The Nintendo Wii U turns 5 years old

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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 It was a modest lineup, and many people balked at the mildly outdated technology and few games offered.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!
 

Stephano

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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.
No, we do plan on purchasing BotW, we are just taking things one step at a time.
 

WhiteMaze

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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?

Yeh. It's called Mario + Rabbids and it looks atrocious.
 

FAST6191

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hmm, feels older than that.

That said I usually pay more attention to the drawn out deaths of consoles and assume they had a life beforehand. Such an assumption would not play in the case of the wii u.
 

chrisman02

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Huh. The Wii U had its own version of Smash Bros?

Really shows how little hype there was around the U and how much it failed. I didn't realize it had already been out 5 years and I didn't even know there was a version of Smash on it.
 

FAST6191

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Those five years will always be known as "The Dark Ages of Nintendo".
The wii had withered on the vine for several years prior to the wii u being pushed out, and other than the wii (which itself has a list of asterisks several pages long) Nintendo's home consoles had not exactly been competitive since the SNES.
 

Reecey

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My fondest memory of the WiiU was waiting for Super Mario 3D World which was a huge disappointment when it arrived! :( Even though the WiiU flopped, yes I was one of the many that pre-ordered it with ZombiU Premium Package and paid a whopping £329.99p from Game, compared to my Nintendo Switch buy, which now I feel really ripped off! I think the WiiU had so much potential it was sadly let down and the fact they kept you hanging all the while with Zelda Breath of Wild that did not go down well with fans! also trolling it to death with the Wii blend in, ruined it for many! you felt like in the end all you where getting was a Wii+, not a new console..
 
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depaul

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Today I turned on my WiiU and noticed the Mii was shut down permanently, besides even the Warawara plaza only gives you "old" "generic" Mii messages, like : "You can connect to internet and play with friends"... etc. I know it's no big deal, but it just made me sad. I really loved my Wii U :(
 
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The Wii U was a console with horrible marketing and awesome games. I've had a lot of fun with it, but it failed so hard from the first months that it quickly became a heavy weight for Nintendo.
 

DJPlace

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i would only but the wii u to play emulators on but the xbox is better for that sadly...
 

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