How to give the WiiU an almost-okay holiday (for the WiiU owners)

[fleischr]

So with Zelda U and NX pushed out to March - we know that Nintendo unquestionably faces one of it's most difficult holiday periods ever.

What's really depressing - WiiU fans don't have much left to put on the wishlist besides Zelda U/the NX console itself.

Here's how Nintendo could soften the blow

Yooka-Laylee

Assuming Playtonic hasn't dropped the WiiU version and that they're still targeting a holiday 2016 release - this becomes the de facto big WiiU game for the holiday, even if it is multiplatform. It probably won't light up the sales charts - but it should make Nintendo fans happy.

DLC

Shouldn't this be obvious? But beyond more Smash, Splatoon, and Mario Maker add-ons - extra DLC for Pokken and Star Fox could serve the WiiU well.

Tournaments/eSports

Pokken has already put a $100k prize pool out there for it's world championships series. Splatoon had a million dollar tournament in Japan alone. If they don't bring back NWC for E3, Nintendo could just as easily do it later in the year to coincide with the NX reveal. While Nintendo doesn't need to any longer convince people to buy the WiiU, they should keep people excited about games like Smash, Splatoon, and Mario Maker so they'll be hyped up to buy these same games/franchises on NX.

Selects

Perhaps the biggest risk Nintendo runs with a holiday drought is losing their existing audience to another platform. Positioning some additional new Selects for the holiday ought to placate the remaining folks who play on WiiU - and yes also the Wii and convince them that Nintendo. If it were me, I'd release Lego City, Xenoblade Chronicles, Skyward Sword, and Mario Party 10 as selects.

Undertale & Mother 3

Let's face it - the chatter about the WiiU in the coming months is going to get really, really bad. One of the best ways to counter that is with games that have very loud & proud fanbases that will be endlessly happy to be playing Undertale/Mother 3 on the WiiU. These games have very resilient, very Nintendo-forgiving fans that are active in forums and social media.

SNES remix

A guaranteed hit that when ported to NX, no one will bitch about.