My home is fast being buried in plastic gaming peripherals. We seem to fall for the novelty of new ways to play games. The majority of these however are discarded after only a few days play, so I’m becoming more wary when I hear about the next new peripheral to hit the block.
Hot on the heels of Nintendo’s innovations with 3DS games, the uDraw GameTablet is the latest controller for the Wii. You plug in a Wii Remote and then use the stylus and pad to control the games that support the system. I took the uDraw GameTablet and the Studio game it comes with out for a test drive with my kids, here’s what we made of it:
uDraw GameTablet ($69.99 on Amazon) brings the DS’s tactile interface to the Wii. A clutch of initial games prove the concept, but the real test is how well the peripheral will be supported with more creative uses.
The uDraw GameTablet creates another new way to interact with a videogame. Like the Wii-mote it isn’t the technology that is ground breaking, but its application as a plaything. uDraw provides an electronic pen and pad that is used to control where you are pointing on screen.
Daughter's (7) uDraw Creation
It’s all very impressive. But what I was less impressed with was that when you export your pictures from it via an SD card, it is emblazoned with a large uDraw watermark.
Seeing my daughter’s hard work with a corporate brand on it seemed a little harsh. It is unimaginable for Photoshop or Paintshop Pro to do this, which I think is why I was so surprised.
I’ve already paid for the game, so it seems a little bit unreasonable for it to brand the pictures my kids create on it. Is it just me, or do you think this is a bit of mistake on the part of the developers?
The uDraw GameTablet is $69.99 on Amazon.
See GeekDad John Booth’s review of the uDraw GameTablet and software from November.
