I haven't seen a thread like this around, so I thought "Why not make it?" This thread has no particular agenda to promote or denounce the Wii U. I just thought it'd be fun to compare this Nintendo console launch with the last one.

I'm arranging the games into rough genre categories, and will put the current Metacritic score next to them when available. Games are chosen from the North American launch.

Action

Wii: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (73)

Wii U: Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge (70), Tank Tank Tank (47), Skylanders Giants, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper (63)

Action Adventure

Wii: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (95)

Wii U: Darksiders 2 (87), Batman Arkham City (87), Assassin's Creed 3 (87)

Fighting

Wii: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (72)

Wii U: Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition (81)

Party

Wii: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (74), Rayman Raving Rabbids (76)

Wii U: Rabbids Land (54), Nintendo Land (77)

Platform

Wii U: New Super Mario Bros U (83), Epic Mickey 2

Racing

Wii: Excite Truck (72), Monster 4x4 World Circuit (51), Need for Speed Carbon (67), GT Pro Series (41)

Wii U: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (77)

RPG

Wii U: Mass Effect 3 (86)

Shooters

Wii: Call of Duty 3 (69), Red Steel (63)

Wii U: ZombiU (75), Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (84)

Sports

Wii: Madden NFL 07 (81), Wii Sports (76), Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (69)

Wii U: ESPN Sports Connection, Fifa Soccer 13 (70), Madden NFL 13 (75), NBA 2K13

Other

Wii: Trauma Center: Second Option (80)

Wii U: Sing Party (53), Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013, Just Dance 4, Scribblenauts Unlimited (75)

Licensed Games/Obvious Shovelware:

Wii: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Happy Feet, Rampage: Total Destruction, Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab, Barnyard, Cars, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Open Season

Wii U: Ben 10 Omniverse, Transformers Prime (65), Game Party Champions, Wipeout 3, Game Party Champions

eShop Games

Wii U: Mighty Switch Force (89), Nano Assault Neo (74), Little Inferno (79), Chasing Aurora (66), Trine 2 (86)

Observations

*The Wii U lacks a Twilight Princess-style stellar title at launch. Other than that however, a lot of the games' scores are generally comprable.

*Despite the lack of a Twilight Princess, the Wii U is blessed with three high quality action adventures, albeit ports. However, the Wii had notaby more Racing games.

*Wii Sports and Nintendo Land have a similar Metascore

*The Wii U launch contains less shovelware and licensed games

*Despite some negative reviews, ZombiU is 10 points higher than its spiritual predecessor, Red Steel

*The Wii lacked any early platformers or RPGs, save for possibly Marvel Ultimate Alliance

*Madden, Rabbids, and Call of Duty are present for both launches.

I would also mention Black Ops 2 is getting a much higher metascore then CoD3.

However Wii U lacks a killer title at launch? Twilight Princess was a port, Wii U has New Super Mario Bros U. This is the first Nintendo home console to launch with a Mario game since N64, but I do agree with what you mean. Wii U lacks a 1st party core exclusive title. Gamecube was so lucky, it had 2 great ones and 2 good ones (Smash Bros, Pikmin, Wave Race, and Luigi's Mansion)

Love the thread idea! But I agree with Michael-5 that NSMBU counts as a must-have title. Let's wait for all the reviews to come in, but I think the Wii U launch is a lot better than Wii. Twilight Princess is an all-time great game, but the other Wii launch games weren't spectacular.

I am shocked at the quality titles (name recognition) the WiiU was able to get for the launch compared to the Wii.

Yeah, NSMBU may not be the caliber of game as something like Twilight Princess but at least it's a new game. TP was just a port. Wii lacked any true exclusive great launch games.

The thing I agree with you on is pikmin 3 (lacking first party games compared to gamecube). I am gutted that hasn't made launch but nintendo is being smart in doing this. There were that many killer first party games on gamecube because gc lacked any real third party support at the time. For wii twilight princess was a port of a gc game so while that is much better then mario u it only made it because it was ported.

In fact coming from somebody who thinks twilight princess is by far the best zelda ever, I would say wii u has it much better. If pikmin and ninja gaiden (in europe) had made launch things would have been absolutely perfect for me. But the only reason twilight princess kept me occupied was because it was so long and I loved it. I bought far cry slightly later and it was horrible. I would say wii u is better by far. Can't say about gc. But wii u has tekken and that is my favourite fighting game. For me, wii u is definitely far superior.

I would rather they spread out the games more then throw all their eggs out at launch. It happened to vita and that caused people to say it has no games shortly after. You can have all the games you want at launch and have the best launch lineup of all time. Or you can make it less appealing and spread the games out over the next few months. Not only does that give sleeper hits a chance to take their place under the spotlight, it gives people a chance to save money for it should they not have enough on launch.

While Twilight Princess was indeed a port of the GameCube game, it was released before the original was. So Wii's version of TP was still a new game when it came out. A lot of Zelda-fans probably got the Wii just to play TP a month earlier.

Agree on the rest though.

Good thread idea by the way!

Twilight Princess vs NSMBWU

just wait a year and see the difference in sales.

Well I think NSMB Wii U is the Twilight Princess killer app, it's just a shame critics weren't as fond of it as it seems much better than NSMB 2. Not like that would stop the consumers. It's literally the only game I'll be getting at launch with my Wii U and i wouldn't be surprised to see it have a ridiculously high attach ratio.

Not to mention Black Ops 2 on the Wii U seems to actually be graphically superior to the 360 and PS3 versions, something the Wii launch was lacking.

Are these launch day games or launch window games, because the Wii had a really good launch day if the former. Didn't get mine up until a year later when FE:RD, Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy hit the shelves.