By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Salnax on 11 March 2014
Edit Thread

I'm curious how many "good" games the Wii U will have in 2014. We all know that Smash Bros and Mario Kart will get good reviews, but counting quantity over quality, how many games will get "green" Metascores this year in total?

 

Personally, in terms of sheer number of games, I expect the Wii U to top 2012 and 2013, perhaps combined (although the high number of well received launch ports makes this difficult). Why? Well, look at the Wii's number of "Green" games by year through 2008:

  • 2006: 6
  • 2007: 19
  • 2008: 42

The Wii, even though the latter half of 2008 is poorly remembered, reached a high point in 2008. This was thanks largely to WiiWare, but there is a parallel with the upcoming flood of Wii U eShop games, particularly from indie developers that only recently began making Nintendo games.

Let's look at the number of "Green" Wii U games by yeare so far:

  • 2012: 18 (The launch ports were plentiful and well received)
  • 2013: 29 (Surprisingly, a better year than 2007, at least according to this scale)
  • 2014: 1 (Hi Tropical Freeze)

Admittedly, the first two months of the year have not been kind to the Wii U. However, the Wii U is due to receive dozens of eShop games this year. If a quarter of them are good, that's about 15 "Green" games. Then, we add the few surefire hits under the Nintendo banner, such as Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Bayonetta, which is another, say, five games. Last, we throw in every non-Nintendo 3rd party retail game this year, both exclusive and multiplatform. This will include likely sucessful games like Skylanders 4, Watch Dogs, LEGO titles, etc. Even with fairly modest estimates, this should all add up to around the same amount of "Green" games we had in 2013, about 30 or so. If more eShop games are announced or another few retail games are announced, 2014 can likely do somewhat better than 2013. Though I admit, the 48 needed to out-quality 2012 and 2013 combined would be tough.

 

What do you think? Will the Wii U have a decent number of critical hits this year?



Love and tolerate.