Wright said:
I agree. Nintendo's management of WiiU has been terrible altogether, and taking away what little incentives one could have to purchase it feels like a complete slap in the face.
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Yes. As someone who bought a Wii U on launch day, very excited for games like Pikmin 3 (which wound up being a massive disappointment), I can say with authority that I am very disappointed. It may sound weird, but IF they had delivered Breath of the Wild in 2015, or even by Holiday 2016, as the LAST big exclusive for Wii U, that would have gone a long way to making the console feel more worthwhile. But considering they pulled the TP BS with it, making it a "launch title" for Switch, just to be cheap, no, the Wii U does not feel worth it at all.
Worst 3rd party support in Nintendo console history. Even Nintendo's own titles have been largely sub-par. There is not a single game I can point to and say, THIS is why I own the Wii U. Zelda would have been that. Games like NSMBU, and Mario 3D World, Wonderful 101, Yoshi's Wooly World, etc., are good games. Even though I'm not into them, even Bayonetta 2, and Mario Maker and Splatoon, are good games. But I would not call any of those GREAT, system defining titles.
Then there were the MANY games Nintendo themselves have put out, that were massive disappointments, because of very short-sighted or pointless design decisions. Pikmin 3 nonsensically removed many KEY elements, like swarming, camera zoom, and multiple save files. Smash Bros. doesn't even have a cheap, vanilla Adventure Mode of any kind. Mario Kart 8, which is otherwise great, has the crappiest, most phoned in excuse for a "Battle Mode" in the franchise's history. And Star Fox Zero is a joke. We finally get a "new Star Fox game", except first it turns out it's not really a new game, but rather just another rehash of SF64 elements. Then they ruin even the fun THAT could have been, by giving you crappy motion controls as THE only option, because Miyamoto thought it sounded neat.
Beyond that, Wii U simply hasn't gotten "BIG" titles it should have, and Nintendo themselves have mismanaged their own development cycles. They came into the Wii U, and into HD, astonishingly unprepared. There are no Metroid games, no F-Zero, no Wave Race, no BIG 3D Mario game, no exclusive Zelda (coming soon enough to matter, and truly being exclusive, anyway). And even the indie titles on eShop. I was very excited when all of these indie games kept getting announced for Wii U. I felt like, well if the retail side isn't there, I AT LEAST have a bunch of cool indie games to look forward to. But the problem is, most of the ones I've waited for, have either disappeared, been cancelled for Wii U, or are still in development, and who the hell knows if they'll ever actually come out. Very disappointing, overall.
I don't DISlike the Wii U. I like the GamePad, even though it could have stood being less blocky, and they never even bothered making a single game that would have used their alleged "mutlple GamePads" configuration. But as a system, it has been a failure, sales wise, and it honestly doesn't even have THAT strong of an overall library. Every single other Nintendo home console has a MUCH stronger overall library, all with system defining titles, than Wii U does, and that includes the Gamecube.
Even though I really didn't love the tacked on motion controls of Wii, in fact having that be the ONLY control option ruined many Wii games, I still really liked the system. It had a surprising amount of digital titles, it had fantastic support, compared to Wii U, and even though it did miss out on many multiplat third party games, it still had strong third party support. Wii didn't start having any kind of "droughts" until late in it's life, like 2011 or 2012. Hell, in it's first year on the market, the damn thing had very nearly one Nintendo published game a MONTH, on average. That was incredible, especially when you stop to consider some of those games included Super Paper Mario, Batallion Wars II, Fire Emblem, Metroid Prime 3, and Mario Galaxy. Wii U's first year on the market was a nightmare by comparison.
So I'm not going to just run out and buy a Switch. In fact, I still honestly haven't heard nearly enough to make a decision either way. I have always liked the idea, even when it was just rumor, of a hybrid console. I have often missed out on cool games that only come to the handhelds, because I just have never been big on handheld gaming. So having ONE unified system that gets all the kinds of games the home unit usually does, AND all the games DS/3DS usually get, that holds great appeal. But, having said that, I don't fully love those detatchable controllers, and of course just because they show off a list of developers, and generate some buzz, they need to actually prove to me that they are going to give the system good marketing, and make sure it actually has good support. Because I remember a similar list of devs for Wii U, and how "stacked" some people felt Wii U's launch looked, and how bright the future was. And then we all saw what happened, just a few short months later.
I hope Switch IS awesome, and has amazing games that AREN'T held back by retarded design choices, and I hope it DOES have good marketing, and strong support from third parties and indies. But I'm not going to hold my breath until I actually see that happen.
