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The Wii U - quite possibly Nintendo's best console even if it failed?

I swear they were trying to sandbag each other here lol. "So you're sure this will come out next year?" "What about Star fox"?

"This must be a dungeon" "uhh"
Absolutely, that exchange at the end was funnier than I expected.

As an aside, that map view looks great. Not enough to make me like the game, but would've been a nice QoL improvement!
 

Batiman

Banned
Was for me. Had a great time with it playing with my son when he was younger. Better library then switch IMO. Not counting all the ports. Was good for when I had a bunch of kids over. I had a shitload of wii motes and was great for local co op. Never had to worry about the thing breaking because it was like some cheap toy. Giving a new switch to kids now is scary. Try telling a 6 year old to take care of it.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
If you ask me, Odyssey isn't worth your time, but I seem to be an outlier in that regard here. Pretty disappointed in my Switch outside Sega AGES and Ring Fit. I sold off BotW, Odyssey, and Octopath even though I typically never sell anything.
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It really is. I wasn't expecting much with Ubisoft attached, and at the time, classic "Survival Horror" was definitely not a thing so I was expecting a shooter or something dumb. What I got was one of the best gameplay experiences of my life. For me, it felt like I was playing the OG Resident Evil in first person and I was just blown away at how much I enjoyed the game. Still do. I also own the PS4 version and it's good, but the Wii U version is the best way to play.

Here's something that I think people forget, Resident Evil 6 released on 10/02/2012. ZombiU released 6 weeks later on 11/18/2012. That's what the state of "Survival Horror" was in. ZombiU came out of nowhere and was really trying to do something specific and unique to that era in gaming. Such a shame that reviewers trashed it, a sequel with proper polish could have been GOTY material.
ZombiU 2 was supposed to be a thing, but the executives at Ubisoft shut it down really early in development. I'm still curious about how it could've turned out
 
I still love my Wii U but the Switch gets all the play time these days. All the pros and cons have been pretty thoroughly covered already, but I'll say the UI is the biggest con for me compared to other systems (especially Switch). Once you get past boot up and into a game, though, it's a beautiful system.

Being able to play Metroid Prime 1 & 2 randomizers on the Wii U is my favorite part of the system. It will always be my go-to system for retro games and it's perfect for GameCube with the 4-port controller adapter and Nintendont. Since you are essentially getting a GameCube+Wii+Wii U after CFW (to say nothing of RetroArch) it is an extremely useful piece of kit for a gamer.
 
As many said, Miiverse was amazing, an online service only Nintendo could provide.

I think the current paid online proposition they have would be more enticing, if Miiverse was still alive, community felt alive, games like Mario Maker and Splatoon were better because of it.

Not to mention how sad it is to boot Xenoblade Chronicles X or Wind Waker HD, compared to how it was then.


_____

I didn't like the controller with a screen (best use for it was for drawing for miiverse really) and the fact they clearly had to downgrade the specs to allow it both cost-wise and in order for it to fit in the Wii form factor. So I know why it failed, I still think in order for it to succeed they should have thrown the controller out and lowered the price early on, like Xbox One did with Kinect.

But it was a good console. Best console no one bought.
 
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I love the wiiU for its games, the hardware itself doesn't impress me. The gamepad never really felt essential, at best it felt like they sometimes found a nice way to incorporate it.

Many of those games are best experienced on Switch now. I really love Xenoblade Chronicles X though, that would be a hard one to port.

I'm still not unplugging the wiiU until I finish my backlog, I think all I've got left now is that Kirby play dough game and Bayo 2.
 
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Hulk_Smash

Banned
Nintendo seems to have a knack for developing hardware that hits one end of the extremes; runaway success (Switch, Wii) or low selling "also ran" (GameCube, Wii U)...which must be maddening for a company; hit a home run just to strike out at your next attempt.

Yet somehow Nintendo has a second extreme they love to hit...making their best games for their "worst" hardware. Not to say their first party output in Wii wasn't awesome, but GameCube and Wii U IMO had better "Nintendo games" for it than the Wii or the 64 before it did.

I still remember standing in line on launch day in Chicago to get a Wii U...all because I got confused as to what day you were able to pre-order and I missed it by an entire day. Took awhile in line but I was able to buy one on launch day and since then I have had an absolutely blast every time I played it. You 100% can't argue with the fact that it failed commercially but as far as a console to play and collect for...straight gold. Especially considering the prices haven't gone through the roof yet compared to a lot of other Nintendo stuff.

The Switch is amazing in it's own right but I miss the whole Gamecube/Wii/Wii U quirky hardware; all classic Nintendo designs keeping the PowerPC architecture and their "were gonna do our own thing...thanks anyway" ethos.

It'll be interesting to see what comes after Switch. But for me the Wii U is still one of my favorite Nintendo consoles of all time. Sad it failed...but awesome in spite of it.

Anyone else love some Wii U?
I loved my Wii U. I only had a Wii and was saving for a 360 when the WiiU got announced. So, I saved for that instead.

On launch day, I went with my daugter to GameStop where I had mine on reserve. I got there an hour too early but the owner was nice enough to open sooner so I didn’t have to wait.

I took home ZombiU, Nintendo Land, Assassin’s Creed 3, Black Ops 2, and NSMBU , an extra controller, and a case for the gamepad.

No Regerts.

Best use of the gamepad was off tv play. Then there was 5 player Nintendo Land, 5 player Rayman Legends, having an active map on Black Flag, Splinter Cell, and Xenoblade X. Also, Black Ops with no screen peeking.

The biggest misses other than the name was not fully realizing the asymmetrical gameplay and being a big swing and a miss on online service... again.

Why Nintendo didn’t money-hat other big franchises to fill in the gaps, I’ll never understand.

But, I loved the WiiU as the perfect compliment to my gaming PC. I missed nothing in the final years of the 360/PS3 era and the first two years of the One/PS4 era.
 

UnNamed

Banned
For me WiiU was a complete disaster. IMHO.
Many says it was a good console because some good games, but even Jaguar and Virtualboy had some good games, so it can't be this. There were some interesting things where even Switch did worse, such as multitasking for app and games and the Miiverse. But everything else was a perfect manual on how not to launch a console.
 

RCU005

Member
I loved the Wii U! I sold it in order to get a PS4, but now I regret it. At least I hope Nintendo ports every single game to the switch.
 

Hulk_Smash

Banned
Also, off-TV... TEEEEVEEEEE. Lots of cool programming options if you had cable. Not even the switch has as many options, which is sad.

And totally backwards compatible with the Wii- something the One and PS4 couldn’t do at first.
 

sublimit

Banned
Yup i love my WiiU even if it had a very small library of games that really appealed to me. I only have 12 games for it but each one is really special and i love them all even if i haven't finised some of them (like Xenoblade Chronicles X).

I also love how the white version looks.Never really used the tablet to game on it though since i have a dedicated game room.
 

Pejo

Member
WiiU was great. If they would have released a gamepad Pro I think a lot of people would have realized it. Also Nintendo itself gave up on using the gamepad meaningfully, so naturally 3rd parties did too. I look at the WiiU as the Dreamcast 2 in a way.
 

Portugeezer

Member
Sometimes I think: "maybe I should buy a Wii U just to try it out", but then I realise most of the good stuff is on the Switch already.
 
Hardware wise, it's a poorly thought out or rushed product centered around a questionable gimmick. That tablet controller is mediocre at best. The console is way too underpowered even by Nintendo's standard. It also didn't help they named it wiiU which confused a lot of casual consumers (aka parents).
 

DonMigs85

Member
As just the Wii U? No. But if you consider the Wii library and modding it to accept GameCube titles then it may be the best.
 

Enzo88

Member
As just the Wii U? No. But if you consider the Wii library and modding it to accept GameCube titles then it may be the best.
This. Standalone is not even close to being Nintendo`s best console, the statement is almost offensive considering the existence of stuff like the Nes and Snes.
 
Still got my pup sealed in the box, just never got around to sit down and play properly.


WiiU controller, Possibly the most comfiest out of all controllers (Xbox/PS) I've ever held in my hands..real talk, just fits like a glove.
md14sFg.jpg
 

sublimit

Banned
I bought a Wii U only and just only for this:



Then they never released it, so I sold it to a friend that was Nintendo's Fan.

IMO, the PS2 was the best console, because it delivered what gamers wanted the most: Games, a ton of games and a ton of great games!

Why do you compare it with the PS2? They are not even in the same generation.
 
Wii U was truly amazing. I owned 2 of them, in fact, one that I played at home and a "traveling" one that I would take just about anywhere, including work. Made for great work parties. I eventually sold them off since I got all the use I needed out of them.

But man, what a beast of a console:
(1) "Evergreen" Mario Kart title that transferred over to the next gen on Switch
(2) "Evergreen" Smash Bros title that also transferred over to the Switch
(3) Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD were a hell of a one-two punch combo, as good as the OoT/MM combo on 3DS
(4) My absolute favorite 3D Mario, by far, in Super Mario 3D World. (Well... it's a 3D game alright, but because of its design concepts I'm gonna call it a "2.5D game")
(5) Despite all of the cries about it feeling like a "Fisher Price toy," I thought the Gamepad was awesome. It was kind of portable in that way, too; on many long bus rides, I plugged in the console and just played on the Gamepad
(6) Wii U Pro controller was the controller of the gods
(7) My absolute favorite thing about the Wii U: If you combined the Wii U's Virtual Console, and also used Nintendont (for GameCube games), you could play games that came out on Nintendo consoles from the NES, all the way to the Wii U itself. Like, that's 6 generations of video games, all in a single box. That's one of the most impressive aspects of any console I've ever played. If you want to take out Nintendont out of the equation, that's time a very impressive 5 generations of video games in a single console.
(8) Related to the above -- Yeah, the Wii U's Virtual Console was arguably weaker than the Wii's for 3rd and 4th gen stuff. At the same time though, you could find Metroid Prime Trilogy on sale for.... $10. At a time when physical Wii copies were starting to soar on second hand markets. Super Metroid for (I believe it was) 30 cents at some point. First Virtual Console release of Earthbound. Also had GBA games. Etc etc...

I dropped out of Nintendo after the SNES -- switched over to PlayStation and didn't look back for a long time. The Wii U brought me back to Nintendo, though.
 

Kumomeme

Member
the fate of the console might be different if it launch 2 years early.

the console basically ps360 turbo, with extra ram and faster, modern gpu. however by the time the console launch, where lot of devs preparing and developing title for it coincide with 8th generation ps4 and xbox one console launch window which is scheduled a year later at 2013. devs surelly will focus and shift their attention toward more stronger and newer console not to mention there is development issue with wii u's slow devs kit and slow technical support from nintendo itself, made lof of devs pulling their leg and focused on ps4 and xbox one instead.

they probably try to reuse similliar strategy that drive Wii success but these issue held them back.

Switch is a prove that how nintendo learned from their mistake which is aside from terrible technical support and slow devs kit, wii u also has confusing name and concept.
 
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I definitely like wii u more than switch.

Funny thing is, that Wii u were sold out here, while switch never sold out.

So basically wii u > switch, which is funny because switch is so popular on many places, yet it could not even archive sold out status and wii u could :D

Switch have been collecting dust, mainly because 90% of it's quality games are wii u ports, and there havent been many good aaa-games. I HATED mario odyssey, worst game of the decade, and there havent been much of interesting RPG games.

In my eyes switch is the failure and wiiu is the winner
 

Mhmmm 2077

Member
One of my favourite consoles ever made. Some really amazing games and franchises started here, like Splatoon or Super Mario Maker, for example. Also Wii U physical discs have the softest edges ever, it's oddly satisfying.
 

Megatron

Member
It’s probably dead last for me for Nintendo consoles software-wise. It had good games but not as good as all of the other systems IMO.
 

Alan Wake

Member
No. It was truly a bad console, ill-conceived and just offputting in so many ways. Underpowered, with a cheap gimmick controller that was rarely used for anything useful even in Nintendo's own games, awful and slow UI, almost no third party games at all. And it was way too expensive for being a 2nd console, the lack of games prevented it from being a primary console for most of us.

Having said all that, it did have some really good games that deserves being explored. Super Mario 3D World was fun, Donkey Kong Country: TF was great, Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water was pretty cool (and it launched with a nice special edition in Europe), Super Mario Maker was good, Mario Kart 8 and Bayonetta 2 as well, the amazing Rayman Legends was really built for the Gamepad, and I've played more Zombi U than I care to admit. I bought the system after it was discontinued with the aim to play a handful of games or so. I ended up buying 30. There are few masterpieces but a decent amount of decent to good games. Sadly it lacks badly in a number of genres, such as racing.
 
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Bragr

Banned
I don't understand where you are coming from here, sure it's just not nostalgia?

Wii-U had some good games, but the controller was a mess and clearly a mistake right from the get-go. And the games better than N64? how old were you when N64 was around? I can't see the Wii-U library stand up to any Nintendo console.
 

Caio

Member
For me Nintendo 64 and GameCube were the best Nintendo Consoles, after that I totally lost interest.

 
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