I don't get why so many people say now that the Wii U was an amazing underrated console

[Advance.Wars.Sgt.]

I mean, I only would understand if you think the Wii U library is directly better if you don't care about any port, or indie games, or remasters, or retro collections, or multiplatform games , because if not, I don't really know what to say there, the Switch has substancially more games than the Wii U considering all those factors, you can actually play a lot of things that are not Nintendo games or virtual console games, and I mean a lot.

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Some people are so decidely anti-handheld they let that opinion seep into their feelings of the actual games themselves. There's been one other user already who has admitted as much.

As for my opinions on the Wii U? Garbage console not worth owning with a severely limited amount of original content available and which offers a terrible at-best imitation of portability. If you're not counting the VB it is easily EASILY the worst gaming device released by Nintendo and it isn't even close. If we're talking gaming consoles which are amazing despite the hardware, the 3DS is far more deserving of that moniker since it has a great library despite being (IMO) a bad handheld.

 

[FreddeGredde]

Nintendo's own output was more exciting on WiiU than it is on Switch, so far anyway. So I get why some will prefer what the WiiU did!

However, all the quality indies this generation put the Switch ahead for me. But it's not an easy win.

 

[Kazooie]

It has a fantastic library, Nintendo has offered more great first party games in the same time than on Switch. It also had a lot of good indie games. Switch has a bigger third party line up, but outside of indie, you usually have to compromise a lot compared to Xbox / PlayStation, so I do not really care. Wii U is better than Switch in my eyes.

Some people are so decidely anti-handheld they let that opinion seep into their feelings of the actual games themselves. There's been one other user already who has admitted as much.

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Also to add, I am a fan of handheld gaming, but Switch is not a very good handheld. It is too large and vulnerable and has bad battery times. I use the Switch as a handheld most of the time, but mostly at home because the battery times are awful. I still have a number of GBA / DS / 3DS games to finish, as long as that does not change, I will use those on the go.

 

[Mobu]

Contrarians

Console is a giant flop??? must be a misunderstood masterpiece!!!

 

[darz1]

I mean it was a great console with great exclusives, and it was also a flop that didn't appeal to the mass market. It can easily be both these things.

 

[Dragonyeuw]

Wii U post launch just never got out of the gate. It could have used a more unique Mario title than another iteration of the 'new' SMB line. It felt like that concept was getting a bit stale ( mind you the Wii U version is REALLY good). Imagine Mario Maker being a launch title. Or maybe even Splatoon. The system was flatlining when those apps dropped.

Not much of a launch lineup in general. A similar looking base console with a pad that people thought was an attachment for the original Wii. I remember all the hoopla around Rayman Legends getting delayed to be a multi-plat. Pikmin 3 ten months after launch. The system just never got any kind of real momentum and once it had the reputation of being a 'failure', that's it. We all remember the 'this will save the Wii U' chalkboard. EA selling a port of Mass Effect 3 for the same price as the *trilogy* on PS360 ( that's not Nintendo's fault of course, just 'worst company' shenanigans). Yeah, 'good' times.

But anyhoot, for me its definitely been a more enjoyable experience in its afterlife. No droughts, no expectations. Just enjoy the games I have for it.

 

[EarlGreyHot]

I liked the console for the most part but the controller was shit and there was almost no third party support.

The Nintendo games were great.

 

[Marmoka]

I owned the console too and I think it's a horrible console. It had some great games, that's true. But still, a horrible console. I don't understand why some people defend it.

It was not a failure just because of the bad marketing, where everyone thought the pad was an add-on for the Wii. The name Wii was already unfashionable and nobody cared about it, so using the name Wii U was a mistake from the very beginning. The console had a very complex architecture that made developing for it quite difficult, so in the end most multiplatform games looked worse than the PS3/360 versions when the console was supposed to be more powerful than these two. And that tablet made the console quite expensive, nobody wanted to buy an outdated console for only 2 games they could be interested in. Worst of all, is that developers didn't know what to do with the pad, not even Nintendo.

What the hell!! It even had a very small SSD disc inside, and you needed to wait 5 minutes until the OS was completely loaded. And this optimisation issue was never fixed, it still needs time to load everything completely.

For me is a forgettable console, I will not miss it. I'm still keeping it but I don't care. The only good thing that came out of this was that thanks to it the Switch is now a reality.

I'm really happy the Switch is doing so well, and because most of the gems the Wii U had are arriving to Switch, and we don't need to play them using that horrible pad.

 

[Penny Royal]

Because the only people actively talking about it are WiiU enthusiasts.

No-one who thinks it was a PoS is going to be bothered to bang on about it...well there probably are some people who are that tragic...

 

[ZeldaGalaxy94]

For the Wii U had more Nintendo games at it worst year than the Switch have now

Okey, but it had more Nintendo games than What the Switch had in same time period (3 year)

And some of those Wii U games have even been ported to the Switch to give it games

My Switch library is smaller than my Wii U library (brought Switch earlier than I did for the Wii U)

For I brought the Switch and the Wii U for Nintendo games and some third party exlusives

So right now the Switch have too few new exlusives for my taste

The ported games from Wii U could have interested me, but I already have them on my Wii U

Third party games on Switch have been almost only been multiplatform games

Those games I rather play on my PS4, big games for the graphics and small games for the prices

My Switch is my most "dead" console, more "dead" than the Wii U and my longest played game, BotW was from the begining a Wii U game, so that was a PORTED game too

so I have less than 10 games for my Switch, but over 20 for my Wii U

Wii U wins for me

 

[Jobbs]

Great games.

Miiverse forums. Sharing controller art and screenshots.

No Wii crap.

I loved that system. I even liked the weird ass controller with the screen, and every so often it allowed a game to truly work better than it ever could without it (mario maker 1).

 

[Mocha]

I didn't buy the Wii u because none of the games interest me, it went full force on the Wii game designs, everything was generic about it.

I was already disliking my Wii halfway through the cycle, Nintendo focus was not for me.

The switch on the other hand is my favorite console of all time. They really nailed it with the console designs all the way to the game designs.

The Wii u felt like an alpha version of the switch.

 

[Meriadock]

I loved the wii u back then and I still love now. I loved the gamepad.

 

[Advance.Wars.Sgt.]

It has a fantastic library, Nintendo has offered more great first party games in the same time than on Switch. It also had a lot of good indie games. Switch has a bigger third party line up, but outside of indie, you usually have to compromise a lot compared to Xbox / PlayStation, so I do not really care. Wii U is better than Switch in my eyes.


Also to add, I am a fan of handheld gaming, but Switch is not a very good handheld. It is too large and vulnerable and has bad battery times. I use the Switch as a handheld most of the time, but mostly at home because the battery times are awful. I still have a number of GBA / DS / 3DS games to finish, as long as that does not change, I will use those on the go.

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As someone else who likes handheld gaming, I can't help but disagree. To me, the Switch's jump in screen real estate was a much needed improvement necessitated by the increase in hardware performance and the surrounding trend of mobile devices (I was of the belief even before Switch's hybrid nature was confirmed that Nintendo's follow-up to the 3DS would be a non-clamshell, large screened portable). I'm so used to it now that I have a hard time even going back to the 3DS XL, let alone base 3DS.

I also don't view Switch's battery as negatively as others, particularly in relation to the 3DS. Based on my usage of both they last about the same, with the one caveat being the Switch hosts more graphically intensive games. To that end, Switch also feels better to hold/play over extended play sessions, and despite the inherent faults of the Joy-con design I infinitely prefer them to the 3DS's circle pad/circle pad attachments.

I know arguments have been made before that Switch comes up short on both handheld and home console fronts. But considering that for $50 more than I paid for a 3DS I got a device with a much larger screen, significant jump in performance, better build quality (Joy-cons notwithstanding), and access to Nintendo's home console games all for the cost of a IMO marginal decrease in battery life, I definitely don't feel like I've been shafted on the handheld side of things.

 

[Necron]

You can play all mainline Zeldas on it, I think. Can't be that bad...

 

[Balbanes]

May favorite (or I guess least favorite) aspect about Wii U discussions is when people simultaneously say that the Wii U had no good games, but then also beg for several Wii U ports for the switch.

 

[Theswweet]

The Wii U had some good games, sure, but folks are definitely overselling it if they think it had a 1st party lineup matching any of the other Nintendo home consoles - because it just flat-out didn't compare.

 

[Wise]

Wii u didn't have much games at all imo. My least favourite console. 3DS just completely outclassed it in every way possible

 

[Romez]

I love the console but that's subjective, I know most people hate it.

It does have an underrated library though, there's a reason so many of its games have been ported to Switch.

 

[Kinggroin]

It had Mario Maker, making it better than PS3, 4, and all the Xbox systems combined.

 

[Wackamole]

It had amazing games. A lot of them are some of the best games on the Switch.

 

[Deleted member 37917]

It's first party games are in my opinion better than the switch, so far so least.

 

[Wariobenotware]

Wii u didn't have much games at all imo. My least favourite console. 3DS just completely outclassed it in every way possible

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Yeah, the 3DS was much better and cost half as much.

Now that was a system that had great first party output and significantly less drought. The Wii U seemed like such a joke sitting right next to it.

 

[consoul]

I thought it was really good. Splatoon 1 played better than 2. XCX was spectacular. Most of its first party catalog was so good it got re-released on Switch. Miiverse was great. The gamepad as a second screen, when used well, was excellent. Was it a commercial failure? Sure, but I never understood the hate. I had nothing but good times with it.

 

[JangleLuke]

I bought one a couple of years ago for 80€, hacked it, and now my collection of Wii/Wii U games has more than quintupled from those 8 Wii games I had kept after selling my Wii years ago.
It may have been a piece of crap at the time, but boy am I having a lot of fun rediscovering its library at bargain prices, and collecting it!

 

[Greywaren]

The console itself wasn't that great, but the catalogue was amazing. A lot of very good games that a lot of people skipped.

 

[CyberMonkey]

It's the only console I regret buying. Especially now that almost every game is being ported to the Switch. The game pad was the main selling point, but it was underutilized in most of the games. The only game that I remember having truly unique ideas for the game pad was Nintendo Land (particularly the Luigi's Mansion minigame). There was also barely any third party support and there were many game droughts. I remember not touching the console for months while waiting for the next game.

 

[eXistor]

It's pretty simple: not many games, but a high percentage of them is great to amazing. I'm looking at it from a Nintendo-output perspective. Nintendo's games have rarely been as great as during the WiiU. The Switch may have a lot of great games, but most of them are ports or remasters (including WiiU games). Looking at it like that, the WiiU has probably one of Nintendo's greatest console-libraries, it just died off rather quickly due to terrible marketing, but those first 3 years were great.

Nowadays you really have only a few reasons to get a WiiU (Mario 3D world...for now, and Xenoblade X...for now, and Pikmin 3...for now, and Color Splash...for now) because everything else worthwhile has been ported already. But that doesn't change the fact that Nintendo's own output was on an all-time high. Compare that to Switch which is, to me, one of the worst in terms of new original Nintendo games.

 

[Melhadf]

I have had mine since launch... asynchronous play (nintendoland stuff) was the best, beyond that... gimmicky controller that didn't do anything other than a permanent map/inventory for most games.

The other problem being not allowing that async gameplay online.... it's hard to get a group of friends interested i a game if you are handing them wii remotes.

 

[Weebos]

The Wii U library was great, the console was awful. It was the only console I ever owned that I hated using, the controller was unwieldy and felt cheap. I was happy to put it away for good.

 

[Deleted member 4262]

I got one recently and it's... okay. It's really nothing special in a post Switch world, but there's a handful of good exclusives that haven't made it to other consoles.

 

[SirBaron]

It had some decent games, and it has game folders, so the second part already makes it more advanced than the Switch. :bleh:

However the console was jank, and such a terrible idea, but gave way to a much greater idea that is the Switch.

So in a sense it proves you can polish a turd.

 

[Kaloskatoa]

The Wii U is fucking amazing to me. Surely it has lost a lot of its value now that most of its exclusives have been ported to the Switch.
But honestly, the fact a homebrewed WIi U can emulate every single nintendo console and handheld released before it (except the 3ds), makes it an amazing machine. Wii U to me had the best 3d platformer, the best 2d platformer, the best zelda game, the best party game (nintendoland). It was so, so full of great exclusives.

I don't give a fuck about indies and ports, I already own a PC, they don't matter at all to me, what matters in a console to me are the exclusives.

Its unfair to say the Wii U has no games because its games have been ported to the Switch, you don't say that about the SNES. If you are comparing consoles, you have to compare them at their prime, and to me, no console has ever reached the Wii U heights.

Even the portability of the switch is a non factor to me, I only play videogames at home, and my Wii U tablet worked on all my gaming spots.

 

[Vitet]

I sold it and its games to get the Switch, a Pro Controller and BOTW for free.

 

[Trickytoon]

I absolutely love the Wii U, to the point where I own multiple systems and I'm actively buying spares and accessories to ensure I can continue to enjoy the games on real hardware in years to come, but I think its misguided to suggest its in any way underrated. Try to imagine owning it as your only gaming platform between 2012 and 2017 and you will realise it was an utter failure in design and execution that nonetheless offers a handful of incredible games across specific genres. Its a great companion console to PC / Sony / MS, but you have my eternal sympathy if it was the only console you had for 5 long, drought filled years.

 

[Mehdren]

The Wii U was a poorly designed console that had some great games. Nintendo tried something different and it didn't work.

The Switch is what the Wii U should have been in the first place.

 

[Tomo815]

It didnt have that many games,

But the games it got were pretty good. Xenoblade Chronicles X for example.

 

[Niroloc]

I absolutely love the Wii U, to the point where I own multiple systems and I'm actively buying spares and accessories to ensure I can continue to enjoy the games on real hardware in years to come, but I think its misguided to suggest its in any way underrated. Try to imagine owning it as your only gaming platform between 2012 and 2017 and you will realise it was an utter failure in design and execution that nonetheless offers a handful of incredible games across specific genres. Its a great companion console to PC / Sony / MS, but you have my eternal sympathy if it was the only console you had for 5 long, drought filled years.

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This was me! It had great games but I had lots of long periods were I didn't turn on the console.

 

[The Bookerman]

It had some amazing nintendo games. 3rd party games ran like garbage on it: I played Injustice, Splinter Cell Blacklist, ninja Gaiden 3 on it.... they all ran poorly.
The Culprit? The CPU design - 3 cores based on that old ass Power PC G3 design(possibly for Compatibility purposes). Add to that: 2 gigs of slow RAM.

Ughhh... Why?!

 

[Efejota]

I never really stopped saying that it was great despite it's flaws, but I understand why some people would start praising it now: a lot of people started shitting on it after the switch came out, and yet the switch had problems like the drifting that never had an equivalent on the wiiu.

Also, if you are like me, the wiiu doesn't have that many new Nintendo games. I got my wiiu for pikmin 3 and w101, but I was looking forward to puyotetris and bomberman I didn't feel the need to get one until both mario oddysey and animal crossing were out.
I'd say the switch is right now entering a software drought of sorts like the wii and wiiu back in the day. The Wii managed to salvage the boat by releasing 3 great rpgs and a zelda game, even if it then stopped there. I hope it's the same for the switch and then keeps going. The WiiU on the other hand started releasing rushed games, so I'd say it's fair if it's not as well remembered, even if I still think it started well.

I absolutely love the Wii U, to the point where I own multiple systems and I'm actively buying spares and accessories to ensure I can continue to enjoy the games on real hardware in years to come, but I think its misguided to suggest its in any way underrated. Try to imagine owning it as your only gaming platform between 2012 and 2017 and you will realise it was an utter failure in design and execution that nonetheless offers a handful of incredible games across specific genres. Its a great companion console to PC / Sony / MS, but you have my eternal sympathy if it was the only console you had for 5 long, drought filled years.

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I should clarify that this was my case as well. I played a lot of indie games on the machine, and around 13 games from the Wii that I didn't play back in the day. Right now I'm not using it because I want to focus a bit on work stuff and mostly have been playing short indies on the switch, but I still have to finish a bunch of stuff there. (From the top of my mind: The Last Story, the Shovel Knight expansions, Shantae 4, Deus Ex 3, Darksiders 2, Starfox Zero and Sakura Wars 5)

 

[B. Spaceman]

Yeah some people want to compare it to the GameCube or the Dreamcast and it's nowhere close to those, that's for sure. It was a terrible console with some great games. Some.

 

[rochellepaws]

It was the worst modern console and by some distance, most of the handful of worthwhile games it had have already been ported.

Apparently it's a great emulation device when hacked but I don't think it'll be remembered fondly in a "it deserved better" kind of way like the Dreamcast or Vita. The Wii U got exactly what it deserved.

 

[Dragonyeuw]

May favorite (or I guess least favorite) aspect about Wii U discussions is when people simultaneously say that the Wii U had no good games, but then also beg for several Wii U ports for the switch.

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Before the Wii U I didnt realize the importance of software married to appealing hardware. I never looked at the hardware as an obstacle( not to say it didnt have some issues) but it seems the mass public just wasn't interested.

 

[Dragonyeuw]

It was the worst modern console and by some distance, most of the handful of worthwhile games it had have already been ported.

Apparently it's a great emulation device when hacked but I don't think it'll be remembered fondly in a "it deserved better" kind of way like the Dreamcast or Vita. The Wii U got exactly what it deserved.

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My impression is people who got their hands on the dreamcast and vita appreciated them for what they were. I thought Dreamcast was awesome in its prime and didnt know about all the behind the scenes stuff going on with Sega, so I was completely bowled over when they announced discontinuation. It was clear the Vita was going to tread water after 2012 but I still find the hardware great to hold and play, even after experiencing the Switch in handheld mode. Vita still feels pretty modern to me ( as in, something that came out pretty recently, not 8 years ago).

 

[Jacknapes]

People believed it to be an add-on to the Wii, which doomed the WiiU before it came out. It had some great game, many have been ported to the Switch and have since sold significantly better. I enjoyed the WiiU, however it was the game droughts which killed much of my interest in the machine.

 

[EvilRedEye]

I can understand why people defend the line-up because it did have a number of great games that people are still playing on Switch and will play for many years to come.

If you compare it with, say, the GameCube, which also wasn't a mega-success, a lot of the major AAA Nintendo stuff didn't seem to be peak stuff? Sunshine, Wind Waker and Double Dash are still fairly controversial today. Mario Kart 8 and BOTW are high points for their respective series and the Mario games were excellent although not quite top of the list entries. There were also other excellent titles like Bayonetta 2.

So yeah, the hardware was bad and the software release pipeline wasn't great but library contains a decent number of enduring classics and I think if anything worked against its failure rather than contributed to it. I'd understand a bit more if there had been some franchise nadirs on Wii U.

 

[mrgoomba]

It was a bad console with good first party games that usually took way long to launch.

 

[Alvaro]

Finished that sentence for you.

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Still missing SM3D World :(

 

[MrCibb]

Yep, I don't see it either. The marketing didn't help but the console itself was pretty lackluster too. It's a Nintendo console so it of course had some good few first party games, but that's really it. Seems pretty fairly rated to me in that it was one of Nintendo's weaker outings imo.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Loved my WiiU but mostly because of MH3U and Smash

Oh and hacking it