- The Gamepad, loved it as a concept. But it's limited by range, if you could use it anywhere in your home for off-screen play, it's application would be far more appealing.

- RAM. - Only 2GB of the stuff. - It was also a pathetic 12.8GB/s. The system was bandwidth limited.

- EMMC NAND. - Yay. Solid State storage. But... It's only 8GB or 32GB of the rubbish. EMMC just lacks the throughput needed to really make the system feel snappy, Nintendo cheaped out.

- GPU. - The GPU was a low-end Radeon with probably around 160 VLIW shader cores. It can definitely make a bigger punch than the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 GPU due to efficiency, but it was a very small GPU and it was held back by the rest of the system.

- CPU. - This is where things get tricky. - The WiiU's CPU whilst based on an older CPU design, was more efficient... It used an Out-Of-Order design, so a developer doesn't need to get compiler heavy in order to make the best use of the CPU Cores like they would on the Xbox 360/Playstation 's3 in-order cores.
The SRAM cache definitely helped as well. - The main thing that held back the WiiU's CPU was actually just clockrates rather than architectural choices.

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The OS being clunky is most likely due to Nintendo's crap OS design, they had 1GB of Ram, they had Solid State Storage, they had an ARM9 CPU Core for background tasks/security, dedicated hardware audio engine... And it still ran like ass.
To be fair, the Switch's OS isn't exactly snappy either.. But it's infinitely more usable.

And even though the display is a paltry 480P, I think it was fine. Not great. Just fine, not like the specs could have pushed 1440P.


I think the WiiU was just advertised poorly. People got it confused with it being a peripheral, no one buys a Nintendo console for graphics or class-leading hardware.

Not talking XBX but PS4 has much faster ram than XBO so I'd think an XBO was slower and load times vary by game. Some are fast. Some are slower. Can be not optimized well or FFXV has a lot to load. Wii U had 1GB of useable ram and it was slow so there is no comparison.

Why does everyone complain about the speed of it all? It’s not that slow, and… oh, wait. I’m the guy you all talk about when you say Nintendo fans will just accept anything? Yep, you’re all right. Moving on ?

The WiiU has quite a lot of problems, but most of them can be followed to the very beginning of the console's lifespan. Confusing name, confusing gimmick, a generation behind in power, bad relations with 3rd parties, no real system seller until a year on... After that, everything went downhill, and Nintendo couldn't stop the snowball from rolling down, despite having so many great 1st parties.

I didn't actually have a problem with the Wii U hardware.

It's power level wasn't a problem for me as I still thought games like Mario Kart 8 and Fast Racing Neo looked great, and I even didn't mind the Gamepad, as long as it wasn't being used in a stupid and detrimental way. (Looking at you Starfox Zero)

The thing to remember with the Wii U is that while it's easy to look back now and say "look at all these great games", at the time they were either a case of the right game at the wrong time, and/or their impact was diminished by the fact that they were rare oases in a vast, barren desert, as the Wii U lacked the third party support Switch enjoys to plug the gaps between big releases, leading to near constant agonizing droughts.

I thought it was only me who had problem with my Sony account. Painful experience, I tried for a whole night and couldn't make an account. In the next day I tried again in the morning and somehow managed to create it 

By the hardware itself was good, never had any problem with it

Honestly, this seems a pretty bad excuse. Some Wii U games were slightly improved on Switch, but they are largely the same game. From a outsider perspective looks like people only started to found them good because they like Switch and because they are selling well, people associate flop as a synonymous for bad quality, and the opposite holds true...

I always see so many people on intenert shitting on MS first party during Xbone days and I can't believe they are that bad, people on this forum more likely just looked at the underwhelming sales and convinced themselves they were bad because they were not selling 

The games in question were generally well liked by both critics and those who bought them on Wii U, they didn't start to be viewed as good only after they landed on Switch. They just sold better there because they were tied to a much more appealing system with vastly better marketing, design, software, etc.

Nah. Dreamcast was a well made console with a great library. SEGA was just a badly run company and out of money. Saturn was similar to PS3 in it was powerful but difficult to get all the features out if it. Despite that, amazing console and library. Same with TG16. Wii U was shit hardware with some great games but not near the range of even Vita or DC. Vita had a lot of cult games and a great device minus the memory cards. Xbox One was less powerful than base PS4 but that was not a huge deal. The issue was the messaging,marketing and initial price. Then XBO never found that exclusive that was greatly reviewed and sold amazing. They tried some new IPs and either sold badly and/or got middling reviews. MS canceled some hyped games. MS was always playing catch up and never did. The hardware was fine and even got better than Sony. Wii U was just bad hardware in internal design and for developers. It was a poor user experience.

TG16 was big in Japan as PC Engine so it has massive library despite the system being far less powerful than Genesis/SNES

Saturn again big in Japan so a huge and great Japanese library.

Vita. A lot of cult indie and Japanese games.

Dreamcast. Cult console fans love and still getting games made and sold to this day even the recent 3D game Xenocider.

Those systems still have a lot of games still only on those platforms.

XBO, doesn't stand out. It has maybe a handful of unique games only on there. Wasn't bad just didn't really stand out.

Wii U a dozen or so great games all but a small select few on Switch now so Wii U just doesn't quite jump out the same way as a cult system. Just buy the better version Switch.

I don't think Wii U to Switch conversions run into the same issue Shenmue II from DC to Xbox. Sonic Adventure from DC to Gamecube, Ecco from DC to PS2 had. There are massive differences in those ports. Some argue it's worse on those other systems. Ecco is darker and less colorful. Shenmue II has missing transparencies and bad texture changes. Sonic Adventure everything is worse in the Gamecube version visually.

Then Wii U to Switch is. Mario Kart 8 now can hold 2 items. Battlemode fixed. Runs better. Mario 3D world runs better and includes a new part of the game with an Open World Mario game. Tokyo Mirage Sessions has a new dungeon. New costumes.

Point is. Other systems that failed and became cult hits. Wii U to me has none of the attributes that does that. Hardware sucked. The games are on Switch and are better versions. Almost no reason to ever play a Wii U again. Same for Xbox One. Still plenty of reason for retro games to pick up a Saturn or Dreamcast. PC Engine. Or ore recently a Vita.

Eh? Some people are saying stuff about hardware internals and marketing, but those didn't really impact my opinion of the console. It was the fact that it didn't feel like it worked correctly and didn't feel like it had anything in the way of exciting software outside of Earthbound and Xenoblade Chronicles X.

1. Gamepad was kind of janky, it was supposed to double as a handheld, but the range was crap. It didn't even have enough range to cover an average house.
2. Really REALLY sluggish OS. It was a nightmare to navigate through it. Even after updates to speed it up it was fairly bad.
3. After Mario Kart 7 on 3DS, Mario Kart 8 felt like a step back. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch was much better - portability plus 8 player multiplayer, and 12 if you have an internet connection.... not to mention all the extra content and features.
4. There weren't any must have games on the console, the best ones were just shovel-ports from PS3/Xbox360 like Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect.
5. Pretty much any game on the console was done better on another, the Gamepad added nothing.
6. The idea of the Gamepad, looking away from the TV screen, felt really intrusive and disorienting.
7. The asymmetrical gameplay wasn't fun. It was basically people with a Gamepad doing the fun part, and then people not having as much fun with the other controllers.

So basically, the Wii U was just a fat Wii for me, and sometimes I'd switch over and play Earthbound or Xenoblade Chronicles. The only game on Wii U at the beginning that didn't feel boring on the console was Trine 2.

The one thing I liked about the Wii U, featurewise, was the fact I could buy every game on the EShop.