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Before the Switch came around, the Wii U was the all-in-one Nintendo machine that every homebrew enthusiasts could have wished for. It could run Wii U and Wii games natively, and with the virtual Wii environment (also known as vWii) running in its hardware, which was basically full Wii hardware backwards compatibility, it allowed for everything that ran previously on the Wii to also run on the Wii U almost by default.

The Wii U also offered new emulation options when it came to Virtual Console, adding DS and a new N64 emulator, both of which offered new options for Virtual Console injections, making the Wii U the best option to emulate everything from Nintendo's catalogue from the NES, all the way up to the Wii, including SNES, Game Boy, GBC, GBA, DS, Nintendo 64 and even Gamecube through Nintendont on vWii, making the only missing Nintendo system on the Wii U at this point in time the 3DS, with everything else being playable on it.

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However, the Wii U came and went, and a lot of users felt like the homebrew community and its developments towards Wii U-specific applications was lacking, specially compared to that of the Wii's overwhelming homebrew scene. Most of the Wii U usage when it comes to homebrew was backpedaling on Wii-specific applications, with very few apps being actual native Wii U software that made use of the additional hardware power that the U had compared to the Wii's.

Eventually, the Wii U ended up getting RetroArch alongside a wide variety of cores to go with it, but with recent developments in the Wii U scene, RetroArch had been left behind to make use of the most recent and developed CFW for the device, this one being the Aroma custom firmware by @Maschell , which allows running homebrew applications as apps directly shown in the Home Menu, alongside a lot of other features.

Since then, RetroArch was stuck to run in the older development version of Aroma, titled "Tiramisu", that didn't have the current features of Aroma, and doesn't provide RetroArch with the same functionality of running it as an app in the Home Menu. Originally, builds for Aroma already existed, but these builds had the huge drawback of taking minutes to boot even a single game, and each time a new game or core was booted up, the same occurred, with the user having to wait minutes to be able to launch just one game.

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This is all starting to change as of recent weeks in Aroma's own source code, thanks to the steady development by devoted Wii U users and hackers like @QuarkTheAwesome, @ploggy, @Maschell, @Vague Rant and others, RetroArch now has early alpha builds of RetroArch and some of its cores with Aroma compatibility, which have started to show up in RetroArch's own Github issue regarding Aroma compatibility According to some research, it seems like recent changes in the Aroma code for beta 17 regarding the Wii U's own CafeOS' FAT32 filesystem driver, and some optimizations to improve 'readdir' and 'stat' have been a key part in making the current RetroArch build for Aroma load assets and cores at a much faster speed compared to before.

According to @QuarkTheAwesome, their most recent work regarding RetroArch for Aroma covers the following:

We redid packaging and put all the assets into a .wuhb, which dramatically brings down the load times and gives you a single RetroArch icon on the menu (as opposed to the third-party Launcher) and rewrote the ProcUI handling to support the HOME menu overlay - along with shocking features like "pressing the console power button" that weren't working in Aroma.

This is still being drafted up and hasn't been seriously looked at by the libretro core team yet, but it's coming along well. We just want to have the basic stuff in to make it work like any other Aroma homebrew, and after that's landed work can go into stuff like AXPro and GLSLCompiler.

Not only that, but progress on RetroArch's PSX core titled "PCSX Rearmed" has also been getting developments specifically for the Wii U to make use of threaded rendering, threaded compiler, fast mutexes, AX audio driver and an unai GPU driver, all of these to bring PlayStation games to a playable and decent framerate on the Wii U. This is yet another potential core that could be added into a more recent and updated RetroArch version for the Wii U, once full Aroma compatibility is ironed out.

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While the Wii U certainly doesn't have much prominence nowadays in homebrew communities, it's always good to see older consoles still getting some love way past their prime, more so for consoles like the Wii U that had so much of its back catalogue (and overall) potential left to waste.

Just to reiterate, this builds of RetroArch for Aroma are in no way an official release, and they're essentially just alpha/testing versions for debugging plausible issues that might arise.
The developers involved in Wii U hacking are working on the WUHB version of RetroArch, so be sure to follow GBAtemp's own RetroArch Wii U thread to keep a close eye on any updates regarding RA through Aroma.

Source
GBAtemp's RetroArch Wii U Discussion Thread

 

[Bladexdsl]

Before the Switch came around, the Wii U was the all-in-one Nintendo machine that every homebrew enthusiasts could have wished for.

if so how come there was fuck all homebrew for the wiiu than?

 

[ShadowOne333]

if so how come there was fuck all homebrew for the wiiu than?

Cuz people relied way too much on Wii U VC injects and Wii homebrew still back then

 

[LNLenost]

Cool!

 

[Bladexdsl]

the only wiiu homebrew it got wasn't till the end of it's life and now you can barely get any wiiu (not wii) emus for it. as for proper wiiu homebrew it's almost non existent. for homebrew it's been the biggest failure yet unlike the wii that was a true homebrew enthusiast machine.

 

[SuperGamer64]

Finally

 

[icogniito]

Cuz people relied way too much on Wii U VC injects and Wii homebrew still back then

And huffed the hykem copium

 

[meeeow]

I have a couple of modded consoles (Wii U, Wii, PS4, PS3, PS2, PS Vita) but the Wii U...
...is simply my favorite one! Thanks to the effort of hombrew developers, the Wii U has turned into an absolute beast (especially since the arrival of Tiramisu / Aroma) that can comfortably be played with the gamepad laying in bed; and it is modded in minutes on the latest firmware.

Thanks to all developers and testers that made retroarch cores running on Aroma!

 

[ploggy]

Woohoo! WiiU Retroarch get's its own front page article great work @ShadowOne333 ... Those are some well polished videos you got there

Retroarch WiiU has come a long way since its initial announcement way back in 2016!
Things have really picked up pace since the Aroma Beta 17 dropped, I was worried the Aroma Retroarch port will be stuck in limbo with 1Min loading times but since Aroma Beta 17 was released not only has load times improved abit they got much better, the Aroma RA port is now very playable! and new features are planned to be added
If you have a WiiU and have written off Retroarch you should give it another look.

 

[Blythe93]

I'm looking forward to switching to Aroma-only setup. ^^

 

[ploggy]

I'm looking forward to switching to Aroma-only setup. ^^

It is nice to finally be on the latest Aroma and wave goodbye to Tiamisu (tho it did serve it's purpose very well)

 

[SaulFabre]

Emulators on Wii U (but also Wii) are getting better and better everytime.

 

[NinStar]

Before the Switch came around, the Wii U was the all-in-one Nintendo machine that every homebrew enthusiasts could have wished for.

I mean, it still is. I certainly don't see people picking a Switch to play DS, GameCube or Wii games. All of which the Wii U can do quite well.

 

[ShadowOne333]

I mean, it still is. I certainly don't see people picking a Switch to play DS, GameCube or Wii games. All of which the Wii U can do quite well.

DS can be played on Switch, same for 3DS.
If at all I'd say the Wii U is lacking proper 3DS emulation, but that's about it. Wii U does have DS, but it's hit or miss since right now, and from what I know, it's only done through Wiii U VC Injections.
N64 is also lacking on the U, but that's due to Mupen64 Plus Next not having proper dynarec support for PPC / Wii U's architecture.

 

[NinStar]

DS can be played on Switch, same for 3DS.
If at all I'd say the Wii U is lacking proper 3DS emulation, but that's about it. Wii U does have DS, but it's hit or miss since right now, and from what I know, it's only done through Wiii U VC Injections.
N64 is also lacking on the U, but that's due to Mupen64 Plus Next not having proper dynarec support for PPC / Wii U's architecture.

I'm aware Switch can run DS and 3DS, but it is still far from optimal in terms of performance (3DS specifically) and overall user experience, since you know, you are forced to fit 2 screens on a single one.

 

[CMDreamer]

U_U My Wii U still is in comma... U_U

Haven't had the time to do all the recovering of it's NAND.

Soon, I hope, very soon.

 

[blue-spirit]

DS can be played on Switch, same for 3DS.
If at all I'd say the Wii U is lacking proper 3DS emulation, but that's about it. Wii U does have DS, but it's hit or miss since right now, and from what I know, it's only done through Wiii U VC Injections.
N64 is also lacking on the U, but that's due to Mupen64 Plus Next not having proper dynarec support for PPC / Wii U's architecture.

There is a DS emulator called NooDS. But I never tried it and I think in its state right now it is still a downgrade compared to injection.

 

[Materia_tofu]

correct me if im wrong but, I feel like the main reason why the WII U and 3DS are ahead of the Switch in terms of emulation is
due to both the 3DS and WII U basically building off of each console that came before it essentially, as to my knowledge the NSO emulators themselves have some issues i'm not willing to talk about as the entirety of NSO has fried my pea brain with
how inconsistent they are with updates and transparency.

anyways, RA for Aroma is music to my ears, i honestly can't wait to start using my WII U more with this!

 

[HarveyHouston]

RetroArch is pretty cool; here's hoping those Wii U updates work out...

 

[vryce]

PSX emulation looking very promising! Let's hope the new core gets added sooner than later, I have a Spyro itch to scratch