???

When did someone said that?

Its a good game, but there is one thing that really annoys me. When you fight a boss and have him down to like 1/3 of his health, the game expects you to have a spesific card. If you dont have it, you cant beat the boss and have to run away or die. Thats just annoying. Especially since at that stage they usually get a move that 100% kills you in one hit.

I bashed it before release and after playing it for almost 15+ hours I quit. It is actually worse than I thought. We all already know what's wrong with the battle system, but I never knew the character variety was so limited that they use Shy Guys both as enemies and good guys. I accidently touched evil Shy Guy's because of this. The other only good guy is Toad copy pasted throughout the world. It's unbelievable such a lazy design choice was green lit. The puzzles are also terrible. There is no logic behind it: 'oh look a straight line now I can walk over it by cutting it or put a Thing card in it' ????. Because of this I got stuck several times and I only progressed by spamming the cutout button and discover these random paths. It's supposed to be kid-friendly but no child is able to solve these puzzles. You need to see patterns. 

But the pirate ship and especially the quiz minigame made me quit. After spamming all my Thing cards on Wendy without success and reading the mail at Prisma I realized I had to do the boring quiz yet again. And then they asked for cards which weren't even in my deck. So I was not able to give correct answers and enter the bonus round. This is another design choice I cannot believe game DESIGNERS put in the game.

And also this: writing and presentation don't make a game good. Gameplay is the most important part. The first three games had gameplay + presentation. 

A tiny minority obviously, as usually.

You can buy the cards you need for the quiz by talking to the Shy Guy in the level. Just make sure you have enough space for them.

But yeah, the games has issues that makes it less fun than it should have been.

There's a Shy Guy just near the quiz show who sells you the cards you need. And it's not even hard to find, it's just in the entrance. Not a fan of the quiz game, but, really, that was not bad game design. It's just that you haven't paid attention in this case xD. Which can happen, I'm not trying to be a dick. Also, it's stated in game if you talk with the Toad near the dock which Thingy cards you have to use next, so there's no need to spam those cards and see what happens. Again, I see many flaws with the battle system, but those things are explained in-game. I just find the combat system a bit dull. 

Can't argue with you about generic character design, that's an obvious flaw and it,'s a bit lazy, even if the personalities are different. Also, I wasn't a fan of that "cut" mechanic, since it seemed to be a bit random. Just use it if you're stuck. Now, that's bad game design.

Came at the end of the Wii U's life, during a long games drought (so people essentially aren't using their Wii U's) and is lost amongst the big holiday shuffle including news of the Switch.

At most I would have expected 100k. It will have a second wind blackfriday/holiday and probably crawl to 1m 700k some point next year.

EXACTLY... These are the main reasons for the flop,  and to a far lesser extend, the game itself! I was saying what you have written, warning people for the imminent flop... Nintendo should have release it in March-April, last months of the wii u lifetime...

 (  I disaggre with  the parenthesis  because you generalized, though  ) :)

Maybe the game might shock us with its legs! it has been released  just before holidays, so it should be benefited from the massive leap  in sales of holidays period...

There are many wii u games that had been released in that time frame and sold very well owing to holidays! Captain toad for instance. ;)

Also, Mario and Sonic at the rio olympic games started with 30-40k in Japan, an so far they have almost sell 300k there!

700k in some point next year? You have set the bar really high, I would be happy if that happens. It implies monster legs! X11 FW sales...

The Shy Guy doesn't directly say he will sell you the right cards and he doesn't always give you the right cards. I was still missing a broken shoe after purchasing. And I hate the fact I've to remove my own valuable cards for his cards. It just doesn't work for me. Not able to answer a question even tho you know the answer... like wtf. That's like being on a quiz show and you know the answer to a multiple choice question is B, but the keyboard in front of you doesn't have a B-button. So you're not able to give the right answer and win the grand prize. 

I've seen certain users here on VGChartz claim that games like Splatoon  sold that well just because they were "Nintendo".