I'm a Wii U owner without Switch, and I don't feel betrayed at all. Why should I be bothered because Switch owners can play Zelda and MK8?

All prior Nintendo consoles have an exclusive Zelda and Mario Kart. I bought my Wii U for exclusives, not beta versions of Switch games.

Wii U still has a ton of amazing exclusives.

Hardly anything of note compared to other Nintendo consoles, and they don't make up for no exclusive Zelda, no exclusive Mario Kart, no Metroid, no Fire Emblem, crap Paper Mario, crap Mario Tennis, etc.

I don't get your point. If the Switch didn't exist, the Wii U would still have the same Zelda and Mario Kart as it has now.

Sound very bitter.  I was bitter that they had the balls to drop Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival on Wii U instead of a proper AC title but I eventually got over it.  As for exclusive Zelda and Mario Kart...  I think you are in a very microscopic group that is concerned about that. 

Wii U had a great launch line up. Assassins Creed, CoD (which was amazing due to off tv multiplayer), Ninja Gaiden, Batman, Zombii U. Basically, it had pretty good western third party support as well as Nintendo Land (which I love very much) and New Super Mario Bros.. I think people want to poke holes in Wii U launch because the console was a failure when in reality, the console was a failure for reasons other than the launch line up.

This is not to say I am unhappy with Switch's offerings. I am just pointing out that the narrative that Nintendo needs certain titles to reach mainstream success (or success in general) is a narrative that should be ending any day now. Switch and Wii U had great games in their first six months. The difference was mostly in the types of games. Hell, while people can say, "Switch launched with Zelda and Wii U did not" I can say two things: 1) Zelda is not THAT big of a franchise and 2) The Switch Zelda is on Wii U as well (I bought it for Wii U) and is not exactly an exclusive anyway.

I think the narrative is being forced. The reasons why Wii U failed had a lot more to do with marketing and a lack of fundamental understanding of the direction the console should have gone (wanting all the major third party support but forgetting that the product was too different to truly garner said support) than the games that came out in the first six months.

Sure there was an overpriced Mass Effect on Wii U... don't most people call Ultra Street Fighter II overpriced on Switch? The same issues largely persist. The biggest differences are, as I previously stated, brand recognition, marketing, and identity. Nintendo has a clear plan and they are executing that plan to perfection.

I suppose people knowing that it is a new system is pretty helpful.  I at first brushed off concerns when people were stating that the general public didn't know what the fuck the Wii U was (a lot apparently thought it was just a controller upgrade or whatever rather than an entire new system).  However, you know its bad when Nintendo has to release posters with a checklist showing the differences between the Wii and Wii U to stores.

Wii U lineup was missing key point for Nintendo line up, it was missing system seller game, game because people buying console, Wii U didnt had that, and at end, on launch and later in 1st year, Wii U was bought only buy hardcore Nintendo fans. What Wii U had on launch: multiplatform games that were available on much more affordable PS3/Xbox360, ZombiU hardcore horror game that had early bad reviews, NSMBU that's basically almost just NSMB in HD and Nintendo Land good party game but not system seller game alone. Wii U at launch or near launch needed Mario Maker, or Splatoon, or Mario Kart 8, or Zelda BotW, or SM3DW, it needed early game thats strong and great game for which will people want to buy Wii U, while in reality Wii U got 1st strong and big game (SM3DW) hole year after launch when Wii U was already considered for failure. Not to mention fact that Wii U in 1st year huge drouths where had months without any release, so yes, launch and 1st year Wii U lineup is one of key reasons why Wii U failed.

Why do you thinkg Nintendo launched Switch with Zelda BotW, why they released MK8D only 2 month after Switch launch, or Splatoon2 3 months after MK8D, and now they having one bigger/stronger game per month!? Because they learned their lesson after Wii U, they know that they need strong system seller games from start and steady flow of games if they want successful console. Switch and Wii U 1st 6 months lineup are night and day difference, Wii U did have stronger multiplatform games but didn't had anything that could come even close to Zelda BotW, MK8D and Splatoon 2 and thats much important for Nintendo console, and those games are one of reasons why Switch is selling like crazy. Zelda maybe wasn't so big before (again it was huge on N64 and quite big on Wii), but Zelda BotW is huge, it will be probably best selling Zelda game ever.

So no, narative defintly isnt forced, launch and 1st year Wii U lineup is one of key reasons why Wii U failed. Other key reasons are terrible marketing and branding, and point that Wii U concept was bad and forced.

Yes, Nintendo is done great job with Switch marketing and branding, has also great hybrid concept, those all things on which Wii U failed, but you cant really ignoring Switch 1st 6 months with Zelda BotW, MK8D and Splatoon 2 that are all huge system seller games and try to compare that with Wii U, Wii U didnt had nothing similar basicly in hole 1st year.

I still think the hopeless performance level of the wii u is a factor with it being beaten by ps3 and 360 versions of the same games despite the console being released something like 6 years later. The Switch comfortably beats the wii u despite being a portable at heart. The lack of hard drive meant many games simply didn't work that well on wii u and the weak cpu crippled the frame rates of many games. Much of Nintendo's own content was just regurgitating old games and it wasn't capable of running good versions of third party games. It was also very expensive for what it was a very cheap to make low performance console. The resistive screen gamepad was bulky and not particularly child friendly and had short battery life. Christ the more you think about it the more hopeless it was but still none of this matters when I'm playing Zelda BOTW.

The fact that Sony bought the factory that makes a critical component of the wii u and wouldn't continue supplying chips to Nintendo didn't help. Nintendo would have been forced into an expensive redesign of the console which was already struggling to sell. Instead they decided against lowering the price of the hardware and managing existing inventory of chips instead meaning they kept the console price high until they could replace the wii u with a new console. If the wii u had come down to a more realistic price point for the hardware on offer we just don't know how many more wii u's would have sold. So there were logistic factors too to wii u's failure.

Maybe that was a big factor why instead of custom chip in wii u Nintendo went with an off the shelf Tegra chip with no customisations for Switch.