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Our next console special podcast recording (20.11.22): Nintendo Wii U (Patreon)

Published:
2022-11-09 13:51:33
Imported:
2022-11

Content

Please post your recollections and opinions of the Nintendo Wii U here for potential inclusion in the podcast.

Comments

DaMonth

The Wonderful 101 was like one of maybe 3 games that actually bothered to build its mechanics around the console but I still remember this console fondly. Sort of. Even if the Gamepad feels sort of Playmobil in retrospect.

Matthew Lawrence

I remember seeing the Wii U on launch day and being astonished, partly cos it wasn’t sold out like I’d expected, but also the price. 380 euro for the most expensive bundle! Blimey. I didn’t pick up one till a year later, a cheap 8gb console off gumtree to play the windwaker HD. I went into the Wii U really wanting to be impressed cos the concept was right up my street, specially still living in a one tv household at this time. But the reality was disappointing. The console itself looks fine I suppose. But the game pad is an unpleasant, bulky controller, looking more like a large child’s toy that a controller. The screen was tiny and low res. Fortunately for a console with a relatively low line span, it was saved by its incredible line up of first party games, even if they’re nearly all on switch now. And it had an excellent virtual console function, which is sorely missed now. Windwaker and twilight princess HD, Mario 3D world, Nintendo land, zombi U, donkey kong tropical freeze, xenoblade, breath of the wild, splatoon, Mario maker, to name but a few. Most importantly, the Wii U unquestionably laid the groundwork for the far better executed Switch. An interesting console then, great games, but not one I remember with much affection.

Danny Spiteri

The Wii U is a system that I'll always be extremely fond of due to the sheer quality of exclusives at the time. How many systems can boast a library of the quality of MK8, Nintendo Land, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, DKC: Tropical Freeze... the list goes on. Fortunately, most of these have made their way to Switch so they're not stuck on a console with a low install base. I saw glimpses of the potential of the gamepad but it rarely reached that potential. A beautiful but flawed experiment

Ben

The Wii U feels like a failed first draft of the Switch: it has some cool features that were dropped for Switch and failed to really differentiate itself enough from the Wii to be successful. The second screen was great for games like Wind Waker, yet an annoying part of games like Star Fox Zero. There were definitely some gems on the system like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, Super Mario 3D World, New Super Mario Bros U, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and most of all for me the NES Remix games. What you’ll note is that most of those games have excellent ports or sequels on the Switch. I guess that’s all to say that there’s little to go back to this system for and Nintendo needs to bring back the NES Remix series.

Richard Perryman

The Wii U is such an underrated gem. I went in with less than zero expectation, picking one up second-hand, only because of the cheap ports of games that were trickling on to the Switch. “Why pay £50 for Donkey Kong when you can buy the original for 10?!?” (Although, no Funky Kong) Despite the unwealding controller, and the overly complicated user-interface, you can see how much Nintendo tried to make it a success in the face of a spectacular failure after the successful Wii. The Wonderful ‘Virtual console’ still exceeds the ‘e-shop’, despite the dodgy N64 emulator. The first party software released, I would argue, stands up next to any other Nintendo console. An underrated gem. It’s like a underground art-rock album that will only get the credit it deserves long after it’s gone.

Neil Piper

Apologies for the wall of text, I have quite a lot of fond memories of the Wii U. I got to try it out at a prerelease event in 2012, which was the only time I’ve been invited to a console launch hype event. ZombiU was the highlight, for a Nintendo event I don't remember much Mario or Zelda which in retrospect is a bit telling. My former roommate picked one up at launch, and going over to play Nintendo Land every week (with a generous amount of the pachinko mini game) remain as good memories from a tough time in my early adult life. I watched my favorite American football team win the Super Bowl, following along and voting on what I thought would happen next with the laggy and soon retired TVii service on the gamepad. I think I must have been the target audience for the system, I tried all the gimmicks and features at least once. Probably because of that, in 2013 I was hired on as a Nintendo phone support contractor. I ended up getting let go when it became clear the Wii U was not going to sell enough to justify all of us being there... They brought me back later as a product tester (the department has been in the gaming news recently for unfortunate reasons, as a 24 year old straight white guy I didn’t notice any untoward things when I was there in 2014, but also I was just excited to be there and less aware of systemic issues than I and I think society is today) and got put to work on Wii Sports Club, the oft forgotten Wii Sports sequel. Even after hours of testing gamepad enhanced Baseball and Boxing (I swear they made the boxing controls worse in the last month and I have no idea why) I still ended up picking up a Zelda edition Wii U for myself after my contract ended. Nintendo's desperate buy Mario Kart 8 get a game free promo helped make it an easy decision. Since then I have made many great memories playing ridiculous 8 player Smash 4 matches with work friends, blocking out time for Splatoon Splatfests, and trying to play as many asymetrical games like Runbow and Affordable Space Adventures as I could afford. The Switch does much of what the Wii U did but better, but Wii U was a quirky and unique console for a unique time in my life, and I'm deeply glad for my time with it.

BlueWeaselBreath

I love the Wii U. I wasn’t playing console games at the time in my life when the Wii U was new, so my first hands-on experience with the hardware—besides trying it out at a department store kiosk—was when I bought a broken Wii U gamepad and disassembled it to make it into a handheld Retropie machine (a project that’s unfortunately still not done, I’m afraid). A few years later, I had bought a Nintendo Switch and realized that there were a ton of games that might never get ported over—nor could they ever be emulated properly without the gamepad. So I decided to buy a used Wii U and stock up on old first-party titles and other console exclusives that I might never be able to experience again any other way. I had a great time with Yoshi’s Woolly World and Wind Waker HD. I messed around with Zombie U, one of the cheapest Wii U games on store shelves, for a few hours when we had guests over, and even if I never go back to it again, I feel like I got my money’s worth. I have a copy of Nintendo Land waiting for when my kids are old enough to appreciate it and play it with me. I have Twilight Princess and Paper Mario Color Splash for that time, which may never come, when I’ll have a lot of free time to catch up on my backlog. I bought Super Mario Maker right before they killed the servers and downloaded the best courses. Due to the unique game experience possible in games that implement the second screen the best, the Wii U is the first console that I have felt the desire to build a curated collection for. And it’s a recent enough system that the games are affordable still. I understand why the Wii U failed to catch on, but I really do dig the gamepad integration when it’s done right. I happen to like the fat, chunky feel of the gamepad controller. And there were some great games! So the Wii U may be a commercial failure, but it’s a winner for me!

TomRed89

Approximately 10 years ago to the day, I picked up my launch day Wii U console from my local JB Hi-Fi in Australia. I got the black model because it came with Nintendo Land, had more internal storage and, well, because it just looked better. In fact, it is probably my favourite looking console to date. Sleek, simple, yet elegant in its own way. I also picked up NSMBU, and was so excited to see my favourite franchise take its first step into high definition, something we just take for granted these days. While I will agree that the name “Wii U” was a poor choice and can be attributed, at least partly, to poor sales, I still think it was a great console with fresh ideas. A fully integrated social media platform where you can share screenshots, hints and fanart? Sign me up. A built-in microphone and stylus in the gamepad was also something I felt was lacking on the Switch. Not to mention the vast library of Virtual Console games on offer and the brilliant exclusive library, which has been largely ported to the Switch - a true testament to their quality.

John Gordon

I managed to pick up a new Wii U 'Basic' a couple of years after release from the struggling Australian electronics retailer Dick Smith for the equivalent of about 70 pounds and ended up having a blast with it. My two children were in mid primary school during this time and so this provided their first introdcution to a Nintendo console and their first Mario Kart and Super Mario games (through the wonderful 3D World). My son also adored the creativity of drawing up his own levels in Mario Maker and did this for several hundred hours. Despite poor sales Nintendo still put out a typically stellar crop of first party games that kept my family very happy, and the backwards compatibility with the original Wii opened up many more of their earlier gems like the Mario Galaxy. As an enthusiast with other consoles to complement the Nintendo offering, there was little for me to complain about with the Wii U. As the console struggled in the marketplace I was always on the lookout for games on clearance as retailers gave up on it, and did very well. Around the time Mario Kart 8 was released there was a promotion where each retail copy included a Club Nintendo code to redeem an additional free bonus digital game. I found it was possible to bypass the one coupon per account limit by creating new Club Nintendo accounts for every box code and then still redeem the selected game rewards on my single main Nintendo online account. I ended up buying 5 copies of Mario Kart and redeeming codes for many of the best bonus games and then selling the extra copies of Mario Kart. I was only a few dollars down all said and done, with digital versions Pikmin 3, Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, and others to enjoy!

James McCaul

What a great console. A stepping stone between the all conquering Wii and Switch it really showed how brave Nintendo has been with their new hardware compared to Sony and Microsoft. In a most un-Nintendo like move, my first Wii U bricked on the day of release. But I picked up a replacement the next day and still have it now. I enjoyed the Zelda re-releases a lot and a few other games but it was mostly for me a great way to keep my Wii catalogue alive (via HDMI) and also lots of fun with the virtual console titles.

Sean Fletcher

As much as I've always gone into bat for the Wii U I don't actually own very many games for it and I never spent all that much time with it. The games I do are all wonderful and mostly first party nintendo fare. I guess because I also had a PS3/X360 and then later PS4/XBONE I would normally pick up multi platform games on those as they were often considered the better version. There were some notable exceptions, I mean, if you haven't played Tekken Tag Tournament 2 cosplaying as Toad or Bowser have you really played Tekken Tag Tournament 2? I sometimes wonder if things could have been different had Nintendo marketed it a little differently, or whether it was just a case of wrong product, wrong time. Nintendo obviously thought this too, as they had another go at proper portability with the switch and that has been an overwhelming success. As an added bonus now they had somewhere to port all those sweet Wii U games that no one played!

Alex Swerdloff

I picked up a used Wii U after the Switch launched so I could experience at least some of the GameCube, GBA, and Wii games I missed out on. It might not have that much merit post Switch as a console with its own identity —especially since so much of the library has been ported—but as a way to explore Nintendo’s back catalogue, the Wii U definitely has charm and merit.

BlueWeaselBreath

Addendum: I don’t know if I would have gotten so jazzed about the Wii U if it was just me, a nearly 40-year-old man. But having young kids, the Wii U gamepad is a super fun toy and makes gaming sessions quite interactive, really validating Iwata’s vision. We can all watch on the big screen as my daughter moves Kirby around in Rainbow Curse, or reach over and help her squish the little robots storming the gamepad in Game and Wario. The Switch is my number one console right now, but I have to admit, it can’t pull the whole family into the action in quite the same way as the Wii U can.