Latest Iwata Asks Shows Off Wii U Prototypes

Another week, another Iwata Asks. The most recent installment concerns the development of Nintendo Land, which is more or less the de facto piece of software that's been designed to best show off the Wii U's new hardware.

Numerous revelations are finally made public, like how the game's development started alongside the system. Early on, and according to Iwata, no one had an firm idea as to what the Wii U would eventually be, but one idea that stuck out was "to see what would happen if there was another dedicated screen to a TV game console."

Some prototype inputs were then developed. Surprisingly, the very first one was actually the Wii Zapper with a small screen affixed on the barrel:

"This was the start of two-screen gameplay" states Katsuya Eguchi, the producer of the Nintendo Land.

After that one prototype, the team was able to see the true benefits of having a second screen in one's hands, and thus a second prototype was developed, the one seen at the very top.

According to Takayuki Shimamura, co-director of the game: "It's very high-tech—a monitor and controllers stuck together by double-sided tape. (laughs)"