On Friday evening, the old trusty and always working Wii that my kids play with 20+ hours a week died.  It was kind of an unfortunate death, as my kids seemed happy with its abilities.  Well, my younger son has some special needs and the Wii is/was invaluable for him to use to use some energy and focus on daily.  After looking on the net and checking a few places, it seemed like the best thing to do was to get a WiiU.

I bought the unit on Saturday morning at a Target, as I could get a 5%($15) discount there.  It came with SupermarioBrosU(Luigi U).  I also purchased a copy of Mario Sochi Olympics with a Motion plus controller included.  Figured it couldn't hurt to have another controller.

I had heard about the mandatory download, so the idea of it didn't bother me.  What was a pain was how long it took to download(35 minutes).  And then it took another 30 minutes to install.  Besides that, it only took a few minutes to get the rest of the basic set up complete.  Then, we put the Olypics game in and it doesn't seem to work.  We take it out and put it back in and shut off the unit and so on.  SO, I thought that i had a bad disc.  I walk over to the wiiU and just as I was about to eject the disc again, the little symbol pops up indicating what game is in the drive.  It then pops up a progress bar indicating that it is doing an update.  If it hadn't been 6 or 7 minutes since putting the disc in, this wouldn't have bothered me, but no indication of what was going on and then a long download again and slow update(10-15 minutes total).  I have a 30mb internet connection that seems to have no problem with my other systems or computers doing downloads.  But the WiiU is really slow at downloading and even more slow to process it.

Finally playing the Sochi Olympics game and am having deja vu.  This is just like any other Wii shovelware game in both quality of graphics and gameplay.  I assume that this is kind of a port from the Wii and grab the SuperMariobrosU game and put it in.  I am quickly coming to the conclusion that the Wiiu really is just a WiiHD.  The SuperMarioBros gameplay was like going back in time to the N64 days.  Normally, that in itself isn't a problem.  But when you expect to see a little bit more unique gameplay and better graphics and you don't get that, you are dissapointed.  I can only hope that as I purchase a few more games, I find the value in the system.  Of course, my kids like it, as they could care less about anything other than being able to use it.

I could go on and complain about the fact that half the time you have to use the pad controller to operate the uit and the other half the time it won't let you, but I don't want to complain just to complain.  Lots of other little complaints... 

It is quite obvious as to why the WiiU is struggling, and it's not the games drought.  It's the system and the games.

You probably should've bought games that didn't have Wii entries. Like The Wonderful 101 or... what else? Hmm.

Perhaps it may be a bit too early to judge a console by two games.

NSMBU did have graphical improvements, though... as well as some new gameplay aspects. Saying that, N64 probably wasn't the best console to bring up, considering there was no 2D Mario on it.

Also, why didn't you just buy another Wii? It would've been cheaper and you could've just played the games you originally had. You wouldn't have to bother with updates or any of the new and "improved" HD shovelware. (Which plagues every console, by the way.)

Well, if graphical fidelity and the games not looking HD were what mattered, then the 3DS should be struggling as well, But that system has taken off ever since the barrage of games in 2012.

The issue, from what I can gather, is twofold. First, Nintendo's done an exceptionally poor job of marketing the Wii U; many people aren't even aware it's a new console to this day. Second, and perhaps as an extension of the first problem, the third party offerings on the Wii U have sold quite poorly to date. Third party publishers simply don't believe there's a userbase interested in their titles on the Wii U, and so they don't publish for it. Consumers see this, and decide to not buy a Wii U, as it doesn't carry a third party title they like. It's the very definition of a Catch 22.

Graphical fidelity really has very little to do with the problem, if previous generations of consoles are anything to go by. The PS2 and Wii, both weaker in terms of power, easily outsold their competitors. The 3DS is overwhelming the Vita right now. While it certainly doesn't look like that trend will continue with the PS4, there's enough information here to definitively say that graphical power is almost never what determines a console's success. The fact that the Wii U isn't graphically on par with the One and PS4 isn't what's put it in this hole it's in.

The update times are annoying, but seem to be a problem that all systems are suffering with for one reason or another.

The games that do exist for the Wii U are actually fairly innovative and a number of them are really quite good. Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 are both standouts for me. I will say, though, that if you're just going to buy 2D Mario games and...those awful Olympic games...then yeah, the system will probably never pay off. Those games haven't exactly been the pinnacle of innovation in recent years.

If nothing else, I can safely say that Pikmin 3 and SM3D World are far superior from a graphical standpoint than their Wii predecessors.

so you buy a 2D mario game and a shovelware game and expect them to be revolutionary?

Try researching your games a little better. I will happily give suggestions if you tell us what you like but just because you don't really know what you are getting into doesn't make the Wii U or its games bad.

Nothing you said was really wrong, I guess. Don't worry, the little guy will win you over. What it lacks in...pretty much everything, it makes up for in spunk. Just buy Super Mario 3D World, watch some Pikmin 3 videos, and get some demos. The console itself is actually less functional than the 7th gen HD Twins but for some reason, you'll love it more. Just spend a few days with it.

Hum, this thread made my wish of having a WiiU go away, thanks I guess, I cannot expend that much money right now anyways, the WiiU cost 800 dollars in Brazil.

I own a Wii U, and to me right now it only has 5 great games, Super Mario 3D World, Rayman Legends, The Wonderful 101, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Probably the new Donkey Kong game will join that list this month.

3D World and Rayman Legends are wonderful excellent platformers. The Wonderful 101 is a very challenging action game, with gameplay rather similar to Devil May Cry, Bayonetta or the new Ninja Gaiden games, Tekken is obviously a fighting game, and Deus Ex is a western action RPG with first person shooter elements.

I bought the basic set that had no games bundled, I wouldn't really have bought the Sonic and Mario game.

Edit: I forgot about Zelda Wind Waker HD, but I would only recommend it to people who did not play the Gamecube version.

The OP is terrible. If you can't see the difference between HD and SD, I don't know what to tell you. If you think NSMB is like playing N64 you're confused, because N64 never had a 2D Mario. And if you don't expect games to update after inserting, you were spoiled by the old school Wii. Welcome to modern gaming.