1. Yes, you can. New ones are available directly from Nintendo. This thread is about the Wii though.

2. True, but they are oftentimes more competitive in terms of sales, thus justifying the higher price.

3. I suppose this includes fan noise and system failure a few years or even days after launch.

Sorry man, did not see that. Swore i saw WiiU

Other M.

From a purely hardware standpoint, pack-in rechargable controllers would've been great. :P

Biggest issue with the Wii? The batteries.

Sad to see how I was changing batteries here and there. The PS3 doesn't have that problem, though. Been playing hardcore Tales of Graces f with my friends all weekend. No battery? Plug the damn USB cable and that's it. More than 20 damn hours.

Oh and, sadly, the WiiMote has the slight problem that using motion controls EATS THE BATTERIES WHOLE. Skyward Sword? Only 3 hours straight. Dead batteries. And I have Fi to remind me of that. Fortunately, there's games with other controller options, so playing all that Smash Bros. Brawl with the Gamecube Controller was quite nice.

Thankfully, the WiiU Gamepad has its own internal battery. And thank the gods for that miracle.

Wii Mote batteries last ages for me. At a guess I'd say about 20 hours. It could be a fauilty wii mote or perhaps the battreies you use are the problem. I never used rechargable batteries. I bought packs of good quality batterys and had them all last a very long time. I'm not sure how long but I played through skyward sward with, i think, only one battery change. 

A good internal rechargable battrey would have been be nice. That said I might like the Wii U's gamepad even more if it lasted 20 hours off 2, quick to replace, aa batteries.

the abuse of motion controls where it wasnt necessary or inovative.
DKCR is the main example.

friend codes.

focus in party games instead of bringing games like zelda SS and the localization of xenoblade earlier.

No major issues other than Nintendo was far too relaxed in their game development deciding never to make sequels to many of their old favorites not to mention the fact that there was never the perfect FPS to make use of the controls.

My biggest issue is the problem that Nintendo has had since the N64 (minus Rare). Lack of new franchises and mature games. I am not 5 anymore so Mario is not going to cut it. As much as I enjoy Zelda I need something fresh. I bought a GC, but skipped the Wii (hated that casual shovelware machine) and now the WiiU is mediocre because of Nintendo's inability to bring new ideas or games. As a Nintendo original I am very disappointed.

for every one of those games you mention there was about 10 shovelware titles, and what are these shovelware gems. Because they were all pretty much terrible if not mediocre. I will go through your list of games...now

If thats the best of the best then either, my expectations were too high, or your's or too low. maybe both, maybe neither. IMHO thats not a good list of games. Especially considering the HD twins BLOW those out the water. WITHOUT any of the shovelware crap (well Kinect and a bit of Move). 

If you enjoyed those good for you. I didnt think the library was good, doesnt helped they pretty much stopped some time ago. So again, yeah it felt half assed. even in the games.

Oniyide never cared for Metroid games!!! There should be some sort of gaming version of godwin's law which states that when someone in an online gaming conversaion bad mouths Metroid they automatically lose the argument.