It has been a very quiet year for the Wii U, especially in EU/AUS where we've only had five new retail games published by Nintendo. If you needed any further proof of the difficulties Nintendo are having with HD development, 3/5 of those titles were developed by third parties and another developed by subsidiary Retro Studios.
2014 EU/AUS Release Calendar (NEW retail titles in bold)
January: Dr. Luigi
February: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
March:
April: NES Remix 2
May: Mario Kart 8
June: Pullblox World
July: Wii Sports Club
August:
September: Hyrule Warriors
October: Bayonetta 2
November: ?
December: ?
Q4: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Nintendo have also been reluctant to create any new content for the eshop, prefering to alter and improve existing formulas which is presumably cheaper and more likely to return a profit on the small Wii U userbase. From the titles we know about, I can't see that changing much for next year.
So what do Nintendo have planned for 2015? So far we can be fairly certain that Yoshi's Wooly World, Xenoblade X, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Mario Maker, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Mario Party 10 and Splatoon are definitely going to appear. The next Legend of Zelda is also currently listed for 2015 (although history shows us Nintendo aren't afraid to delay ambitious projects if they require it) and we haven't heard much about Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei for a long time, although if development is indeed continuing it could also be expected to release next year.
Starfox is the biggest unknown in the Nintendo production line. Announced to very little fanfare at E3, it was shown off behind closed doors reportedly using a combination of N64 and Wii assets from a prevously abandoned prototype. Miyamoto stated he is looking for external partners to help with the grunt work behind the project, and its projected 2015 release will be heavily dependant on the EAD maestro finding a capable development team to assist him.
Questions also remain about the purpose of the mysterious projects Guard and Giant Robot. By most accounts neither pieces of software were polished or interesting enough to support an entire game based around their respective premises, so they may be integrated into Starfox or released as seperate smaller eshop releases.
Finally, it will have been a couple of years since we last heard from Retro Studios, Monster Games and Next Level Games. Might they have something to show off for next year? Will Nintendo have any further collaborations with other Japanese studios (or even Western studios lol)? Will NOE/NOA throw us Wii U owners a bone and localise Fatal Frame V? Will we get any more Gamecube or even Wii remasters? Animal Crossing U anyone? Will Pokken make the jump to consoles earlier than expected?
Just for fun my dream first party 2015:
January: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
February: N64 VC
March: Yoshi's Wooly World
April: Mario Maker
May: Mario vs. Donkey Kong
June: Mario Party 10 and Splatoon
July: SNES Remix
August: Xenoblade X
September: Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
October: Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei
November: Star Fox and Legend of Zelda
December: Devil's Third
