Affordable Space Adventures puts Nintendo’s use (or non-use) of the Wii U GamePad to shame

The best Wii U game this year didn’t come from Nintendo.

More than any other recent Wii U release — and maybe any since Nintendo Land at launch — Affordable Space Adventures uses the GamePad right. While Nintendo relegated the touch-screen, wireless behemoth to the role of a horn (OK, and a second screen/mini-map) in Mario Kart 8, Danish developer KnapNok Games, along with Sweden’s Nifflas, went much deeper. Working together, they managed to turn the GamePad into the living, breathing heart of a hunk-of-junk spaceship, and it’s an absolute joy to behold.