I've been enjoying Need for Speed: Most Wanted on my Sony PlayStation 3 for over a month now (and have had a lot of fun with it, as it's one of my top picks for 2012), but it turns out that if you really want to see everything that Electronic Arts's racing challenge has to offer, you'll have to play the Wii U version of the game that's due out in March.  Branded the Enhanced Version, IGN brings word of new co-op multiplayer features that take advantage of the Wii U GamePad.

There's a local co-op feature called Co-Driver, which lets one player drive by using a Wiimote or the Wii U Pro Controller while another person uses the Wii U GamePad to provide navigation assistance on an interactive map.

What does that actually mean?

EA provided the following example: "Using just their fingertips, a partner can distract pursuing cops, switch from night to day or activate enhanced performance for any car and even control the amount of traffic on the road.

"This is the ultimate advantage for gamers who like to stir up trouble for the cops, their friends or just for fun."

The touchscreen can also be used in more subtle ways, like switching the mods on your vehicle or change your car entirely. You can also play the game on the GamePad's screen.

The Enhanced Version also includes the Ultimate Speed Pack add-on with its extra cars and new races that is available as paid downloadable content on other platforms.  I don't see myself double-dipping for this version of the game when I eventually do buy a Wii U, but I would like to point out to EA and developer Criterion (and I'm sure they already know this) that the co-op touchscreen functions could also work on the PS3 version with the aid of a PlayStation Vita as a Cross-Controller add-on similar to what last month's update to LittleBigPlanet 2 brought to the table for that title.  Just a suggestion...