Not sure if anyone remembers but Twilight Princess was originally going to be just a Gamecube exclusive. However it kept getting heavily delayed until Nintendo announced it will be both a Wii launch game and a Gamecube release. I beleive this helped the Wii sales quite a bit especially amongst the hardcore gamers. New Control, new Sports game and a new Zelda on launch. Too much quality to pass up.

I see so many more benefits of releasing Skyward Sword as a WiiU launch game rather than just releasing it for the Wii at the end of it's life.

- Did releasing SS on Wii benefit the Wii in anyway? Did it make Wii owners feel any better about their purchase? It was so late in the consoles life I think it didn't serve either purpose well.

- Releasing on the Wii U using the gamepad instead of motion controls would have been a great example of how good the gamepad is for a single player experience. It would have been so much more effective than New Super Mario. Also you could still be given the option of the motion controls further enhancing the many features of the WiiU.

- Because Nintendo just completed SS at the end of the Wii's life we now have to wait another few years before we get a new Zelda on Nintendo's next home console. Will this be the longest wait for a Zelda game on a Nintendo console? WiiU would benefit from a new Zelda title so much more than the Wii did especially at this point of the Wii's life.

In hindsight, this might have been a good idea.

I agree. Wii would have even less titles the last years, but I would have prefered that the Wii U sold more, since it would (probably) have gotten more 3rd party games at this moment.

I remember thinking before Skyward Sword was released that they should probably just delay it until the Wii U launch...
Given Nintendo's recent behavior surrounding Zelda Wii U, it appears as though they are less inclined to excessively delay console Zelda games given the diminishing returns they got with Skyward Sword...

I do think it would have been a better idea... However w/o skyward sword nintendo would have essentially abandoned the wii even sooner. I don't like the idea of console manufacturers doing that.

They could have/should have done with what they did with twilight princess for sure.

All of the motion controls in Skyward sword like piloting beatle/flying wouldn't have been worse on analogue stick. However the sword combat is the most interesting thing about the game would have to be reworked imo, maybe they could do slashing on Wii-U tablet like TWEWY or something. Ofcourse, using wii-mote on wii-u would work, as it would just be a better looking SS, but that doesn't really show off what the wii-u can do (But Twilight Princess really didn't take much advantage of the wii-mote compared to other games it's appearance made the launch much stronger though).

I think nintendo's other mistake with wii-u was not having a tech-demo with inspired nintendo art design like game at launch showing that the wii-u is superior to PS3 and X360 technically.

Agreed. It should have been released on both. Advertise the game and you'd advertise both consoles at once too, helping with the Wii U's identity by separating it from the Wii with exclusive content/extra features only Wii U could provide like HD Zelda and the Tablet controller.

This was a massive opportunity missed IMO.

The Wii needed its own Zelda title. Delaying it to a wiiu launch title may have heped the sales of the wiiu a bit but the wii needed one last big hitter . Plus a delayed skyward sword may have delayed the new Zelda game which I am struggling to wait for.

I dunno, I liked Skyward Sword, and I'm pretty glad I didn't have to wait an extra year and spend an additional $300 to be able to play it.

But that's the point. It being on Wii U would have give extra incentive to adopt the system earlier. Do you have a Wii U now?

Yes, because Zelda plays better without motion controls.