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[Blobbers]

It's got some great games and even birthed a few promising franchises that hopefully gain a greater audience on the Switch. But it is factually not one of the greatest consoles ever made. To be that, it would have to have both great first party and third party support. We're talking your NES, SNES, DS, PS1, PS2 and the like.

Virtual Boy says hi?

Waterworld. On Virtual Boy!

 

[Stilton Disco]

It had a few amazing and a handful of good games, loads of disappointing tripe, a shite controller, lame gimmick, and laughably awful hardware.

For me, it's between WiiU and the Atari Jaguar for worst console I've ever owned, and I definitely had way more fun with the Jaguar. Easily the worst system Nintendo has ever made certainly, lacking even the novelty factor of the Virtualboy.

The Pro Controller was ace though.

 

[Glass Shark]

I think it was better than the Wii. It's missing its own Mario game though, and just barely got a Zelda.

Are you one of those people who thinks that Super Mario 3D World isn't a "real" Mario game?

 

[Dunlop]

The WiiU was the final nail for me with Nintendo, they get too much leeway for the abysmal hardware they put out with their outdated tech and decade behind online infrastructure.

Course I've been gaming with their systems since the NES so just don't feel the "magic" anymore

 

[kamikazekoala]

I really liked the Wii U, but it was no wonder it got Switch'ed...

 

[Spman2099]

I think it is better than some people give it credit for, but it doesn't come close to any of the greats... There are more forgotten classics on the PS1 than there are great games in the entire Wii-U library.

 

[Sillverrr]

I agree that the WII U games catalogue is nothing to be sneezed at, but the obvious differentiator is the Gamepad.

My take: an unwieldly, plastic monstrosity; a behemoth of epic proportions I'd rather hide in the cupboard (if I could find a space large enough to accommodate it) in favour of a normal controller.

Other people don't seem to have a problem with it, so in that respect, fair play to them. It's still a good console in my eyes, because a lot of the time you can pretend the Gamepad doesn't exist.

 

[clevbrowns94]

I think this thread proves there is a love it or hate it feeling towards the Wii U and little in between. So to sum it up:

Gamers: love it or hate it.
The public at large: "Wii U? Is that the Wii accessory where you play games on that tablet thing?"


Don't know if the public will ever be aware of the console. Most probably think the Switch is the follow up to the Wii.

 

[ryseing]

No mainline Fire Emblem puts it below the GC and Wii.

 

[Sami+]

Title made me snort, tbh. I have one for Smash. Use it pretty regularly for Smash.

It's a shame Smash is chained to such a shitty console, because I hate having to use it and will never touch it again once Smash for Switch is out.

 

[Version 3.0]

I've been a video game fan since before Nintendo made video games. The NES changed my life. My favorite system ever is the Gamecube. The Wii U is a disaster. It's not underrated at all. It sold how it deserved to sell.

 

[Sarek]

Completely disagree with the OP. WiiU was the worst console I've owned. The UI was a generation behind Sony and Microsoft, it was underpowered, the gamepad was the most unergonomic controller I've ever used, you basically needed to buy extra peripherals like the pro controller, Nintendo's online store was(is?) years behind the competition, etc.

Still don't really regret buying it though since it had some good games, and I bought it used and resold years later for almost the same price. One thing you have to Nintendo credit for is that their games and hardware really hold value well.

 

[Zombie James]

Better than the Wii, I'll give it that, but even that isn't saying much. Totally disagree with the OP's high praise.

 

[uncelestial]

It's not even in the top 5 home consoles Nintendo alone made, and they only made 7.

I do like it better than its predecessor, though. It was nice to play Nintendo in HD and to be free from janky waggle controls that absolutely RUINED everything they touched. But I barely even turned it on compared to my PC and PS4. :/

I'm glad Nintendo has the Switch now, very cool device, actually my favorite console of theirs since the SNES, so far (here's hoping the games come).

 

[Glass Shark]

"Wii U" was a pretty bad name, but in retrospect "Nintendo 64" is pretty bad too.

 

[RuhRo]

The pitch behind the GamePad experience appears to have been roughly: "Do you like game controllers, but wish they were the size of a large breadbox? What if this breadbox was only usable for two hours at a time and had to be played adjacent to a power outlet?"

 

[a916]

It's not even the best device made either... with that Fisher Price build quality tablet and nearly non existent 3rd Party offering. Also Smash Bros wasn't the best iteration, OP please...

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

Nintendo has 13 hardware releases since the original NES.

The Wii U is not top 10 nintendo hardware, let alone one of the best ever.

christ.

This is where I'm on in this topic. The wiiu doesn't even stack up well comparing it to Nintendo systems.

 

[QuantumZebra]

The Wii U is my favorite console ever, and my first system was the NES. (Not my favorite system ever, that's either GBA or DS). I love Wii backwards compatibility. If you combine the fantastic Wii library with the Wii U one, I keep coming back to the Wii U. I gave up on Zelda to finally play Yoshi's Woolly World and am hooked. My Wii U will be hooked up for many years to come.

Woolly World shout-out! Aw yiss

 

[phant0m]

No, it's one of the worst consoles ever made, that happened to have a ton of great games on it. The console hardware itself is exactly what made the system a failure. The software is the only thing that kept the console afloat.

This guy gets it. Pretty great library, system itself is downright one of the worst I've ever used.

Awful OS, Awful Gamepad, and Awful account/content management.

 

[batrush]

Weak third party output, gimmicky hardware and for someone who doesn't care about Nintendo games it has near-zero appeal. Nowhere near the best, probably better suited for a contest of the worst. Glad I sold mine at a point where resale value was high.

 

[PetrCobra]

I love the Wii U. Now that I have a Switch, I think I can clearly see where it was lacking:

- seems that a home console with a second screen can't have the screen in an overpriced controller with a small range, it has to be on the console itself
- the backwards compatibility kept it from adapting a modern architecture; it made sense to keep the legacy, but it didn't really pay off. Had they cut into the guts earlier, we could now have had a successor compatible with the Wii U, and possibly some kind of Virtual console up to the Wii. Instead of that, we have to start from scratch - at least there's now a chance that the new architecture will actually last for some time.
- as a result, Nintendo abandoned the second screen concept and now we're getting a sequel to Splatoon that lacks the superior features of the original. We already received BOTW without a map that's visible at all times. It's depressing.

The console was both ahead of its time, and behind it.

Weak third party output, gimmicky hardware and for someone who doesn't care about Nintendo games it has zero appeal. Nowhere near the best, probably better suited for a contest of the worst. Glad I sold mine at a point where resale value was high.

Why does this argument always get repeated, what's the point here? If someone doesn't care for Sony games, a Playstation console has no appeal. If someone doesn't care for Microsoft games, an Xbox has no appeal. You know why? Because you can get all the other games somewhere else, like on a PC. That's the system to go to if you don't care for any of the 1st party games anywhere. Does the fact that there are people with that attitude make all the consoles irrelevant?

 

[Drillary Clinton]

Going to have to disagree, OP. A very limited library of only First party games (almost every "third" party game you listed is actually first party), a terrible interface, awful online infrastructure, and the gamepad is an abomination. It deserves to flop, unfortunately. The switch seems to be a big improvement in a lot of ways for Nintendo and hopefully they've learned from the mistake of the Wii U

 

[Reg]

Shit was trash. Glad it's dead.

 

[Carlisle]

The Wii U library is criminally underrated

Fixed.

I mean yeah, PS4 can really give it a run for its money this year alone, but for how good the Wii U library was, you'd have expected the console to do a little better than it did. It's a damn shame really.

But it's more than just the official library as OP pointed out. Full Wii BC means the largest official retro emulator is built in to the thing. And if you want to go just slightly unofficial, you can add Gamecube games and turn the Wii U into the quintessential Nintendo history machine with very little effort. All with off-tv play included. It's a pretty special console that will go heartbreakingly under-appreciated. There's still a lot of untapped potential in it that Nintendo is leaving behind, but hopefully the Switch can end up in an even better place.

 

[GokouD]

As someone who finds any games that aren't 1st/2nd party Nintendo pretty tedious, I have to agree with OP. Almost without exception the big games on the Wii U were the best in their series, which for me makes them many of the best games ever made. I had so much fun with the Wii U it's ridiculous. Splatoon and Mario Maker in particular helped me through the death of my son that year in a way nothing else could have.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

I stand by one simple rule:

- Any console that at least didn't received a decent amount of third party games, can't be called, in any possible way or form, one of the best consoles ever made.

Wii U, has missed, in just the years of it's existence (not even considering the games is gonna miss until the end of the gen):

- Yakuza 0
- Nier Automata
- Doom
- Nioh
- Overwatch
- Titanfall 2
- Dark Souls 3
- The Wicther 3
- Deus Ex: MD
- Dishonored 2
- Ori and the Blind forest
- Divinity: Original Sin
- Persona 5

And many, many more games. Ranging from good games to excellent game. And I didn't counted first party games to add to the list. If you believe the first party lineup Nintendo launched is enough to make it one of the best consoles ever made, over PS2, GC or PS1, well...

(with arguments like "dat internet browser", I might add)

...that's, like your opinion man.

 

[Gator86]

This guy gets it. Pretty great library, system itself is downright one of the worst I've ever used.

Awful OS, Awful Gamepad, and Awful account/content management.

Honest question: if the WiiU library is great, what system doesn't have a great library? So many people talk about the great library and I don't see it at all. Yes, it has some great games, but a great library? What is the standard here?

 

[erawsd]

Its not even in the top 3 of the best Nintendo consoles.

 

[The Last One]

The worst Nintendo system I ever owned. (The only one I didn't was the Virtua Boy.)

 

[RagnarokX]

Technically all of the games you listed are first party since Nintendo published them. 2nd party is a laymens term to describe first party games that are developed under contract by 3rd party developers. Many of the games you listed don't even fit that term, as they were developed by Nintendo's own studios.

That said people will complain that it only has Nintendo games and that's true, but those Nintendo games are several orders of magnitude better than their predecessors. The sheer amount of quality and quantity put into the titles Nintendo made for Wii U makes their previous efforts feel like they were lowballing us in the past. It would have been nice if more 3rd parties put more titles on it, but nobody was buying stuff like Zombi U anyway. At least Nintendo threw money to 3rd parties to get some nice games like Bayonetta 2.

Also, I would like to note that the Gamepad is a very good idea. People complain that it didn't have enough unique gameplay mechanics utilizing it like the wii remote, but where the Gamepad shined was in more passive roles like inventory and map management and touchscreen inputs. I really miss the gamepad when playing games where implementation of a 2nd screen/touchscreen would streamline things.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

I personally feel like a console should be judged by its library, in which case the Wii U is definitely up there with Nintendo's best.

If you're judging the hardware based on the hardware itself well yeah, it's definitely some hot garbage.

 

[OmegaDL50]

A console is only as good as the strength of it's software library. You can have the most powerful console in the world but that power is absolutely meaningless if there isn't an adequate amount of software in place to take advantage of it.

With that said, the Wii U may had it's quirks being effectively a short ranged tablet tethered to a HDTV and the OS was somewhat on the slow side, however the it's list of games was very good, enough on it that it was a worthwhile purchase when I had one.

People may say the Wii U was a poor console with great games, but that is it. The games are what should matter. I'm buying a console to play software, and the software was good, so bottom line the Wii U was good as the library available to it. Doesn't need to be better than that.

Much like how the PS4 currently is proving it's own with also stellar line up of exclusives.

The sorts of experiences Nintendo provides in their games are seldomly ever done on my PS4 Pro or Gaming PC, so I apreciate it in that regard.

The Wii U did well enough while I owned it, and that suited me just fine. I got my enjoyment out of it, at least.

 

[Japanmanx3]

Been debunked about ten thousand times and I'll add one more to that pile. For all it did right and wrong, the Wii U is nothing like the Dreamcast other than being a sales failure for their respective companies.

Dreamcast had some of the most ambitious games of its time (MMOs, open world), a plethora of new IPs and actual definitive versions of 3rd party games. The LTD sales number is what these consoles have in common, other than that they couldn't be more different.

I can't imagine anyone saying this having ever touched a Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was ahead of its time in many ways.

No way. I actually have nothing to complain about regarding the Dreamcast. I adore the system itself and I adore its library. The DC brought me more joy in a single year than the Wii U brought me in four.

WiiU didn't have Soul Calibur and Shenmue.

WiiU didn't have Skies of Arcadia.

WiiU didn't shocked the entire gaming community with its graphics technology ahead of its time.

Buuut did it flop? Yep. Did have good to great ideas that haven't been seen anywhere else? Yep. I acknowledge the systems are very different. But at a base level they are mainline consoles that never reached max potential. Wii U has faults abundantly but has some definitive quality, expansive games that will likely be forgotten, if not already, like a lot of DC exclusives.

 

[GameAddict411]

Playing old Nintendo games on the system should not be considered a big positive for the system imo. It was basically steeling what was great in Nintendo old consoles. It had many terrible dry spill periods and good games were handful. The hardware was behind the competition and it was very overpriced for what you were getting at launch. It was an abysmal console.

 

[Sky Chief]

Is this an April fools joke?

 

[TheMink]

I actually regret buying a Wii U.

 

[Fumpster]

Honestly? The console had about 10-15 amazing first party games and a few great third party games, but I never felt like it really lived up to its potential. It had so much potential for really unique single player games and even more unique multiplayer games, but after the initial few months, they kind of petered off.

I think as time goes on people will look back at the Wii U with nostalgia, but I don't think people will miss it too much. For me personally, when I look at the library, I see mostly games that are getting ported elsewhere in a better form (Mario Kart 8, BotW, unconfirmed Smash 4), games that will inevitably get a vastly improved sequel (I'm talking stuff like Mario Maker, Pokken, Hyrule Warriors and Splatoon here), and then a few genuinely wonderful games that will be gems going forward (Pikmin 3, Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Color Splash). The Captain Toads, Pikmin 3s, and Bayonetta 2s are I personally will look back on and say, "yeah, this thing kicked ass."

 

[Jubenhimer]

I can't fathom how that makes any sense at all.

I mean the Dreamcast = Wii U, yea... innovative consoles with amazing first party and exclusive games that both bombed...

But Switch = DC... wat?

When I say Dreamcast, I don't mean that the Switch will fail like Sega's console. Rather, the Switch is like the Dreamcast in that Nintendo was determined to learn from what went wrong with the Wii U, and put out a much better product for gamers and developers.

 

[batrush]

Why does this argument always get repeated, what's the point here? If someone doesn't care for Sony games, a Playstation console has no appeal. If someone doesn't care for Microsoft games, an Xbox has no appeal. You know why? Because you can get all the other games somewhere else, like on a PC. That's the system to go to if you don't care for any of the 1st party games anywhere. Does the fact that there are people with that attitude make all the consoles irrelevant?

You're totally forgetting about third-party exclusives. That's the only thing that pushes me to buy Nintendo hardware. I don't really care about Microsoft or Sony first party either and play multi-plats on PC whenever possible, but quality stuff like Persona, Nioh, Yakuza etc. can easily sell me on a console. Wii U had an extremely niche and limited library with unremarkable third party support to help it out.

 

[Bigboss242]

That tablet was an issue oversized trash should of been the size of the switch.

 

[Kodiak]

1. NSMBU was underwhelming and uninspired.
2. The first year of the Wii U was abysmal.
3. The flagship Mario game was not as fun single player, enjoyed it less than 3D Land.
4. There was no original Zelda game for the Wii U (until like a month ago, and... yeah, I had sold my Wii U by then)
5. The gamepad battery life was awful
6. The UI was horrendously slow
7. The majority of the worthwhile exclusives were multiplayer focused
8. The Wonderful 101 is not anywhere near as good as certain people on GAF want you to believe
9. Star Fox Zero was an abysmal game
10. The Paper Mario game for Wii U was an underwhelming sequel to Sticker Star


Criminally underrated? I think it is rightly judged as a mediocre console.

 

[Peltz]

Also, I would like to note that the Gamepad is a very good idea. People complain that it didn't have enough unique gameplay mechanics utilizing it like the wii remote, but where the Gamepad shined was in more passive roles like inventory and map management and touchscreen inputs. I really miss the gamepad when playing games where implementation of a 2nd screen/touchscreen would streamline things.

Gamepad would have been a good idea if it were smaller and cheaper and 4 people could use them for local-play. The fact that only 1 person can use it in muliplayer really destroyed the local-multiplayer messaging Nintendo built in the Wii era.

The 1-Gampad per console maximum totally destroyed the Wii U (along with other things).

 

[javadoze]

The games: yes

The console itself: no

There's tons of underrated software to be played on the WiiU, but on a hardware level, it's an odd mishmash of ideas that simply didn't pan out (gamepad, miiverse, and etc).

 

[xochipiltontli]

The Wii U is one of the most poorly thought out consoles ever made, the fact that it managed to actually sell roughly 13 million systems in the first place really shows the commitment of Nintendo's fan base (this is coming from someone who owns both a Wii U and Switch). Underpowered with an almost completely useless gimmick at a high price point with an atrocious name and little to no advertising. First party software offerings were slim until a year and a half into its life. I'm not really mad about it, Smash 4 and Splatoon probably singlehandedly made the console worth it for me, but I am very glad it's done and I think that it shouldn't be praised in retrospect.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

I'll forever love Nintendo for giving us the Bayonetta 2 announcement backlash though, that shit was hilarious.

 

[Ridley1]

The pitch behind the GamePad experience appears to have been roughly: "Do you like game controllers, but wish they were the size of a large breadbox? What if this breadbox was only usable for two hours at a time and had to be played adjacent to a power outlet?"

Hey, really well written reply! For brevity i'm only quoting part of it. There were leaks/rumors during the gamecube days that Nintendo liked the idea of a screen in the controller. They did asymmetric gameplay with the GBA and Gamecube during the day and I'm sure the dual screen idea also inspired the DS. They loved the idea!

But gameplay wise, Nintendo wasn't able to deliver on the gamepad screen. In fact the BEST uses of it were from third parties. COD Black Ops 2 allowed two local players, one on the TV and one on the gamepad. Rayman Legends was great asymmetric platforming. My wife is not a gamer but we enjoyed that tremendously, i'd do the platforming on the TV she'd do the cut the ropes and puzzles on the gamepad.

As another example, think back to the Wii. Motion controls were this gaming dream! Right from the start people imagined 1:1 accuracy sword fights, and light sabers, and throwing spare ammo clips to your team mates in FPS. Those were mostly false hopes...but Nintendo DID deliver on the concept in skyward sword. It was their way to say "hey this is what we always envisioned and here it is, working, and good". Wii U, unfortunately didn't have that game. And that is actually shocking for Nintendo who frequently designs their hardware around a certain game they have in mind.

That said, to the OP's point the Wii U didn't get a fair shot. I traveled with mine through airport security recently (to play zelda where I was going) and the airport agents had never seen or heard of it. It got no attention. And it wasn't for lack of games, I was super impressed with Splatoon won shooter of the year over Destiny, COD, Halo, and Battlefield! And to your point, people are jazzed up the upcoming Switch games which are remasters of excellent Wii U games (that I guess most folks didn't get to play). The problem was that no one, not sony, microsoft, or Nintendo were prepared for consumers that were THIS spec hungry.

PS4 sold well out of the gates (despite having no games) because of the specs. Games like The Order 1884 or the equivalent of playing specs. Sony and Microsoft have re-launched their systems with higher specs because that is all people want.

So my theory with the Wii U is Nintendo predicted the power levels of PS4 and XBone and crafted a machine with a similar GPU centric design, and feature parity (DX 11 equivalent). They got burned with the Wii which didn't even have programmable shaders! If PS4 and XBone were doing 1080p, then Wii U should be able to get a port at 720p and some reduced effects or frame rate. Next, they wanted a touch screen in case mobile iOS/Android devs wanted to port to Wii U. And lastly they wanted Wii backwards compatibility so they could pitch the "upgrade to Wii U" campaign. If only 10% of Wii's install base fell for it they'd have huge numbers out of the gate that couldn't be ignored by third parties.

 

[Wagram]

It's aight, but that tablet sucks. Should have never been included.

 

[jholmes]

I swear, people just have nothing concrete to say about the Wii U so they trot out this "Fisher Price" line like it means something.

Like, the Switch has these bright neon pastels but better slam the Wii U for being durable.

 

[VDenter]

Wii U was decent but it was by far Nintendo's worst console. The best thing about it is the backwards compatibility with the Wii and Gamecube if you mod the system. The Wii U is certainly not the best of anything really. It has maybe four must play title and a couple of dozen simply good titles. No matter how objectively i try to look at it the first party output was at its worst from Nintendo. It had the best iteration of Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Country still most of Wii Us first party library felt basically the 3DS line on HD steroids. Since i played the crap out of the 3DS most of the Wii U library seemed incredibly safe and sterile. There was nothing ambitious about games like Star Fox Zero or New Super Mario Bros U for example.

Putting all of this aside some titles that one would expect were missing completely. (Metroid) (Animal Crossing) The systems life was cut so short that it never even got its own exclusive Zelda game. Even Retro Studios only had time to work on one title. The third party games were none existent and the few that made it to the system usually could be found cheaper on any other device but games had to carry that Nintendo tax. Not to mention some of its best games will probably be ported as soon as possible and games like Splatoon will become obsolete as soon as the sequel hits.

The virtual console was garbage especially for us here in Europe where Nintendo was still serving broken ports of 50hz games.Oh and lets not even get started with the Gamepad aka the worst controller ever made.The WII U left no impact on the gaming landscape it was just sort of there. Calling it the Dreamcast of Nintendo systems is an insult to the Dreamcast and i am not even a fan of the Dreamcast personally.