November 18, 2012 was a big day; Nintendo had just released its latest console onto the market. The Wii U was ready for the spotlight, armed with its tablet controller and exclusives like Nintendoland and New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo was ready to move into the "HD" era. Offering two variations, a white 8GB console that retailed for $299.99, and a 32GB black version, for $349.99. Bundled with it came the infamous Wii U tablet controller, Nintendoland, and the system itself. Those who purchased the console on launch also had access to third party ports and titles like Assassin's Creed III, Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition, and Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed. It was a modest lineup, and many people balked at the mildly outdated technology and few games offered. Nintendo had high hopes for its console, projecting sales of 90 million units.

The Wii U would go on to get mild third party support, with ports of games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate, and Mass Effect 3. Ubisoft had planned to really back the Wii U, but when sales weren't up to expectations, the publisher began to turn its back on the console, to the point of taking the then to-be Wii U exclusive Rayman Legends, and making it multiplatform. Competition from stronger consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 further hurt the Wii U, as customers weren't swayed to buy a weaker console with few exclusives. Nintendo looked to be in a bind--their 2013 lineup would be crucial if they wanted to turn around their low sales.

The following year brought a good chunk of games to the table. There was a mainline Mario game in the co-op focused platformer, Super Mario 3D World. A classic Zelda game from the GameCube era got a fresh coat of high def paint with Wind Waker HD. Pikmin 3 hit store shelves to moderate praise, and SEGA signed a contract with Nintendo to create three Sonic games for the Wii U, one of which being Sonic Lost World. However, it wasn't enough. Sales foundered, and the Wii U continued being ridiculed by many.

2014 was certainly a turnaround year for the system. Nintendo came out of the gate strong; their highly anticipated Super Smash Bros. title was released after years of teasing. SEGA had given an unlikely sequel in the form of Bayonetta 2. In-house studio Retro put out what was considered one of the best platformers in years: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Nintendo fans cheered as a new Mario Kart game finally revved into full gear. An even more unlikely alliance occurred when Koei Tecmo and Nintendo partnered to create Hyrule Warriors. Nintendo Nindies was established to give indie devs incentive to put their games on the console, which resulted in beloved games like Shovel Knight, Freedom Planet, and Shantae. Things were looking much brighter for the Wii U.

2015 kept up the pace with a sequel to a well established Wii RPG, Xenoblade Chronicles X, had an overnight success with the creative online shooter Splatoon, and had even more success with Mario Maker. In the end, though, all these games were not enough to save the Wii U from selling abysmally. With the aforementioned library, it has a solid amount of cult classics, well enough to be remembered for years after. Nintendo however, would halt production on the Wii U before the system could have a 5th birthday. Today, the Wii U turns five years old. Though the Switch now overshadows it, the Wii U still made an impact.

What are your fondest memories of the Wii U? Were you a fan? Did you dislike it? Are you yet to purchase one at all, or were you a loyal early adopter? Be sure you share your comments below!

 

[Hells Malice]

20 fps? Sure when it was first released. Then it got patches to fix it.

Fix is a very strong word.
It made it slightly less shit on the WiiU, and fantastic on the Switch even when not in handheld mode (which ran flawlessly from launch luckily).
The best part about it being on WiiU is now an emulator has enabled people to play it with the capabilities of PC hardware (and horrifying modding ability).

 

[VinsCool]

Fix is a very strong word.
It made it slightly less shit on the WiiU, and fantastic on the Switch even when not in handheld mode (which ran flawlessly from launch luckily).
The best part about it being on WiiU is now an emulator has enabled people to play it with the capabilities of PC hardware (and horrifying modding ability).

I have to agree about the fix part. Surely not perfect, but sensitively running a lot better now. Obviously we're talking about the WiiU's weak hardware, and it's honestly already impressive it could run such a massive game.

 

[DarthDub]

Fix is a very strong word.
It made it slightly less shit on the WiiU, and fantastic on the Switch even when not in handheld mode (which ran flawlessly from launch luckily).
The best part about it being on WiiU is now an emulator has enabled people to play it with the capabilities of PC hardware (and horrifying modding ability).

I'm sure if Iwata was still alive we wouldn't have had framerate issues.

 

[Missing Number]

i wish switch and wii u switched places, with the single screen experience coming first, and the dual screen following after, released as a hub for both the switch and 3ds to connect multiple to the tv while having a brain of its own for added power

and the poster boy for this "Switch Hub" would be The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Epic ~ a multiplayer expansion to Breath of the Wild

 

[xpoverzion]

actually, releasing it on wii u was pointless
why wasting your money on wii u botw, knowing its the last 1st party game for the console, instead of investing more into the switch where you can get the same game(with better graphics btw) and get more 1st party games
honnestly, 95% of people who buy nintendo consoles do it for 1st party game
the rest, rare people, buy it for 3rd party game

now i have a question, is 2nd party game a thing?

Why waste your money on a wii u botw??? How about because the Wii U can also play 1000's of other games that span Nintendo's entire 30 year history?? Compare that to switch which only has 5-10 titles worth playing at the moment. Those that know anything about Nintendo gaming know that the Wii U is vastly superior to the switch in terms of bang for the buck and number of titles, new, and classic that can be played on it. Maybe in about 5 years the switch will be worth buying as it's library matures, as well as the possibility of hacking it. Even by then, the Wii U will still be a console worth owning for all it's flexibility, and huge game library that spans 30 years.

 

[Kioku]

Why waste your money on a wii u botw??? How about because the Wii U can also play 1000's of other games that span Nintendo's entire 30 year history?? Compare that to switch which only has 5-10 titles worth playing at the moment. Those that know anything about Nintendo gaming know that the Wii U is vastly superior to the switch in terms of bang for the buck and number of titles, new, and classic that can be played on it.

Argument doesn't hold water. Come back in 4 years. If it's the same? Then cool. The switch has only been around for 8 months.

I get your point, but it's just not valid to compare an old console to a brand new one that's still building its library.

VC is coming sooner or later (hopefully sooner) and we're already getting decent third party support.. Even if it's currently rereleases, but that just opens the door to Third Party exclusives that we missed out on with the Wii U.

 

[Noctosphere]

Why waste your money on a wii u botw??? How about because the Wii U can also play 1000's of other games that span Nintendo's entire 30 year history?? Compare that to switch which only has 5-10 titles worth playing at the moment. Those that know anything about Nintendo gaming know that the Wii U is vastly superior to the switch in terms of bang for the buck and number of titles, new, and classic that can be played on it. Maybe in about 5 years the switch will be worth buying as it's library matures, as well as the possibility of hacking it. Even by then, the Wii U will still be a console worth owning for all it's flexibility, and huge game library that spans 30 years.

wtf are you talking about?
when did i say wii u wasnt worth buying?
i said BOTW WII U wasnt worth, because everyone will move to the switch for more exclusivity
dont dream boy, botw was the last game for this console, nothing new will come out of it.
what im saying is, if youre a nintendo fanboy, better to get botw on switch rather than wii u

 

[RowanDDR]

Lol at people saying Switch BOTW has "better graphics".

 

[Noctosphere]

Lol at people saying Switch BOTW has "better graphics".

why?

 

[Kioku]

why?

inb4 cemu

 

[Noctosphere]

inb4 cemu

lol, i hope you realise cemu is a wii u emulator,
switch still has better graphics than "cemu version"

 

[Kioku]

lol, i hope you realise cemu is a wii u emulator,
switch still has better graphics than "cemu version"

Alright, don't be THAT guy. Yes, I'm well aware that CEMU is an emulator. I'm also well aware that BotW looks and feels infinitely better with those tweaks on CEMU..

 

[Noctosphere]

Alright, don't be THAT guy. Yes, I'm well aware that CEMU is an emulator. I'm also well aware that BotW looks and feels infinitely better with those tweaks on CEMU..

seems like you havent tryed switch version

 

[Kioku]

seems like you havent tryed switch version

First version I've tried. It's clear you haven't tried the modified version. The Switch version looks beautiful, but when you take away the limitations of the hardware, the game looks MUCH better.

 

[Noctosphere]

First version I've tried. It's clear you haven't tried the modified version. The Switch version looks beautiful, but when you take away the limitations of the hardware, the game looks MUCH better.

cemu now allows to remove hardware limit?
i didnt know, thanks for telling me

 

[SG854]

Lol at people saying Switch BOTW has "better graphics".

Ya that didn't make sense to me either. It runs at a better frame rate and a higher resolution but graphics are the same. If they made any tweaks to graphics then they are very minor.

Never should've called it Wii U. Biggest mistake in Nintendo history.

Stupidest console name they ever came up with.

Nintenyearolds deluding themselves that the WiiU is a good console is amazing. Good consoles don't live for 3 years. That's not actually a thing.
You might be able to derive a small speck of worth out of the very small pool of exclusives, because what it did have were great, but there's no denying it was an absolute failure. Poor advertising, poor branding, poor 3rd party support, poor 1st party support, underpowered last gen specs. It had absolutely nothing going for it. Nintendo ending its life early was a clear cut, undeniable, admittance that it was a failure. Any delusions of success are simply human nature to try and justify a purchase. Hell I bought the thing at launch, and did have fun on it, but that doesn't change the truth.



Oh yeah BOTW on WiiU makes the switch soo pointless.
What with the WiiU's SOLID 20 FPS if you stand still looking at a wall, and god forbid you go anywhere near Kakariko. Enjoy crashes and even worse FPS just for being there. Enjoy those frame drops below 20 just for moving.
Mm yeah totally makes the switch irrelevant.
(even though it already has a bigger library of AAA exclusives than the WiiU, not even a year after its release)

I got the Wii U Breath of the Wild since the second week it came out, I did over 100 shrines and beat the game and not once did it crash on me.

I do like the Wii U because its 3 consoles in one. It natively supports Gamecube, Wii and Wii U over HDMI. Even though the Wii supports component cable (HDMI and Component basically outputs the same picture quality) my tv upscaler sucks so having the Wii U upscale my Gamecube and Wii games is much better.

But other than recently hacking I barley played my Wii U. I got the top games released for it, they were cool but I didn't like the Wii U much. Until I hacked it, now its my best hacked console as of right now especially with emulators.

 

[SG854]

Have you tried either to back this statement?
Or are you just flaming for the sake of flaming?

You know a lot of people say that, but I don't even know if its true or not. They say that with Breath of the Wild and with the new Mario Odyssey game. I mean big name companies like EA can pay to get good reviews for Battle Front 2 and yet that game still got slightly above average reviews. If big name companies can pay their way to get good 9's and 10's reviews then how come many aren't doing it.

I'm hoping to find one in the 120-150 range. We have 52 dollars right now that we have collectively gotten from change and college campus surveys.
I haven't really found one there yet. The best i have seen are on amazon

Oh wow, how do you plan on getting games for it as they cost money? Are you hacking to pirate? If so then your going to need to get yourself a spare HDD and SD if you don't have one already which is even more money.

 

[Sathya]

i love wii u because also can play wii games.
but why wii u is failure? so the best nintendo console is wii or switch?

 

[GunzOfNavarone]

I didn't pick one up until a few years down the line and even then the price of it hadn't dropped, but the games had. I purchased the games I wanted which were mainly exclusives and then shortly after IOSU was released, so I installed it and sold all the games. I've still got it set up on my TV and play it every so often as it had some decent games, sadly though not enough.

 

[Jayro]

Let's not forget the regular Wii turned 11 today.