shown on your controller? No peeking.

The system is not yet final but this opens up to a lot more gaming possibilities in addition to the usual nunchuck controllers. So a tablet as a gaming controller? It works.