What people dislike about Wii U hardware?

[psychicscubadiver]

padib said:

psychicscubadiver said:

Strongly disagreed on ZombiU.
The game certainly had its faults, especially the ugliness of the graphics, but it used the gamepad in a fun and interesting way and made for a gripping experience. Having to take your eyes off the main screen to dig through your backpack or check your map while the action continued on the main screen was a clever way to induce tension, since a zombie could attack while your character was distracted. It made for a nerve-wracking time where you were afraid to take your eyes off your foes and only checked your gear when you were certain of your safety.
Whatever your criticisms of the game, it certainly wasn't shovelware.

Hehe, sorry I went a bit strong there.

What did you think of the rest of my assessment? Isn't it true that the WiiU's design in general lacked usability testing, and that the majority of the games didn't have the depth and finesse that we see in Switch games?

I'm not here to bash the WiiU I loved it, but it's to understand why the mainstream rejected it. So while I'm going strong from a gamer's point of view, from the mainstream point of view, they are also very strict in how they judge how appealing a console is. So while ZombiU might be a cool immersion experience, from an appeal point of view it may have been tedious for gamers who prefer a more pick up and play experience.

I would agree that Nintendo didn't think through the usability of the gamepad or we'd have gotten more games that used it in clever ways. As much as the waggle tech of the Wiimotes annoyed people, myself included, Nintendo got a lot of mileage out of that ability and yet the gamepad was underutilized.

On the second part I'd have to disagree that the games lack depth compared to Switch games. There's a reason Nintendo has ported over almost all of the WiiU's library and that's because they're good games. DK Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Mariokart 8 Deluxe, Pokken Tournament, Capatain Toad Treasure Tracker, and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe did not add any significant features compared to their WiiU counterparts, but each of them still outsold their predecessors because they were on much more desirable hardware. The biggest problem with the WiiU's games is how slowly they trickled out. The early droughts, where Nintendo hoped that 3rd party ports (like Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, etc) would tide people over combined with the poor marketing and unlikable hardware killed the system, and once considered a flop it was almost impossible to build that momentum back up.