Friend gave me his old WiiU for Christmas....got it fully set up last night.....uh....wtf

[trj22487 | 350]

THIS THING FLOPPED?!?! The WiiU is ******* sick!

I'm all too aware of the poor marketing, the poor name of the console, the poor 3rd party support, the fact that the tablet is nearly irreplaceable

But still, the fact that I can set this thing up in my game room, walk out to my living room and sit down, and be able to play Mario Kart 8 on a tablet with proper thumbsticks buttons and triggers against people in France and Germany without a hiccup of slowdown or paying an extra cent for it, and the Youtube apps still work and run nicer than my PC or Xbox One seem to...Netflix got taken off the shop yesterday funny enough, but I have it downloaded. It will work until June 2021.

As someone who hasn't owned a Nintendo game since Super Mario Galaxy, the WiiU almost feels like a 2020 release to me, lol....this thing is way better than I gave it credit for. I tried the kiosk at Target a few times back in the day, but it didn't really do it justice to actually having one at home. He gave me a copy of Smash Bros and Mario U, and I found a copy of Mario Maker locally. He had the case for Breath of the Wild, but no disc.

I'm sure most people here have had a Switch for years, but I personally didn't even have a Wii until I got one as a gift 3 or 4 years ago

Edited January 1, 2021 by trj22487

[Kguillemette | 1,630]

I personally love the Wii U. There are some super unique dual screen games that are really fun that only it could pull off. It also has a tiny library of 170 games or so, and very few shovel titles. 

It has one fatal flaw though. Apparently the coding on the disks is written under the label. The tiniest scratch on the label side can render the disk unreadable. I went through maybe 4 copies of super mario maker because my kids would switch games and leave it out upside down. Non issue in an adult home, but if sharing with kids, make sure you get some kind of warranty on pricier games you buy from square trade.

[trj22487 | 350]

I don't have kids in my house, and neither did the friend I got it from (he bought it literally right before the Switch was announced and was pissed, so he was a fairly late adopter himself) but I can certainly understand how this isn't an ideal children's console

[trj22487 | 350]

Haha I just discovered the volume slider on the tablet, after discovering the headphone jack....I thought it was kind of weird that it wouldn't have speakers!

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I think it is a very cool system with some unique gameplay opportunities. Look at the Zombi U inventory system or Nintendo Land. It's really sad that Nintendo totally botched the marketing and rollout.

[Jicsan | 603]

We love the Wii U in our house too.  I don't understand the hate it gets.  Yeah, too bad it didn't have a ton of games, but what it did get were great.  It's collectability is diminished a bit since so much of it's library has been redone on the Switch... but I intend to keep all my Wii U stuff.

Also, Amiibo were crazy huge during the Wii U's time.  I guess a ton of folks got into those that didn't even have a Wii U.

[nrslam | 486]

I'm a fan of the WiiU, too. Might end up being the last system that doesn't need massive, multiple downloads to make the games functional. I always found the controller to be a nice comfortable fit for my two big hands, too.

[AstralSoul | 523]

I liked the Wii U at the time, and the concept of it, but it just didn't have that lasting appeal that I've come to expect from all other Nintendo consoles. Especially with most of its good games being ported to Switch, I saw no reason to keep mine. My years with the Wii U saw my interest in retro games spike up again because so few games for Wii U were being released that I needed to turn elsewhere to get my fix. I do wish it would have been marketed differently and had a longer lifespan and more games though.

[Tulpa | 3,730]

It's a good console with some great games, it just came at a weird period for Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft had HD consoles out, and the novelty of the Wii was slacking off. Nintendo needed an HD offering on the shelves to compete, but what would become the Switch wasn't near ready for even an announcement.

It didn't help that it looks like a Wii with a fancy tablet and the name is uninspired (cue Estil with his tired "the Wii went to college!" joke.)

But it's still fun and worth owning for the first party titles alone.

[Hammerfestus | 4,109]

I’ve kind of thought about getting a WiiU before.   It definitely looks interesting to me.  Saw one at Goodwill last year but they wanted way more than I was willing to pay for it and especially from Goodwill.

[ThePhleo | 2,276]

The Wii U was a total failure so much so that Nintendo left the home console market all together. (Unless you count NES/SNES Classic)

I think it could have been totally avoided if they dropped the “Wii” naming convention and marketed it better because the system had a lot going for it.

• Touch screen that wasn’t just a novelty.
• Play without a tv
• Backwards compatibility 
• Cheaper than the competitors

Even the games that *did* came out on it were top shelf games, and that’s proven by the fact that most of them were potted over to the Switch.

It just had poor third party support and even worst marketing.

I love that it did fail though. It proves Nintendo can’t just rely solely on themselves and their IP. They need third parties to work with them to have a diverse ecosystem. Complacency breeds failure.

[nrslam | 486]

3 hours ago, AstralSoul said:

Especially with most of its good games being ported to Switch, I saw no reason to keep mine.

I look at this the opposite way. Why would I buy a Switch just so I can buy the same games again?

[AstralSoul | 523]

42 minutes ago, nrslam said:

I look at this the opposite way. Why would I buy a Switch just so I can buy the same games again?

Because the Switch has 100s of other great games. Without the Wii U ports, the Switch still has so much to offer. Outside of those games that got ports I find there's very little that makes the system still worth owning, but that's just my personal preference. Obviously there are 100+ games on Wii U that haven't gotten ports. Those games are just not worth it to me to keep the system.

[Strange | 1,731]

No console can survive on 1st party titles alone. Not even a Nintendo console.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,043]

Man, wait til you hear about their new console! Lol the Switch will blow your mind. 

[fox | 1,777]

Just started watching this phat new show called The Game of Thrones.  Hold up, people hate this show?  There are both dragons and zombies in it, no way they can mess this up.  Can't wait to see how it ends!

[Sumez | 3,168]

WiiU is amazing, and it was a huge comeback for Nintendo. Maybe not financially, but that's not matters to me as a consumer and someone who just enjoys playing good games.

Its only genuine problem was marketing, not the product itself, and I think the only people who regularly badmouth the WiiU are people who never had one.

If 95% of the most important titles from its library weren't immediately ported to Switch to nullify the WiiU's existance, it would have gotten a fan favourite Dreamcast-like status already.

Edited January 2, 2021 by Sumez

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,043]

3 hours ago, Sumez said:

Its only genuine problem was marketing, not the product itself, and I think the only people who regularly badmouth the WiiU are people who never had one

I had one since launch and regularly bad-mouth it. The problem was the console itself. It was marketed as a full 1080 / 60 fps console that could handle next gen games. That why EA got duped into making 2k and COD for it, actually expecting the console to perform up to the industry standards, but alas, it couldn't.

You think there wasn't a reason devs beside Nintendo didn't make games for it? The gamepad as a problem, it was under powered and the console was still focused around local multiplayer. 

I understand that some people just want Mario machines, but most people want Madden machines. The Wii U was bad all around and was improved upon in every way by the Switch. 

[B.A. | 1,142]

I've gone through 3 of them, and all 3 I had to gradually stand closer and closer to the console in order for the tablet to maintain connection. To the point where it wouldn't work more than like 2 feet away. Junk!

[Sumez | 3,168]

2 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I understand that some people just want Mario machines, but most people want Madden machines.

Do you want Madden machines?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,968]

@trj22487 Wait until you find out about the Wii U 2.0 with the greatly expanded library and portable functionality 

[trj22487 | 350]

Well I don't see me landing a free Switch anytime soon :P

Hell I think I got my Wii in 2017 or 2018

[TDIRunner | 2,922]

I didn't buy my Wii U until the November before the Switch was released.  I was able to buy a new one before the last of the new stock was gone.  I've absolutely love the Wii U.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with it outside of the way Nintendo handled the thing. It's a shame, but it is what it is.  Nintendo moved on and fortunately, the Switch is an amazing product as well.  

[croagunk | 798]

Glad you’re enjoying the Wii U! I like mine too, but I got a pro controller for games that don’t necessarily need the tablet. There are some pretty cool games on the system.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,043]

4 hours ago, Sumez said:

Do you want Madden machines?

In comparison to what the 360 and PS3 got that era, I would rather have a madden machine considering the amazing libraries 360 and PS3 both had than the untapped shovelware potential Nintendo invested in in the form of the Wii U.

Nintendo's biggest flaw was making a Wii 2. That reason being the 360 and PS3 basically ended the shovelware era that the Wii prospered on. The Wii U was molded to crank out the same level of shovelware that made the Wii a success only to have developers stop making shovelware & waggleware games. 

Holding onto the Wii remote and nunchuck was a disaster of an idea, especially with the gamepad. Their biggest mistake was not making the pro controller THE controller. Also, pushing the gamepad as a controller feature instead of a second screen to 3rd parties was a disaster too. Oh and spending 100M on a superbowl commercial for TVii...

Overall, the Wii U was a disaster that had good first party games. But it signaled the end of an era that thrived off of shovelware and 1st party exclusives.  In retrospect, all most people see are the successes but as a Day 1 owner and a huge optimist seeing nothing but potential, Nintendo just fisted me for an entire generation expecting me to pay $60 for content that was on a console that largely gathered dust between releases. 

The 3DS was the hero for Nintendo that whole generation and every aspect of the console and library tell that tale.