The uDraw GameTablet, first announced at gamescom 2010, is the new accessory from THQ, designed to bring your imagination to life thanks to its innovative and revolutionary design. It offers a new way for you and your friends or family to play on the Wii, offering an interactive and realistic drawing experience.

The uDraw GameTablet comes bundled with uDraw Studio which will allow you to create artwork masterpieces using the colour, draw and paint tools. But you’ll also be able to try out other launch titles including sketching and guessing mania in Pictionary and platforming fun in Dood’s Big Adventure. The uDraw GameTablet itself retails at R699 with the games being available for just R299 each. Although the initial spend may seem like a lot, believe me it’s a worthwhile investment, especially since other developers will no doubt jump on board soon and then there will be a lot more games to choose from.

The uDraw GameTablet is powered by the Wii Remote, so once you’ve started your game up slot the remote into the dock on the left hand side of the tablet. It draws battery power directly from the Wii Remote so make sure yours is fully charged and you’ll get a good number of hours of play from it. You’ll then control everything from there using the existing buttons and functionality, sketching on the drawing area using the interactive pressure-sensitive stylus. Of course you’ll also be able to use the tilt and motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote, controlling your characters using the tablet.

Taking a look at the white rectangular handheld tablet itself, it has a convenient area at the back of the tablet that you can store the stylus in. You can also use the ink well on the top right to quickly store the stylus in between frantic drawing rounds in Pictionary or platforming levels in Dood’s Big Adventure. The stylus itself is very comfortable to hold and the two buttons, which mimic the C and Z buttons on the Nunchuk, work well during gameplay. Apparently it was designed to offer more subtle control and precision than the Wii Remote.

The drawing area is 15 x 10 cm and provides enough creative room to draw in, yet at 23 x 18.5 cm the entire handheld tablet is small enough to store easily. The tablet boasts SD-card support so you’ll be able to print and save your artwork, the first time Nintendo has authorised the saving of created images directly to the SD in the Wii. The uDraw GameTablet is very easy to use and so players of all ages, and basically anyone who’s ever doodled on a piece of paper, will be able to enjoy the familiar drawing-inspired gameplay mechanic.

Overall the uDraw GameTablet is a compact and attractive looking accessory that will fit in with your Wii-white wardrobe, provided of course that you haven’t invested in a black or red Wii. It’s solid, slick and comes in at an affordable price point. Keep an eye on what other titles THQ (and most likely other publishers too) will start development on. Until then it’s a worthwhile investment if you have children who will no doubt enjoy doodling on it or if you want to enjoy a really fun version of Pictionary. Just bear in mind that it only has three titles that are currently available for it.