It walked so the Switch could run. The Switch wouldn't have been the excellent system it was without the Wii U.

As for the Wii U, I thought it was really underappreciated. Interesting idea that wasn't quite ready. I really loved the Gamepad, was perfect for Minecraft. Very comfortable controller.

Games were alright. I mainy remember Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Splatoon. A lot of other games fell under the radar.

I think the issue with the Wii U, is it didn't know what it was and Nintendo could never clarify things. Still is great they are always willing to try things.

It had a solid library, and some games made pretty good use of the tablet controller. Was it a bit superfluous and was it annoying you couldn't buy spares from a retailer? Yes. But it was a good system that I got a lot of enjoyment out of.

It was a nice proof of concept. Showed off how powerful a handheld could be, but the technology wasn’t where it needed to be. The shape of the thing wasn’t the best for a handheld and it couldn’t compete with the consoles.

However, it was probably the best learning experience a gaming corporation ever had. The Switch refined everything that the WiiU did right and pivoted away from the problems that the WiiU struggled with.

The WiiU was a step in what we now recognize as the right direction for Nintendo, and it’s an evolutionary middle point between traditional consoles and traditional handhelds. That middle phase was awkward, but it worked out in the end.

The best they could do at the time with the technology and price they were aiming for. I respect it, Nintendo truly wanted it to work but there was the console in itself, the marketing and the double system development cycles that were affecting it.

They still decided to lock in and give us amazing games. I appreciated it and had good times with it, and i'm thankful it gave us the Switch and a wake up call to Nintendo.

Had they gone the full hybrid route in 2012 with Switch early on, it would probably be around the specs of a PlayStation Vita. 

It would be a confusing time since 3DS would've launched the year before and the hybrid released alongside it wouldn't have as notable of a spec gap as 3DS and Wii U.

Probably would've had to just scrap 3DS if they were planning the Switch over four years early.

Things worked out in the end. 3DS was profitable after a lot of effort and Wii U failed but taught Nintendo a bitter lesson.

I think I'll always have a soft spot for Wii U. Backwards compatibility with Wii was a great feature and some banger games like Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart 8, and so on. 

It was my favorite console that generation. It was like taking the uniqueness of Wii and giving it some of the 360's core-gamer goodness. And then there was Mii Verse. My goodness did I love that thing. Sometimes, I'll still load it up, even though I know it will hang on the loading screen, just to hear that sweet, sweet music. Such good times.

That was the first time I skipped a console in Nintendo's history. It was a super awkward concept that tried to blend the Wii concept, whose popularity had already been gone for several years by then, with a weird single player focused or async multiplayer control scheme. It was definitely the halfway step toward the Switch, but more like a stillborn malformed version of the Switch concept. But glad that most of it's small number of great games made it to the Switch for many more people to play.

It was a fitting rock bottom for a two decade arc in which Nintendo struggled to find it's place in the console world amidst various experiments starting after when all the third party's left during the PSX/N64 era. A final experiment before Nintendo finally figured out what people wanted for a Nintendo system with the Switch.

I wasn’t a fan of the hardware.

I also resented my idiocy over transferring my Wii library over to that thing. All that did was add significant load times where no load time previously existed, and mandated a much less interesting system box on my TV stand.

From a business standpoint, I think Nintendo would have been better off if they stuck with the Wii rather than prematurely killing it, or released a Wii HD (to develop skills with HD) until the release of the Switch.

As "fuck around the house with portable then switch to TV" then yeah, it might be considered sort of a predecessor, but I'm still very disappointed that we're in second iteration of Switch and it still can't do what WiiU can, having separate image for TV and Gamepad at the same time.

A Wii 2 would have certainly sold more than the WiiU, but the Wii fad (yes it's fair to call it a fad given it's crazy sales and then rapid descent) had already been over for several years by the time the WiiU came out. Nintendo in no way prematurely killed the Wii, it was struggling for years as the blue ocean crowd dried up. A Wii 2 probably would've sold like 30-40m.

Eh, the TV and gamepad screen thing is very niche. How many games do you want to annoyingly have to be constantly having to look between your tv and down at the screen in your hands? That'd be used probably about as much as Switch's IR sensor or the games that actually usefully used Switch's HD Rumble - a handful of games at most. And you'd have to make it optional even when used since people can easily play with only one screen when using the system.