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 It was a modest lineup, and many people balked at the mildly outdated technology and few games offered.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

 

[lordelan]

Still my fav console ever.

 

[fille]

i still have mine,almost 60 games,only the exclusives and it is hacked now with cbh.
but its still like new,but i collecting consoles,never do it away till i can't game anymore,probably cause i'm to old then.

 

[Glyptofane]

I love my Wii U to this day. I regularly play it, and it's an excellent device for watching anime on the TV with friends. The games were great, even if 3rd party support was crud.
May the console rest in peace!

Amen, brother. I hope to be playing my Wii U for at least another 5 years to come.

 

[Hells Malice]

A better paper weight than a console.
Putting it into perspective that it only now turns 5 is probably the most pathetic thing to realize. But i'm glad Nintendo moved on from that abysmal failure and actually made a really awesome console, that they advertised and actually had the games in the works to support it.

 

[Mariko]

Congrats on a 5 years of failure!

Oh, what a witty and grammatically correct comment. Anyone who shares this opinion can go and suck it. Seriously. Wii U was and still is a great console, and just because it doesn't suit the commercial tastes of GTA, CS:GO, CoD or whatever the current fad game fans, doesn't make it a failure. Wii U was more successful than you'll ever be, and it's a mass produced piece of consumer hardware, while you're a human being. Makes one think. Go watch a video of some dude yelling at the screen while he's streaming an FPS. That seems to be your scene.

 

[BQuail]

Oh, what a witty and grammatically correct comment. Anyone who shares this opinion can go and suck it. Seriously. Wii U was and still is a great console, and just because it doesn't suit the commercial tastes of GTA, CS:GO, CoD or whatever the current fad game fans, doesn't make it a failure. Wii U was more successful than you'll ever be, and it's a mass produced piece of consumer hardware, while you're a human being. Makes one think. Go watch a video of some dude yelling at the screen while he's streaming an FPS. That seems to be your scene.

WAAAAAAAAAH!! Someone doesn't like what I like! Cry some more why don't ya.

 

[Mariko]

WAAAAAAAAAH!! Someone doesn't like what I like!

I don't like this go-to negative opinion so many people seem to have about the Wii U. People, who in most cases aren't the target audience. What I like is constructive criticism. Nice way to contribute, by the way. Keep writing things like that, and you might be in the 20s on your post count by Monday, noob.

 

[BQuail]

I don't like this go-to negative opinion so many people seem to have about the Wii U. People, who in most cases aren't the target audience. What I like is constructive criticism. Nice way to contribute, by the way. Keep writing things like that, and you might be in the 20s on your post count by Monday, noob.

Lol. That was so ridiculous I could pick apart every single sentence. But I’ll just say this. I actually enjoy the Wii U. I just thought it was pathetic the way you pissed your pants with rage and personally insulted over a silly, throw-away joke. But hey, gotta do something to make yourself feel better about your miserable, basement dwelling life.

 

[RustInPeace]

This reminds me that my youngest sister's birthday is tomorrow. Interesting. I got the Wii U in December 2014, the 32GB black deluxe edition that came with Super Mario 3D World and Nintendo Land. Almost 3 years and I still have never ever ever taken them out of their cases. Yeah, someday maybe. The real games I bought for support were Bayonetta 1&2, Mario Kart 8, and Super Smash Bros. I didn't play much MK8, but I played a whole lot of the other games. I also got a Gamecube controller and the adapter, it was bundled with SSB4. A Wii U Pro controller for Bayonetta. That was enough for me, I would like to get more games, but given the timing of when I got the console, at the end of its peak year, I'm more interested in getting a Switch. I don't know why it was made, it wasn't so much a successor of the Wii, but rather a stunted evolution, whereas Switch is the true successor. For that, it has such an awkward legacy, like a better version of Virtual Boy. Except Wii U was unintentional. An unintentional buffer between Wii and Switch. I never got with the main controller, it begged an investment in the Wii U Pro. Maybe without Wii U though, there wouldn't be a Switch. Like if there was no Dragon Ball Evolution, there wouldn't be the Dragon Ball Z movies and Dragon Ball Super. A failure can be appreciated for at least giving way to a success.

 

[Deleted User]

I don't like this go-to negative opinion so many people seem to have about the Wii U. People, who in most cases aren't the target audience. What I like is constructive criticism. Nice way to contribute, by the way. Keep writing things like that, and you might be in the 20s on your post count by Monday, noob.

I remember much confusion at the launch.
Lots of People asked the Salsesman at my lokal Media store whether the WiiU is a new console or just an Wii Console with a new Controller.

 

[DarthDub]

I love my Wii U so much. It's a better homebrew machine than the Wii! I can play Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games with the Gamepad thanks to Wii VC injects! Can also play a lot of older game systems thanks to Retroarch. I'm also typing this from my Wii U Gamepad as we speak!

 

[Deleted User]

The Wii U was, in my opinion, the Sega Saturn of its generation. While I see Nintendo fans often comparing it to the Dreamcast instead of the Saturn, doing that seems to ignore the position both companies were in when they launched their respective consoles.

Both systems were released riding high on the heels of a very popular console, yet failed to deliver. Both systems had botched marketing, leaving many consumers either confused or uninterested. Both systems were missing some key players that could have made the system more successful (I'm not saying that Super Mario 3D World is as bad as Sonic 3D Blast, quite the contrary, but it certainly wasn't what people were expecting from a 3D Mario game. We also lacked any new titles from franchises like Metroid, and, until the very end of console's lifespan, Zelda).

Both systems were representative of a company at it's lowest; both systems were what forced their respective companies to reconsider their approaches, their strategies at competing within the gaming market.
Yet both systems had their fair share of excellent and unorthodox games, games that honestly didn't deserve the system they were released on.

The Nintendo Switch seems to be doing an excellent job at making a comeback for Nintendo, perhaps better than the Dreamcast was doing for SEGA. Let's hope Nintendo won't share SEGA's fate.

 

[Taleweaver]

The wiiu is imho Nintendo's Dreamcast: an awesome system with great (but few) games, sided with terrible marketing and even worse timing.

The marketing is in the name. The E3 announcement was a joke (the actual announcement ended with a "huh... So what's the new name" feeling), third party support dropped quickly and sales with it. And while EA certainly played it dirty and e.g. sold mass effect 3 Wii for the same price as the trilogy elsewhere, it wasn't just their fault. Ubisoft couldn't break even on zombiiu because development costs were to high and everybody just bought the systems for a freaking Mario side scroller.
Worse: after Nintendo announced (but before release date), Sony and Microsoft announced their next gen consoles, thus directly stealing all the wind in the wiiu's sales.

End result: the poor thing was on a downward spiral from the start. Tablets were barely less in tech and much more mobile, consoles (and their support) were on yet another raised standard and Nintendo did their usual innovation (which is not what people really want if you look clear enough).

... But the actual system is more than decent. I've got mine since launch day and had plenty of great hours with it. I've used the fit tracker to jog, played through Batman, Rayman and nsmbu (there's no denying: it's a good platformer). Nintendo land had some fun party moments. And it did what competition didn't: full backwards compatibility.

In the end, i can't deny that the best feature few on me: the offscreen modus. These days, i game a lot on it while sitting next to my girlfriend who watches television. That the having scene allows Wii games and GameCube games to be played this way only increases that greatness.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

A better paper weight than a console.
Putting it into perspective that it only now turns 5 is probably the most pathetic thing to realize. But i'm glad Nintendo moved on from that abysmal failure and actually made a really awesome console, that they advertised and actually had the games in the works to support it.

When I saw this thread in the recent content list I thought it was like a 2 or 3 year old bump, I can't believe it's legit only been 5 years since the Wii Useless launched. How depressing.

At least Nintendo realized it was shit and expedited the Switch. Even if I don't particularly like how the Switch turned out, I can definitely say it's a much better console than the Wii U was.

 

[fille]

i like the switch and own 1,but why can't nintendo makes a console with xbox one x specs,always that lowend hardware,its because i like nintendo and their games that i each time buy their consoles,but i hope their next console will be on par or even more power full than xbox one x or ps5.

 

[DarthDub]

The Wii U was, in my opinion, the Sega Saturn of its generation. While I see Nintendo fans often comparing it to the Dreamcast instead of the Saturn, doing that seems to ignore the position both companies were in when they launched their respective consoles.

Both systems were released riding high on the heels of a very popular console, yet failed to deliver. Both systems had botched marketing, leaving many consumers either confused or uninterested. Both systems were missing some key players that could have made the system more successful (I'm not saying that Super Mario 3D World is as bad as Sonic 3D Blast, quite the contrary, but it certainly wasn't what people were expecting from a 3D Mario game. We also lacked any new titles from franchises like Metroid, and, until the very end of console's lifespan, Zelda).

Both systems were representative of a company at it's lowest; both systems were what forced their respective companies to reconsider their approaches, their strategies at competing within the gaming market.
Yet both systems had their fair share of excellent and unorthodox games, games that honestly didn't deserve the system they were released on.

The Nintendo Switch seems to be doing an excellent job at making a comeback for Nintendo, perhaps better than the Dreamcast was doing for SEGA. Let's hope Nintendo won't share SEGA's fate.

Just a reminder that the Wii U sold more than the Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast combined. I personally don't see Wii U as a failure when there's over 15 million sales worldwide. For comparison, that's 50% of people that own an X-BOX One at 30 million sales. Interesting, huh?

 

[lordkaos]

Incredible, only just 5 years and it is already dead.

 

[Deleted User]

Incredible, only just 5 years and it is already dead.

Well, the Console still has a life of it´s own thanks to Homebrew.

 

[supergamer368]

Wii U’s fun, but I just bought a Switch

 

[dpad_5678]

It's really not a terrible console.

The Wii remote and nunchucks felt great and didn't hurt your hand after long periods of use. The Wii U Pro Controller was also very nice feeling, and the gamepad too if it weren't for the trashy screen resolution.

The thing is, the console was way too underpowered thus limiting it on every level.