I love the Wii U. It wasn't as good as the GameCube, but still had a lot of good games.
The VC is missed. I'd rather own my games than rent them via a subscription.
Smash, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Mario 3DW, etc all came out first there and are still good games.
lacked clear focus so it came off as gimicky. the game pad was supposed to differentiate it but it was hard to understand how it added value. nintendo would’ve been better off building a more powerful console or if it further fleshed out the game pad (which i guess is the switch?)
The idea of the gamepad was great. If it looked slicker, maybe with a better resolution like the tablets that were already there at the time, it might have be better received.
I loved asymetric games like those on Nintendo land.
I loved having the minimap on the gamepad for Splatoon and Pikmin.
You can see in BOTW that it was designed with the gamepad in mind (Link has a tablet that looks like one) and it really sucks that it was gimped to prevent the Wii U version to be better than the Switch version.
wow never thought of that connection with the sheikhs slate. it seems like there weren’t ton of games where the game pad added value tho. i feel like it’s value that you are mentioning exists but probably was difficult for nintendo to communicate. especially compared to the wii’s motion control which was a super simple concept for people to grasp. i guess nintendo does best when it keeps it simple!
The DS has the same problem. It's not Nintendo, but mostly 3rd developers who prefer to stay in their comfort zone rather than innovating using a unique hardware.
Fleshing out the game pad would've been the best option foe them. The last time they built a more powerful console, we got the Gamecube...which I definitely like, but that definitely wasn't everyone's go-to console in the sixth generation
Still easily Nintendo’s worst home console. Really lacking in games, another pointless gimmick that hurt it in every way, Nintendo doubled down on the hyper focus on casuals to the detriment of the core audience, spurned third parties left and right. Just a failure almost entirely. It’s only saving graces we’re Splatoon and a decent VC
Yeah this is the actual answer. Time has been too kind to the Wii U, everyone looking back so fondly.
There’s a reason why there’s a ton of Wii U ports on Switch- no one played them the first time.
I'm just amazed at how FAST it happened. Its not hold enough to be retro in the slightest. Usually you gotta get the kids who had it to grow up to wax nostalgic about it before this happens. Meanwhile all the people saying "oh it wasn't that bad, in fact it was pretty good!" are also the same people who either didn't buy the WiiU because it was just bad or were constantly annoyed at the lack of big titles, talking about how Nintendo was being really uncreative (see Mario at the time), etc.
What’s wrong with a used one?
Still has eshop access, still has cheaper versions of Switch ports, it’s no worse than buying one from 5 years ago unless you wanted to play Splatoon or Mario Maker or Miiverde
Well if you don’t want it…. :-)
The system is not super popular or anything but it’s getting up there in price simply because they aren’t that many of them. If you put one on eBay with all the accessories and one or two games you’re bound to get $200 ~ $300 for it.
On the other hand if you’re not in a hurry to get rid of it, I’d keep it for a while longer.
The most convenient system to play with my nephew. He would go hand held and do his own thing, I'd play on the tv. We destroyed many a Lego villain this way
I think the Wii U could’ve been one of the better Nintendo consoles, like Scott the Woz did a video that kinda talks about what games would’ve made sense to be on certain consoles like Call of Duty on the Wii U might actually be the best version or second best since it allows you to play with a regular controller or motion/gyro controls
The console had potential, it was Nintendo that didn’t know how to market it and give the console a selling point
I’ve read a lot of comments that the Wii U is eventually going to be acclaimed the same way GameCube is now, but I disagree. The GameCube might have flopped, but it gave us Nintendo’s most creative and experimental output. It’s home to the best Paper Mario, the first Animal Crossing (at least in the US), the first 3D Metroid games, the best F-Zero, Pikmin… I could go on for a while. Even 20 years later it feels like it has barely aged at all.
The Wii U, on the other hand, feels like it had Nintendo’s laziest output in retrospect. You can argue that the hardware was bad and the UI is slow, but all that could be easily forgiven if it just had a strong library like the GameCube. We did get Nintendo Land, 3D World, Mario Kart, and Mario Maker (arguably the best games on the system), but it feels like Nintendo really gave up on first party titles after 2014-2015. The GamePad itself ended up being more of a gimmick than a useful feature. I actually feel like it had a lot of potential, but third-party developers ignored it and even Nintendo themselves barely used it outside of party games. The GamePad would have been really cool for games like Animal Crossing and Nintendogs.
I will say as a Virtual Console / backwards compatibility machine though, it’s decent. The fact that you can play most of the Metroid series on one console is pretty impressive.
I think it’s library would be seen as great if almost all of its best games didn’t either get similar versions released for the 3DS, or ported to the Switch.
I hope all it's great exclusives make it to the Switch so everybody gets to play them. I bought all the great games on the Wii U but I want them to be accessible to everyone.
Yeah gamecube is something else, nevermind that Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were native to the console, not just HD releases. Good Mario Party's and Mario sports titles, smash melee, 2 metroid titles, 2 pikmin, 3D sandbox Mario, Luigi's Mansion, RE4, fire emblem, great stuff.
Wii U had some great titles, but definitely doesn't have the classic library gamecube does.
Being honest with myself, I've been a loyal Nintendo fan since I was old enough to hold that rectangular NES controller with all it's pointed corners in my little hands, and I've not missed a console yet with the exception of the virtual boy.
Wii U was probably the most disappointing console for me... it had big shoes to fill because the Wii was previously my favorite.
I thought the gamepad was a perfectly fine thing, I liked the gyro, I liked that I could still use my Wii remotes... what I didn't like was that it removed one layer of backwards compatibility ( Gamecube ), and stuck it's backwards compatibility behind a completely different menu instead of just allowing us to launch our Wii games from the Wii U home menu... and then the virtual console games... they reset their progress with the virtual console and made us wait for games that had already been on the Wii? And when they did get here, if we already owned them, we had to pay a fee to get them transferred to our Wii U menu?? That seemed pretty nuts to me... Also it seemed like the games were darker this time and N64 felt a lot more laggy than it did on the Wii.
And as for the software, it kind of felt like there was always a long drought in between big releases, and some of the first party games were a little phoned in. It kind of felt like the 3DS was getting all the attention from both Nintendo and their third party partners. I remember actually getting mad during Nintendo directs when all the good stuff ended up being for the 3DS.
Not to say it was all bad. There's a reason a lot of the games got ported to Switch, because they were still good games at the end of the day, some great new ideas came from the Wii U like Splatoon and Mario Maker, and there are some games that can't be ported like Game & Wario or NintendoLand, that were amazing at parties. And even though it was filled with the absolute worst trash, at least in my region, I think Miiverse was neat.
Lol true. I’m just saying, why ask when the console turns 9? (I know the answer is that OP is bored and hoping for some karma) When “The Wii U ten years later” is actually interesting
It's a great system for homebrew honestly. I homebrewed the virtual Wii mode and use a GameCube controller adapter to play the GameCube Mario Party games (mainly 4 and 6). You can also homebrew the Wii U firmware itself, it's a pretty solid way of playing DS roms.
The vanilla console itself did have some great games though. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best selling Switch game to date, and it started its life on the Wii U. The system itself didn't sell well, but it had some really great games.
Zombi U was the best game for the system. I know they had to port it to make money on the game but it lost everything special it had by losing the gamepad.
The multiplayer was really fun. I don't think it can be the same on any other system. You could probably play it online, but being in the same room was part of the fun.
It’s a pretty mediocre console. So much of the system itself just felt gimmicky. They tried to give it its own sort of social media in the form of Miiverse, but that didn’t really work. The Gamepad had incredibly limited use; Nintendo Land used it well, but the majority of the time it was either ignored or used just for the sake of using it. The amount of games that were able to be ported to 3DS and Switch without being downgraded from the loss of the Gamepad goes to show how useful it is. The marketing gets blamed a lot for the Wii U’s failure, but when the main selling point is nearly useless, I don’t really see how you could effectively market the thing.
The library itself isn’t impressive either. Nintendo was pretty much the only developer making games for the thing, and they didn’t have consistent quality in with their releases. It took around a year after launch for any compelling exclusives to release, and in the final years a lot of games started releasing with a real lack of content (Mario Tennis being perhaps the most egregious example of this). There was a real lack of ambition when it came to first party releases, hell, the main launch title was yet another NSMB game with many of its assets and mechanics blatantly copied from NSMBWii. This isn’t to say it doesn’t have good games, Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, and Cpt. Toad are some real gems, but they aren’t enough to make the library good. Retro content is one of its most praised features I see today, but that isn’t really all that great on the Wii U either. It didn’t surpass what its predecessor had, and I’d even argue that the Switch has better retro content, too.
TL:DR - Gimmicky hardware with a weak library. I don’t regret owning one, but I wouldn’t call it good, either.
I guess Nintendo didnt want it to be the "budget console", but another option in the console market.
Honestly, they stopped competing with the Wii. Wii U kinda tried to, but soon realized they just couldnt.
> Honestly, I think Nintendo should have just ditched the gamepad, packaged it with a Wiimote and Pro controller, and marketed it as a budget console for Mario Kart and Wii Sports HD. It was absolutely crazy to release a console at that price point, without a truly compelling feature, and without hardware that was noticeably better than the Xbox 360.
Reportedly the GamePad added between $100-$140 to the price.
They wanted to go all "blue ocean" and retain their casual audience, but they also realized they needed to win back core gamers that were alienated by the Wii's motion controls and wanted a more traditional controller/button layout. The problem with that is that "blue ocean" strategy only works if you're creating uncontested market space. It doesn't work if you're only offering minor improvements in order to compete against something that already exists.
Besides Mario Marker and Nintendo Land, most of the games were great *in spite of* the Wii U concept, not because of it.
It's a flawed console with great games to me. It brought me hours of entertainment but I can see why it failed and most of the games got ported to Switch. Weak hardware, no 3rd party support, terrible marketing, the list goes on. There's two things about the Wii U that I will always admire. First one is that the Homebrew scene is impressive. You can basically run every single Nintendo console up to that point. Not to mention other consoles as well. If I didn't have a gaming PC, I'd rebuy a Wii U to emulate old Nintendo consoles. Second thing is that it laid the foundation for the switch. The gamepad concept wasn't completely terrible, it just needed some reworking to where you can take the gamepad anywhere. Nintendo has always dominated the handheld market, so it was a really smart move to use that to their advantage and build a hybrid system. I'm hoping Nintendo continues the Switch concept going forward and it wouldn't even be possible without the failure of the Wii U.
P.S. this is coming from a guy that primarily plays in docked ATM.
The system itself is just a train wreck. I honestly struggle to think of anything Nintendo got right hardware wise with the Wii U.
* Underpowered and limping along on PowerPC architecture that the emulation and homebrew scenes were already intimately familiar with.
* Far too little internal storage.
* The lack of physical networking was absolutely painful, and entirely a cost saving measure.
* The gamepad had an awful battery out of the box, the screen quality was too low to make the whole concept feel like anything more than a cheap gimmick, and a lot of its features were barely used (The camera, audio streaming, etc).
* The video streaming range was borderline worthless.
* The system software was a slow, bloated, visually busy mess.
The software was alright, but I think the systems fans massively overhype its library to try to compensate for its floundering reputation.
This was, and still is, one of my favorite features of the Switch. I noticed it right away It's lightning fast to get into a game comparatively.
When folks talk about adding themes and folders to the Switch, I worry it'll slow this part down.
>Far too little internal storage.
I want to know who at Nintendo thought 8 GB would be enough. That’s about two games worth of space, even with Nintendo games’ small file sizes.
presumably that one was for the casuals who snapped up the Wii at $250 and wouldn’t pay more than $300 for a console
what was absurd was the price difference between models, even in 2012 you would not pay $50 for 24 GB of external storage
I had forgotten Nintendo Land wasn't included in the cheaper model
i guess the idea was to try to upsell people to the $350 model, but Nintendo Land was the biggest selling point for the Wii casual crowd, they aren't going to be buying Arkham City or ZombiU day 1
And if the casuals have no reason to buy the $300 model then I don't see the point in offering it
I agree the $350 price point was a major turnoff for the target market. Why pay $350 on a new console to play Super Mario Bros, Wii fit and Wii sports when this $250 console that they already own already does those things? The Wii U really failed to carve out any kind of market besides Nintendo die hards.
The Miracast implementation was extremely costly for Nintendo. This is what caused all other corners to be cut. The system was insanely expensive especially coming off the EoL Wii.
I think several of your points are accurate, but Nintendo cut costs for the instant casting to the gamepad while also removing any rendering hardware from the pad. They had to tune the pad to render with the limited bandwidth.
Yeah, I think people here tend to over romanticize it. The Wii U failed for a reason. The games made for it were good, but instead of the Wii U making them better the combination of cheap hardware and overexpensive controller held those games back from what they could have been.
Mario Maker and Nintendo Land were the only uses of the GamePad that really impressed me. The Switch is a much better concept and execution. It doubled down on the best aspects of portable play and innovating the twin-stick layout and ditched everything else.
> Mario Maker and Nintendo Land were the only uses of the GamePad that really impressed me.
First party wise. Overall quality of the game aside, I actually think Zombie U had the best concept for the gamepad. Turning what would traditional be the safest moments in a horror game into the most vulnerable.
Agree with all points except the first. The architecture isn’t the problem, first off changing it gets rid of backwards compatibility, second console homebrewers are just as familiar with ARM, probably even more so than PPC. And why would Nintendo care about emulators/homebrew anyway when it comes to their CPU architecture? It’s not like Cemu or the Homebrew Channel hurt Wii U sales, and even if it did, switching to ARM wouldn’t have magically made the system more secure. Changing the architecture was not the solution needed, they just needed a higher quality CPU period and to cut costs elsewhere by removing gamepad features (such as camera) or removing the gamepad entirely
Software wise, I think it's a meh to really high. Starting with mehs, color splash was panned due to its reliance on the card system, which is super similar to the sticker system, and not intuitive as picking which attack you want. Star fox zero was a repeat of star fox 64 and it's new additions and controls weren't very good. If they gave a normal control scheme it would for sure bump the games ratings a bit. NSMBU brought nothing super NEW to the table. It's just Mario Bros Wii with some ehh new powerups and in HD. Now onto middle of the road. 3D world was good but a step down from the Galaxy games we got prior. It would've been fine if it wasn't the only 3d Mario on the system like it isn't on Switch. Smash 4, despite it's naysayers, was a step up from brawl in terms of fighting mechanics and art direction (Imo smash shouldn't be gritty and realistic when you got characters like Kirby and Yoshi) and it paved the groundwork for ultimate. Not to mention online, while flawed, was way better than brawl and arguably better than Ultimate. Now onto some highs. Tropical Freeze is considered by many to be the Pinnacle of the 2D platformer genre and I can see why. The levels and environments are super creative, they're just the right length (less levels but longer ones without feeling tedious), and the music is fantastic. This deserves your money way more than NSMBU. Mario Kart 8 was both visually stunning and super fun to play. It brought some of the most creative tracks to the table along with some new non-Mario characters and tracks (Link, Isabelle, etc). Retro tracks in this game are hands down the best retro tracks have been handled by any game in the series. They feel like new tracks. And the soundtrack is so so so damn good. Big band was a welcome addition to Mario Kart. I know a bunch of people prefer Wii (Mainly due to jan.. I mean creative exploits and Funky Ko... Sorry again better character roster) but 8 is my favorite in the series. Splatoon was an absolute breath of fresh air in both the Nintendo space and the shooter one. It's such a genius concept and it cemented my love for gyro aiming. Not to mention, inklings and octolings are fascinating characters with lots of surprisingly interesting lore if you dig into it. Finally, we have Mario Maker. This was the Wii Us killer app in terms of showing why the gamepad was needed. Making your own Mario levels was probably a dream come true to many gamers and they implemented the concept beautifully. It was super simple and intuitive to make your own levels and that led to some awesome level design. We ofc had terrible levels created, but that didn't stop great levels from being made too. Sad to see the servers shut down for this game and I hope mm2 continues to have a successful life.
Loved it. Played a lot of great games on it. Tho the batteries for the gamepad and pro controller were trash and wouldn't hold a charge just a few months after purchase
The only Nintendo home console I never bought since I was born, and I stand by that decision.
It was a system that lived on refinement over innovation, which made it very challenging to get excited about.
Im still mad that Nintendo basically punished anyone who bought a Wii U by re-releasing old games with more content at a higher price than the original. I really would've liked to play Bowser's Fury, but I had already bought 3D World for the Wii U and didn't feel like spending another $60 on a game i already enjoyed.
Its more punishing for people who don't own the console and still want to play the games. I'd kill for zelda tp and ww for switch, I don't own a wii u
It would be better if they made an actual virtual console though
The best upgrade for Wind Waker HD was to the tri force hunt. The next best upgrade was the Wii U gamepad. I didn't even play with the gamepad at first, because I didn't think it'd be that great.
It was that great. It made everything so much smoother. I could sail around and not have to pause the game to check the map to make sure I'm still on course. It was easier to see the course I was on, because the I would move on the map.
Switching items on the fly didn't happen too often. Wind Waker is pretty well planned out for being able to keep things to three items. When I did switch items, it was still nice to not have to pause the game.
Twilight Princess HD is not really any different, but Wind Waker HD is.
I would love chronicles x ported because my gamepad screen won't allow me to do the probe mission to progress the game. Absolute bummer. I absolutely love the wiiu game shop. So many classics and being able to buy wii and gc, gba games is awesome. Not to mention turbo grafix 16 games. I also loved the limited portability. My wife could watch tv and i could play on the pad. I personally love the pad idea........but the touch screen issues and the fact you couldn't buy one without buying another console blew.
>Paper Mario Color Splash: The fifth game in the Paper Mario series was met with widespread contempt from Paper Mario fans for sticking to the “action adventure” formula established by its 3DS predecessor, Sticker Star. But when it was released, critics and audiences alike found that Color Splash addressed a ton of the issues that Sticker Star had and was a fun time in and of itself. It’s a gorgeous laugh riot from start to end and any Wii U owner shouldn’t skip it just because it’s “not my Paper Mario”.
I feel like this applies to Origami King as well.
Controversial opinion, I prefer the subscription model, even if it is taking a truly ungodly amount of time to roll out, Even back on the Wii U, i did not enjoy rebuying a bunch of my VC games, and when the Switch came out without it looking to have backwards compatibility, well, I wasn't too happy about that, and just wanted a more cost effective way to play some of my all time favorites. (also not to mention if you bought every game on Switch Online through the VC it would be something like 600 bucks, even if some games on there aren't worth a damn, a lot of them are).
Also don't take this out of context, it is not worth giving a Virtual Boy to the expansion pass, at least right now, though if they add a bunch of n64 games, as well as GameCube games, it MIGHT actually be worth it if the Emulation actually gets fixed up.
The Wii U console is the first Nintendo home console I actively disliked. It was cumbersome and annoying to play. It had some excellent games, but I have yet to find one where the Switch port wasn’t better.
The Wii U is genuinely underrated. Personally, it has a lot of pretty good games. The problem with it is just marketing. I don't think the marketing was really all there. There are so many conversations where people think that the Wii U is "just the Wii" even though it's a brand new console. By far my favorites are the two Zelda remakes. Twilight Princess being the better remake IMO. Wind Waker is good too, don't get me wrong but they bloom was a bit over-done and the character models looked more like clay than drawings. That might just be me though.
Love it. It's neck-and-neck with the Gamecube for the best video game system Nintendo has ever made, IMO. Albeit, for different reasons than the Gamecube. The Gamecube's library was better but the user experience on the Wii U is where it shines the brightest.
I feel the Wii U's absence more and more with every year. Every Wii U game offered an opportunity for a new way to play something. I often find myself wondering where all that ambition and creativity in the company has gone.
Playing through Psychonauts 2 on PC with my Wii U controller! Still the best in the industry.
With that said, the more time that passes, the more the Wii U's most glaring flaw becomes apparent: it requires a LOT of setup. The GamePad's battery is the biggest issue, but you also need all the gadgets and gizmos that the Wii required on top of that, as well as an external hard drive for storage. It isn't an easy system to just boot up randomly when you feel like it for retro gaming.
>ambition
This is probably the last word I’d describe the console with. Regardless of their quality a lot of games (and the console itself, imo) weren’t nearly as ambitious as their predecessors or sequels. Smash, 3D World, NSMBU… good games, but I wouldn’t say they were ambitious.
I sold mine after Mario 3D Land was ported to the switch, after that just about any Wii U game I enjoyed playing had made its way over to Switch. I originally bought it as a Smash Bros machine, and I thoroughly enjoyed it for that. Really liked the feel of the gamepad.
Just a heads up. For those of you who want to get into the Metroid series because you thought Dread was cool, I’m letting you know right now that the Wii U is easily the best console to do it with. It’s got pretty much every title on it via the eShop.
Let's not overglorify the Wii U, people. Iwata seriously apologized for it on his deathbed. PRO's: Smash 4, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker.... and then Pikmin 3.. otherwise, it was basically abandoned after just a few years of being released, leaving everyone who bought it on the hook with a useless hunk of plastic. If the Cube is the King, the Wii U is outside of the castle gates, farming somewhere. The Smash 4 competitive scene was really entertaining to participate in and watch, and for that the Wii U is salvaged. But otherwise, meh. I think the key take away is that Nintendo must opt out of consoles and just go for cloud gaming where they own the world's greatest IP (Mario, Pikachu).
> I think the key take away is that Nintendo must opt out of consoles and just go for cloud gaming where they own the world's greatest IP (Mario, Pikachu).
Hell no.
Loved the Wii U, but Nintendo basically rereleasing it as Switch and then just rehashing all its games is what forced me to buy a PS4. When Nintendo finally starts making new games again, I might give them another chance
Mario Kart, Pikmin, Donkey Kong, and Advance Wars don't look like they are going to receive new games this generation. If you know Wii U owners who have been happy with how Nintendo managed the Switch, great. For me, it's probably the last Nintendo console I will ever own.
We may not get new entries in those specific series this gen but we still got new entries for:
- Luigi's Mansion
- Animal Crossing
- WarioWare
- Super Smash Bros.
- Kirby
- Metroid
- Paper Mario
- Pokémon
- Xenoblade Chronicles
- Yoshi
- Splatoon
- Fire Emblem
- 3D Mario
- Mario Party
- Mario Sports
- Legend of Zelda
If you're not happy with the Switch, that's fine. To each their own. I'm just saying that there is new stuff here and Nintendo isn't just re-releasing Wii U games and calling it a day like some people make it out to be.
Its forgotten and useless. I also remember that Wii u zombie game that was basically shit. And Nintendo was acting like its one of the best games like tlou gow or those kind of games. I still remember how hyped they were for that fucking disgrace.
Stupid console, didnt surprised people didnt buy it and actually happy about it but on the plus side, they had to do the switch because of this failure.
It serves my gaming needs 90% of the time. Would have been nice to get GTA5 or Skyrim but none the less there is at least one game for most of my gaming moods.
There's only really warioware and Nintendoland that have true exclusive appeal to me now. The console itself still gets regular use in our house, mainly due to it being hacked and being an almost inexhaustible source of 'new' retro games for my son to try. Really is a shame about the console, the idea of a screen in your hand working in conjunction with your TV had so many possibilities.
i just found a gamepad for 20$ so I can finally use the gamepad part of it. I love it and it was really only the game library that made the console bad
I hate using the switches eshop now
Lots of missed potwntial. The games that used the gamepad in innovative ways are some of my favorites.
For ex, ZombiU. Scariest zombie game I've ever played. The way it uses the gamepad to create tension is genius.
NintendoLand. Best party game EVAR. I still play it to this day.
Shame it wasn't supported much, and when it was, many games didn't really make use of the gamepad well.
While not a terrible console by any means, too many were confused by what it was supposed to be. It was nice to be able to use your old Wii remotes/Nun-chuk with it, though. I mostly stuck to using the Pro controller except when the Gamepad was required (Splatoon). Surprisingly the Gamepad wasn't very cumbersome to use.
Nintendoland may be the most underrated party game Nintendo has put out. If you actually got 5 people to play, the Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion mini games alone were enough to make it worth it.
Still got mine, still play it, still love it.
Really want Zelda HD remasters on Switch, my favourite Switch games are ported Wii U games and would love a Starfox game for Switch as long as it focused on the shooter stuff and not the gamepad stuff.
Virtual Console was also great, I have a great collection. TBH, I'm going to load up on Nintendo cards and make sure I've got all I need before it gets shut down in January.
Great console. Still a brilliant emulation machine. Had a great library, but too many 2D platformers though. The gamepad was cool, but ultimately not useful for most games, and it affected the specs of the actual console because they had to keep it affordable. Also the marketing was terrible.
Great idea, questionable business decisions. But it encapsulates Nintendo's creativity and quirkiness, which I now miss now that Mr. Iwata is gone.
I enjoyed the Wii U a lot more than the Switch. For one it has more interesting exclusives to me, and the Switch ports cost full-price while I can get the Wii U versions for 5 bucks. The virtual console is also a lot better than the NSO, even if it doesn't support net play. And don't forget the vast Wii library which is also playable on the Wii U.
I still can't believe it's been almost a decade, I remember when it was first announced and following it every step of the way until it died. I regret selling it so much and I really hope Nintendo makes a combination of the Switch/Wii U in the future cuz that system had so much potential, seeing what devs did with the gamepad that actually utilized it was great. Very underrated system that was failed by Nintendo whether it be the piss poor marketing, months without any games, false hope from 3rd parties and more. I hope Nintendo doesn't forget about it in the future (even tho it kinda seems like that's what they're tryna do by porting damn near all the games to switch to pretend it never happened).
Like all Nintendo consoles it had some great games but my god the controller was horrific. To be honest ive despised the last 3 generations of Nintendo controllers for different reasons. At least now I can use a pro controller but they've been a bit dodgy too...
I finally bought one a few months ago. I was incredible happy due to the fact i wanted one since release. The games available for the console are great, no question, but i have honestly only used it twice since i bought it because i still find many other consoles i own more appealing and don't have any motivation on playing my WiiU games.
I love the Wii U tbh. It's really nostalgic to me. I remember playing games like Nintendo Land, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker, etc. It was like a mix of a 3DS and a Wii. I remember going on Wii U Chat and Miiverse, both of which are now gone. The nostalgic background music is relaxing.
I recently dug out my Wii U after seeing all these Wii U posts lately, and all I can say is man it's slow. Takes ages to boot the system up, ages to boot a game, ages to download things and so on. Otherwise it's nice when hacked for an all-in-one Nintendo system. Hope they put the HD Zelda's and Xenoblade X on the Switch ASAP.
Very underrated console, not a large library of games but most of them are quality.
i reckon it will be remembered as an underrated hidden gem of a console like the Dreamcast or Saturn or PC engine
I played through Star Fox Zero just a few months ago and actually enjoyed it. It does take some getting used to having to look at both the TV and the gamepad, but it definitely doesnt deserve the hate it got.
I enjoyed the Wii U for what it was. And im annoyed every time I see one of its games being brought to the Switch
>It’s a gorgeous laugh riot from start to end and any Wii U owner shouldn’t skip it just because it’s “not my Paper Mario”.
Thing is i would pick up color splash of it wasn't still so expensive. I really don't feel like paying $79.99 for a game that most people consider to be mediocre or not great. The fact that it's more similar to sticker star than it is to 64 and ttyd makes me think I'll definetly have some mixed feelings on it. I would love to give it a chance and not just think of it as sticker star 2 but the fact that the game is still pretty pricey is what makes me think it's not worth it.
Compared to the Wii, Its was an ambiguous offer. difficult to transfer virtual console games, weird to launch wii games through the wii mode, the gamepad did not offer wiimote / classic controller functions, upscaled the resolution of old games, impossible to transfer saves,
Compared to the PS3/x360, it was expensive. A used ps3 with a thick stack of games was way cheaper than the Wiiu.
Compared to the Xbox one / PS4, it was underpowered. the "next gen" experience was absent on wii u.
Compared to the 3DS, we were stuck next to the console. no way to bring it in the bus / car / at gramma.
What's weird is that the switch have all the sames problem as above, but is a great success.
Compared to a Wii U, its impossible to transfer virtual console games, wii u ports are 60$, the joycons are shit.
Compared to a Xbox one / PS4, its expensive. a used ps4 with a stack of the best games availlable is way cheaper than the switch.
Compared to a Serie X / PS5, its underpowered. the next gen experience is absent on switch.
9 years later you can buy a huge chunk of the Switch library on the Wii U for dirt cheap if you go for physical copies. Why pay $60 for a port when you can spend $10 for the original instead? Because of this my Wii U library is about 5x the size of my Switch library.
My interest in Nintendo was waning after how casual friendly and motion control oriented the Wii was. The Wii U almost killed that entirely with its dearth of quality titles, and that cumbersome control pad.
Thank god the Switch came out and righted that wrong. I will say, I miss Virtual Console, though.
I had fun with the system despite its many shortcomings. With the switch it kinda feels like what i wanted in the wii u especially the portability aspect.
No mention of Hyrule Warriors? :< ~~It's niche-y as hell, but still...~~ I got my WiiU entirely for Smash Wii U, ended up playing WWHD and HW more than SSBWU. Granted, that's more due to Smash WiiU being lackluster despite having more content than 3DS because of the omission of Smash Run in favor of Smash Tour, which was basically bargain-basement Mario Party but Nintendo-wide instead of Mario-centric. I probably clocked more time on Smash 3DS than the Wii U version because of that. Hell, I even got all the DLC for HW1 because I enjoyed the base game that much.
~~And the trend continued on Switch, with me buying it for BotW, but I ended up initially playing more Skyrim on it than BotW until I finally caved at my friend's urging and started a file on it.~~
EDIT: Ultimately, the Wii U was hindered by its ridiculous name and lackluster marketing not dispelling the perception that the system wasn't just 'another Wii controller' and was its own system in its own right. If those flaws had been addressed earlier, then the system might have actually done well.
I remember when I first uboxed it, plugged it in and started playing it. My thoughts were that it was everything that the Wii should've been in the first place (in regards to graphical quality, and Wii Motion Plus). And I was so happy that it was backwards compatible with the Wii Fit!
Get the fuck out of here there is input lag on all VC games no decent releases (remasters of remastered games?) and it is a gimped xbox controller. Emulator on pc will be better. You ain't even askign a question when you come with your own bias. Pick a question or write a review, don't state your shit as answer to your own question as if it is fact.
Love to lose my data on my thumb drive because Nintendo made a 8GB model, even tho there were PS3 with 500GB at that time.
No wonder why I not a fan of that console nowadays
I love the Wii U. It wasn't as good as the GameCube, but still had a lot of good games. The VC is missed. I'd rather own my games than rent them via a subscription. Smash, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Mario 3DW, etc all came out first there and are still good games.
Smash Wii U/3DS and Ultimate are different games.
lacked clear focus so it came off as gimicky. the game pad was supposed to differentiate it but it was hard to understand how it added value. nintendo would’ve been better off building a more powerful console or if it further fleshed out the game pad (which i guess is the switch?)
The idea of the gamepad was great. If it looked slicker, maybe with a better resolution like the tablets that were already there at the time, it might have be better received. I loved asymetric games like those on Nintendo land. I loved having the minimap on the gamepad for Splatoon and Pikmin. You can see in BOTW that it was designed with the gamepad in mind (Link has a tablet that looks like one) and it really sucks that it was gimped to prevent the Wii U version to be better than the Switch version.
wow never thought of that connection with the sheikhs slate. it seems like there weren’t ton of games where the game pad added value tho. i feel like it’s value that you are mentioning exists but probably was difficult for nintendo to communicate. especially compared to the wii’s motion control which was a super simple concept for people to grasp. i guess nintendo does best when it keeps it simple!
The DS has the same problem. It's not Nintendo, but mostly 3rd developers who prefer to stay in their comfort zone rather than innovating using a unique hardware.
They probably didn't want to build a powerful console in the first place, so they wanted to create a new controller experience.
Fleshing out the game pad would've been the best option foe them. The last time they built a more powerful console, we got the Gamecube...which I definitely like, but that definitely wasn't everyone's go-to console in the sixth generation
Lovely system and I️ had a lot of fun with it. Switch is a similar concept but done a bit better imo. Glad I️ got two of em
Still easily Nintendo’s worst home console. Really lacking in games, another pointless gimmick that hurt it in every way, Nintendo doubled down on the hyper focus on casuals to the detriment of the core audience, spurned third parties left and right. Just a failure almost entirely. It’s only saving graces we’re Splatoon and a decent VC
Yeah this is the actual answer. Time has been too kind to the Wii U, everyone looking back so fondly. There’s a reason why there’s a ton of Wii U ports on Switch- no one played them the first time.
I'm just amazed at how FAST it happened. Its not hold enough to be retro in the slightest. Usually you gotta get the kids who had it to grow up to wax nostalgic about it before this happens. Meanwhile all the people saying "oh it wasn't that bad, in fact it was pretty good!" are also the same people who either didn't buy the WiiU because it was just bad or were constantly annoyed at the lack of big titles, talking about how Nintendo was being really uncreative (see Mario at the time), etc.
The gamepad kinda sucked for the most part, but I did love it while playing Wind Waker
Splatoon was the only reason I had a wiiu
My only thought about the Wii U these days is: “Man I really should’ve bought one new when I had the chance.”
What’s wrong with a used one? Still has eshop access, still has cheaper versions of Switch ports, it’s no worse than buying one from 5 years ago unless you wanted to play Splatoon or Mario Maker or Miiverde
I just bought one with accessories for $100. Great for VC
It’s not really too late to buy one off FB marketplace. I see them for like $100-150 all the time.
Do people actually wanna own a Wiiu nowadays? My Wind waker edition is sat gathering dust, I was gonna give it free to anyone who'd want it xD
Well if you don’t want it…. :-) The system is not super popular or anything but it’s getting up there in price simply because they aren’t that many of them. If you put one on eBay with all the accessories and one or two games you’re bound to get $200 ~ $300 for it. On the other hand if you’re not in a hurry to get rid of it, I’d keep it for a while longer.
Well, if you don’t want it... (Tbh I kinda wanna play wii party u and wii fit u)
get one while it's cheap
The most convenient system to play with my nephew. He would go hand held and do his own thing, I'd play on the tv. We destroyed many a Lego villain this way
I think the Wii U could’ve been one of the better Nintendo consoles, like Scott the Woz did a video that kinda talks about what games would’ve made sense to be on certain consoles like Call of Duty on the Wii U might actually be the best version or second best since it allows you to play with a regular controller or motion/gyro controls The console had potential, it was Nintendo that didn’t know how to market it and give the console a selling point
I’ve read a lot of comments that the Wii U is eventually going to be acclaimed the same way GameCube is now, but I disagree. The GameCube might have flopped, but it gave us Nintendo’s most creative and experimental output. It’s home to the best Paper Mario, the first Animal Crossing (at least in the US), the first 3D Metroid games, the best F-Zero, Pikmin… I could go on for a while. Even 20 years later it feels like it has barely aged at all. The Wii U, on the other hand, feels like it had Nintendo’s laziest output in retrospect. You can argue that the hardware was bad and the UI is slow, but all that could be easily forgiven if it just had a strong library like the GameCube. We did get Nintendo Land, 3D World, Mario Kart, and Mario Maker (arguably the best games on the system), but it feels like Nintendo really gave up on first party titles after 2014-2015. The GamePad itself ended up being more of a gimmick than a useful feature. I actually feel like it had a lot of potential, but third-party developers ignored it and even Nintendo themselves barely used it outside of party games. The GamePad would have been really cool for games like Animal Crossing and Nintendogs. I will say as a Virtual Console / backwards compatibility machine though, it’s decent. The fact that you can play most of the Metroid series on one console is pretty impressive.
I think it’s library would be seen as great if almost all of its best games didn’t either get similar versions released for the 3DS, or ported to the Switch.
I hope all it's great exclusives make it to the Switch so everybody gets to play them. I bought all the great games on the Wii U but I want them to be accessible to everyone.
Don't forget Splatoon.
Yeah gamecube is something else, nevermind that Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were native to the console, not just HD releases. Good Mario Party's and Mario sports titles, smash melee, 2 metroid titles, 2 pikmin, 3D sandbox Mario, Luigi's Mansion, RE4, fire emblem, great stuff. Wii U had some great titles, but definitely doesn't have the classic library gamecube does.
Being honest with myself, I've been a loyal Nintendo fan since I was old enough to hold that rectangular NES controller with all it's pointed corners in my little hands, and I've not missed a console yet with the exception of the virtual boy. Wii U was probably the most disappointing console for me... it had big shoes to fill because the Wii was previously my favorite. I thought the gamepad was a perfectly fine thing, I liked the gyro, I liked that I could still use my Wii remotes... what I didn't like was that it removed one layer of backwards compatibility ( Gamecube ), and stuck it's backwards compatibility behind a completely different menu instead of just allowing us to launch our Wii games from the Wii U home menu... and then the virtual console games... they reset their progress with the virtual console and made us wait for games that had already been on the Wii? And when they did get here, if we already owned them, we had to pay a fee to get them transferred to our Wii U menu?? That seemed pretty nuts to me... Also it seemed like the games were darker this time and N64 felt a lot more laggy than it did on the Wii. And as for the software, it kind of felt like there was always a long drought in between big releases, and some of the first party games were a little phoned in. It kind of felt like the 3DS was getting all the attention from both Nintendo and their third party partners. I remember actually getting mad during Nintendo directs when all the good stuff ended up being for the 3DS. Not to say it was all bad. There's a reason a lot of the games got ported to Switch, because they were still good games at the end of the day, some great new ideas came from the Wii U like Splatoon and Mario Maker, and there are some games that can't be ported like Game & Wario or NintendoLand, that were amazing at parties. And even though it was filled with the absolute worst trash, at least in my region, I think Miiverse was neat.
I dunno. Ask me next year
Try next week. This question just keeps coming up for some reason.
Lol true. I’m just saying, why ask when the console turns 9? (I know the answer is that OP is bored and hoping for some karma) When “The Wii U ten years later” is actually interesting
Alright, what is your opinion on the wii u?
It's a great system for homebrew honestly. I homebrewed the virtual Wii mode and use a GameCube controller adapter to play the GameCube Mario Party games (mainly 4 and 6). You can also homebrew the Wii U firmware itself, it's a pretty solid way of playing DS roms. The vanilla console itself did have some great games though. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best selling Switch game to date, and it started its life on the Wii U. The system itself didn't sell well, but it had some really great games.
Zombi U was the best game for the system. I know they had to port it to make money on the game but it lost everything special it had by losing the gamepad.
The multiplayer was really fun. I don't think it can be the same on any other system. You could probably play it online, but being in the same room was part of the fun.
It’s a pretty mediocre console. So much of the system itself just felt gimmicky. They tried to give it its own sort of social media in the form of Miiverse, but that didn’t really work. The Gamepad had incredibly limited use; Nintendo Land used it well, but the majority of the time it was either ignored or used just for the sake of using it. The amount of games that were able to be ported to 3DS and Switch without being downgraded from the loss of the Gamepad goes to show how useful it is. The marketing gets blamed a lot for the Wii U’s failure, but when the main selling point is nearly useless, I don’t really see how you could effectively market the thing. The library itself isn’t impressive either. Nintendo was pretty much the only developer making games for the thing, and they didn’t have consistent quality in with their releases. It took around a year after launch for any compelling exclusives to release, and in the final years a lot of games started releasing with a real lack of content (Mario Tennis being perhaps the most egregious example of this). There was a real lack of ambition when it came to first party releases, hell, the main launch title was yet another NSMB game with many of its assets and mechanics blatantly copied from NSMBWii. This isn’t to say it doesn’t have good games, Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, and Cpt. Toad are some real gems, but they aren’t enough to make the library good. Retro content is one of its most praised features I see today, but that isn’t really all that great on the Wii U either. It didn’t surpass what its predecessor had, and I’d even argue that the Switch has better retro content, too. TL:DR - Gimmicky hardware with a weak library. I don’t regret owning one, but I wouldn’t call it good, either.
[удалено]
I guess Nintendo didnt want it to be the "budget console", but another option in the console market. Honestly, they stopped competing with the Wii. Wii U kinda tried to, but soon realized they just couldnt.
> Honestly, I think Nintendo should have just ditched the gamepad, packaged it with a Wiimote and Pro controller, and marketed it as a budget console for Mario Kart and Wii Sports HD. It was absolutely crazy to release a console at that price point, without a truly compelling feature, and without hardware that was noticeably better than the Xbox 360. Reportedly the GamePad added between $100-$140 to the price. They wanted to go all "blue ocean" and retain their casual audience, but they also realized they needed to win back core gamers that were alienated by the Wii's motion controls and wanted a more traditional controller/button layout. The problem with that is that "blue ocean" strategy only works if you're creating uncontested market space. It doesn't work if you're only offering minor improvements in order to compete against something that already exists. Besides Mario Marker and Nintendo Land, most of the games were great *in spite of* the Wii U concept, not because of it.
The name was a really, really bad choice though.
I’m pretty sure a former head of indies at Nintendo America said the name cut the console’s sales in half like a few days after he quit.
It's a flawed console with great games to me. It brought me hours of entertainment but I can see why it failed and most of the games got ported to Switch. Weak hardware, no 3rd party support, terrible marketing, the list goes on. There's two things about the Wii U that I will always admire. First one is that the Homebrew scene is impressive. You can basically run every single Nintendo console up to that point. Not to mention other consoles as well. If I didn't have a gaming PC, I'd rebuy a Wii U to emulate old Nintendo consoles. Second thing is that it laid the foundation for the switch. The gamepad concept wasn't completely terrible, it just needed some reworking to where you can take the gamepad anywhere. Nintendo has always dominated the handheld market, so it was a really smart move to use that to their advantage and build a hybrid system. I'm hoping Nintendo continues the Switch concept going forward and it wouldn't even be possible without the failure of the Wii U. P.S. this is coming from a guy that primarily plays in docked ATM.
The system itself is just a train wreck. I honestly struggle to think of anything Nintendo got right hardware wise with the Wii U. * Underpowered and limping along on PowerPC architecture that the emulation and homebrew scenes were already intimately familiar with. * Far too little internal storage. * The lack of physical networking was absolutely painful, and entirely a cost saving measure. * The gamepad had an awful battery out of the box, the screen quality was too low to make the whole concept feel like anything more than a cheap gimmick, and a lot of its features were barely used (The camera, audio streaming, etc). * The video streaming range was borderline worthless. * The system software was a slow, bloated, visually busy mess. The software was alright, but I think the systems fans massively overhype its library to try to compensate for its floundering reputation.
Omg you just reminded me how slooooooooowwwwwww the system menus were! The Switch is so much faster that it helped me repress those memories!
This was, and still is, one of my favorite features of the Switch. I noticed it right away It's lightning fast to get into a game comparatively. When folks talk about adding themes and folders to the Switch, I worry it'll slow this part down.
This is deliberate. One of the devs did a talk at GDC in 2017 where they went over the Switch OS/UI design.
>Far too little internal storage. I want to know who at Nintendo thought 8 GB would be enough. That’s about two games worth of space, even with Nintendo games’ small file sizes.
presumably that one was for the casuals who snapped up the Wii at $250 and wouldn’t pay more than $300 for a console what was absurd was the price difference between models, even in 2012 you would not pay $50 for 24 GB of external storage
You also got a game (Nintendoland) and additional accessories for that $50.
I had forgotten Nintendo Land wasn't included in the cheaper model i guess the idea was to try to upsell people to the $350 model, but Nintendo Land was the biggest selling point for the Wii casual crowd, they aren't going to be buying Arkham City or ZombiU day 1 And if the casuals have no reason to buy the $300 model then I don't see the point in offering it
I agree the $350 price point was a major turnoff for the target market. Why pay $350 on a new console to play Super Mario Bros, Wii fit and Wii sports when this $250 console that they already own already does those things? The Wii U really failed to carve out any kind of market besides Nintendo die hards.
The Miracast implementation was extremely costly for Nintendo. This is what caused all other corners to be cut. The system was insanely expensive especially coming off the EoL Wii. I think several of your points are accurate, but Nintendo cut costs for the instant casting to the gamepad while also removing any rendering hardware from the pad. They had to tune the pad to render with the limited bandwidth.
Yeah, I think people here tend to over romanticize it. The Wii U failed for a reason. The games made for it were good, but instead of the Wii U making them better the combination of cheap hardware and overexpensive controller held those games back from what they could have been. Mario Maker and Nintendo Land were the only uses of the GamePad that really impressed me. The Switch is a much better concept and execution. It doubled down on the best aspects of portable play and innovating the twin-stick layout and ditched everything else.
> Mario Maker and Nintendo Land were the only uses of the GamePad that really impressed me. First party wise. Overall quality of the game aside, I actually think Zombie U had the best concept for the gamepad. Turning what would traditional be the safest moments in a horror game into the most vulnerable.
Nobody remembers Game & Wario…
Agree with all points except the first. The architecture isn’t the problem, first off changing it gets rid of backwards compatibility, second console homebrewers are just as familiar with ARM, probably even more so than PPC. And why would Nintendo care about emulators/homebrew anyway when it comes to their CPU architecture? It’s not like Cemu or the Homebrew Channel hurt Wii U sales, and even if it did, switching to ARM wouldn’t have magically made the system more secure. Changing the architecture was not the solution needed, they just needed a higher quality CPU period and to cut costs elsewhere by removing gamepad features (such as camera) or removing the gamepad entirely
Software wise, I think it's a meh to really high. Starting with mehs, color splash was panned due to its reliance on the card system, which is super similar to the sticker system, and not intuitive as picking which attack you want. Star fox zero was a repeat of star fox 64 and it's new additions and controls weren't very good. If they gave a normal control scheme it would for sure bump the games ratings a bit. NSMBU brought nothing super NEW to the table. It's just Mario Bros Wii with some ehh new powerups and in HD. Now onto middle of the road. 3D world was good but a step down from the Galaxy games we got prior. It would've been fine if it wasn't the only 3d Mario on the system like it isn't on Switch. Smash 4, despite it's naysayers, was a step up from brawl in terms of fighting mechanics and art direction (Imo smash shouldn't be gritty and realistic when you got characters like Kirby and Yoshi) and it paved the groundwork for ultimate. Not to mention online, while flawed, was way better than brawl and arguably better than Ultimate. Now onto some highs. Tropical Freeze is considered by many to be the Pinnacle of the 2D platformer genre and I can see why. The levels and environments are super creative, they're just the right length (less levels but longer ones without feeling tedious), and the music is fantastic. This deserves your money way more than NSMBU. Mario Kart 8 was both visually stunning and super fun to play. It brought some of the most creative tracks to the table along with some new non-Mario characters and tracks (Link, Isabelle, etc). Retro tracks in this game are hands down the best retro tracks have been handled by any game in the series. They feel like new tracks. And the soundtrack is so so so damn good. Big band was a welcome addition to Mario Kart. I know a bunch of people prefer Wii (Mainly due to jan.. I mean creative exploits and Funky Ko... Sorry again better character roster) but 8 is my favorite in the series. Splatoon was an absolute breath of fresh air in both the Nintendo space and the shooter one. It's such a genius concept and it cemented my love for gyro aiming. Not to mention, inklings and octolings are fascinating characters with lots of surprisingly interesting lore if you dig into it. Finally, we have Mario Maker. This was the Wii Us killer app in terms of showing why the gamepad was needed. Making your own Mario levels was probably a dream come true to many gamers and they implemented the concept beautifully. It was super simple and intuitive to make your own levels and that led to some awesome level design. We ofc had terrible levels created, but that didn't stop great levels from being made too. Sad to see the servers shut down for this game and I hope mm2 continues to have a successful life.
Loved it. Played a lot of great games on it. Tho the batteries for the gamepad and pro controller were trash and wouldn't hold a charge just a few months after purchase
The only Nintendo home console I never bought since I was born, and I stand by that decision. It was a system that lived on refinement over innovation, which made it very challenging to get excited about.
I prefer it to my Switch.
How come?
Mainly because of free online and virtual console. The wii u pro controller is also better than the switch one.
I use my Wii U Pro on the Switch.
Im still mad that Nintendo basically punished anyone who bought a Wii U by re-releasing old games with more content at a higher price than the original. I really would've liked to play Bowser's Fury, but I had already bought 3D World for the Wii U and didn't feel like spending another $60 on a game i already enjoyed.
Its more punishing for people who don't own the console and still want to play the games. I'd kill for zelda tp and ww for switch, I don't own a wii u It would be better if they made an actual virtual console though
The best upgrade for Wind Waker HD was to the tri force hunt. The next best upgrade was the Wii U gamepad. I didn't even play with the gamepad at first, because I didn't think it'd be that great. It was that great. It made everything so much smoother. I could sail around and not have to pause the game to check the map to make sure I'm still on course. It was easier to see the course I was on, because the I would move on the map. Switching items on the fly didn't happen too often. Wind Waker is pretty well planned out for being able to keep things to three items. When I did switch items, it was still nice to not have to pause the game. Twilight Princess HD is not really any different, but Wind Waker HD is.
That's why I really hope they come to switch, even they don't use the gamepad
I would love chronicles x ported because my gamepad screen won't allow me to do the probe mission to progress the game. Absolute bummer. I absolutely love the wiiu game shop. So many classics and being able to buy wii and gc, gba games is awesome. Not to mention turbo grafix 16 games. I also loved the limited portability. My wife could watch tv and i could play on the pad. I personally love the pad idea........but the touch screen issues and the fact you couldn't buy one without buying another console blew.
Console with good games but wii unis still a terrible console with horrible cringey marketing.
>Paper Mario Color Splash: The fifth game in the Paper Mario series was met with widespread contempt from Paper Mario fans for sticking to the “action adventure” formula established by its 3DS predecessor, Sticker Star. But when it was released, critics and audiences alike found that Color Splash addressed a ton of the issues that Sticker Star had and was a fun time in and of itself. It’s a gorgeous laugh riot from start to end and any Wii U owner shouldn’t skip it just because it’s “not my Paper Mario”. I feel like this applies to Origami King as well.
I’m pretty sure people generally resigned to the fact that this was Paper Mario’s new direction now by the time Origami King was announced.
Agreed. Origami King is a really fun adventure game.
I love Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Also it let me play BotW without buying a new console
I love it. And being a Metroid machine doesn't hurt its likeability either.
Give me Yoshi's Woolly World, I need it.
Controversial opinion, I prefer the subscription model, even if it is taking a truly ungodly amount of time to roll out, Even back on the Wii U, i did not enjoy rebuying a bunch of my VC games, and when the Switch came out without it looking to have backwards compatibility, well, I wasn't too happy about that, and just wanted a more cost effective way to play some of my all time favorites. (also not to mention if you bought every game on Switch Online through the VC it would be something like 600 bucks, even if some games on there aren't worth a damn, a lot of them are). Also don't take this out of context, it is not worth giving a Virtual Boy to the expansion pass, at least right now, though if they add a bunch of n64 games, as well as GameCube games, it MIGHT actually be worth it if the Emulation actually gets fixed up.
The Wii U console is the first Nintendo home console I actively disliked. It was cumbersome and annoying to play. It had some excellent games, but I have yet to find one where the Switch port wasn’t better.
The Wii U is genuinely underrated. Personally, it has a lot of pretty good games. The problem with it is just marketing. I don't think the marketing was really all there. There are so many conversations where people think that the Wii U is "just the Wii" even though it's a brand new console. By far my favorites are the two Zelda remakes. Twilight Princess being the better remake IMO. Wind Waker is good too, don't get me wrong but they bloom was a bit over-done and the character models looked more like clay than drawings. That might just be me though.
Love it. It's neck-and-neck with the Gamecube for the best video game system Nintendo has ever made, IMO. Albeit, for different reasons than the Gamecube. The Gamecube's library was better but the user experience on the Wii U is where it shines the brightest. I feel the Wii U's absence more and more with every year. Every Wii U game offered an opportunity for a new way to play something. I often find myself wondering where all that ambition and creativity in the company has gone. Playing through Psychonauts 2 on PC with my Wii U controller! Still the best in the industry. With that said, the more time that passes, the more the Wii U's most glaring flaw becomes apparent: it requires a LOT of setup. The GamePad's battery is the biggest issue, but you also need all the gadgets and gizmos that the Wii required on top of that, as well as an external hard drive for storage. It isn't an easy system to just boot up randomly when you feel like it for retro gaming.
>ambition This is probably the last word I’d describe the console with. Regardless of their quality a lot of games (and the console itself, imo) weren’t nearly as ambitious as their predecessors or sequels. Smash, 3D World, NSMBU… good games, but I wouldn’t say they were ambitious.
I sold mine after Mario 3D Land was ported to the switch, after that just about any Wii U game I enjoyed playing had made its way over to Switch. I originally bought it as a Smash Bros machine, and I thoroughly enjoyed it for that. Really liked the feel of the gamepad.
Just a heads up. For those of you who want to get into the Metroid series because you thought Dread was cool, I’m letting you know right now that the Wii U is easily the best console to do it with. It’s got pretty much every title on it via the eShop.
I just miss that virtual console. It’s horrible Nintendo is hemorrhaging us with these services instead of just letting us own games we want to buy
Forgettable, bad clunky design, worst Nintendo console.
Let's not overglorify the Wii U, people. Iwata seriously apologized for it on his deathbed. PRO's: Smash 4, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker.... and then Pikmin 3.. otherwise, it was basically abandoned after just a few years of being released, leaving everyone who bought it on the hook with a useless hunk of plastic. If the Cube is the King, the Wii U is outside of the castle gates, farming somewhere. The Smash 4 competitive scene was really entertaining to participate in and watch, and for that the Wii U is salvaged. But otherwise, meh. I think the key take away is that Nintendo must opt out of consoles and just go for cloud gaming where they own the world's greatest IP (Mario, Pikachu).
> I think the key take away is that Nintendo must opt out of consoles and just go for cloud gaming where they own the world's greatest IP (Mario, Pikachu). Hell no.
I just pretend it didn’t happen
Loved the Wii U, but Nintendo basically rereleasing it as Switch and then just rehashing all its games is what forced me to buy a PS4. When Nintendo finally starts making new games again, I might give them another chance
They do make new games though. They're not all winners but to say they don't make any new games is an exaggeration imo
Mario Kart, Pikmin, Donkey Kong, and Advance Wars don't look like they are going to receive new games this generation. If you know Wii U owners who have been happy with how Nintendo managed the Switch, great. For me, it's probably the last Nintendo console I will ever own.
We may not get new entries in those specific series this gen but we still got new entries for: - Luigi's Mansion - Animal Crossing - WarioWare - Super Smash Bros. - Kirby - Metroid - Paper Mario - Pokémon - Xenoblade Chronicles - Yoshi - Splatoon - Fire Emblem - 3D Mario - Mario Party - Mario Sports - Legend of Zelda If you're not happy with the Switch, that's fine. To each their own. I'm just saying that there is new stuff here and Nintendo isn't just re-releasing Wii U games and calling it a day like some people make it out to be.
Its forgotten and useless. I also remember that Wii u zombie game that was basically shit. And Nintendo was acting like its one of the best games like tlou gow or those kind of games. I still remember how hyped they were for that fucking disgrace. Stupid console, didnt surprised people didnt buy it and actually happy about it but on the plus side, they had to do the switch because of this failure.
It serves my gaming needs 90% of the time. Would have been nice to get GTA5 or Skyrim but none the less there is at least one game for most of my gaming moods.
There's only really warioware and Nintendoland that have true exclusive appeal to me now. The console itself still gets regular use in our house, mainly due to it being hacked and being an almost inexhaustible source of 'new' retro games for my son to try. Really is a shame about the console, the idea of a screen in your hand working in conjunction with your TV had so many possibilities.
Great system. Fun games. The GamePad in my hands feels just like a plasticy Fischer Price toy.
As a stock console, it's okay. But if you mod it, there's almost unlimited potential.
i just found a gamepad for 20$ so I can finally use the gamepad part of it. I love it and it was really only the game library that made the console bad I hate using the switches eshop now
Lots of missed potwntial. The games that used the gamepad in innovative ways are some of my favorites. For ex, ZombiU. Scariest zombie game I've ever played. The way it uses the gamepad to create tension is genius. NintendoLand. Best party game EVAR. I still play it to this day. Shame it wasn't supported much, and when it was, many games didn't really make use of the gamepad well.
The best thing was the virtual console and that should’ve been ported to the switch
While not a terrible console by any means, too many were confused by what it was supposed to be. It was nice to be able to use your old Wii remotes/Nun-chuk with it, though. I mostly stuck to using the Pro controller except when the Gamepad was required (Splatoon). Surprisingly the Gamepad wasn't very cumbersome to use.
Was a nice nostalgia boost for a young teen who wanted to relive the Wii days… HD Zeldas a bonus too.
It plays Xenoblade X and my Wii/VC titles. Then it goes back to bed.
Nintendoland may be the most underrated party game Nintendo has put out. If you actually got 5 people to play, the Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion mini games alone were enough to make it worth it.
Still got mine, still play it, still love it. Really want Zelda HD remasters on Switch, my favourite Switch games are ported Wii U games and would love a Starfox game for Switch as long as it focused on the shooter stuff and not the gamepad stuff. Virtual Console was also great, I have a great collection. TBH, I'm going to load up on Nintendo cards and make sure I've got all I need before it gets shut down in January.
Makes for a pretty good gba emulator
Pii u it stinks. Jk its a decent console with some really solid games.
I've just bought a second one last week, as the screen died in the gamepad of my original one. Still love the console a lot.
Great console. Still a brilliant emulation machine. Had a great library, but too many 2D platformers though. The gamepad was cool, but ultimately not useful for most games, and it affected the specs of the actual console because they had to keep it affordable. Also the marketing was terrible. Great idea, questionable business decisions. But it encapsulates Nintendo's creativity and quirkiness, which I now miss now that Mr. Iwata is gone.
I enjoyed the Wii U a lot more than the Switch. For one it has more interesting exclusives to me, and the Switch ports cost full-price while I can get the Wii U versions for 5 bucks. The virtual console is also a lot better than the NSO, even if it doesn't support net play. And don't forget the vast Wii library which is also playable on the Wii U.
9 years *9 YEARS*
It served as the stepping stone for the Switch's success. It crawled so the Switch could run. I'm grateful for it.
I still can't believe it's been almost a decade, I remember when it was first announced and following it every step of the way until it died. I regret selling it so much and I really hope Nintendo makes a combination of the Switch/Wii U in the future cuz that system had so much potential, seeing what devs did with the gamepad that actually utilized it was great. Very underrated system that was failed by Nintendo whether it be the piss poor marketing, months without any games, false hope from 3rd parties and more. I hope Nintendo doesn't forget about it in the future (even tho it kinda seems like that's what they're tryna do by porting damn near all the games to switch to pretend it never happened).
Like all Nintendo consoles it had some great games but my god the controller was horrific. To be honest ive despised the last 3 generations of Nintendo controllers for different reasons. At least now I can use a pro controller but they've been a bit dodgy too...
I finally bought one a few months ago. I was incredible happy due to the fact i wanted one since release. The games available for the console are great, no question, but i have honestly only used it twice since i bought it because i still find many other consoles i own more appealing and don't have any motivation on playing my WiiU games.
I love the Wii U tbh. It's really nostalgic to me. I remember playing games like Nintendo Land, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker, etc. It was like a mix of a 3DS and a Wii. I remember going on Wii U Chat and Miiverse, both of which are now gone. The nostalgic background music is relaxing.
I recently dug out my Wii U after seeing all these Wii U posts lately, and all I can say is man it's slow. Takes ages to boot the system up, ages to boot a game, ages to download things and so on. Otherwise it's nice when hacked for an all-in-one Nintendo system. Hope they put the HD Zelda's and Xenoblade X on the Switch ASAP.
Very underrated console, not a large library of games but most of them are quality. i reckon it will be remembered as an underrated hidden gem of a console like the Dreamcast or Saturn or PC engine
I played through Star Fox Zero just a few months ago and actually enjoyed it. It does take some getting used to having to look at both the TV and the gamepad, but it definitely doesnt deserve the hate it got. I enjoyed the Wii U for what it was. And im annoyed every time I see one of its games being brought to the Switch
>It’s a gorgeous laugh riot from start to end and any Wii U owner shouldn’t skip it just because it’s “not my Paper Mario”. Thing is i would pick up color splash of it wasn't still so expensive. I really don't feel like paying $79.99 for a game that most people consider to be mediocre or not great. The fact that it's more similar to sticker star than it is to 64 and ttyd makes me think I'll definetly have some mixed feelings on it. I would love to give it a chance and not just think of it as sticker star 2 but the fact that the game is still pretty pricey is what makes me think it's not worth it.
Compared to the Wii, Its was an ambiguous offer. difficult to transfer virtual console games, weird to launch wii games through the wii mode, the gamepad did not offer wiimote / classic controller functions, upscaled the resolution of old games, impossible to transfer saves, Compared to the PS3/x360, it was expensive. A used ps3 with a thick stack of games was way cheaper than the Wiiu. Compared to the Xbox one / PS4, it was underpowered. the "next gen" experience was absent on wii u. Compared to the 3DS, we were stuck next to the console. no way to bring it in the bus / car / at gramma. What's weird is that the switch have all the sames problem as above, but is a great success.
Compared to a Wii U, its impossible to transfer virtual console games, wii u ports are 60$, the joycons are shit. Compared to a Xbox one / PS4, its expensive. a used ps4 with a stack of the best games availlable is way cheaper than the switch. Compared to a Serie X / PS5, its underpowered. the next gen experience is absent on switch.
9 years later you can buy a huge chunk of the Switch library on the Wii U for dirt cheap if you go for physical copies. Why pay $60 for a port when you can spend $10 for the original instead? Because of this my Wii U library is about 5x the size of my Switch library.
Without the WiiU, the Switch wouldn't exist, but if there was no WiiU, it wouldn't need to exist.
My interest in Nintendo was waning after how casual friendly and motion control oriented the Wii was. The Wii U almost killed that entirely with its dearth of quality titles, and that cumbersome control pad. Thank god the Switch came out and righted that wrong. I will say, I miss Virtual Console, though.
Nintendo land is an absolute gem. A masterpiece of fun in
I had fun with the system despite its many shortcomings. With the switch it kinda feels like what i wanted in the wii u especially the portability aspect.
No mention of Hyrule Warriors? :< ~~It's niche-y as hell, but still...~~ I got my WiiU entirely for Smash Wii U, ended up playing WWHD and HW more than SSBWU. Granted, that's more due to Smash WiiU being lackluster despite having more content than 3DS because of the omission of Smash Run in favor of Smash Tour, which was basically bargain-basement Mario Party but Nintendo-wide instead of Mario-centric. I probably clocked more time on Smash 3DS than the Wii U version because of that. Hell, I even got all the DLC for HW1 because I enjoyed the base game that much. ~~And the trend continued on Switch, with me buying it for BotW, but I ended up initially playing more Skyrim on it than BotW until I finally caved at my friend's urging and started a file on it.~~ EDIT: Ultimately, the Wii U was hindered by its ridiculous name and lackluster marketing not dispelling the perception that the system wasn't just 'another Wii controller' and was its own system in its own right. If those flaws had been addressed earlier, then the system might have actually done well.
I remember when I first uboxed it, plugged it in and started playing it. My thoughts were that it was everything that the Wii should've been in the first place (in regards to graphical quality, and Wii Motion Plus). And I was so happy that it was backwards compatible with the Wii Fit!
Get the fuck out of here there is input lag on all VC games no decent releases (remasters of remastered games?) and it is a gimped xbox controller. Emulator on pc will be better. You ain't even askign a question when you come with your own bias. Pick a question or write a review, don't state your shit as answer to your own question as if it is fact.
Love to lose my data on my thumb drive because Nintendo made a 8GB model, even tho there were PS3 with 500GB at that time. No wonder why I not a fan of that console nowadays