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Wii U: Better than you remember - Game Sack

Dacvak

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.


Just watched this and thought it was worth posting. For such a failure of a console, it really had some bangers. In fact, I'd argue it has the highest percentage of great games of any console ever. (Of course, it only had 160 games…)
 
WiiU is the proof that great games cannot save a failed concept - Good lord, WiiU's operating system is one of the slowest software i had the 'not pleasure' of use! I like to imagine how the same system would be better (or at least cheaper, of course) without the second screen (for the sake of 'what if' scenarios, let's imagine the Swich would be released regardles of WiiU game pad).
 
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It had some good stuff on it. The damn gamepad constantly having no battery and Nintendo making you charge it with a plug instead of just USB from the console was annoying as heck.

Apparently there were USB Gamepad charge cables you could buy but the WiiU USB ports were too crap to power it. Just crazy.
 
luffy-zombie.gif
 
It somehow had a more interesting lineup than the Switch, but it was still a clear downgrade to what Nintendo was putting out on the Wii.
 
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BennyBlanco said:
Wii U did have some bangers. XCX, MK8, 3D world, and Bayo 2 made it worth it for me alone. I should dig out that ridiculous controller.
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I just went through Twilight Princess HD and am TRYING to finally finish Starfox. I really loved the U. Great concept. Execution? Not always so great.
 
As a Nintendo fan they completely lost me during the Wii/Wii U- era. I couldn't wrap my head around it and I thought it was such a downgrade from the GameCube which I loved. I did enjoy the first half of Wii, but my interest quickly diminished and I never even bothered with Wii U. Instead I went with Playstation for my gaming fix. It wasn't until Switch I got pulled back and it was then I realized what an amazing set of games that was released for the Wii U. I missed out on all of them so I'm very happy Nintendo ported over almost the entire library (still waiting for Wind Waker HD, grrr).
 
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Over the years I kept trading in the old Wii library bit by bit, and with the release of Mario Galaxy 1&2 on Switch I took the whole shebang in at once.
Traded in the Wii-U and also the Switch 1 and got a Switch 2.
The Wii-U was my very first Nintendo console. I had only owned handheld Gameboy and DS/3DS as my Nintendo devices.
Wii-U was not a good impression of what Nintendo consoles were all about. Sluggish is my main memory of the Wii-U. Old Wii games.
I did not like Super Mario 3D World nearly as much as the Galaxy games. It's was an ok 3d Mario.
Nintendo really turned around their fortunes with the Switch.
 
PauloRoberto said:
WiiU is the proof that great games cannot save a failed concept - Good lord, WiiU's operating system is one of the slowest software i had the 'not pleasure' of use! I like to imagine how the same system would be better (or at least cheaper, of course) without the second screen (for the sake of 'what if' scenarios, let's imagine the Swich would be released regardles of WiiU game pad).
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Yep, the OS was slow. The Wii mode was pretty bad. The tablet controller was unresponsive.

I dumped the console and a few games I got real quick despite the fact that some of the games were pretty darn good.
 
Mr Hyde said:
As a Nintendo fan they completely lost me during the Wii/Wii U- era. I couldn't wrap my head around it and I thought it was such a downgrade from the GameCube which I loved. I did enjoy the first half of Wii, but my interest quickly diminished and I never even bothered with Wii U. Instead I went with Playstation for my gaming fix. It wasn't until Switch I got pulled back and it was then I realized what an amazing set of games that was released for the Wii U. I missed out on all of them so I'm very happy Nintendo ported over almost the entire library (still waiting for Wind Waker HD, grrr).
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Same exact thing happened to me except I couldn't get into the switch after year one due to the hardware. Switch 2 has fully brought me back though and I get to experience the Switch 1 games for the first time with upgrades and such.
 
TheMule1983 said:
Same exact thing happened to me except I couldn't get into the switch after year one due to the hardware. Switch 2 has fully brought me back though and I get to experience the Switch 1 games for the first time with upgrades and such.
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You're in for a treat! Switch 2 has excellent BC.
 
Mario 3D World is my favorite Mario platforming game and Twilight Princess HD turned me into a massive TP fan. I had some good times with Wii U games. Not to mention DKC tropical Freeze.
 
The Wii U was awesome and I have nothing but great memories of it. Switch looks like a sad joke compared to it. It built its entire success on re-releasing the same games, and the magic and passion has been totally wiped out after Iwata's passing, with only the pure business logic surviving.

A game like Nintendo Land is the perfect example of what was lost. Splatoon also saw the light of day on Wii U. Same for Breath of the Wild. And Xeno X. Bayonetta 2 was excellent. Hyrule Warriors remains the best game of the series. Project Zero was super cool too etc...

Excellent Virtual Console feature as well, with GBA games being awesome on the Gamepad.

Miiverse, in game manuals...

The console was also capable of receiving third party games without them being vastly inferior to the other consoles.
 
Not only does it have many bangers, but Nintendo, for the first time, went all out with online features and packed the fucker with tons of cool applications and personality.
 
Such a strange system, but in a way a very logical move after they made a fairly hard pivot with the original Wii. For those who were there at the time of the original Wii announcement, Nintendo suddenly looked like a very crazy and different company than the one we all had known since the dawn of modern video gaming (Donkey Kong in the arcade, Game & Watch handhelds, the NES & SNES supremacy). There was a lack of certainty about "what the hell were they thinking?!" at the time, but in hindsight all the moves they have made (Wii up to now) make a lot of sense for their continued success, as opposed to if they kept trying to compete with Sony and MS with their more "traditional" consoles, trying to outdo one another with envelope-pushing technology.

WiiU was the crucial junction that was necessary to get them to such success with Switch and, once again, to carve out a (fairly huge) niche of the market. It's difficult to imagine where Nintendo would be had they stayed the course that GameCube was charting, otherwise. Not to cast that system in a bad light, as it was obviously a necessary step as well.
 
There's a lot of great games on there and it's the last system before Nintendo went fully into open world and bloated games. It was way better than it got credit for at the time.

What's a bit of a buzzkill is that you can't get the DLC for games like Smash and Pikmin anymore, and gems like Pushmo World are just unobtanium. I remember hating that some games were released digital-only at the time, and this is exactly why.
 
nkarafo said:
Was the WiiU slightly more powerful than the XBOX 360/PS3 as the video suggests?
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As usual, it is not a case of Console1 being stricly more powerful than Console2. Something people tend to have difficulties to accept because they can't deal with nuances.

Wii U is certainly superior in the memory and GPU side, but weaker in terms of CPU. It was also a much smaller form factor and much less power hungry.
 
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I remember Wii U really well. It was ma main device (LOL) and while there were good first-party games (good and bad years), there were simply not enough good third-party games. Almost no "current gen" games, even from japanese devs (no Square Enix games, no ATLUS games...). It was already a lot better on Switch 1, but Switch 2 is a new world for Nintendo.

Btw Wii U was really bad if we talking about the OS and services, everything was slow basically. I mean really slow. And I didn't like the fact that we HAD to use the GamePad on some games even if we didn't like it. Even when you navigate on the system menu... You are using a Pro Controller, go to the settings, then... You can't use the Pro Controller anymore and need to take your GamePad. Frustration everywhere.
 
The_hunter said:
The drawing feature was cool.
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Hell yeah! ahah

I was thinking about Miiverse. I loved how this app was a fully featured social sharing platform for all existing games and how uplifting it felt. It truly enhanced the overall gaming experience, and you couldn't find that kind of feature anywhere else , and still can't today.
 
PauloRoberto said:
WiiU is the proof that great games cannot save a failed concept
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Yep. Iwata was so wrong about "all it takes is one game".
WiiU had many excellent games, but the press and the gaming community united were hell-bent on shitting on every good thing it did manage to do anyway (remember the 7/10 to Tropical Freeze?). And almost all big third-party devs weren't going to waste a second developing for it, not even porting PS360 games which would have been quite easy.

The system was horribly slow and having to use the GamePad for some functions was a bad decision, but the library was worth it.
I've never had couch multiplayer sessions with my friends again with a game like Nintendo Land.
 
I still love my Wii U, still have it set up. The Gamepad is a great Super Gameboy Advance. I skipped the Wii and it's backwards compatability is great for the few games I wanted to play (Tatsanuko vs Capcom).
 
The last good Nintendo console. Fun games, charming UI, looked sleek and built like a tank, used blu ray discs. Only problem was the mandatory gamepad.
 
PauloRoberto said:
WiiU is the proof that great games cannot save a failed concept - Good lord, WiiU's operating system is one of the slowest software i had the 'not pleasure' of use! I like to imagine how the same system would be better (or at least cheaper, of course) without the second screen (for the sake of 'what if' scenarios, let's imagine the Swich would be released regardles of WiiU game pad).
Click to expand...
I will forever contend that naming the console 'Wii U' is the worst blunder Nintendo has ever made, and I'm factoring in the Virtual Boy. There will be many a theses about how not to confuse an established fanbase crafted from this TITANIC fugg-up.
 
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I remember getting one towards the end of the life cycle and was just meh. I was so hesitant on getting a Switch because of it but woke up morning of preorders and did it on impulse and was happy I was wrong.
 
I loved it for the Virtual Console, but they screwed their Wii U and NDS/3DS users by shutting down those servers. I purchased quite a few GBA/N64/SNES/Wii games including Metroid Trilogy, Pandora's Tower, Mario Galaxy 2 and RE4. Now a days I wouldn't worry about it, but they screwed their early digital adopters. I owned all the Golden Sun GBA games and a handful of JRPGs.
 
prefer weird Wii-U (+3ds) era Nintendo to Switch era by a mile, actually

Miiverse was fun and different. Nintendoland was actually a fantastic family game, probably the most fun we had on local multiplayer with the kids to date. 3D World was better than Odyssey. And in general I love the way it didn't feel like other consoles.

oh and second-screen for inventories (like the GC Zelda remakes) and maps was perfect, actually a great idea that we've lost
 
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Deerock71 said:
I will forever contend that naming the console 'Wii U' is the worst blunder Nintendo has ever made, and I'm factoring in the Virtual Boy. There will be many a theses about how not to confuse an established fanbase crafted from this TITANIC fugg-up.
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IMHO? Xbox ONE being relaased AFTER Xbox 360 is way worse, if we are discussing only names :-D But Wiiu presentation, where we simply almost could not see the fu**ing device... for God's sake!
 
I cannot put it into words, but for some reason I adored the Wii u. I loved the menu, I loved the concept, I loved the games. I'd love to see a second try at it, maybe with 3DS-style 3D on the tablet.

It feels like there's a lot of untapped potential with it.
 
Jack Package said:
I cannot put it into words, but for some reason I adored the Wii u. I loved the menu, I loved the concept, I loved the games. I'd love to see a second try at it, maybe with 3DS-style 3D on the tablet.

It feels like there's a lot of untapped potential with it.
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On paper it sounds like the second GameCube but made at the wrong time.
 
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ResurrectedContrarian said:
prefer weird Wii-U (+3ds) era Nintendo to Switch era by a mile, actually

Miiverse was fun and different. Nintendoland was actually a fantastic family game, probably the most fun we had on local multiplayer with the kids to date. 3D World was better than Odyssey. And in general I love the way it didn't feel like other consoles.

oh and second-screen for inventories (like the GC Zelda remakes) and maps was perfect, actually a great idea that we've lost
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We know what we are talking about and not clueless as Jensen Huang says.
 
Nintendo tried.

At launch (or soon after), didnt Wii U have some popular games like COD, EA Sports, Batman, AC, Mass Effect? Same hit games as 360 and PS3. So Ninty and third parties tried. And from what I remember they were just as good.

Seemed like Nintendo gamers didnt care though. As always a first party game system.
 
Good system and interesting idea on paper, but hampered by the controller. Nintendo's big problem after the N64 was needing to have a gimmick every system. I guess in some ways, that's what kept them alive since they flat out said they weren't trying to compete with Sony/Microsoft. But yeah, it led to gimmicky titles which hampered the experience and made it feel dated.
 
cireza said:
The Wii U was awesome and I have nothing but great memories of it. Switch looks like a sad joke compared to it. It built its entire success on re-releasing the same games, and the magic and passion has been totally wiped out after Iwata's passing, with only the pure business logic surviving.

A game like Nintendo Land is the perfect example of what was lost. Splatoon also saw the light of day on Wii U. Same for Breath of the Wild. And Xeno X. Bayonetta 2 was excellent. Hyrule Warriors remains the best game of the series. Project Zero was super cool too etc...

Excellent Virtual Console feature as well, with GBA games being awesome on the Gamepad.

Miiverse, in game manuals...

The console was also capable of receiving third party games without them being vastly inferior to the other consoles.
Click to expand...

Ceadeus said:
Not only does it have many bangers, but Nintendo, for the first time, went all out with online features and packed the fucker with tons of cool applications and personality.
Click to expand...

I like the Switch, but man does it lack soul.

Against all logic, I was hoping the Switch 2 would get some of that back but it didn't. No dual screen. No eGPU. No stylus. Just boring and I haven't used mine in months.

The Wii U was plain good fun. I loved the tablet controller, especially with the larger battery.
 
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I like games on WiiU - but it's core concept really didn't do anything for me. I didn't play games on is game pad, nor really utilized much. At least the pad screen was better than Dreamcast's VMU as I couldn't see anything during gameplay when I played in dark.

Plus Wii BC, it had a lot of things dangling around, which I thought Wii was already too cumbersome... but adding additional charger dock and all - I didn't like at all.

But it had some banger games + BOTW, which feels like technical marvel running on it.

GC had RE4 that floored me, and Wii U - it was BOTW. I am more critical on Wii actually - partially because it was too in-between HD and SD.
 
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