I remember I was gifted a Wii U for Christmas it was was the Mario kart 8 edition, I absolutely loved it! I still play it along with my other retro consoles from time to time.
The Wii U was literally the best Nintendo console imo. Even with all its misses it had a lot of bangers and it holds a special place in my heart. Rest in Peace, Iwata. Thank you for bringing me and many other people happiness during our childhoods.
Definitely not, Nintendo usually has a good software lineup and when you compare it to every other major Nintendo console it doesn’t hold a candle. It had the weakest Smash Bros, an above average Mario Kart, Tropical Freeze, and Pikmin 3. Whereas the GameCube basically has all of these offerings and better, he’ll even the Switch has all of these games and is a better physical system as well.
@@michaelkarim57 what was wrong with super smash bros, and Mario kart 8 was and still is just amazing, like if the Wii U sold well I bet it would have just been amazing
I remember that I wanted a Wii U but my parents wouldn't let me because they assumed it wasnt a new console but an extension of the wii....which i already had
@@indigomizumi i didnt even know personally but seeing this vídeo I would describe it as a home console ds. Tv being the top screen and the device being the bottom screen
@@GeoEsker actually they did; or to be specific, a lot of people didn't switch to an SNES because the idea of getting a new videogame console when it released wasn't as common as it was today. Many just stayed with their NES if they already had one Adding on to that, the Wii was a console with a LOT of ad-ons/games that used the terms "Wii ___", from Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii U, Wii Balance Board, Wiimote, making the Wii U difficult to stand out from all those ad-ons to the average consumer
As a Wii U owner of my own that had a Wii U since launch (along with a dark version) It was never perfect but it's still a good console and I had some good memories with it, I still play on it still to this day whenever I get the free time off my college classes. Back then during that era not everyone was able to get one. So I brought my entire Wii U to a friend's place and we played together.
i was like 7 at the time the wii u launched and my family didnt have a lot of money, but my mom still saved and bought me it along with some games. I still have everything to this day and its the most fun ive ever had while playing video games
My guy, you are one of the most wholesome beans around. The whole thing about bringing a WiiU to your friend's house to play together is actually really sweet. I also have a Wii U and even though it still has some problems, it's great for what it is.
Only reason it sold bad was the advertising for it and it he name people weren’t sure what it was most people thought it was some kind of add on to the old Wii I though it was as kid but til someone i went to school with explained what it was the Wii U was and still is a great console i think it’s better than the switch I know it’s not a popular opinion but I think its more comfortable to hold the game pad then the switch in portable mode and there was some really unique and cool ganes that used the game pad
It has a good catalogue, but a good console is a long strech in my opinion. Hardware is dying now, it was slow, not a lot of space, lackluster third party games and the gameplay is obligatory, if it dies the whole console dies with it. But software wise is really good.
Nah the rollout was atrocious as well. Who in their right mind would pay 400 dollars for nsmb u and Nintendo land unless you played every game on the Wii or have money to waste.
It sure is. Prior to using it, I had been told it was the opposite. That it was one of the worst controllers ever. It's actually one of the best and most complete, but also one of the most underused ones. Quite a tech feat. That thing is literally the complete package.
@@crazycap2945 Yeah. The DS4 is not so bad, but it takes a while to get used to it. And trust me, that thing is NOT made for 2D games. The D-Pad went from being a proper alternative for 2D games to auxiliary buttons, which I despise.
Wii u was ahead of its time just like the new 3DS Xl. The fact that you could play zelda breath of the wild on wii u just tells you everything. I loved playing the wii u just with the gamepad without the TV 😊 in my bed.
I feel Nintendo really struggled at first adapting to HD game development..but despite those notorious game droughts, I do still have many fond memories of my WiiU.
The Wii u has some goated games tho like Mario kart 8, Smash bros Wii u, Splatoon, DK Tropical freeze, breath of the wild, super Mario 3D world, and it also can play ANY Wii games.
The nostalgia of hearing the Wii U menu music again feels like a huge adrenaline rush through my veins! Miiverse, you are still missed today, friend. You were the most fun I've ever had online.
Miiverse is the worst thing Nintendo has ever done. They looked ridiculous and were annoying. Not only that, but the design of the ui and ux is terrible in the wii u. Just going into the home settings takes forever.
The modding community for the Wii U is absolutely amazing as well, there are many quality of life things you can do with it such as custom home menu backgrounds, screenshots without a capture card (alas not very good quality) etc.
@@niallmcardle7 The GamePad itself. If you get a special version of Nintendont and install it, you get full GamePad support and no need for separate injections for each game. You can simply play them all off a comfy menu, and WITH the GamePad. I used to play with GC injections to get GamePad support until I found that app.
You’re the first person I met who spoke about the Wii U in a positive light and that makes me happy :D. I absolutely adored the Miiverse and really wish the next Nintendo System has a MiiPlaza where we can all draw and talk again. :] thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Fun Fact: Like you said, the Wii U literally has a built-in Wii as well. It's literally so similar that you can even still run Smash Bros. Brawl mods on it using the hackless stage builder exploit. They never patched that out or anything. :)
And if you homebrew if you’re comfortable with that, you can even run GameCube games natively, as well as I believe all the handhelds DS and below, and I think there’s emulators for N64 and below too, it’s just all around a one stop shop for every Nintendo game from the Wii U era and below. I don’t mean pirating either, I mean you COULD but you could just dump your physical roms on certain consoles as far as I know and do that legally.
Unfortunate how many nintendo talking heads are terminhally ignorant, and jsut don't accept to believe how Nintendo operates. They went from NES to GameCube and stayed on that model ever since, roughly the same infrastructure to last as long as Famicom from 1985 to 2002. The other cartridge consoles were mostly failures, even SNES only a mdoerate success, and a bit less "the same console" only because the GAME printing was so archaic with ROMs, with a lot of room to improve. It's their consolidated physical game platform, that competes with the DVD/Blu-Ray monopoly of the Sony-Panasonic conglomerate. Even Wii U was partially to FINALLY license the HDMI standard, another oligopoly of a mediocre system in the TV set industry, and some functionality to connect with the GamePad. It's purpose was to START amrketing AGAINST US addiction on living rooms, and it was a major success that bore fruit by the launch of Switch, even though they had to DROP the home platform. Switch is essentially GamePad 2 that was always going to be fully portable, once the tech gets cheap enough. Technically Nintendo is only at their THIRD fully new iteration of their gaming platform. The NES family was first, then the GameCube family expanding all the way to Wii U, and NOW we have essentially the GamePad family in Switch. It was always a system to further conslidate their portable and home lines, and work so the portable is the controller of the home console. Switch is NOT finished until way into the 2030's, Nintendo simply does not operate in such a tiny time frame. That's why Switch is so heavily focused on connectivity like the JoyCon rail system, so you can SLIDE IN the "previous console" to have that backwards compatibility in their NEXT console. It's TRAGIC how hard Americans try to push planned obsolescense and fantasize that Nitnendo just "makes a new hardware", and somehow patches in that Switch backwards compatibility. When pretty much ONLY Sony was able to pretend it's evena thing, by cramming free hardware into their way underpriced monopoly machines, partly because every DVD sale is money into Sony's pocket for owning that license. It's jsut not honest and fair market competition.
I always thought that the WiiU, being the successor of the incredibly successful Wii, has sold well during its lifespan. It truly baffles me to learn that it didn't sell quite as well as I had imagined.
I got a Wii U in 2013 or so. I was under the impression you could take the gamepad anywhere and still be able to play. I thought it was what the Switch is now. Also, I will never forgive Nintendo for shutting down Miiverse. Too much potential now with the Switch.
@@mikeywebb9598 Maybe, but it's not even remotely as charming with what we had with Miiverse. The dedicated communities, the amazing drawings some people would make, the way in which it utilised the Miis and especially the way in which they made the games it was featured in much more alive...
I doubt it. It still failed for a reason and many of its best games have been ported to the Switch. There is very little amazing about the WiiU that is unique to specifically the WiiU. Remember, The WiiU's use of the gamepad hampered it more than it helped. Many 3rd party ports ran worse on the WiiU than the PS3/360 because of the gamepad. And most games didn't really make a well enough use of the Gamepad to make it a novel experience the way the Wii did. If the WiiU was more of the "Wii2" as an improved Wii, it probably would have sold and fared much better
@@FraserSouris Not really. The games came out on Wii U first as they came out in the Wii U era. Therefore it is an era with a lot of fondness and the reasons why it old badly was because of marketing and the name as well as other ways Nintendo mishandled it that let the PS4 steal the hardcore market and mobile games to steal the casual market that had moved on from the original Wii. Not to mention the GamePad led directly to the Switch. If anything the GamePad is better than the Wii Mote as the Wii forced it in too many games, while the GamePad was optional in almost all games on Wii U.
@@ianeons9278 *>"Lmao imagine arguing with one of Reggie’s points""Not to mention the GamePad led directly to the Switch. If anything the GamePad is better than the Wii Mote as the Wii forced it in too many games, while the GamePad was optional in almost all games on Wii U."
@@FraserSouris Reggie is also the guy who predicted the Switch would become a massive success so yeah. Plus Miyamoto wanted the GamePad to be utilized but not forced so multiple controllers can be used.
I've really enjoyed the Wii U over the past few years and feel that while it's far from being as good as other consoles, it's a pretty underrated console. Imagine how good the Wii U games have been that the ones they are bringing back to the Switch have the same price as a new game, and yet they all have huge sales.
Bro, the games are selling so good on Switch because most of those Switch people didnt buy a WiiU. If the games were so good on WiiU then why weren't they selling consoles?
@@XXXXX8 People are buying the Switch because it has portability. But also, the first party games are better on average than the Wii U's, or at least Nintendo made sure there were better first party games available in the first 2-3 years. The Switch launched with one of the most critically acclaimed games ever (Breath of the Wild) and then had a traditional 3D Mario game available later in the same year. The Wii U only had New Super Mario Bros. U and that's not enough of a selling point, especially as it's just a carbon copy of the Wii version. At least BOTW was open world and had changed a lot of mechanics in the Zelda series so there was a lot of build up hype. The Wii U lacked a launch title that had that insane hype. The Wii U never got it's unique 3D Zelda game early on, it didn't get an Animal Crossing, there was no Pokemon (I mean it's meant for handhelds anyway I get that), etc. these are big big IPs that had no Wii U installment. The Switch has a major selling titles for every Nintendo IP. The 3D Kirby game is the best selling in the series, that's how successful the Switch is. Kirby hadn't sold that well since the Game Boy era. Another handheld.
The Wii U is like one of those movies that has a really bad rotten tomatoes score that you go back to and realize that while it may not be a masterpiece, is way better than what the aggregator would suggest.
It wasn’t bad it was just very limited, I remember loving using the Wii U but being so incredibly frustrated I couldn’t take the Wii U away from the tv, I remember thinking as a kid how innovative and successful a console would be that implemented the D’s compactavility and ability to take anywhere and the power and screen of the Wii U, fast forward 5 years later and Nintendo releases the Nintendo Switch and wouldn’t you know it it was an absolute international success
I grew up with the wii and wii u and honestly i loved the wii u. Had some really amazing titles and the homebrew scene for that thing is craaazzyyyy. Recently got a wii again but i wanna get a wii u whenever i can. Its just so good
It's great that fans are bringing the Wii U back to life. Homebrew has given it a second life, projects like Pretendo, which seeks to create a replacement for all online services such as miiverse or online play. The Wii U is the most nostalgic console I've ever had and I'll never forget it.
I'm surprised Pikmin 3 didn't get a mention when talking about games that used the gamepad well. The gamepad was an absolute game-changer; being able to have the map open at all times and the "go here" command were such amazing additions. But overall I completely agree, I bought the Wii U on launch (even sold my Wii to pay for it, because I knew the Wii U had backwards compatibility and all my games would still be playable) and I had years of fun with it. I was actually shocked when I found out it flopped hard. If it wasn't for the Wii U eShop I would have never played Xenoblade Chronicles, my favorite game of all time, because physical copies were not available in my country (or I was never able to find one). I will always have a soft spot for the Wii U. Also, Nintendo Land is AMAZING. The Pikmin, Zelda and Metroid games were incredibly fun.
The Wii U reminds me of the Sega Dreamcast. It was a commercial failure despite having a great library. Today the Wii U is also a great console for homebrew, particularly because a hacked Wii U not only has the ability to natively play Wii games but it can also natively play GameCube games and it can easily emulate anything from the 5 gen or earlier. It can also emulate the Nintendo DS quite well.
Funnily enough, there was a flash game, called "Super Mario 63" which had it's own level editor and I played it for days just because of it. Came out in like 2008. Can't believe it took Nintendo so long to make their own
idk if it was because i was young when the wii u released, but i rlly loved playing on it ! hence my surprise when i found it was a " bad " console . it may not be the absolute best , however , great memories were made w the wii u just like the rest of nintendo's consoles
@@crazycap2945 I owned one. It was a mediocre console. "Bad" is a stretch, but it didn't have the ingredients to be a successful console. Not enough games, lack of features compared to PlayStation / Xbox (in terms of online play, QoL, apps...), it was basically another Nintendo console in design of the GameCube model where it's just plug and play. But there's more to consoles than plug and play and Nintendo haven't been able to design a console that does more than that. That's why Nintendo realised they're better off sticking to making handhelds.
@@user-tb9sq5po6z i mean thats fair but i owned one and feel it was their best console yet, probably better than the switch (though not on a technical scale). the wii u represented the last vestiges of nintendo's heart. it was soul incarnate in a console. so much heart. the switch is just so corporate. nintendo used to be a breath of fresh air :/
@@aelie8198 The Wii U was definitely corporate. It has the same fundamentals as the Switch the only difference is you didn't have to pay for the Online.
The main thing for me that was the best part was having the Gamepaf option when the TV wasn’t available. It worked perfectly in my house, as my sister could play her games on the TV and I’d just play my game on the Gamepad. Worked amazing and super underrated feature
I think the wii u was a very good console, but they just... kinda threw it away. They named it so people thought its a Wii addon or something like that. It was a Wii 2, and if they wanted to use the Wii name, they should've named it like that.
One game on the wii u that used the gamepad in a creative way was Lego City Undercover! In the game, there is a police scanner which can be used to locate things and scan for criminals. The scanner was black, so if you had a black wii u it would look like the scanner! Great video by the way.
GOD the nintendoland opinions are incredibly correct. that cops and robbers minigame was my absolute favorite; there really aren't many games that i've had THAT much fun playing with friends. asymmetrical multiplayer needs to be more common !! if the wii U had been used to its fullest potential, i think it would've been golden.
you have completely sold me on ur perspective. also, the quality of this video was incredible. script was perfect, editing was incredible, and the pacing was amazing. SO SO well done. more than earned my sub
The Wii U was misunderstood. The name of the original Wii represents 'we' . Wii U represents 'We You' because it supposed to be for family fun and for yourself. It was disappointing to hear that people thought it was just an accessory for the Wii.
I miss my times playing my Wii U. I used to love Nintendo Land and would always play the Zelda game, and I loved how Lego City Undercover used the game pad. It was such a innovative console.
I remember getting a Wii U for Christmas was I was younger. I have a lot of fond memories with it. Games like Lego City Undercover, and Need For Speed most wanted 2012
Idk I think the whole plan will become clear once Nintendo announces the Switch 2, which i suppose will be capable of streaming to TV, thus including full Wii U and DS/3DS compability for Virtual Console. Nintendo is just ballsy enough to release demo consoles, every console is just a demo version of the next. The second Zelda title marks the end of a consoles lifespan - it can't be long.
I'd argue it was a bad system. Remember, The WiiU's use of the gamepad hampered it more than it helped. Many 3rd party ports ran worse on the WiiU than the PS3/360 because of the gamepad. And most games didn't really make a well enough use of the Gamepad to make it a novel experience the way the Wii did. If the WiiU was more of the "Wii2" as an improved Wii, it probably would have sold and fared much better
@@FraserSouris no idea what you’re talking about, the gamepad made that system for me. Non-split screen local multiplayer is still something that no other console can do like that. I still play Black Ops 2 that way way with my boyfriend. The Wii U has huge advantages that was seldom properly exploited, but that’s a failure on developers rather than the console.
@@Emmie-kn1mx That is a very small part of the WiiU experience though. Like, technically, other systems can do non-split screen local multiplayer. The GameCube can do it with certain GameBoy Advance Minigames. JackBox games let you do that with your phone and the PS4/XB1. PSVR and Astro's Minigames also do the same. The issue is that building your entire system around something very few players even exist for will make your system a failure. Imagine if the next Nintendo console featured a rolling wheel to make it great for ball rolling minigames. Even if that would actually be good for ball rolling, it would be bad for everything else. And Everything else is what most players play these games for.
When the Switch came out, I bought it release year and I still used the Wii U for ages, I loved Mario 3D World, Mario Bros U, Smash Bros, Minecraft Ect, I spent so many hours on all of these games and then I just stoped. The Wii and Wii U is a huge majority of childhood and I love this console, and I’m sad that it was a flop but at least most my childhood games are on switch now 👍
Even as someone with massive nostalgia for a lot of the Wii U's games, the console is something I can't say was amazing looking back. The only thing that kept me so invested was the sorta age I was at the time, the Wii U being my only main console, having to make those games count anyways so the dry periods didn’t really matter. The games towards the end of the life aside from Splatoon and BOTW were a mess at best.
I'm glad to see someone else from my perspective, lol. I was like you, this was my only system for this generation, so the release schedule actually stung. And then like you said, after 2015 with Mario maker and Splatoon, every remaining release for the system was something absurdly bad like Star Fox or Paper Mario. That period of time between 2015 and the Zelda reveal was the absolute worst period of time for me as a Nintendo fan. E3 2015 will always be my absolute least favorite Nintendo presentation of all time, just on the principle that they were only showing off Star Fox Zero for the entire thing, and they game turned out to be ass. The reaction my friend and I had while concluding that E3 still echoes in the back of my mind lmao. Like, sure, they've had some other bad presentations, but that one was flat out depressing. It was like a car running out of gas about to be abandoned on a free way.
@@Cheesehead302 Both of those examples were godlike in comparison to some of the other showings tbf (okay maybe not Star Fox but Paper Mario at least). Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was considered an actual big full release title lol. Granted Splatoon and Mario Maker together (and Smash DLC kinda) were long enough lasting to make it to late 2016-early 2017, the light at the end of the tunnel. But if you didn’t like any of those somehow…there was basically nothing for 2+ years. I was also probably strung along a bit by the 3DS as well, that definitely helped me look past it because of how much they pumped on there instead. Kinda proof that the Switch focusing all resources into one place was the right call, given how much the 3DS absorbed in the Wii U’s time.
Luckily the Wii U has cemented it’s place in the homebrew scene. Being able to run any game from the NES to the Wii U either through an emulator or natively is kind of insane
The WiiU is the only Nintendo console I never bought and I always thought I didn’t miss much but you make me kind of regret never getting it. I think you’re spot on about how much the marketing hurt the console. At the time I was in college so seeing Nintendo pivot heavy into the marketing for the younger audience made me just stick with PlayStation and PC games that generation. But ironically one of my favorite Mario games was actually a WiiU game with Mario 3D World and I’m glad Nintendo ported it to the Switch. Thanks for making this video, I see a lot of videos about Nintendo consoles but this is the first one I’ve seen about the WiiU and is one of my favorites.
A lot of the controller experience from SM3DW on the Wii U got lost on the port to the Switch. For example, there are levels in which you blow onto the touch sensitive Gamepad screen to make an in-game fan spin so that your character can reach another section of the level. The Switch doesn't have a touch sensitive screen in docked mode, so I'm not sure how they implemented that game feature. Another example is in MK8, where the second screen can actually give you information about the race which helps you play more strategically. That aspect of the game couldn't make it to the Switch port for obvious reasons. Don't get me wrong, I like the Switch, but I think the Wii U was actually better in many ways.
That was a great video, I didn't have my own wii when I was a kid and used to go to my friends house to play and in 2014 or so I bought the wii u with mario kart and followed up on a lot of games. I fucking loved this console and this video gave me a huge nostalgia hit. I posted on the miiverse like a maniac and put some of the most ugliest drawings of all time on there and it was a blast. This console played a huge role in my childhood in elementary school it was so amazing
Honestly I still really like the Wii U today and I am happy to see a lot of the exclusives it got see life on the Switch or in other places. But also looking back, it's easy to see why it never truly caught on. I still want a port of Star Fox Zero though.
Being someone that got a wiiu some years ago, i'm happy that the dojo exists in splatoon bc i don't use online in nintendo games so it was goodto play witha friend in two different screens.
You can tell the marketing is bad because when I first heard of its existence I was like "What? That sounds stupid, its just the Wii again..." and they did a terrible job explaining what the gamepad is, I had no idea how it was supposed to work conceptually until after I got a Wii U. Another annoying thing, you can't play half the games if you don't have the gamepad, even if the game doesn't require it. Which really sucks if your gamepad's charging plug breaks and can only charge if you plug it in at a very specific angle... (speaking from experience of course).
I really hope this console gets eventually looked at in the same way as the GameCube where in a few years, it will be recognized as a masterpiece even though it sold badly.
The Wii U was my first true Nintendo console experience, and I really enjoyed it for what it was. I got addicted to Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario Maker especially, and Nintendo Land is a very nostalgic game for me. Add Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Splatoon, Super Mario 3D Land, Paper Mario Colour Splash (yes I like that game), Rayman Legends, DKC Tropical Freeze and TLoZ Wind Waker HD and that's just a sliver of the great library it has. The VC is also a lot better than the Switch's offerings in hindsight too. While the Switch is definitively the better system, the Wii U has a soft spot in my heart, and the fact that the Switch is full of ports of Wii U games is a sign of the quality games on it
Hope the next console have a accessory feature. We can have a second screen to attach to the console to work like a DS or dock the switch and separate to work like a Wii U. You can also have 3D and attach camera and microphone
What’s interesting is that the Wii U sold 400,000+ in it’s first week, however it was mostly hardcore Nintendo fans. In comparison the Wii sold 1.3 Million in it’s first week and the Switch sold 1.5 Million because people actually knew what it was. In it’s first year, it sold over 3 Million while in it’s second year it sold around 5-ish Million mainly because of Mario Kart 8. I mean the only people who bought the Wii U who weren’t hardcore Nintendo fans were families who didn’t own a Wii and they weren’t a whole lot of families that didn’t have the OG Wii.
Wii Fit U and Wii Part U also used the controller well! Wii Party U wasn't TOO special, but Wii Fit U was a lot better in my opinion. It even utilized the camera well!
It’s mostly nostalgia that’s making me not hate the console. It’s not a bad console. I agree that the way they marketed was abysmal but besides that it had some of the most fantastic and nostalgic games I’ve ever played in my life as listed at the end. The Wii U holds a special place in my heart.
Short Answer Based Long Answer:It's truly amazing to see someone talk about not only game and wario but also Nintendo Land two of my favorite games of all time
I really enjoyed this review. It seems like everyone talks negatively about the Wii U and about it's shortcomings compared to other Nintendo systems. But not about how fun the games were and backwards compality of all Wii games.
Exaggeration. Ok you like the thing. But can’t you see how dishonest you sound? As a controler it was too big. Heavy. The both sticks on top was awkward. Battery life was poor etc
The Wii U was an amazing console and improved over Wii. The problem was everybody was still using their way, and it was so revolutionary that ironically how many people wanted to upgrade to the way you for various reasons, but I still have mine and play it and I’m glad a lot of the games got ported over to the switch
i remember using wii u chat to call my best friend. i was not allowed to have a phone because i was 10. I moved when i was 6 so we were so happy when we discovered how to use wii u chat and being able to videocall your friend with it was just magic and then the shutdown ocurred and switch didnt have a videocall thing :/ edit* sorry if my english is bad, im spanish :)
The funny thing is when the Wii U was getting launched with its big commercials, I assumed that it would be like the Switch, you could take it anywhere and play and return home and play on your tv. I asked my friend about the Wii U and asked if it was portable, he said after a certain amount of feet, it started to disconnect, meaning that it was only a home console, this really bugged me. Once I learned about that, my interest in the Wii U sorta declined. The Super Mario Bros Wii U game seems pretty cool tho.
“The console Nintendo wants you to forget about” Me: I thought we don’t bring up the Virtual Boy🤫.” Jokes aside, the Wii-U will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart❤. Looking back; it was genuinely great but the godawful marketing and limited third-party support (let-alone very few Indi games) would ultimately set the poor thing up for commercial failure🥺. But this was great 👍 video, always a treat to this stellar console get some more love and appreciation.
On this day 2 years ago, my Wii U also came to me as my first gaming console. It really makes me crazy, addicted. Even though I sold that Wii U (due to lack of money) and went through many other consoles, none of them delivered the same experience as the Wii U. Gonna buy it again someday.
I absolutely and unironically believe the Wii U is the best console ever. It has the entire Wii library, the smaller but full of great titles Wii U library, plus a great virtual console.
The Wii U has always reminded me of windows 8. Not as good as 7 (wii) but not as accessible as 10 (Switch). One thing i loved was going on miiverse and trying to leak the ip of people in my splatoon lobbies (They were just random numbers i made up). I lowkey miss miiverse though, but i get why they could'nt continue it. Also it has a certain charm element to it with nostalgia for me.
Im planning on buying a wii u in the coming days just because i always wanted one as a kid but never got the opportunity to get one so im gonna buy it to fulfill my childhood dream and to relive the nostalgia of the original wii that we all know and love!
My siblings and I got it for Christmas in 2013, had so much fun and bonded over amazing games like Super Mario 3d World , Yoshi Wooly world etc. it had its flaws but remained consistent in its family oriented , playful fun it’s predecessor brought
I remember when the wii u came out a lot of us were confused we didn't really know what it did most of us thought it was an extension for the wii until our local game shop put them for demos we were still a bit confused but then Mario maker and splatoon came out that's what got me to buy it I was hooked from then it wasn't bad it was just marketed badly is all
the gamepad was a huge mistake. even things that took good advantage of it like mario maker nintendo could have just made the wii u compatible with a usb mouse or sold their old like the snes. mario maker allready had lots of call backs to mario paint. nintendo land could have just had the one person play on a 3ds.
Jesus loves yall so much, never forget how much he really does care for you, and how God litterally had his own son killed just so we could have a chance to be with him, if that doesent show how much he cares then i dont know what does. have a blessed day :)
I remember going to my cousin's house back in 2013-2016 and playing Mario Kart 8 and Mario 3D World on his Wii U. Despite the poor marketing and misunderstanding the audience got of it, the Wii U was still a blast to play on. Soon after, I bought a Wii U, and I loved and still love playing on it to this day.
I never bought a Wii U, partially because I was broke at the time, but also because I found the first party lineup (which is a far bigger driving force for my console decisions than third party games) to be lacking. There were a lot of IPs that either didn't get a main entry or skipped the console altogether (such Kirby, Metroid, Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing). But more than that, there was an entire genre that Nintendo almost completely ignored during this era: and that's the large, single player adventure games. As someone who grew up in the early 3D era playing games such as Mario 64/Sunshine and Metroid Prime (I also later fell in love with Zelda which you can lump into this category, but I didn't actually grow up with it), I tend to gravitate towards the more open/sandboxy/exploration based gameplay styles such as those and the Wii U... just had very little of that. Mario removed all vestiges of its traditional sandbox gameplay from 64/Sunshine, instead opting for a NSMB linear platformer in 3D World. There were no other 3D platformers aside from 3D World to fill the void of sandbox platformers. Metroid skipped the Wii U entirely. The big flagship Zelda game got delayed so long that it became cross gen and helped the Switch far more than the Wii U, and all the Wii U had until then was a pair of GC remasters. Other than that, you just had Xenoblade, which I had tried once but never got into because I find the combat as boring as watching paint dry. A very trying and frustrating time to be a fan of these types of games, it really felt like Nintendo didn't want someone like me buying their games anymore. Now I can appreciate that the Wii U laid the groundwork for the Switch's success, the Switch feels like a refined version of what the Wii U was trying to be. But lineup wise, the Switch just feels like it's in a totally different league and what I was waiting all generation for the Wii U's lineup to be but never got. So I can't really look at the Wii U's lineup too fondly. There were a couple of games outside of my usual preferences that I did like from the Wii U (Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Mario Maker, and Captain Toad were nice little experiments), but in general it just didn't cut it for me.
I never knew why the Wii U wasn't given a proper chance, I had so much fun with it compared to the Wii personally because I feel like the Wii's graphics were too darkly saturated. Which made it hard to see for me (Example Mario Kart Wii/SSBB graphics vs Mario Kart 8/SSB4 brightness). I loved it! Spent a lot of hours on it.
I remember one of the most outstanding things about the WiiU at the time was the music. Most of the first party titles, like Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Nintendoland etc. all had this larger than life jazzy big band theme, and I absolutely adored it! You could tell that it was a very deliberate united effort on Nintendo's part, which shows that somebody in there had a plan to make this console a consistent quality product. It's just that somebody else in marketing was on a completely different wave length 🤷♂️
i LOVEDDDD my wiiU and still use it to this day!! though some buttons on my tablet stopped working i can still play og wii games w the og controllers without the og console! i’m soooo happy they implemented that feature frl. but when i was a kid i remember wishing i could play minecraft and terraria on my wii and the wiiU fixed that!! it’s such an underrated console, i literally would play on it everyday for years.
I had hundreds and hundreds of hours of fun with the WiiU. For me it was a great console / experience for sure.
I have one and I see what you mean.
I love my Wii U
Yeah :)
I agree I think its a amazing console especially with friends playing and I still play it to this day
@@I.C.G-d8f Despite its problems, the WiiU was still a great experience. I have one that I play from time to time.
I remember I was gifted a Wii U for Christmas it was was the Mario kart 8 edition, I absolutely loved it! I still play it along with my other retro consoles from time to time.
Samee, it was 2014 and I got mk8 and Nintendo land... My god did I loved playing those games with my lil bro
same, I got the mario kart 8 edition for christmas :P
Bro same! I got that exact thing in 2015.
SAME HERE FR FR
Omg same. But instead of Mario Kart 8 it was Mario Maker.
The Wii U was literally the best Nintendo console imo. Even with all its misses it had a lot of bangers and it holds a special place in my heart. Rest in Peace, Iwata. Thank you for bringing me and many other people happiness during our childhoods.
Definitely not, Nintendo usually has a good software lineup and when you compare it to every other major Nintendo console it doesn’t hold a candle. It had the weakest Smash Bros, an above average Mario Kart, Tropical Freeze, and Pikmin 3. Whereas the GameCube basically has all of these offerings and better, he’ll even the Switch has all of these games and is a better physical system as well.
You had literally every single console upto that point available in the Wii U (minus the 3ds) via homebrew, wii u was a beast
The Wii U was in no way the best nintendo console. Not bad but definitely not the worst
@@michaelkarim57 what was wrong with super smash bros, and Mario kart 8 was and still is just amazing, like if the Wii U sold well I bet it would have just been amazing
Best? HELL NO...
I remember that I wanted a Wii U but my parents wouldn't let me because they assumed it wasnt a new console but an extension of the wii....which i already had
Which is one of the main reasons why the Wii U didn't sell. General consumers were unsure as to what a "Wii U" even was.
@@indigomizumi i didnt even know personally but seeing this vídeo I would describe it as a home console ds. Tv being the top screen and the device being the bottom screen
That's like saying the SNES is a extension of the NES but people didn't think that back then did they?
@@GeoEsker actually they did; or to be specific, a lot of people didn't switch to an SNES because the idea of getting a new videogame console when it released wasn't as common as it was today. Many just stayed with their NES if they already had one
Adding on to that, the Wii was a console with a LOT of ad-ons/games that used the terms "Wii ___", from Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii U, Wii Balance Board, Wiimote, making the Wii U difficult to stand out from all those ad-ons to the average consumer
@@GeoEsker People aren't as clever today.
As a Wii U owner of my own that had a Wii U since launch (along with a dark version) It was never perfect but it's still a good console and I had some good memories with it, I still play on it still to this day whenever I get the free time off my college classes. Back then during that era not everyone was able to get one. So I brought my entire Wii U to a friend's place and we played together.
Same!!
I'm gonna buy a Wii U again since I'm feeling very nostalgic for one.
i was like 7 at the time the wii u launched and my family didnt have a lot of money, but my mom still saved and bought me it along with some games. I still have everything to this day and its the most fun ive ever had while playing video games
My guy, you are one of the most wholesome beans around. The whole thing about bringing a WiiU to your friend's house to play together is actually really sweet.
I also have a Wii U and even though it still has some problems, it's great for what it is.
@@FTChomp9980 I never knew I needed one until I noticed I was missing out on Mario Kart Wii & Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed.
I love the Wii U, just because it didn’t sell well doesn’t mean it was bad, it had so many classic games
Only reason it sold bad was the advertising for it and it he name people weren’t sure what it was most people thought it was some kind of add on to the old Wii I though it was as kid but til someone i went to school with explained what it was the Wii U was and still is a great console i think it’s better than the switch I know it’s not a popular opinion but I think its more comfortable to hold the game pad then the switch in portable mode and there was some really unique and cool ganes that used the game pad
It has a good catalogue, but a good console is a long strech in my opinion.
Hardware is dying now, it was slow, not a lot of space, lackluster third party games and the gameplay is obligatory, if it dies the whole console dies with it.
But software wise is really good.
The fact that it didn't sell well absolutely means it's bad. Nintendo is a company that needs to sell things in order to survive.
@@joshxstormlaw501I agree
Nah the rollout was atrocious as well. Who in their right mind would pay 400 dollars for nsmb u and Nintendo land unless you played every game on the Wii or have money to waste.
God i just wanna say how unbelievably comfortable the Gamepad is to hold in your hands, that thing is a beauty
It melts in my hands so perfectly in a way that no other controller could, I yearn for that kind of grip every time I grab a joy-con or a dualshock 4
It sure is. Prior to using it, I had been told it was the opposite. That it was one of the worst controllers ever. It's actually one of the best and most complete, but also one of the most underused ones. Quite a tech feat. That thing is literally the complete package.
@@crazycap2945 Yeah. The DS4 is not so bad, but it takes a while to get used to it. And trust me, that thing is NOT made for 2D games. The D-Pad went from being a proper alternative for 2D games to auxiliary buttons, which I despise.
@@brannycedeno6823 no one says its worst controller. Wii U is so popular with its gamepad that many people think wii u is just that gamepad lmao
@@brannycedeno6823 Shame that the battery life is horrible though. Spent the majority of my time with it plugged in.
The Wii U is a severely underrated gem of a console.
Wii u was ahead of its time just like the new 3DS Xl. The fact that you could play zelda breath of the wild on wii u just tells you everything. I loved playing the wii u just with the gamepad without the TV 😊 in my bed.
I feel Nintendo really struggled at first adapting to HD game development..but despite those notorious game droughts, I do still have many fond memories of my WiiU.
The Wii u has some goated games tho like Mario kart 8, Smash bros Wii u, Splatoon, DK Tropical freeze, breath of the wild, super Mario 3D world, and it also can play ANY Wii games.
The nostalgia of hearing the Wii U menu music again feels like a huge adrenaline rush through my veins! Miiverse, you are still missed today, friend. You were the most fun I've ever had online.
the WiiU and 3DS had soooo much more character and charm than the switch
@@zacharygiles2984 true that
I never experienced the Miiverse lol I wasn't allowed on it
Miiverse is the worst thing Nintendo has ever done. They looked ridiculous and were annoying. Not only that, but the design of the ui and ux is terrible in the wii u. Just going into the home settings takes forever.
The modding community for the Wii U is absolutely amazing as well, there are many quality of life things you can do with it such as custom home menu backgrounds, screenshots without a capture card (alas not very good quality) etc.
+ the entire Nintendo library available to you
GameCube games with a level of comfort never seen before is something I didn't know I needed this much. I have a blast with mine because of that.
The Wii U is a really great console for Nintendo legacy content
@@brannycedeno6823 Which controller do you use with Nintendon't, out of curiosity?
@@niallmcardle7 The GamePad itself. If you get a special version of Nintendont and install it, you get full GamePad support and no need for separate injections for each game. You can simply play them all off a comfy menu, and WITH the GamePad. I used to play with GC injections to get GamePad support until I found that app.
You’re the first person I met who spoke about the Wii U in a positive light and that makes me happy :D. I absolutely adored the Miiverse and really wish the next Nintendo System has a MiiPlaza where we can all draw and talk again. :] thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Bro doesn't watch scott the woz
@@thegreatscribbles960bro doesnt watch youtube, haven't seen a single nintendo youtuber say the wii u was bad
Why do people think if something sales badly, its a bad product
Fun Fact: Like you said, the Wii U literally has a built-in Wii as well. It's literally so similar that you can even still run Smash Bros. Brawl mods on it using the hackless stage builder exploit. They never patched that out or anything. :)
And if you homebrew if you’re comfortable with that, you can even run GameCube games natively, as well as I believe all the handhelds DS and below, and I think there’s emulators for N64 and below too, it’s just all around a one stop shop for every Nintendo game from the Wii U era and below. I don’t mean pirating either, I mean you COULD but you could just dump your physical roms on certain consoles as far as I know and do that legally.
Unfortunate how many nintendo talking heads are terminhally ignorant, and jsut don't accept to believe how Nintendo operates. They went from NES to GameCube and stayed on that model ever since, roughly the same infrastructure to last as long as Famicom from 1985 to 2002. The other cartridge consoles were mostly failures, even SNES only a mdoerate success, and a bit less "the same console" only because the GAME printing was so archaic with ROMs, with a lot of room to improve.
It's their consolidated physical game platform, that competes with the DVD/Blu-Ray monopoly of the Sony-Panasonic conglomerate. Even Wii U was partially to FINALLY license the HDMI standard, another oligopoly of a mediocre system in the TV set industry, and some functionality to connect with the GamePad. It's purpose was to START amrketing AGAINST US addiction on living rooms, and it was a major success that bore fruit by the launch of Switch, even though they had to DROP the home platform. Switch is essentially GamePad 2 that was always going to be fully portable, once the tech gets cheap enough.
Technically Nintendo is only at their THIRD fully new iteration of their gaming platform. The NES family was first, then the GameCube family expanding all the way to Wii U, and NOW we have essentially the GamePad family in Switch. It was always a system to further conslidate their portable and home lines, and work so the portable is the controller of the home console. Switch is NOT finished until way into the 2030's, Nintendo simply does not operate in such a tiny time frame. That's why Switch is so heavily focused on connectivity like the JoyCon rail system, so you can SLIDE IN the "previous console" to have that backwards compatibility in their NEXT console. It's TRAGIC how hard Americans try to push planned obsolescense and fantasize that Nitnendo just "makes a new hardware", and somehow patches in that Switch backwards compatibility. When pretty much ONLY Sony was able to pretend it's evena thing, by cramming free hardware into their way underpriced monopoly machines, partly because every DVD sale is money into Sony's pocket for owning that license. It's jsut not honest and fair market competition.
@@sboinkthelegday3892 What does that have to do with ANYTHING related to do with the Wii emulator working exactly like the Wii?
I always thought that the WiiU, being the successor of the incredibly successful Wii, has sold well during its lifespan. It truly baffles me to learn that it didn't sell quite as well as I had imagined.
Same
I think it’s because of ps4 and xbox one
If those two didn’t exist Wii U would eventually sell as much as the Wii
If they called it Wii 2 and had a proper announcement advertisement, the Wii U would’ve flown off shelves
Or maybe just proper advertisements, showing off how it’s massively different to the wii but NOPE, nintendo fucked it up
I got a Wii U in 2013 or so. I was under the impression you could take the gamepad anywhere and still be able to play. I thought it was what the Switch is now.
Also, I will never forgive Nintendo for shutting down Miiverse. Too much potential now with the Switch.
Ok but why would Nintendo keep miiverse when they can just have people talk about games on social media and get free advertising?
@@mikeywebb9598 Maybe, but it's not even remotely as charming with what we had with Miiverse. The dedicated communities, the amazing drawings some people would make, the way in which it utilised the Miis and especially the way in which they made the games it was featured in much more alive...
Even Reggie himself said the Wii U will be eventually remembered as being great.
I doubt it. It still failed for a reason and many of its best games have been ported to the Switch. There is very little amazing about the WiiU that is unique to specifically the WiiU.
Remember, The WiiU's use of the gamepad hampered it more than it helped. Many 3rd party ports ran worse on the WiiU than the PS3/360 because of the gamepad. And most games didn't really make a well enough use of the Gamepad to make it a novel experience the way the Wii did.
If the WiiU was more of the "Wii2" as an improved Wii, it probably would have sold and fared much better
@@FraserSouris
Not really. The games came out on Wii U first as they came out in the Wii U era. Therefore it is an era with a lot of fondness and the reasons why it old badly was because of marketing and the name as well as other ways Nintendo mishandled it that let the PS4 steal the hardcore market and mobile games to steal the casual market that had moved on from the original Wii. Not to mention the GamePad led directly to the Switch. If anything the GamePad is better than the Wii Mote as the Wii forced it in too many games, while the GamePad was optional in almost all games on Wii U.
@@FraserSouris
Lmao imagine arguing with one of Reggie’s points
@@ianeons9278
*>"Lmao imagine arguing with one of Reggie’s points""Not to mention the GamePad led directly to the Switch. If anything the GamePad is better than the Wii Mote as the Wii forced it in too many games, while the GamePad was optional in almost all games on Wii U."
@@FraserSouris
Reggie is also the guy who predicted the Switch would become a massive success so yeah. Plus Miyamoto wanted the GamePad to be utilized but not forced so multiple controllers can be used.
I've really enjoyed the Wii U over the past few years and feel that while it's far from being as good as other consoles, it's a pretty underrated console. Imagine how good the Wii U games have been that the ones they are bringing back to the Switch have the same price as a new game, and yet they all have huge sales.
Bro, the games are selling so good on Switch because most of those Switch people didnt buy a WiiU. If the games were so good on WiiU then why weren't they selling consoles?
@@XXXXX8 People are buying the Switch because it has portability. But also, the first party games are better on average than the Wii U's, or at least Nintendo made sure there were better first party games available in the first 2-3 years. The Switch launched with one of the most critically acclaimed games ever (Breath of the Wild) and then had a traditional 3D Mario game available later in the same year. The Wii U only had New Super Mario Bros. U and that's not enough of a selling point, especially as it's just a carbon copy of the Wii version. At least BOTW was open world and had changed a lot of mechanics in the Zelda series so there was a lot of build up hype. The Wii U lacked a launch title that had that insane hype. The Wii U never got it's unique 3D Zelda game early on, it didn't get an Animal Crossing, there was no Pokemon (I mean it's meant for handhelds anyway I get that), etc. these are big big IPs that had no Wii U installment. The Switch has a major selling titles for every Nintendo IP. The 3D Kirby game is the best selling in the series, that's how successful the Switch is. Kirby hadn't sold that well since the Game Boy era. Another handheld.
@@user-tb9sq5po6z Just say the Wii U had no games. No need to say all that other stuff that nobody cares about.
@@XXXXX8 Nobody cares about? If the Switch wasn't portable it would lose like 50% of it's sales lol. It's not irrelevant at all.
@@XXXXX8 shut up. the Wii u was better then the Switch. As the other person said, if Switch was no t portal, no one would like it.
The Wii U is like one of those movies that has a really bad rotten tomatoes score that you go back to and realize that while it may not be a masterpiece, is way better than what the aggregator would suggest.
Eternals at its finest
It wasn’t bad it was just very limited, I remember loving using the Wii U but being so incredibly frustrated I couldn’t take the Wii U away from the tv, I remember thinking as a kid how innovative and successful a console would be that implemented the D’s compactavility and ability to take anywhere and the power and screen of the Wii U, fast forward 5 years later and Nintendo releases the Nintendo Switch and wouldn’t you know it it was an absolute international success
To this day I don't go more than a month or two without playing my Wii U. Unparalleled VC. I love it. Thanks for this retrospect. Subbed.
I agree mostly, the nes games are really dark
Original Wii had way better Virtual Console. True 240p and more variety of systems.
I grew up with the wii and wii u and honestly i loved the wii u. Had some really amazing titles and the homebrew scene for that thing is craaazzyyyy.
Recently got a wii again but i wanna get a wii u whenever i can. Its just so good
It's great that fans are bringing the Wii U back to life. Homebrew has given it a second life, projects like Pretendo, which seeks to create a replacement for all online services such as miiverse or online play. The Wii U is the most nostalgic console I've ever had and I'll never forget it.
I'm surprised Pikmin 3 didn't get a mention when talking about games that used the gamepad well. The gamepad was an absolute game-changer; being able to have the map open at all times and the "go here" command were such amazing additions.
But overall I completely agree, I bought the Wii U on launch (even sold my Wii to pay for it, because I knew the Wii U had backwards compatibility and all my games would still be playable) and I had years of fun with it. I was actually shocked when I found out it flopped hard.
If it wasn't for the Wii U eShop I would have never played Xenoblade Chronicles, my favorite game of all time, because physical copies were not available in my country (or I was never able to find one). I will always have a soft spot for the Wii U.
Also, Nintendo Land is AMAZING. The Pikmin, Zelda and Metroid games were incredibly fun.
The Wii U reminds me of the Sega Dreamcast. It was a commercial failure despite having a great library. Today the Wii U is also a great console for homebrew, particularly because a hacked Wii U not only has the ability to natively play Wii games but it can also natively play GameCube games and it can easily emulate anything from the 5 gen or earlier. It can also emulate the Nintendo DS quite well.
Funnily enough, there was a flash game, called "Super Mario 63" which had it's own level editor and I played it for days just because of it. Came out in like 2008. Can't believe it took Nintendo so long to make their own
This was when their games started looking REALLY good. I love to believe that the Wii U caused Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
idk if it was because i was young when the wii u released, but i rlly loved playing on it ! hence my surprise when i found it was a " bad " console . it may not be the absolute best , however , great memories were made w the wii u just like the rest of nintendo's consoles
I feel like most people who say it was bad never owned one
@@crazycap2945 I owned one. It was a mediocre console. "Bad" is a stretch, but it didn't have the ingredients to be a successful console. Not enough games, lack of features compared to PlayStation / Xbox (in terms of online play, QoL, apps...), it was basically another Nintendo console in design of the GameCube model where it's just plug and play. But there's more to consoles than plug and play and Nintendo haven't been able to design a console that does more than that. That's why Nintendo realised they're better off sticking to making handhelds.
@@user-tb9sq5po6z i mean thats fair but i owned one and feel it was their best console yet, probably better than the switch (though not on a technical scale). the wii u represented the last vestiges of nintendo's heart. it was soul incarnate in a console. so much heart. the switch is just so corporate. nintendo used to be a breath of fresh air :/
@@aelie8198 The Wii U was definitely corporate. It has the same fundamentals as the Switch the only difference is you didn't have to pay for the Online.
@@user-tb9sq5po6zbut there’s a browser
I’m a new viewer and I just wanted to say I absolutely love your videos!! Keep on doing what your doing, it’s perf! 💕💕
The main thing for me that was the best part was having the Gamepaf option when the TV wasn’t available. It worked perfectly in my house, as my sister could play her games on the TV and I’d just play my game on the Gamepad. Worked amazing and super underrated feature
I think the wii u was a very good console, but they just... kinda threw it away. They named it so people thought its a Wii addon or something like that. It was a Wii 2, and if they wanted to use the Wii name, they should've named it like that.
One game on the wii u that used the gamepad in a creative way was Lego City Undercover!
In the game, there is a police scanner which can be used to locate things and scan for criminals.
The scanner was black, so if you had a black wii u it would look like the scanner!
Great video by the way.
GOD the nintendoland opinions are incredibly correct. that cops and robbers minigame was my absolute favorite; there really aren't many games that i've had THAT much fun playing with friends. asymmetrical multiplayer needs to be more common !! if the wii U had been used to its fullest potential, i think it would've been golden.
you have completely sold me on ur perspective. also, the quality of this video was incredible. script was perfect, editing was incredible, and the pacing was amazing. SO SO well done. more than earned my sub
The Wii U was misunderstood. The name of the original Wii represents 'we' . Wii U represents 'We You' because it supposed to be for family fun and for yourself. It was disappointing to hear that people thought it was just an accessory for the Wii.
Btw wii u is basically an underrated, undockable Switch.
I miss my times playing my Wii U. I used to love Nintendo Land and would always play the Zelda game, and I loved how Lego City Undercover used the game pad. It was such a innovative console.
do you think hilery clintone would have shoot harambo
I remember getting a Wii U for Christmas was I was younger. I have a lot of fond memories with it. Games like Lego City Undercover, and Need For Speed most wanted 2012
I don’t think it’s bad but it just was a weird system. Love the videos dude!
Idk I think the whole plan will become clear once Nintendo announces the Switch 2, which i suppose will be capable of streaming to TV, thus including full Wii U and DS/3DS compability for Virtual Console. Nintendo is just ballsy enough to release demo consoles, every console is just a demo version of the next. The second Zelda title marks the end of a consoles lifespan - it can't be long.
I'd argue it was a bad system. Remember, The WiiU's use of the gamepad hampered it more than it helped. Many 3rd party ports ran worse on the WiiU than the PS3/360 because of the gamepad. And most games didn't really make a well enough use of the Gamepad to make it a novel experience the way the Wii did. If the WiiU was more of the "Wii2" as an improved Wii, it probably would have sold and fared much better
@@madness9651 including full Wii U and DS/3DS compatibility if you subscribe to nintendo switch online* probably lmao
@@FraserSouris no idea what you’re talking about, the gamepad made that system for me. Non-split screen local multiplayer is still something that no other console can do like that. I still play Black Ops 2 that way way with my boyfriend. The Wii U has huge advantages that was seldom properly exploited, but that’s a failure on developers rather than the console.
@@Emmie-kn1mx
That is a very small part of the WiiU experience though.
Like, technically, other systems can do non-split screen local multiplayer. The GameCube can do it with certain GameBoy Advance Minigames. JackBox games let you do that with your phone and the PS4/XB1. PSVR and Astro's Minigames also do the same.
The issue is that building your entire system around something very few players even exist for will make your system a failure. Imagine if the next Nintendo console featured a rolling wheel to make it great for ball rolling minigames. Even if that would actually be good for ball rolling, it would be bad for everything else. And Everything else is what most players play these games for.
Buying a second hand WiiU in mid 2021 was one of the best decisions I've made, I'm having a blast with it!!
I have 3 Wii u
Always wenn i See cheap one i buyed it
I got mine in 2015
I loved playing Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario 3D World on the WiiU.
When the Switch came out, I bought it release year and I still used the Wii U for ages, I loved Mario 3D World, Mario Bros U, Smash Bros, Minecraft Ect, I spent so many hours on all of these games and then I just stoped. The Wii and Wii U is a huge majority of childhood and I love this console, and I’m sad that it was a flop but at least most my childhood games are on switch now 👍
Even as someone with massive nostalgia for a lot of the Wii U's games, the console is something I can't say was amazing looking back. The only thing that kept me so invested was the sorta age I was at the time, the Wii U being my only main console, having to make those games count anyways so the dry periods didn’t really matter. The games towards the end of the life aside from Splatoon and BOTW were a mess at best.
I'm glad to see someone else from my perspective, lol. I was like you, this was my only system for this generation, so the release schedule actually stung. And then like you said, after 2015 with Mario maker and Splatoon, every remaining release for the system was something absurdly bad like Star Fox or Paper Mario. That period of time between 2015 and the Zelda reveal was the absolute worst period of time for me as a Nintendo fan. E3 2015 will always be my absolute least favorite Nintendo presentation of all time, just on the principle that they were only showing off Star Fox Zero for the entire thing, and they game turned out to be ass. The reaction my friend and I had while concluding that E3 still echoes in the back of my mind lmao. Like, sure, they've had some other bad presentations, but that one was flat out depressing. It was like a car running out of gas about to be abandoned on a free way.
@@Cheesehead302 Both of those examples were godlike in comparison to some of the other showings tbf (okay maybe not Star Fox but Paper Mario at least). Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was considered an actual big full release title lol. Granted Splatoon and Mario Maker together (and Smash DLC kinda) were long enough lasting to make it to late 2016-early 2017, the light at the end of the tunnel. But if you didn’t like any of those somehow…there was basically nothing for 2+ years.
I was also probably strung along a bit by the 3DS as well, that definitely helped me look past it because of how much they pumped on there instead. Kinda proof that the Switch focusing all resources into one place was the right call, given how much the 3DS absorbed in the Wii U’s time.
Luckily the Wii U has cemented it’s place in the homebrew scene. Being able to run any game from the NES to the Wii U either through an emulator or natively is kind of insane
The WiiU is the only Nintendo console I never bought and I always thought I didn’t miss much but you make me kind of regret never getting it. I think you’re spot on about how much the marketing hurt the console. At the time I was in college so seeing Nintendo pivot heavy into the marketing for the younger audience made me just stick with PlayStation and PC games that generation. But ironically one of my favorite Mario games was actually a WiiU game with Mario 3D World and I’m glad Nintendo ported it to the Switch. Thanks for making this video, I see a lot of videos about Nintendo consoles but this is the first one I’ve seen about the WiiU and is one of my favorites.
A lot of the controller experience from SM3DW on the Wii U got lost on the port to the Switch. For example, there are levels in which you blow onto the touch sensitive Gamepad screen to make an in-game fan spin so that your character can reach another section of the level. The Switch doesn't have a touch sensitive screen in docked mode, so I'm not sure how they implemented that game feature. Another example is in MK8, where the second screen can actually give you information about the race which helps you play more strategically. That aspect of the game couldn't make it to the Switch port for obvious reasons. Don't get me wrong, I like the Switch, but I think the Wii U was actually better in many ways.
Disagree. The Wii Us game pad wasn’t ultaized that well.
That was a great video, I didn't have my own wii when I was a kid and used to go to my friends house to play and in 2014 or so I bought the wii u with mario kart and followed up on a lot of games. I fucking loved this console and this video gave me a huge nostalgia hit. I posted on the miiverse like a maniac and put some of the most ugliest drawings of all time on there and it was a blast. This console played a huge role in my childhood in elementary school it was so amazing
true
Honestly I still really like the Wii U today and I am happy to see a lot of the exclusives it got see life on the Switch or in other places. But also looking back, it's easy to see why it never truly caught on. I still want a port of Star Fox Zero though.
Being someone that got a wiiu some years ago, i'm happy that the dojo exists in splatoon bc i don't use online in nintendo games so it was goodto play witha friend in two different screens.
the wii u did not fail nintendo. nintendo failed it.
You can tell the marketing is bad because when I first heard of its existence I was like "What? That sounds stupid, its just the Wii again..." and they did a terrible job explaining what the gamepad is, I had no idea how it was supposed to work conceptually until after I got a Wii U.
Another annoying thing, you can't play half the games if you don't have the gamepad, even if the game doesn't require it. Which really sucks if your gamepad's charging plug breaks and can only charge if you plug it in at a very specific angle... (speaking from experience of course).
Totally agree the wiiU was one of the best consoles I’ve ever played on. I’m so sad that it didn’t sell very well
I really hope this console gets eventually looked at in the same way as the GameCube where in a few years, it will be recognized as a masterpiece even though it sold badly.
@@raythepretentiousnerd totally agree
The Wii U was my first true Nintendo console experience, and I really enjoyed it for what it was. I got addicted to Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario Maker especially, and Nintendo Land is a very nostalgic game for me. Add Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Splatoon, Super Mario 3D Land, Paper Mario Colour Splash (yes I like that game), Rayman Legends, DKC Tropical Freeze and TLoZ Wind Waker HD and that's just a sliver of the great library it has. The VC is also a lot better than the Switch's offerings in hindsight too. While the Switch is definitively the better system, the Wii U has a soft spot in my heart, and the fact that the Switch is full of ports of Wii U games is a sign of the quality games on it
Hope the next console have a accessory feature. We can have a second screen to attach to the console to work like a DS or dock the switch and separate to work like a Wii U. You can also have 3D and attach camera and microphone
What’s interesting is that the Wii U sold 400,000+ in it’s first week, however it was mostly hardcore Nintendo fans. In comparison the Wii sold 1.3 Million in it’s first week and the Switch sold 1.5 Million because people actually knew what it was. In it’s first year, it sold over 3 Million while in it’s second year it sold around 5-ish Million mainly because of Mario Kart 8. I mean the only people who bought the Wii U who weren’t hardcore Nintendo fans were families who didn’t own a Wii and they weren’t a whole lot of families that didn’t have the OG Wii.
Short answer: No
Normally I don't comment, but man that outro gave me tears of nostalgia
Excellent video!
I love this channel, and the Wii U era was amazing
I found the WII U Just once in a furniture shop. It had nintendoland installed and I loved it. I whish I was born in the 2000 to get those.
Wii Fit U and Wii Part U also used the controller well! Wii Party U wasn't TOO special, but Wii Fit U was a lot better in my opinion. It even utilized the camera well!
I still play with my Wii U I had so many games on it and you can port the games from old consoles. That was a plus for me.
It’s mostly nostalgia that’s making me not hate the console. It’s not a bad console. I agree that the way they marketed was abysmal but besides that it had some of the most fantastic and nostalgic games I’ve ever played in my life as listed at the end. The Wii U holds a special place in my heart.
Short Answer Based
Long Answer:It's truly amazing to see someone talk about not only game and wario but also Nintendo Land two of my favorite games of all time
i had a wiiu it was AMAZING I LOVED IT I LOVE NINTENDO LAND
Same.
I remember booting the wii u up after school to play super mario bros and lego Jurassic park. If this console didnt exist i wouldn't love video games.
The Wii U is underrated had a good library of games despite its flaws I loved it.
Shut up
I really enjoyed this review. It seems like everyone talks negatively about the Wii U and about it's shortcomings compared to other Nintendo systems. But not about how fun the games were and backwards compality of all Wii games.
The Wii U game pad is still my favorite controller ever made just because of how comfortable it is to hold, it’s still unmatched for me
Exaggeration. Ok you like the thing. But can’t you see how dishonest you sound?
As a controler it was too big. Heavy. The both sticks on top was awkward. Battery life was poor etc
The Wii U was an amazing console and improved over Wii. The problem was everybody was still using their way, and it was so revolutionary that ironically how many people wanted to upgrade to the way you for various reasons, but I still have mine and play it and I’m glad a lot of the games got ported over to the switch
i remember using wii u chat to call my best friend. i was not allowed to have a phone because i was 10.
I moved when i was 6 so we were so happy when we discovered how to use wii u chat and being able to videocall your friend with it was just magic and then the shutdown ocurred and switch didnt have a videocall thing :/
edit* sorry if my english is bad, im spanish :)
I never experienced wii u chat😢 becouse I dint want the Internet on becouse I'm lazy and when I set it finaly up but almost everyting got shut down 😭
The funny thing is when the Wii U was getting launched with its big commercials, I assumed that it would be like the Switch, you could take it anywhere and play and return home and play on your tv. I asked my friend about the Wii U and asked if it was portable, he said after a certain amount of feet, it started to disconnect, meaning that it was only a home console, this really bugged me. Once I learned about that, my interest in the Wii U sorta declined. The Super Mario Bros Wii U game seems pretty cool tho.
It was a commerical failure but it wasnt bad at all. I really enjoyed playing on it when i had it!
I still have my Wii U, graphics and games are great, and will be enjoying it for many years to come!
Big "Bro thinks he's part of the team" moment in the highlight reel at the end when Ultra Smash was on there lol
I think that the Wii U had some good games, and the console itself was great, but it was a victim of really crappy marketing and that hurt it a lot
12:14 Hey! I like that ad! Take it back!
“The console Nintendo wants you to forget about” Me: I thought we don’t bring up the Virtual Boy🤫.” Jokes aside, the Wii-U will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart❤. Looking back; it was genuinely great but the godawful marketing and limited third-party support (let-alone very few Indi games) would ultimately set the poor thing up for commercial failure🥺. But this was great 👍 video, always a treat to this stellar console get some more love and appreciation.
On this day 2 years ago, my Wii U also came to me as my first gaming console. It really makes me crazy, addicted. Even though I sold that Wii U (due to lack of money) and went through many other consoles, none of them delivered the same experience as the Wii U. Gonna buy it again someday.
I absolutely and unironically believe the Wii U is the best console ever. It has the entire Wii library, the smaller but full of great titles Wii U library, plus a great virtual console.
When the Wii U came out I wanted one so bad, I was only able to see it in gaming magazines.
The Wii U has always reminded me of windows 8. Not as good as 7 (wii) but not as accessible as 10 (Switch). One thing i loved was going on miiverse and trying to leak the ip of people in my splatoon lobbies (They were just random numbers i made up). I lowkey miss miiverse though, but i get why they could'nt continue it. Also it has a certain charm element to it with nostalgia for me.
I've made a lot of friends in Miiverse xD
Miiverse was a lot of fun ^^"
Im planning on buying a wii u in the coming days just because i always wanted one as a kid but never got the opportunity to get one so im gonna buy it to fulfill my childhood dream and to relive the nostalgia of the original wii that we all know and love!
I didn’t buy the Wii u as a kid because I had the good old og Wii
My siblings and I got it for Christmas in 2013, had so much fun and bonded over amazing games like Super Mario 3d World , Yoshi Wooly world etc. it had its flaws but remained consistent in its family oriented , playful fun it’s predecessor brought
Still better than the empty shell Switch.
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I remember when the wii u came out a lot of us were confused we didn't really know what it did most of us thought it was an extension for the wii until our local game shop put them for demos we were still a bit confused but then Mario maker and splatoon came out that's what got me to buy it I was hooked from then it wasn't bad it was just marketed badly is all
Mark my words, the Wii U will become the new gamecube
Mine has already
I think it's funny so manny people/youtubers have told it is sold bad but never really finding the console itself bad, It's kinda weird.
It had amazing games, I love the Wii U solely because of nintendoland
the gamepad was a huge mistake. even things that took good advantage of it like mario maker nintendo could have just made the wii u compatible with a usb mouse or sold their old like the snes. mario maker allready had lots of call backs to mario paint.
nintendo land could have just had the one person play on a 3ds.
Jesus loves yall so much, never forget how much he really does care for you, and how God litterally had his own son killed just so we could have a chance to be with him, if that doesent show how much he cares then i dont know what does. have a blessed day :)
btw he rose again from the dead so he didnt die perminentely, dont worry
Thank you for the daily reminder, Brother Dudd. 🙏
Thank you for talking about the miiverse archive. Went back to my old profile for a trip down memory lane.
I remember going to my cousin's house back in 2013-2016 and playing Mario Kart 8 and Mario 3D World on his Wii U. Despite the poor marketing and misunderstanding the audience got of it, the Wii U was still a blast to play on. Soon after, I bought a Wii U, and I loved and still love playing on it to this day.
I never bought a Wii U, partially because I was broke at the time, but also because I found the first party lineup (which is a far bigger driving force for my console decisions than third party games) to be lacking. There were a lot of IPs that either didn't get a main entry or skipped the console altogether (such Kirby, Metroid, Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing).
But more than that, there was an entire genre that Nintendo almost completely ignored during this era: and that's the large, single player adventure games. As someone who grew up in the early 3D era playing games such as Mario 64/Sunshine and Metroid Prime (I also later fell in love with Zelda which you can lump into this category, but I didn't actually grow up with it), I tend to gravitate towards the more open/sandboxy/exploration based gameplay styles such as those and the Wii U... just had very little of that. Mario removed all vestiges of its traditional sandbox gameplay from 64/Sunshine, instead opting for a NSMB linear platformer in 3D World. There were no other 3D platformers aside from 3D World to fill the void of sandbox platformers. Metroid skipped the Wii U entirely. The big flagship Zelda game got delayed so long that it became cross gen and helped the Switch far more than the Wii U, and all the Wii U had until then was a pair of GC remasters. Other than that, you just had Xenoblade, which I had tried once but never got into because I find the combat as boring as watching paint dry. A very trying and frustrating time to be a fan of these types of games, it really felt like Nintendo didn't want someone like me buying their games anymore.
Now I can appreciate that the Wii U laid the groundwork for the Switch's success, the Switch feels like a refined version of what the Wii U was trying to be. But lineup wise, the Switch just feels like it's in a totally different league and what I was waiting all generation for the Wii U's lineup to be but never got. So I can't really look at the Wii U's lineup too fondly. There were a couple of games outside of my usual preferences that I did like from the Wii U (Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Mario Maker, and Captain Toad were nice little experiments), but in general it just didn't cut it for me.
I never knew why the Wii U wasn't given a proper chance, I had so much fun with it compared to the Wii personally because I feel like the Wii's graphics were too darkly saturated. Which made it hard to see for me (Example Mario Kart Wii/SSBB graphics vs Mario Kart 8/SSB4 brightness). I loved it! Spent a lot of hours on it.
I remember one of the most outstanding things about the WiiU at the time was the music. Most of the first party titles, like Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Nintendoland etc. all had this larger than life jazzy big band theme, and I absolutely adored it! You could tell that it was a very deliberate united effort on Nintendo's part, which shows that somebody in there had a plan to make this console a consistent quality product. It's just that somebody else in marketing was on a completely different wave length 🤷♂️
I have so many memories with the Wii U. I wish I could go back to those times
Just the fact that while playing on tv you had a second screen with info was precious
The Wii u was so good. The only thing they need was new brains for the Nintendo Marketing team.
It was a fun console and had several great games but its hardware limitations meant many games weren't developed on it
i LOVEDDDD my wiiU and still use it to this day!! though some buttons on my tablet stopped working i can still play og wii games w the og controllers without the og console! i’m soooo happy they implemented that feature frl. but when i was a kid i remember wishing i could play minecraft and terraria on my wii and the wiiU fixed that!! it’s such an underrated console, i literally would play on it everyday for years.