The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Eiji Aonuma admits that the Wii U's signature GamePad can actually disrupt the gameplay experience of users.

With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo looks set to sign off its current home console, the Wii U, while also bringing the upcoming Nintendo NX into the fold. The game, which received wide praise for its debut gameplay trailer at E3 2016, has been announced for both consoles, but it turns out that the title's director is not entirely keen on Nintendo's current console. Indeed, the director in question certainly has issues with one of the platform's most unique points.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Eiji Aonuma has admitted that the Wii U's GamePad is not without its faults. Speaking in an interview with Wired, Aonuma accepted that the GamePad can actually disrupt a user's experience due to the player having to switch their view between the GamePad and their television.

"We realized that having something on the GamePad and looking back and forth between the TV screen and the GamePad actually disrupts the gameplay, and the concentration that the game player may be experiencing," said Aonuma during the interview. The director then made a comparison between playing a game on Wii U and driving a car, stating "you have your car's GPS system on your dash. If you had it down in your lap, you’re going to get into an accident!"

The comments are hardly a vote on confidence in Nintendo's ailing system, but it's fair to say that very few developers have been able to make the most out of the console's secondary screen. Even the most ardent supporter of Nintendo may be forced to admit that the use of the GamePad has sometimes felt tacked on in games for the system, even those created by Nintendo itself.

Aonuma certainly has experience working with multiple consoles, as Nintendo has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will offer the same experience on both NX and Wii U. The development of the next Zelda game therefore raises some interesting questions about the Nintendo NX itself; if Aonuma has expressed that Nintendo sees some of the flaws in the dual-screen system, it seems likely that the NX will forgo this design choice.

The company certainly seems to have a lot banking on the console, and third-party publishers have also shown some support after the poor commercial showing of the Wii U. Ubisoft has already confirmed that Just Dance 2017 will be on the system, and expects the NX to bring back some of the lost Wii owners. Just how the new console will fare, however, remains to be seen.

Source: Wired