Now that Nintendo has officially pulled the plug with the dying Wii U - and rightfully so - I'd like to take a break from the Switch/Zelda chatter and take a look back at the Wii U as a whole, going through some of its pros and its cons and trying to make sense of why it failed to capture the same excitment the Wii did..
As some oldschoolers here may know, despite me being somewhat of a Nintendrone (who happens to also own an Xbox), I've been pretty vocal about my negativity/lukewarm nature towards the Wii U. I really didn't like the way Nintendo approached it in terms of its hardware, marketing, and overall philosophy. Unlike the Wii, it seemed to create far more barriers than it broke. From its weird hardware design, to its cumbersome UI, to its akward Fischer Price looking tablet controller. I can safely say that as a Nintendo fan of 25+ years, Wii U turned out to be my least favorite console (Virtual Boy Notwithstanding). I even ended up taking a two year + break from these boards partly because I had little desire to talk about it.
Hell even the weird purple lunchbox Gamecube, with its strange controller and lack of strong support (both 1st AND 3rd party) holds a special place in my heart, as you might gather from my username.. Afterall, it was home to some favorites of mine to this day, including Tales of Symphonia, Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, holds the definitive Resident Evil library, as well as having the arugably the best Smash Brothers title in Melee. It was also cheap as hell, and still came with horsepower superior to the PS2 and even on par with the Xbox at the time (yes kids there was a time when Nintendo actually was "playing with power").. Yet even though The Cube had its strong points, it failed to really reach a mass audience with its mainly core-focused games and its convoluted controller, and the Wii U followed suit in many ways. It seemed to emphasize the more core-based gaming of the Gamecube (even having many parellels in its library) but attempting to sell it to a mass audience by slapping a Wii paint job over it. Most gamers saw through this, and like the Gamecube, Wii U failed to sell.
On the other hand - while I wasn't crazy about Wii U from a hardware standpoint and in terms of overall philosophy, revisiting the software side of things, it really did have a pretty solid library in hindsight, at least from the vantage point of myself and many a core Nintendo fan. You had some solid games such as - Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Maker, Yoshi's Wooly World, NSMB U, Pikmin 3, Splatoon, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Assassin's Creed IV, Rayman Legends.. along with some cool indie/Wii Ware stuff like NES Remix, Steamworld Dig, Child of Light, Dr. Luigi, etc.. The main problem with its library, aside from weak 3rd party support, was a lack of new IPs outside of Splatoon and maybe a couple others, as well as a lack of groundbreaking titles like Wii Sports/Fit that would have drawn in new audiences (Nintendoland had its appeal in small doses, but was certainly no Wii Sports/Play).. Unlike the Wii, and Nintendo consoles of yesteryear, there also wasn't much third party support (even from B list dev teams like Wii had) or much from indies to fill in the gaps. Virtual console also seemed to slow down to a trickle.
In addition, there was the issue of marketing. The Wii brand was already on a massive decline at the turn of the 2010's, and Wii U attempted to latch onto a rapidly dying brand. Even if the Wii name WOULD have still been going strong, Nintendo failed to truly communicate how the Wii U was distinct and appealing as its own console. Many even thought that its gamepad was merely an "add on" for the Wii, making for a slew of confused potential buyers. When Nintendo has to post a tweet specifying that in fact "YES, the Wii U IS an entirely new console," you know there is a problem with the marketing, that almost neared Sega levels of roughness..
In light of all these issues and weaknesses, particularly on the hardware and marketing side of things, it's easy to see why the Wii U faltered. Though that said, it is still surprising to see that it will fail to even get close to the Cube in sales.. It had a decent library at least from the 1st party side of things, yet so did the Dreamcast, and we know how that ended up.. There are a number of factors that come into play - Nintendo simply didn't cover all of their bases and sadly it cost them dearly this time around.
Overall, while I still feel Wii U was probably Nintendo weakest effort to date, it probably didn't deserve the 15 million sales it'll end up getting and (like the DC), I feel will ultimately go down as a somewhat underrated console that fell victim to poor marketing, a unappealing controller, as well as being eclipsed by Nintendo's handheld efforts, as well as Sony in particular. I DO however, think Nintendo seems to have rectified *most* of these issues going forward with the Switch - though that remains to be seen, and is the subject of another topic.. What are your thoughts? Do you feel Wii U perhaps deserved more than it got, or is it best Nintendo laid this dud to rest in favor of the more versitle and (thus far) more appealing Switch when they did?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident - all men and women created by the, go-you know.. you know the thing!" - Joe Biden
