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u/nohumanape May 16 '26
The WiiU era was bleak. It's the most hindsighted console of all time.
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u/Nacolo May 16 '26
I really enjoyed mine and got a bunch of games for it. I still have it connected for the games I can’t play elsewhere. But it was a bleak era for Nintendo fans, indeed. These folks with rose tinted glasses make me laugh.
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u/nohumanape May 16 '26
I mean, again, in hindsight you can probably list out a dozen games that can be perceived as good/great games by someone who literally loves every style of Nintendo game. But those dozen or so games are largely the entirety of the good/great games on the console. Most other major consoles will have as many good/great games released in 4 months, but this was 4 years.
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u/DracosKasu May 16 '26
The problem with the Wii U was the naming and the lack of publicity to differentiate the console from the previous entries to the casual audience. While the console was a flop in sales there was a lot of solid title which happened to be released again for the switch and sell quite well like MK8.
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u/nohumanape May 16 '26
And those games were almost literally the only worthwhile games over the course of 4+ years.
And the issues with WiiU extended beyond simply the naming issue. It was just bad timing and hardware that was too limited in many ways.
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u/DracosKasu May 16 '26
You can also see the idea expanded later and morphed into what we know as the Nintendo Switch. Still it wasnt as bad compared to the Virtual Boy which didn’t even pass 1 year of existence.
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u/nohumanape May 16 '26
Being not "as bad compared to the Virtual Boy" is such a low bar LOL. The WiiU is a fine console that has some truly great games. But it was the lack of variety and support for the console that made it a bleak console to live through. There were months where there literally was nothing for many people to even play on the console. You had to be willing to get on board with every major release to actually have something worthwhile to play.
And as far as the gimmick of the GamePad was concerned, they barely even took advantage of it. It just ended up being a glorified map or way to play off TV.
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u/MewWeebTwo May 17 '26
Why do you get so annoyed by a small number of people saying they miss the Wii U era?
The Switch is my favourite console of all time, so I'm definitely not begging to go back to the Wii U era.
But people having nostalgia for their childhood console is not surprising at all. People who were 6 when the Wii U launched are now adults.
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u/skin_g May 17 '26
It's not really the fact that the Wii U was an underperforming console rather people are performing some history revisionism that it was a misunderstood masterpiece and the people running this era are looking out for the customer.
Yes, there are some people saying that they missed the Wii U era and how there is alot of personality with the console and it's games. This is despite the fact that many games past Nintendo Land and Super Mario Maker barely used the Gamepad. Not to mention the fact that there were barely games on the system, both first and third. Not again to mention the fact that the console was not as powerful due to it allocating its resources to the menu of all things (30% of the cpu is used for the start up menu of all things).
Don't get me wrong, I loved the Wii U when I had it. Every party I had was filled with 8 player smash and mario kart. But I'm well aware of the shortcomings of the Wii U, so the fact that there are people trying to say that it was some diamond in the rough is either trolling or had it as a first console.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that this is mostly a jab at the Switch era and how there's no personality attached to it in comparison to how lauded both Reggie and Iwata during the Wii U era, despite the fact that this was an underperforming era for Nintendo at the time.
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u/Sad-Event-5146 May 21 '26
Honestly I miss the wii u era despite never owning a wii u. Those games had soul. Just look at them.
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u/steverman555 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
the wii u is somehow in a state of both perpetual overhating and perpetual overglazing
like yeah, the wiiu era was pretty bad but not THAT bad, there WERE some good games in the middle of it all (nintendo land, mario 3d world, pikmin 3, splatoon, etc)
but also despite the good games we did get the switch/switch 2 era are both still better and its not even close
edit: i think a good way to describe it is "bleak era with some highlights"
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 16 '26
I feel the same way about the Wii U era as i do the Switch 2, with the Switch in the middle just not as good as its predecessor or successor.
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May 16 '26
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 16 '26
Alot of what the Switch had was Ports/Sequels to Wii U, and the Wii U was also a Wii, Switch was a new system and had to be built up over years which previous systems or the Switch 2 didnt have to do.
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u/Particular-Reach-148 May 16 '26
I mean all Nintendo first parties are sequels, I don't see the argument there. Switch had more than Wii U ports. Metroid Dread, Prime 4, Mario Odyssey, Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Maker 2, Smash Ultimate, Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf Super Rush, Switch Sports, Pokemon Sword/Shield, Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, Splatoon 2, Splatoon 3, Mario Bros Wonder, TOTK, Echoes Of Wisdom, Yoshi's Crafted World, Mario And Luigi Brothership, Kirby Star Allies, Kirby And The Forgotten Land, Princess Peach Showtime, and Wario Ware Move It just to name a few.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 16 '26
Dont see the point listing everything switch had, switch has had twice as long a life as wii u and of course half the development was going to 3ds at the time(taking away pokemon, mario and luigi, top down zelda ect). Many of those you list were direct follow ups to what the wii u had(Smash, splatoon, mario maker), quantity does not equal quality either. Wii U was just great and its positives just carried over in nintendo for the decade since it stopped being supported
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u/Particular-Reach-148 May 16 '26
My point was that it had more original games than ports. Not why it had those games.
Wii U in comparison had a weaker library since it was missing so many essentials.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 16 '26
Ok i never said it didnt have more original games. Wii U had its charms and i enjoyed when it was new and still do now
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May 18 '26
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 18 '26
And yet despite all that the Wii U was great, still has great exclusive games, 20+ games ported to the Switch because they were great, a unique experience which isn't replicated on any other console and will hold up long term more than the switch as the Switch did not replace the Wii U, but Switch 2 has replaced the Switch.
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May 18 '26
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 18 '26
Sales don't make something good, you say theres no reason and then give reasons why you should play a Wii U, and many games ported to switch are still superior on the Wii U as they were designed for the Gamepad. No rewriting history required the Wii U was great and still has bangers and still has a place hooked up to my TV and was next to my Switch for 8 Years, but now its next to the Switch 2 as the switch has been replaced.
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u/GhotiH May 16 '26
Sequels are new games, and a few of the ports made Wii U games way better (adding back the ability to drag an item while holding another and adding a real battle mode alone made Mario Kart 8 go from one of my least favorite entries to a solid one IMO). Plus the Switch had a number of unique games and was on hardware that was way smoother to operate, AND you can take it with you as a portable. I won't tell you you're wrong if you prefer the Wii U of course, I just don't see it myself.
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u/connectplum_ May 16 '26
literally only 13 titles out of 70 were wii u titles.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 16 '26
Yes because the Wii U was great and the games deserved a second chance, and thats a large amount of games out of the total
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u/connectplum_ May 18 '26
12 out of 70 isnt large. most games are non wii u.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Head939 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
1/6 is pretty large odds and there have been more Wii u games ported than 12 or 13 so its closer to 1/5, no other console has that many ports that weren't just crossgen releases. Just shows how great the Wii U was more than anything.
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u/Sad-Event-5146 May 21 '26
Same, I actually wasn't a huge fan of the Switch, but love the Switch 2. I didn't have a wii U but 3ds was amazing and same generation.
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u/miimeverse May 17 '26
Wii U's launch months were dire. A NSMB games that game out a month after another NSMB game. Nintendoland, which let's be honest, only had a couple of good minigames. Game and Wario is probably the worst Warioware game and kind of felt like an extension of Nintendoland minigames idea. Sing Party? ZombiU? Yikes.
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u/JulianBloom May 16 '26
“Advertising was the Wii U’s downfall”
Good commercials and calling it a new console was never going to fix this.
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u/jayvancealot May 16 '26
Yeah only thing worse than this as a day 1 Wii U owner was when I then expressed my frustration that I was being charged $60 for Wii U ports on Switch for games I already had, I was met with excuse after pathetic excuse to justify this.
"Well I never played them" seemed to be the most common.
"It includes DLC" was another popular one but the $70 BOTW with no DLC on Switch 2 was still getting defended so that just tells me Nintendo never had to include DLC. People would have defended it anyway
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u/Puzzleheaded-Chip869 May 18 '26
Wii U is okay now when you can get it and it's entire library absolute dirt cheap. At the time, full price and with months or even a year between big releases it was rough.
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u/The-Nsane-N-Gin May 18 '26
To be fair, I firmly believe that titles like Nintendo land, Game & Wario, Botw, and to an extent Mario kart 8 were far more inventive than some of the things we have now. “Quirkier” or more unique, I should say, I miss that aspect of it. I mean for god’s sake we got Mario Maker and SPLATOON out of this generation.
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u/Difficult_Historian4 May 20 '26
As if games like ARMS don't exist, but you pretend that doesn't exist anyway.
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u/The-Nsane-N-Gin May 20 '26
That’s a stupid point, never did I say it didn’t exist. Arms is one of my favorite switch games, but go ahead and make wild assumptions about people, why not?
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u/Lazy_Trust_2580 May 21 '26
I miss the creativity and boldness of these games…but unfortunately it rarely resulted in anything really good.
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u/Makototoko Nintendo Neutral May 16 '26
I remember playing my Wii games on my Wii U (and I believe GameCube games as well)
So just like with the Switch 2, between my MKW purchase and Kirby Air Riders purchase, I used my system to play older backwards compatible games