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The State of the Wii U In 2015 [Kotaku]

Terrible overall, but surprisingly well YoY considering the lack of heavy hitters. It's sort of amazing it didn't just drop through the floor when you look at the software situation in Q4. Splatoon was a damn miracle for Nintendo in Japan. Hopefully it spurs them to place more stock in the new ideas of younger employees. Enough with the heavily reiterative sequels to aging franchises already. Nintendo needs to take more creative risks.
 
It's definitely been a rough year but Splatoon, Mario Maker, Yoshi, Xenoblade, and FAST made it a worthwhile console to have in my home.
 
I agree that their output was sparse but the games that I enjoyed most this year mostly came from Nintendo. Splatoon, Mario Maker, Xenoblade Chronicles 3d, Xenoblade and Chronicles X. (witcher 3 being the outlier)
 
GrotesqueBeauty said:
Terrible overall, but surprisingly well YoY considering the lack of heavy hitters. It's sort of amazing it didn't just drop through the floor when you look at the software situation in Q4. Splatoon was a damn miracle for Nintendo in Japan. Hopefully it spurs them to place more stock in the new ideas of younger employees. Enough with the heavily reiterative sequels to aging franchises already. Nintendo needs to take more creative risks.
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Weird statement to make when the big games of the year on other platforms were all reiterative sequels (W3/F4 etc...) and the big WiiU games were Splatoon (new franchise, new genre), Mario Maker (old franchise yes, new experience) and XCX (expanded experience of open world)
 
In 2015, the Wii U felt like an advent calendar for Splatoon owners, especially with the constantly rolling events known as “Splatfest.” While it took Nintendo a while to catch on to the whole games-as-services thing, now it feels like they’re showing everyone how it should be done.
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spot on. the advent calendar comparison is really accurate haha.

and yeah it was kind of a down year for the Wii U even in the face of some great games but with over 600 hours in Splatoon I found it hard to notice ;p
 
I have played my Wii U every day since Splatoon came out. I can't say that about any other system, even PC.

On that basis alone, it was a great year for Wii U.
 
Yeah wii U is on the way out, but the game output was pretty good to me. i mean, my top 5 games, 3 were on Wii U. Only ones better for me were Witcher 3 (simply an amazing game, and best looking game), And Star Citizen.

But after those two, it was all Wii U for me with Xenoblade, FAST, and Splatoon.
 
"Rough year" is being kind, it was almost terrible. The almost is Splatoon + SMM + Xenoblade X, otherwise the year would be shit. Amiibo festival, Mario Tennis, Mario Party 10, c'mon Nintendo.
 
killroy87 said:
Not my favorite year, for sure. Kirby was a poor game. I'm currently hooked on Xeno though, game is increeeeedible.
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Kirby...was a poor game. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this. Not for you, I get. But... Poor how? :/

Maintenance said:
"Rough year" is being kind, it was almost terrible. The almost is Splatoon + SMM + Xenoblade X, otherwise the year would be shit. Amiibo festival, Mario Tennis, Mario Party 10, c'mon Nintendo.
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Yoshi and Kirby, too, tho.
 
The last couple of months have been awful (thankfully Xenoblade came to the rescue), but overall I've been happy with Wii U this year. Splatoon and Mario Maker are my two favorite games of 2015. Throw in games like Woolly World and I had enough to play throughout the year.
 
I haven't got Mario Maker yet, but it's actually had a really nice, if not small pool of good exclusives. I haven't played Splatoon nearly as much as I should have. Barely in fact, but I loved what I have played. Yoshi and Kirby are fantastic and Xenoblade is pretty good. Looking forward to sinking some serious time into it over the weekend.

Weak year overall, but got some gems out of it. No complaints here. Not like I didn't have other consoles and handhelds to play.

Kandinsky said:
Theres no way NX is coming next year lol
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Why not?
 
Not unexpected analysis of the Wii U.Me personally have enjoyed the Wii U immensely, even more than my Ps4 or Xbox one, but its obvious Nintendo has had one eye on NX lately.I'm hoping Zelda will be a wonderful swan song.
 
I actually think they did really well this year, sure they lacked Smash and Mario Kart as the big titles, but they did really well in regards to output, Splatoon, Xenoblade X, Mario Maker, Mario Kart DLC, Smash DLC plus a solid set of B tier games with Yoshi Wooly World & Kirby Rainbow Curse. They have done as good as they could have given how much not having Zelda Wii I and Starfox 0 this year hurt them.
 
Bad year for Nintendo software library quality overall critically and commerially, but Wii U will probably ended up dominating GAF GOTY list this year again with Splatoon, Mario Maker, and Xenoblade X. Not bad for worst performing console.
 
Considering Nintendo is the only one supporting the Wii U (and no other third parties outside of a select few), the Wii U is doing better game amount wise than one would expect.

We got a few big heavy hitters this year with Splatoon, Mario Maker, Xenoblade X while also getting great smaller games like Yoshi's Woolly World.

We sadly got a few duds like AC: Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis and Devil's Third.

But considering we got MK8 DLC early this year and a solid stream of Smash Bros Post-release content, we are in a good spot with the Wii U.

Early next year with Twilight Princess HD, Star Fox Zero, SMTxFE and Pokken will be good too.
 
Her shrug-off of XCX is pretty frustrating. What does "kind of obscure" even mean?

It's a great game that deserves better than to be written off just because it's on the Wii U.
 
For me it's been a great year for the Wii U. I've put hundreds of hours into Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, and I'm almost nervous to look up how many hours I've been playing Xenoblade X for. I bought an Xbox One for Halo 5 and recently sold it. I loved the Halo 5 campaign but Halo 5 multiplayer isn't enough to keep a whole extra console, and there aren't many must-have games for me on the Xbox One I can't get on PC.
 
For most owners, I would imagine that isn’t a big deal: the Wii U has been considered a ‘secondary’ console by a lot of people, the sort of thing that complements something like a PS4, Xbox One, or PC. Despite some great games and killer moments, the Wii U’s sidekick role didn’t really change in 2015.
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This sums it up for me. I know its owner love it to pieces, but the WiiU simply hasn't provided me a wide enough amount of content for me to have ever considered it anything more than a secondary console.

It could never be primary for me because it simply does not offer enough games for my appetite.

I mean in October and Novermber alone more games have come out on PS4 that I want or have purchased than I'm interested in on the WiiI over the entire year.

And 2016 looks even more barren since NX is on the horizon.
 
nbnt said:
http://kotaku.com/the-state-of-the-wii-u-in-2015-1747521865

Another part of their 2015 “State of” series. Threads for the other consoles: XBO, PS4.
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your quote sucks (I mean I know it was from the article)...

"Wii U sucks as a console. I mean they had the best exclusives out this year, but it still sucks as a console"

I know that was a way harsher paraphrase than the quote.. but really, Kotaku's Year in Reviews seem to all be along this line EXCEPT the XBONE review. "Such and such console had this great stuff this year, but really we shouldn't be too excited because after all things still aren't great for the console"

Yet XBONE was "things aren't great for the console, yet it's undeniable that MS has really had an amazing year for it."

Comparing that to the PS4 article was... well whatever. But Wii U... I mean this was THE MOST SUCCESSFUL year the Wii U has had for software, no exception. Not only that, but among ALL THREE consoles, arguably Wii U had THE strongest releases this year (Super Mario Maker, Splatoon, Xenoblade, and tons of Smash content). This deserves to be celebrated. Did sales still end up rough? No more rough than the system has always been. Is NX on the horizon? Of course.. but no one bitched about PS3 or 360 in 2013 because of those new systems. No one bitched about DS in 2011. New systems are a thing.. and it shouldn't be held against the prior system because of it, ESPECIALLY when you have the quality that Nintendo has put out as a publisher this year.

These Kotaku articles... ugh..
 
Yoshi's Woolly World, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and Xenoblade Chronicles were all 9-10/10 games for me, so it was a great year for me personally. I can see how some others found the lineup unfulfilling though.
 
Raist said:
That's a far, far better article than the other 2.
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Yup good read. Balanced, fair and insightful.

No pleading for people to love the wiiu or slamming it for fake reasons.

It has been interesting to see how amiibos have been handled. The peak of their popularity has very clearly passed.
 
OrbitalMatrix said:
Why not?
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It just seems too soon, if the thing was coming next year we would already be drowning in leaks/info from pubs, dev kits would be in their hands for a long time now and yet nothing. Keep in mind I'm talking about their next console, handheld is another story and we might see it next year, but then again you see stuff like this..http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1155092, so I really don't know anything haha.
 
Very disappointing year for me, only bought mario maker, played it 15 minutes and that's about it. I think I finished bayo 2.
I have so much stuff to play on PC and I'd rather do that for now :/
 
higgsboson1997 said:
Yoshi's Woolly World, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and Xenoblade Chronicles were all 9-10/10 games for me, so it was a great year for me personally. I can see how some others found the lineup unfulfilling though.
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The misses this year were really uncharacteristically bad for Nintendo, even if the hits were just as good (and sometimes better) than you'd expect.
 
marrec said:
The misses this year were really uncharacteristically bad for Nintendo, even if the hits were just as good (and sometimes better) than you'd expect.
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true but the misses don't really matter that much because you just skip them

::vibes:: for all the people who had to review those games though ;p
 
OrbitalBeard said:
It was literally confirmed once again to be a Wii U title last month.
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marrec said:
Don't be. It's coming to Wii U.

Splatoon and Yoshi made for a great year on my Wii U (which I bought this year). Wii U's years have all been pretty rough tbh.
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vltle.jpg
 
Kandinsky said:
It just seems too soon, if the thing was coming next year we would already be drowning in leaks/info from pubs, dev kits would be in their hands for a long time now and yet nothing. Keep in mind I'm talking about their next console, handheld is another story and we might see it next year, but then again you see stuff like this..http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1155092, so I really don't know anything haha.
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We already know that third parties have had dev kits for months, and we've heard titbits from people on GAF who have some knowledge of the NX plans.

It's happening.
 
Seems fair. It could have been a great year, but the Zelda delay was huge, and the Star Fox delay hurt as well. 2014 was the peak year with Smash, Mario Kart, Bayonetta, and Tropical Freeze. Still, I find the complete lack of even mentioning Wooly World disturbing. It wasn't far behind Splatoon and Mario Maker in terms of greatness.
 
Kind of what we knew. For the entire year.

Oh well. I know they're playing it safe with the follow up system, but we most certainly will be playing on the next Nintendo system in 2016. All signs point to yes.
 
If you kind of resigned yourself to the fate Wii U was looking at in 2014 then 2015 is only a marginal step down from a fantastic preceding year, only compounded by the delays of Star Fox Zero and Zelda which will probably make 2016 see Wii U go out in a mild spark of glory. If nothing else, the Wii U was surprisingly solid this year with XCX, Super Mario Maker and Splatoon all being brilliant titles, especially the latter.
 
Personally, I thought 2015 was only 'okay' for the Wii U... right up until XBCX released and singlehanded made it a fantastic year for the console. That said, the article does raise some fair points in parts (Particularly regarding release scarcity), but some dumb statements creep in here and there. I mean...

Here at the tail end of 2015, the Wii U feels kind of barren. There was the download-only Fatal Frame, a game that might not fit on your Wii U. There was Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is actually pretty good, but a bit obscure.
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What does this even mean? Is it meant to be criticism?

Eh... not a bad read on the whole despite this. Still a million times better than that cringeworthy embarassment of an article Totillo put up the other day.
 
Wii U's third year was so dismal, users are looking past it in hopes that NX will finally deliver the goods.

Outside of Splatoon I didn't bother with it. Xenoblade turned out well, and Mario Maker was solid. But three games is nothing in the course of a year.

Maybe I'm forgetting something? Mario Party 10? Was that this year? It sucked.
 
Splatoon and Mario Maker are probably two of the best games Nintendo have ever made. That said, the article makes some valid criticisms, particularly when it comes to Nintendo's overzealousness in "protecting" their copyrights.
 
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