Wii U

Battle Mii is a Metroid-themed three-player deathmatch, with two using nunchucks and Wii remotes to control Miis in Samus costumes on a split-screen TV display, while a third pilots a ship on the Wii U controller attacking them from above.

The idea is clearly to demonstrate more involved gameplay styles and the potential of putting players with different displays and capabilities in the same space. The ship controls were rather fiddly - three-dimensional strafing and steering on two sticks, plus weapons aiming using the gyroscopes, is a lot to cope with.

But aiming using the gyroscopes and controller screen is wonderfully precise and intuitive, and a clear indication that this controller, surprisingly perhaps, is a much better motion interface for shooters than the Wii remote's pointer ever was.

Finally, Chase Mii had four players using Wii remotes trying to hunt down and tackle the fifth player with the Wii U controller in a maze. The former could only watch the split-screen TV display and hope to catch glimpses of the fugitive, while the latter had a top-down twin display on the controller, showing the locations of all players.

It's an interesting asymmetrical gameplay idea that Nintendo has explored before, way back in the days of GameCube/GBA link-up, with Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and Pac-Man Versus. It was exciting and, with Battle Mii, a good representation of the unusual multiplayer dynamics the Wii U controller makes possible. But will anyone dare design games for multiple Wii U controllers?

It's at this point that you bury yourself under unanswered questions. Foremost has to be how much these controllers will cost, whether Nintendo ever expects you to have more than one and whether the base unit can indeed handle more than one, with the processing demands of feeding multiple displays.

Nintendo's not answering those questions yet. Given the confusion around Wii U currently, it probably should have considered saying more, showing more of the machine's core capabilities, and in particular saying something about its online plans - always the Kyoto company's weakness.

But as soon as you pick that controller up, you understand the genius of Nintendo's idea. It has understood that marrying the ubiquitous touch screen device with big-screen home entertainment is the future, and it's got there ahead of Apple. It's created a controller full of unique possibilities, but, unlike Wii, one that's entirely compatible with the gaming mainstream.

No question, Wii U is Nintendo having its cake and eating it. If the ingredients are right - on this showing, quite a big if - it could change everything all over again.