Feedback What do you think of the Wii U in 2026?

Marc_LFD · 2026-09-16T19:28:39+0100

BlazeHeatnix said:
Everything? You sure about that? Because in terms of pure raw power, and portability, yeah, sure. But don't act like that second screen is some little footnote. That second screen was the only reason DS VC titles were even possible. Without doing a complete remake or source code port (like the Mega Man collections), how do you expect any DS game to get re-released without a second screen? Especially a second screen that isn't like a smart phone and is actually pressure-resistant and designed for precise stylus movement.

I can't even call the joycons an improvement over the Wiimote, because gyroscope aiming is no replacement for an IR sensor. The gamepad had an IR sensor built into it, so why couldn't the Switch? Instead, I have to resync my joycons constantly and this causes them to sometimes outright fail to register, which never happened with my Wiimote. All for the """convenience""" of having a sensor bar not take up space on your entertainment system.

And that's not even mentioning things like the UI being the same boring, boxy, corporate crap we've been seeing since the PS4, multiplayer being paid yet still a joke, and the emulation somehow being even worse than WiiU's.

And furthermore, compared to Wii/WiiU, hardly any developers actually take advantage of the Switch's strengths. When's the last time you've seen a game use HD rumble? And beyond that, what does the Switch even have? The advantage the Wii/WiiU had (the DS/3DS as well) was that you got unique game experiences you couldn't get anywhere else. That was what defined Nintendo from 2004-2017 and it's what made them stand out. The only advantage the Switch has over other systems is it's portable, and even that won't last long if handheld PCs like the Steam Deck get smaller and smaller.

The Switch is the new Gamecube where Nintendo's relying on its first-party IPs for sales and the games in its flagship franchises are getting worse. There's no new 3D Mario in sight, Zelda: EoW was boring while TotK sucked, hardly anyone likes the new Mario Kart, and Prime 4 is the biggest disappointment I've seen for any series. Although I guess that's still better than what Wii U had, which was basically nothing.

I bought Switch Sports for one reason alone... To play the Tennis Mode and you know what, the motion sensor of the JCs sucks. The Wiimote was way better.

snsclziklost · 2026-09-16T19:34:24+0100

great system, has held up great thanks to homebrew hacks expanding the potential and making it into a pretty wild swiss army knife of consoles. just as an example, backing up your discs to wups and then installing so they are channels is a great enhancement.

the hardware has some bizarre quirks like the way the system does its redundant writes obsessively to the nand, and those bad chips chosen for some batches. in that way, you certainly wouldn't have said those "held up". really the small limited internal storage is itself cumbersome, but can be worked around. The discs being very prone to failure as time marches on is probably the worst-feeling element of it.

ultimately their biggest mistake was the stupid name. You have a drastically different life for the wii u without that name. Should've eliminated whoever came up with it, even if it was one of the big guys. It was that big of an oops.

The gamepad is dope, the UI is dope, the pro controllers were nice enough, the important IPs had trickled in, just needed to be a household name instead of confusing.

Marc_LFD · 2026-09-16T20:24:24+0100

snsclziklost said:
great system, has held up great thanks to homebrew hacks expanding the potential and making it into a pretty wild swiss army knife of consoles. just as an example, backing up your discs to wups and then installing so they are channels is a great enhancement.

the hardware has some bizarre quirks like the way the system does its redundant writes obsessively to the nand, and those bad chips chosen for some batches. in that way, you certainly wouldn't have said those "held up". really the small limited internal storage is itself cumbersome, but can be worked around. The discs being very prone to failure as time marches on is probably the worst-feeling element of it.

ultimately their biggest mistake was the stupid name. You have a drastically different life for the wii u without that name. Should've eliminated whoever came up with it, even if it was one of the big guys. It was that big of an oops.

The gamepad is dope, the UI is dope, the pro controllers were nice enough, the important IPs had trickled in, just needed to be a household name instead of confusing.

Any chance the internal storage can be increased like it happened with the PSP Go?

BlazeHeatnix · 2026-09-16T20:25:36+0100

Marc_LFD said:
Any chance the internal storage can be increased like it happened with the PSP Go?

snsclziklost said:
great system, has held up great thanks to homebrew hacks expanding the potential and making it into a pretty wild swiss army knife of consoles. just as an example, backing up your discs to wups and then installing so they are channels is a great enhancement.

the hardware has some bizarre quirks like the way the system does its redundant writes obsessively to the nand, and those bad chips chosen for some batches. in that way, you certainly wouldn't have said those "held up". really the small limited internal storage is itself cumbersome, but can be worked around. The discs being very prone to failure as time marches on is probably the worst-feeling element of it.

ultimately their biggest mistake was the stupid name. You have a drastically different life for the wii u without that name. Should've eliminated whoever came up with it, even if it was one of the big guys. It was that big of an oops.

The gamepad is dope, the UI is dope, the pro controllers were nice enough, the important IPs had trickled in, just needed to be a household name instead of confusing.

The thread is literally right there.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/circumvent-the-300-limit.684223/

Unless you mean the literal space of the internal storage space of 32gb. But hey, at least Wii U games actually had retail discs. It's not like the Switch where the cart is a glorified download license. 32gb is plenty if you're not installing your games.

snsclziklost · 2026-09-16T20:41:14+0100

snsclziklost said:
great system, has held up great thanks to homebrew hacks expanding the potential and making it into a pretty wild swiss army knife of consoles. just as an example, backing up your discs to wups and then installing so they are channels is a great enhancement.

the hardware has some bizarre quirks like the way the system does its redundant writes obsessively to the nand, and those bad chips chosen for some batches. in that way, you certainly wouldn't have said those "held up". really the small limited internal storage is itself cumbersome, but can be worked around. The discs being very prone to failure as time marches on is probably the worst-feeling element of it.

ultimately their biggest mistake was the stupid name. You have a drastically different life for the wii u without that name. Should've eliminated whoever came up with it, even if it was one of the big guys. It was that big of an oops.

The gamepad is dope, the UI is dope, the pro controllers were nice enough, the important IPs had trickled in, just needed to be a household name instead of confusing.

Marc_LFD said:
Any chance the internal storage can be increased like it happened with the PSP Go?

the true internal storage can be updated with some soldering and technical knowhow to 64 GB

not really worth it. i was more just saying that regardless of workarounds, thats a small internal for a system with a big ole shop.

but with usb hdds, or spoofing your SD card to appear as either a nand or USB hdd, lots of options exist to make the situation just fine.

lightwo · 2026-09-16T21:27:52+0100

I got one way after it was already well and truly dead. Turns out it kind of blows as a Wii, as I went into it expecting a modded unit to be like a 3-in-1 GameCube, Wii and Wii U. Very nuanced I know, but first impressions often lie!

I do get the impression the game lineup was modest, but it is telling how a lot of great Switch games were actually Wii U games ported over. Breath of the Wild, for example... :wub:

As for the hardware itself, it's pretty fascinating. In practice, it's a disaster. The system plays regular games well, and high effort ports look and play wonderfully, but backwards compatibility has improperly emulated Video Interface (DMCU), and vWii is overall a much bigger pain to deal with in terms of running homebrew.

The GamePad is comfy, fun, has the second screen functionality and many sensors, but is really unnecessary in a lot of cases. On an unmodded system, its only true purpose is to navigate otherwise unusable menus, since some games play completely fine without one... It also doesn't help how Pro Controller lacked a gyro, since it tends to be better having something smaller to flail around for gyro controls; its lack is just so limiting.

As for modding, a plugin (Bloopair) for connecting various controllers exists and works well, Nintendo Network is being revived (Pretendo), and it's possible to use SD cards as storage expansion (SDUSB). Aroma is stable, and many important plugins are all there. Playing GameCube inside vWii/Nintendont is actually a really good time; the video issue can be worked around by simply offsetting the image horizontally by 1, and many controllers are supported, not to mention that it outputs HDMI directly. It's really just vWii itself that I find a chore to mod and use, and will probably be avoiding at least until someone manages to unfuck DMCU behaviour at last.

Overall, I don't mind it at all. The only thing I actively find to be a nuisance is how the GamePad is always on standby and drains its battery over time, so leaving it unattended for a while isn't exactly great for longevity. If it just had a power switch to actually power off, it wouldn't be an issue at all; I don't even use the automatic power on functionality, so the drain is completely useless to me.

BlazeHeatnix · 2026-09-16T22:26:13+0100

lightwo said:
I got one way after it was already well and truly dead. Turns out it kind of blows as a Wii, as I went into it expecting a modded unit to be like a 3-in-1 GameCube, Wii and Wii U. Very nuanced I know, but first impressions often lie!

Everyone says this, but with mods, I can't tell the difference. Putting the WiiU in 480p, using evWii to alter the DMCU scaling, and using USB Loader GX to remove the deflicker filter and put it in Framebuffer mode, I genuinely can't tell the difference between how one looks versus the other. Granted, it does require putting your WiiU in 480p every single time you want to play those games, but on an HDTV it's going to look jagged regardless. Every comparison I can find online is outdated, without any of these options active. If only someone were to figure out how to make WiiU upscale the actual rendering of the games to 720p, it would actually be a better way to play (the question is whether it could run them at full speed, and I would guess it can't).

lightwo said:
Overall, I don't mind it at all. The only thing I actively find to be a nuisance is how the GamePad is always on standby and drains its battery over time, so leaving it unattended for a while isn't exactly great for longevity. If it just had a power switch to actually power off, it wouldn't be an issue at all; I don't even use the automatic power on functionality, so the drain is completely useless to me.

https://hb-app.store/wiiu/GamePadAutoStandby

lightwo · 2026-09-16T22:31:58+0100

BlazeHeatnix said:
Everyone says this, but with mods, I can't tell the difference. Putting the WiiU in 480p, using evWii to alter the DMCU scaling, and using USB Loader GX to remove the deflicker filter, putting it in Framebuffer mode, I genuinely can't tell the difference between how one looks versus the other. Granted, it does require putting your WiiU in 480p every single time you want to play those games, but on an HDTV it's going to look jagged regardless. Every comparison I can find online is outdated, without any of these options active. If only someone were to figure out how to make WiiU upscale the actual rendering of the games to 720p, it would actually be a better way to play (the question is whether it could run them at full speed, and I would guess it can't).

I tried these things, basically everything, maybe not exactly how you described though. I could give it a shot soon, but I got the impression that it's just impossible. And vWii being damn unstable isn't giving me high hopes it would be worth it.

Also, I'm not content with using framebuffer mode, as some games get squished in such a way that neither keeping them as-is or stretching to 16:9 makes them appear correctly. They basically rely on the scaling.

BlazeHeatnix said:
https://hb-app.store/wiiu/GamePadAutoStandby

That's not the problem I'm having. I know it's possible to put it in standby or controller-only mode. I'm saying when it's being completely unused with the Wii U powered off, it's still consuming battery in standby enough that it goes flat in a few weeks, without a way to completely power it off.

Someone did hack together a power switch that can be added DIY, but maybe I'd rather not...

lauty29 · 2026-09-16T22:53:46+0100

lightwo said:
That's not the problem I'm having. I know it's possible to put it in standby or controller-only mode. I'm saying when it's being completely unused with the Wii U powered off, it's still consuming battery in standby enough that it goes flat in a few weeks, without a way to completely power it off.

Someone did hack together a power switch that can be added DIY, but maybe I'd rather not...

I did this

TheItalianBoi · 2026-09-16T23:12:22+0100

it's peak

that's all i'm gonna say

Feedback What do you think of the Wii U in 2026?

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