Now that we're two generations on, how do you feel about the Wii U?

[Louie]

I still think it's Nintendo's worst ever home console. I was skeptical about it right after the announcement. Nintendo tried to get both the "casual" and "hardcore" audience with this console but you got the feeling they had no idea what either of those groups wanted. Core gamers wanted better performance and didn't get it. And casual gamers sure as hell didn't just want to play Wii Sports (not even Resort!) or the same old New Super Mario Bros in HD. They really thought casual gamers would buy this thing to play Wii Sports and Wii Fit remasters with no new content in HD lol, what the hell. The hardware was clumsy, the OS was slow.

Some of the best games on the system were the GameCube Zelda ports. People like to wax poetic about Mario Kart 8 (and it was a great game) but when that released on Wii U it also had a terrible battle mode and way less content than the Deluxe version has these days. There were long game droughts, especially after launch. Pikmin 3 was a letdown for me (I like it, but it's the weakest series entry for me), as was the Wario Ware game and Star Fox Zero. New Super Mario Bros. felt stale and there was a distinct lack of games that made the Wii cool for casual play: No new Wii Sports or Wii Fit for example. Its best game, Breath of the Wild, released when the Switch was already out. Nintendo Land was cool, but "asymmetric multiplayer" and the gamepad fell short. Almost no game actually used the gamepad, it was often shoehorned in.

Also, the console had a clear identity crisis: Was it a system you would play with the Gamepad? Or one you would play with the Wii remote? This resulted in stuff like Star Fox Zero or the infamous Pikmin setup were Nintendo was like "yeah, okay, the Wiimote is clearly better for this game but hey, you can put the gamepad next to you on the couch and use it as a second screen". Uhm, what?