Okay, to try and clear up some confusion, I knew that you could play Wii and Wii U on the gamepad, but I seriously didn't know there was a built in sensor bar in the gamepad itself. I know that still probably makes me dumb, but I seriously didn't know about the sensor bar!!

the wii u was criminally underrated

I’m surprised more people didn’t know this, I thought it was common knowledge 😭

Oh my God. It's a toad wii remote with wii motion plus inside

The Wii U was ahead of its time in really cool and innovative ways, but behind its time where it really counted. I’ll always love it and I tell people a lot just how cool it was

When you get to the option of selecting your tv or tv and gamepad, press + on the wii remote to only use the game pad so that you don't have to use the tv just to have it on for selecting the tv and gamepad option

I remember finding out about this, was playing Wii Mode a room away from the Wii U I miss my Wii U

Wii u is easily top 5 most underrated consoles ever

Those aren't cameras, just led's. The sensor bar is just 2 ir lights, the remotes do all the sensing. You can substitute a sensor bar with 2 candles. edit: holy shit

I’m genuinely surprised more people don’t know this.

When it asks you for a display option, you can press “+” on the Wiimote and it’ll only output to the gamepad

You’re telling me you never saw the commercials about the kid switching from TV to handheld because the parent wanted to watch something? Dude that was the entire gimmick of the console 🤣

Toad wii remote with Wii motion plus inside

I did this so many times when I was younger if I wanted to play Rhythm Heaven Fever in the morning when people are still sleeping

This was literally one of their selling points. It was in pretty much every commercial for them

Loved doing that when I was a kid 😂

I seriously can’t believe people didn’t know this… bro I used this all the time.

Bruh I always stayed close to my console to use the sensor bar when my parents use the tv😭😭😂 seriously this is a life changer

You can hear, almost like a whisper, “OH MY GOD”

i actually love that the wii u is finally being recognized for how underrated it was especially during that time period for nintendo. i genuinely miss the home menu and the miis 😭

I brought my Wii U to school this year on the last week and this is how I played Wii Sports with all my friends. In the later days some teachers let me hook it up to their projectors as I brought the HDMI cable too.

maybe it flopped, but cmon, the wii u is a lot cooler than the switch in my opinion

Me when my parents wanted to watch tv

Finally. Something I didn’t know on KZfaq Shorts.

Your content is getting better! Keep on the great work up. But the sad thing is I never had a Wii U

How did you not notice this? Like it’s one of two options. I just feel like it’s hard to miss

I miss booting the Wii U up and being met with Miis running around the central hub area, shouting art drawn with the stylus.

Always did this when my dad wanted to watch some sport, this probably explains why were so close

That’s crazy! I’ve had a Wii U since 2013 and I never knew I could do this!

Had some good memories playing Metroid Prime Trilogy on the game pad while the TV was in use... good times

What’s funnier is that if you have two Wii’s or Wii u’s, you don’t need to plug in a sensor bar to both. The port for it is only there to power the bar, so you can plug it into a different Wii and it’ll still work on another Wii or Wii u

This is how I played Mario Galaxy under my bed

i thought everybody would know this since it would say so on the tablet itself

Y’all just found this out?!?

This was how I played the Wii U a TON when I was younger during sports games and other long periods where my parents were using the TV. Good memories.

I thought that was one of the main gimmicks of the Wii u

I only knew this because my brother did this when I was using our living room tv lol

Ah yes, that feature that you *CLEARLY* never saw because it was never pointed out to you in *ANY* way.

The best thing about it, Wii games not only play fantastically, they also look absolutely gorgeous on the Wii U GamePad.

I like that so many people on KZfaq are looking back fondly on the Wii U

I'm more curious about those grouping/folder icons!

That's sick, I wish I knew this when I had mine. The sensor bar seems so much more handy now.

I used to do that as a kid because I had that crappy battery powered sensor for the Wii U, so I used my Wii U pad as a sensor

i genuinely gotta thank you for this discovery, i never knew the rays were seeable with the camera. i needed this because ive seen that my sensor bar isnt working. 🙏 thank you

This will be super helpful to the 13 people who bought a Wii u

I heard the "sensor bar" actually is the thing sending the light, not the remote

The WiiU was the ultimate weapon to playing games at night. If you heard your parents coming to your room you just put in sleep mode from the gamepad and once they leave just turn it back on and continue

It's technically IR LEDs in the gamepad as the Wii Remote is what actually contains the IR camera. This means any IR source can be used as a sensor bar, even flames from a candle. The name is most likely a pun with "Censor bar" to fit the TV theming of the Wii.

Another reason to buy a Wii U

wait is this real my gamepad is broken 😭

This help me a lot back then when other people had the TV

I remember when they updated this feature. Initially you had no choice between GamePad-only and TV. You had to use the sensor bar until the firmware update was applied.

I'm honestly really shocked I didn't find out about this before. I remember I used to use that mode but when I needed to use the sensor bar I would just point at the actual sensor bar in a completely different direction. This would have come in handy had I known about it.

wait.... what?????? this is insane dude i didnt even know this

You uploaded this video right before my replay of galaxy 2 on the wii! Perfect timing

If the Wii U had GameCube backwards compatibility, I would be all over that, but nice to know I always have a miniature sencor I don't have to worry about

having the built in sensor bar is SO helpful. i was devastated i couldnt play wii games anymore because i lost by sensor bar but when i learned the gamepad had a censor bar i was ecstatic! if you go straight to the wii menu when you boot up the console (pressing + holding "B") you go straight to it and dont have to point your remote at the tv. thank you nintendo, for letting me play mario party 8 :)

With the wii remote, you can also press plus in the screen where you choose where to display wii, to display gamepad only

Okay so I have this strange story of how I kinda noticed I could do the whole turn off the TV on a school night but I kept the tablet thing and started to play like a pokemon game for the wii I can't exactly remember what it was called but piplup is a main character. Anywho I stayed up till 1 am grinding that Flippin game and pretty much was sluggish all day the next day. Also thanks for stopping by to read this tale

I used this feature back then, to secretly play Super Mario Galaxy under the bedsheets Good times man!

Found this out a while back, I wanna say six to eight years ago. I was stuck at my Grandpa's house for a week and REALLY wanted to play Smash Brawl, but he didn't have a working TV at the time. Very cool surprise.

The Wii U is like the ancestor of the Switch. It might not at detachable joy-cons, but it was a hybrid

I used to play MKWII with headphones at my desk at night. Totally loved my Wii U!

I thought for one minute that was Joey from DK oldies because you look like him and then I was like hold on that’s not him

The fact that the WII U was able to do this much, and it was still hated mind blows me.

I've made use of this before when I was too lazy to set up my sensor bar. Just set the gamepad in front of the TV and used that instead. Worked really well

I remember when I was little I played skyward sword on this when my parents were using the tv… it was a very unique experience

Such a criminally underrated system

I never understood why you would want it to show on the gamepad, i had no idea that was a sensor bar. That's actually really awesome

I use to do this. When I was waiting to get Wii U hooked up to my TV, I would play wii games just like this.

the wii u was amazing

"I wish I had read the Wii U's manual" is a more accurate title.

That’s really sad. And also there is also a reason they put instructions.

I knew about it years ago, but i forgot about it until now.

I used this to play skylanders all the time when I was younger. Actually saved me from having to ask constantly, because I was allowed if I could find a way to play without the TV

…that was obvious info tho, like you really can’t miss that if you put in a Wii disc. I used that feature all the time when I was 10.

The Wii u was way ahead of its time i still want one

I never knew there was a sensor bar on top of that tablet.... I wish I still had that Wii U

Wii games also look quite nice while playing on the gamepad because it's its native resolution!

I used to do this all the time when my parents wanted to watch TV but I wanted to play Wii games.

You can also hit the “+” button on the wii remote and it will only display on the gamepad, not the tv and gamepad

You can also press + of the Wiimote on that screen for game pad only

I always used this to play Prime Trilogy back in the day. It was awesome

it's never too late! this reminds me of doing this on the dinner table when I was younger

That’s why the week is one of the greatest Nintendo cartoons of all time

That’s why I loved the Wii U I barely had a TV available so I can just plug the console to any outlet and technically play portably. Yeah, it’s such a hassle that you have to be near an outlet to play “portably” but it was the best feeling to have that you don’t need a TV at all to play the Wii U AND the Wii

Me and my sister tried to play Lego Star Wars like this when my parents were using the TV and now I get how very low quality things cause nostalgia

This feels like a early version of the switch

Oddly enough, this is one of the first things I discovered when starting a wii game on my friends wiiu

This was the reason I wanted a wii u growing up, I was never allowed to use the TV with my wii so I thought this would be perfect

On top of this, unlike the PlayStation Portal, it doesn't require Wifi for playing on, screen can be used separately in multiplayer, and the second screen is a UI for many Wii U games.

I wish someday someone can make the Gamepad work in vWii Mode with Homebrew or something.

I had to rewatch this because I was freaking out on why Hank Green was reviewing a wii u

You can also press + on the Gamepad upon startup, not only displaying exclusively on the Gamepad, but also skipping the Wii U menu

And because of the features you just talk about, the Wii U is awesome to take on a plane and play games. I can play anything from NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, N64, Wii and Wii U games, as long as the plane has a 110V plug available you will have hundreds of games available to play on those long flights. Enjoy, RobS

I love the donkey Kong country tropical freeze

Its becoming ny favourite console. Loading it up with GCN and Wii U games.

You could also press the plus + button on a Wii controller and it will just show up on the gamepad and not the tv

The sensor bar is just two IR LEDs in the gamepad, the wiimote does all the work. And if you select the Wii menu from the Wii U menu and press Plus on a wiimote, then you can just launch Wii mode on just the GamePad. None of this select both and then turn off the TV stuff, it also disables the other sensor bar so that you can just use the GamePad. Also if your Wii U is unmoded or not in a state of functioning in the modded environment, upon powering up your Wii U, when you see the Wii U logo press and hold the b button on any Wii remote, this will boot you straight into Wii mode, if you have multiple accounts on the Wii U it will ask you to select the account you want to play with and then boot you into Wii mode.

How on earth did you not know this after 13 years