The Wii U GamePad screen will lag behind your TV

Here’s another reason for hardcore gamers to eschew the Wii U: Rayman Legends developer Michel Ancel gave Nintendo Power (RIP) details on the lag between the Wii U GamePad and the image on the TV. Here’s the bad news: there is definitely lag. Here’s the good news: it should only be 1/60th of a second, or, one frame behind what’s happening on the TV. Since the Wii U will support two gamers playing simultaneously one on the Gamepad screen and one on the TV, this could be a significant disadvantage to somebody playing on the GamePad. 

Most media outlets have spun the slight lag as something that most people won’t be able to notice. That may be true–it’s only one frame behind. But theres a reason why professional gamers play on low settings in order to achieve massive frame rates: on a 120Hz TV, it will be noticeable. However, the limitation’s not discouraging Ancel, who remains as excited about the Wii U as ever:

“It’s crazy because the game is running in full HD [on the television], we are streaming another picture on the GamePad screen, and it’s still 60 frames per second. And the latency on the controller is just 1/60 of a second, so it’s one frame late. It’s crazy, it’s so fast. It’s almost instant. That’s why it responds so well. So it can be used as a real game-design thing.”

Nintendo Power is available on newsstands, and Michel Ancel’s comments can be found here.

Kif Leswing
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Wii U