[astura]

Breath of the Wild was originally intended to be a Wii U exclusive, with a 2015 release date[1], but it didn't end up that way. The developers had some Wii U Gamepad features in early prototypes but found that looking between the gamepad and TV was distracting and axed them.

[1] https://www.polygon.com/2015/3/27/8303247/the-legend-of-zeld...

[anotherman554]

I feel pretty confident the Sheika slate was designed around the Wii U tablet and they only cut that aspect of the game to make the Nintendo Switch version look just as good as the Wii U version.

If a Nintendo employee claimed it was to avoid distraction I'm pretty confident they are lying.

[astura]

I read that here, my memory was a little off - https://web.archive.org/web/20170302073322/http://www.ign.co...

>"In doing our testing without the touch features we noticed looking back and forth between the Gamepad and the screen actually took a little something away from this type of Zelda game," he said.

>"There was no hesitation or reluctance in removing those features because we felt the way it is now is the best way to play the game," he added.

I can understand the cynicism, but, to me anyway, I agree that it's not ideal gameplay. The game pad was a big miss for me for anything other than being able to play a game when my husband was using the TV. I ended up kinda hating the gamepad.

So I believe both can be true.

[anotherman554]

Windwaker HD and Twilight Princess HD both let you have the map on the tablet while you play, and while I haven't tried it myself I'm told it's better than switching from one screen view to another.

On the Wii U only the tablet has motion controls, the pro controller does not, so at a minimum the game was designed to have you hold a tablet and make motions with it while Link holds his tablet and acts out that motion.

[astura]

I played Windwaker HD and Pikman 3, which also put the map on the Gamepad. I didn't like the map being on a different screen at all! In practice it ends up being such an obnoxious gimmick. (To me)

[jrootabega]

I don't want to dispute your experience, just add that in my experience, the game pad was perfect* for Batman: Arkham City. You would look down at it in the same situations where Batman would look down at his gadgets. So even though the game pad wouldn't work well for every game or every person, I think it had undeniable inherent benefits in some situations.

* They bungled the audio aspect, though. If you played with headphones, you couldn't route game pad audio through them.

[jrootabega]

i.e. "saving face".

[jrootabega]

And I think that was a bad decision and a soft betrayal of Wii U owners.

[BuckRogers]

I still have my Wii U plugged in and while that may be true, they made up for it by never charging for online service. No-charge access to Mario Kart 8 multiplayer has been great.