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Can We Finally Admit the Wii U Failed Because It Didn't Have Enough Good Games?
- Thread starter Sampson
- Start date
Yeah, the exclusives were great. It was the completely surface-of-Mars barren months in between those excellent games that made the Wii U a trash system.
This is an important point. With Nintendo, you cant really afford to be picky. If you dont like platformers or lighthearted, whimsical Nintendo games, there really isnt much out there for you. With the other consoles, you have tons of games in every genre, you can discard entire categories and still be spoilt for choice.
Thankfully this problem is not as dire on Switch as it was on previous Nintendo consoles, which is mostly due to indie games, but the gap to the competition is still huge.
Xenoblade X isn't 'a bunch of trash', not was 'Mario Maker gets old after a few hours' a particularly common criticism of it.
The truth of why it failed is a wide mix of misjudged factors from hardware through software, marketing, advertising, even the name and the concept, that isn't easy to sum up, but this kind of ridiculous dismissal of perfectly decent software titles is a bit silly.
The truth of why it failed is a wide mix of misjudged factors from hardware through software, marketing, advertising, even the name and the concept, that isn't easy to sum up, but this kind of ridiculous dismissal of perfectly decent software titles is a bit silly.
The big problem with the Wii U was that Nintendo had trouble selling it to consumers (aside from the truly Nintendo faithful) as anything other than an expanded/enhanced Wii.
The fact that nearly every single major game on the system, including the Mario titles, felt like a spinoff rather than a mainline game, did not help this perception.
The WiiU was a bad piece of hardware and with an unappealing gimmick. It didn't have a lot of software, but the quality was there. People are buying those games now that are on a successful platform.
It also failed because it was a horrible console. I don't think anything could have saved the Wii U.
I'm always ready to say that game is much better than any Persona game after P2. It just has (MUCH) better gameplay, better dungeons, better art design and while the writing isn't anything out of this world, at least it's better than Persona trying to pass off as progressive and being conservative as hell.
If that game was a multiplat title named "Persona Whatever" it would have a 90+ MC score.
They can only make so many games in a limited amount of time. I don't know what you were expecting. There were a bunch of great 1st party games. Xenoblade X, Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, DKCR Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Captain Toad, Splatoon, Mario 3D World, Wonderful 101, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Maker, Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, Pokken, Tokyo Mirage Session, Smash 4.
Yes, Nintendo failed getting 3rd parties on board which left gaps in their game releases. I'm not arguing that the Wii U wasn't a failed console because it obviously was. The first party lineup was great though. I don't think there's really a single console out there that could be carried by its first party titles alone. That doesn't make its first party lineup bad though.
Banned (1 Day): Console warring and derailment.
It had some of the worst Mario sidescroller games of the series. Anemic 3rd party support really did hurt it, but that was because of lack of power.
BoTW ran looked like garbage, but at least it ran kinda ok(for the most part).
I can't say the entire thing was garbage ZombiU brought me some fun times, it aged poorly though when I tried to play it on PS4, it just didn't feel great.
Right now my WiiU pad is pretty much always dead because of the crappy battery in it, so that sucks.
Switch is on the same road, at least it has a good Mario game though. Nobody admits that the Switch is a dud because of all the overpriced indie games/indie trashware that people love anyway, because YEAH! Nintendo!
Thats one thing the brand loyalty carries Nintendo through all of it's blunders, for better or worse, for the Switch it's WORSE. The numbers aren't showing how bad the machine is so Nintendo doesn't care. It seems Nintendo is really only good when they're feet are REALLY to the flames.
BoTW ran looked like garbage, but at least it ran kinda ok(for the most part).
I can't say the entire thing was garbage ZombiU brought me some fun times, it aged poorly though when I tried to play it on PS4, it just didn't feel great.
Right now my WiiU pad is pretty much always dead because of the crappy battery in it, so that sucks.
Switch is on the same road, at least it has a good Mario game though. Nobody admits that the Switch is a dud because of all the overpriced indie games/indie trashware that people love anyway, because YEAH! Nintendo!
Thats one thing the brand loyalty carries Nintendo through all of it's blunders, for better or worse, for the Switch it's WORSE. The numbers aren't showing how bad the machine is so Nintendo doesn't care. It seems Nintendo is really only good when they're feet are REALLY to the flames.
it did fail at getting people hyped though. the sweet sweet level design can't reach someone who decided they had their fill of the NSMB style and doesn't pick the game up.
The fact that you listed Wonderful 101 under trash means you have no idea what you're talking about.
Notice the lack of metroid, animal crossing, fire emblem, mainline kirby, and mainline zelda before the end in your list?
Absolutely. I had more fun with TMS than I did with any Persona game. The gameplay, story, tone, mood, and reverence for Fire Emblem and MegaTen all really shine and it's one of the best RPGs Atlus has ever made.
The WiiU failed because the hardware was shit and people didn't feel energized about it. The name was bad. The marketing was terrible. It couldnt share in multiplat development much. Honestly the games were its only saving grace
I don't think the OP is arguing that it didn't have many games. That's an argument most of us would agree with.
The OP seems to be arguing that the games it did have, mainly the first party exclusives, were not good games.
EDIT: Oh nevermind I didn't see the OP's edit. It definitely did not originally read like "enough good games", it more read like they were criticizing the majority of the first party games as being bad.
I appreciate even the edit you made to your OP, but in my opinion the Wii U had more good exclusives that the X1 presently has, and lest you think I'm console warring my X1X is easily my most played TV-console at present, so I think it's doing fine (Switch in handheld gets all my commute time though).
I do think there are a lot of reasons the Wii U failed. I don't think a lack of quality software is one of them- though I do now think that the perception of a lack of games may have been a big issue.
I do think there are a lot of reasons the Wii U failed. I don't think a lack of quality software is one of them- though I do now think that the perception of a lack of games may have been a big issue.
It took too long to get going, and that's just booting the thing up (*ta doom toosh*). I'm glad I jumped in 2015 as the bleak beginnings would have got old real quick for me.
The library may not be far ranging (there are no 'hidden gems' as everything is easy to browse and look up), but Nintendo's output often hit a supreme stride, although not without its Star Fox stumbles and spin-off stop-gaps (see the horror show that was e3 2015 for details).
That it grants you access to the Wii's library arguably also highlights how well its games can stand up against Nintendo's most successful era, but the Wii U won't be throwing up surprises for me in the same way that I'm still discovering new games all these years later from the DS/Wii imperial phase.
Had Mario Maker been a launch game, perhaps the concept could have struck a chord and caught on a little, but the glimpses of greatness from the console itself is rather obvious with the console being a clear stepping-stone to the Switch. Quite literally tapping into "the whole retro craze", Mario Maker was a uniquely Nintendo showcase that came much too late (compare moments like the MM Nintendo World Championship finale to the actual Wii U's reveal and the difference in excitement is night and day).
It clearly had potential, and didn't have anything to give its "gimmick" impact until much too late, but is well regarded for one reason alone - it's good games are gooood.
The library may not be far ranging (there are no 'hidden gems' as everything is easy to browse and look up), but Nintendo's output often hit a supreme stride, although not without its Star Fox stumbles and spin-off stop-gaps (see the horror show that was e3 2015 for details).
That it grants you access to the Wii's library arguably also highlights how well its games can stand up against Nintendo's most successful era, but the Wii U won't be throwing up surprises for me in the same way that I'm still discovering new games all these years later from the DS/Wii imperial phase.
Had Mario Maker been a launch game, perhaps the concept could have struck a chord and caught on a little, but the glimpses of greatness from the console itself is rather obvious with the console being a clear stepping-stone to the Switch. Quite literally tapping into "the whole retro craze", Mario Maker was a uniquely Nintendo showcase that came much too late (compare moments like the MM Nintendo World Championship finale to the actual Wii U's reveal and the difference in excitement is night and day).
It clearly had potential, and didn't have anything to give its "gimmick" impact until much too late, but is well regarded for one reason alone - it's good games are gooood.
Yup. And like I said before, the flagship games for the system largely looking like spinoffs rather than mainline games didn't help. It really perpetuated the console's image problem.
I think the WiiU is just a failed concept, it's a essentially a 360 with a touchscreen controller and Nintendo Exclusives in 2012.
If it was about as powerful as a docked switch and got more 3rd party games because of this it would of faired better.
If it was about as powerful as a docked switch and got more 3rd party games because of this it would of faired better.
Yea but I was responding to him saying "not sure what you were expecting." I don't think it was unreasonable to expect at least games from major first party series.
The Wii U was so good I still don't even own a Switch because all the games I would buy are on Wii U aswell. I'm gonna get one when Prime 4 comes out tho.
I think it was unreasonable to expect a lot of major efforts after the writing was on the wall. Yeah, before it came out we were all expecting a lot better. But after its first year or so it was clear it would not get much more serious support.
I spent hundreds of hours playing The Wonderful 101, Xenoblade X, and Hyrule Warriors. TW101 is even on my top games of all time.
Lol hahaha!
A more appropriate pic for this topic:
Lol hahaha!
While third party was obviously lacking, first party games were some of my favorites of last gen, and they were plentiful. Saying it doesn't have good games is asinine.
Name, the toy-like nature of the tablet (even though it's extremely comfortable to use), "asynchronous multiplayer", price, timing, terrible off-TV range. etc. all were the main factors for it being basically DOA. I still love it though.
Name, the toy-like nature of the tablet (even though it's extremely comfortable to use), "asynchronous multiplayer", price, timing, terrible off-TV range. etc. all were the main factors for it being basically DOA. I still love it though.
The Wii U had phenomenal first party support and still is the best way to play Wii and Gamecube games on a non-CRT/PVM TV. It's also the best mod console out there.
But in terms of market performance, it was essentially Nintendo's Sega Saturn, with the only difference being is that the company actually stuck a full lifespan out and released a steady stream of games for it.
It really serves as an example of "what if cibsokl makers actually stuck with supporting their failed consoles?"
But in terms of market performance, it was essentially Nintendo's Sega Saturn, with the only difference being is that the company actually stuck a full lifespan out and released a steady stream of games for it.
It really serves as an example of "what if cibsokl makers actually stuck with supporting their failed consoles?"
I always thought some of the ideas about why it failed were off the mark. Mainly, when people would blame the "Wii" in the title as confusing people who thought the tablet was an add on for the existing Wii and it would have somehow sold better if Nintendo had marketed it as the Ultra NES or some nonsense like that. But I don't really think the first party library was its main impediment to success. It always seemed pretty clear to me that it was just kind of an aimless device that didn't really know what it wanted to be. In engineering the device, they came up with a lot of use cases that boiled down to what I would categorize as "kind of neat," but no central selling point.
It lacked power in a time when the current generation was long in the tooth and people were looking to upgrade. And as for the GamePad's portability options it had two possible pitches that were directly at odds with each other. Are you selling this as "DS on the big screen"? Are you trying to sell this based on its asynchronous multiplayer capabilities? Both of those are directly at odds with trying to persuade people to buy because you can share the living room with the dad who wants to watch baseball on the TV when you're in the middle of playing New Super Mario Bros. U. You know what dad? You go ahead and take the TV and I'll just go ahead and play something on my tablet that's functionally portable.
The GamePad itself felt cheap and was clunky and had a crappy battery life despite not actually powering the games you were playing. There was a lot of early confusion as to what people would be using to play games. Would they be using their old WiiMotes? Only the GamePad? The new Pro Controller? The OS was terribly slow. Just in general there was so much wrong with this device that it honestly baffles me that there's any confusion or arguments ever about why it failed.
It lacked power in a time when the current generation was long in the tooth and people were looking to upgrade. And as for the GamePad's portability options it had two possible pitches that were directly at odds with each other. Are you selling this as "DS on the big screen"? Are you trying to sell this based on its asynchronous multiplayer capabilities? Both of those are directly at odds with trying to persuade people to buy because you can share the living room with the dad who wants to watch baseball on the TV when you're in the middle of playing New Super Mario Bros. U. You know what dad? You go ahead and take the TV and I'll just go ahead and play something on my tablet that's functionally portable.
The GamePad itself felt cheap and was clunky and had a crappy battery life despite not actually powering the games you were playing. There was a lot of early confusion as to what people would be using to play games. Would they be using their old WiiMotes? Only the GamePad? The new Pro Controller? The OS was terribly slow. Just in general there was so much wrong with this device that it honestly baffles me that there's any confusion or arguments ever about why it failed.
It's pretty obvious that was a big factor on why it didn't take off but the larger issue was marketing up front. To this day I still get people thinking it was a DS to New 3DS like upgrade, which led to low sales which led to low software
This so much. It was everything other than first party games is why it failed. Also, 3rd party titles were irrelevant on WiiU - why would anyone even buy a 3rd party title on the system when it was vastly underpowered and had an awkward controller compared to PS4/Xbox? There was no hook like portability with the Switch.
I feel like having to list HD remakes kind of shows how thin the line-up of games was...
I don't think these are bad games, but a lot of them are really niche and unlikely to make a console successful on their own. The Wii U was missing heavy hitters.
Can you explain this? I don't see how the Switch is in anywhere close to a similar place as the Wii U. Especially because we already know about a bunch of Nintendo games coming next year.
Marketing/brand confusion was definitely the reason it initially struggled out the gate. By year 2, lack of third party support was really what killed it for good. Doesn't change the fact that marketing was likely the root cause, though.
Nintendo tried so hard to continue the Wii line that a lot of casual gamers didn't even know it was a brand new system. Anecdotal but I encountered quite a few people that either didn't know the U existed or thought the tablet was an add on for their Wii. It was a complete marketing disaster.
In retrospect, it probably would had been better to not be so concerned with BC and completely revamp their architecture, but I can understand the lure of chasing the Wii crowd again with the U.
Nintendo tried so hard to continue the Wii line that a lot of casual gamers didn't even know it was a brand new system. Anecdotal but I encountered quite a few people that either didn't know the U existed or thought the tablet was an add on for their Wii. It was a complete marketing disaster.
In retrospect, it probably would had been better to not be so concerned with BC and completely revamp their architecture, but I can understand the lure of chasing the Wii crowd again with the U.
I'd argue it had good games, just very few and far between and almost none (Except mario kart and smash) that had mass market appeal, or even core gamer appeal for the that matter.
Pretty much. Smash and MK8 were great games, but they were some of the only games that really felt like legitimate sequels and not experimental sidequels/spinoffs/interim titles.
Bayonetta 2 wasn't gonna sell consoles. The Wonderful 101 wasn't gonna sell consoles. That doesn't mean those games were bad, but a bunch of niche titles and spinoffs does not a must-buy console make.
They needed a real Zelda and a full-spec Mario.