Star Fox Zero came out back in April to generally mixed reviews. The game had its problems, but the biggest was undoubtedly the controls. People didn’t give them a chance. But although they certainly aren’t intuitive, the controls work just fine. They also call to mind a missed opportunity—the once-promised chance for double GamePads. It was always a hope, not a vow, but sadly Nintendo never had the chance to deliver.

Ode To A Wii U With Double GamePads

In the early days of the Wii U, Nintendo’s own Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that games might support two GamePads down the line, once the hardware was more available and software was developed that made use of the Wii U successfully. That software has barely materialized; the Wii U is a solid system, but its unique hardware features really haven’t been used to their full potential. Star Fox Zero is the rare game that truly uses the GamePad in a unique way. If there were more of its kind, we might’ve seen the fabled double GamePad support materialize.

And it would’ve been pretty cool. For Star Fox Zero, it would certainly make multiplayer more interesting, even in the current setup that only features co-op play. It might even have enabled real local dogfighting, which is sorely missed. The potential of double GamePads comes down to a separation of knowledge. Every player can see what’s on the main television screen, but the GamePad would only be visible to the player using it. This information gap has been used in a few games, like the haunted Luigi’s Ghost Mansion minigame in Nintendoland, but it would be far more pronounced and interesting with two GamePads. The information asymmetry would open up unique gameplay styles, and could even make playing local multiplayer more like playing online.

Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8 and certainly Splatoon could all have experimented with double GamePads in interesting ways. Star Fox Zero would have benefited as well. Alas, it was not to be. The GamePad is a weird device, much like Star Fox Zero’s controls are weird. Neither is bad necessarily—just different. But the GamePad undoubtedly went underused, even by Nintendo itself. Nobody could figure out what to do with the hardware, and so we never got double GamePads. Like so much with the Wii U, we’ll always be left to wonder what could have been.