Nintendo has announced a Wii U app that incorporates Google Maps in a pretty novel way. Using the motion-sensing touchscreen GamePad, you'll be able to pan around Street View imagery in real time while the overhead satellite photography is displayed on your TV (or you can use the larger screen for Street View, too). In a Nintendo Direct webcast, president Satoru Iwata demonstrated using the app to visit Nintendo's headquarters in both Kyoto and Redmond.

In addition to Google Maps, Panorama View will also offer specially-shot 360-degree videos that you can pan around with the GamePad, though it's unclear if this will be a separate download or part of the same app. The maps app, at least, will be out in Japan as a free download between January and March before Nintendo starts charging an unspecified fee; no word on a release elsewhere, but we'd expect it around the same time.



