Nintendo’s Wii U is two-years old today, so it’s now as good a time as any to take a look back at how the console has fared over the past couple of years.
Also See: You’re Not Ready for Super Smash Bros. On Wii U
The successor to the hugely popular Wii has had its ups and it’s certainly had its downs, with opinion divided between those who (rightly) believe that the console is host to a smattering of classic games, while others (also rightly) believe that it’s let down by a lack of software.
Check out the gallery below to take a look through the highlights and lowlights of the Wii U’s time on the market thus far:
Happy Birthday Wii U
-
The Success of Mario Kart 8
Mario Kart 8 proved to be a big financial success for Nintendo, shifting more units of the Wii U as 1.2 million copies of the game were sold in its opening weekend. The Wii U and Mario Kart 8 bundle also performed incredibly well in the UK, with sales of the Wii U rising by 666%.
The game proved to be the Wii U's first huge hit, becoming a genuine system seller for the console as more and more people were
-
Sonic's Exclusivity Deal
Sega signed a three-game exclusivity deal with Nintendo that would see the company produce three exclusive Sonic games for the Wii U, and guess what? The three games ranged from below-average to awful.
Mario & Sonic at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics was a throwaway, uninspired minigame collection, Sonic: Lost World aimed for something unique and came out a frustrating mess, while the recently released Sonic Boom has been unanimously criticised as one of the worst Sonic games since the infamous Sonic '06.
Needless to say, the exclusivity deal was a bust and Nintendo will likely be happy to see the blue blur go.
-
That Launch
The Wii U suffered from a poor launch, one which it spent most of 2013 trying to recover from. Simply put, Nintendo failed to put across exactly why consumers should invest in the console.
The Wii U's launch line-up wasn't nearly as bad as it was made out to be. While divisive, many felt that ZombiU was a true return to the challenging survival-horror games of old, Nintendo Land offered a great look at what the GamePad was capable of and New Super Mario Bros. U, while a rather unoriginal platforming game, at least ensured that the console launched with a Mario title.
Unfortunately, it still failed to bowl over potential consumers, and the Wii U struggled to gain momentum after its debut.
-
The Creativity of Miiverse
Not everything has to be for adults, and Miiverse's simplistic charm is evidence of this.
Essentially a social networking platform for Wii U owners, Miiverse allows users to share opinions of the games they are playing, issue advice on tough-to-beat areas along with posting drawings.
It's a great, fun tool that doesn't try to compete with the online features boasted by the PS4 and Xbox One, but rather offers a kid-friendly alternative.
-
Underwhelming Sales
While the Wii U is far from "dead," as people keep insisting, it's certainly not enjoying the same success as the Wii did.
Suffering from a disappointing launch that was then followed by a lengthy software drought, the Wii U finally began to turn its fortunes around following the release of Mario Kart 8, and it's looking like Super Smash Bros. will help drive more sales, too.
At the end of October, Nintendo revealed that sales of the console had increased by over 200% in Japan and the US, and while the future doesn't look amazingly lucrative for the console, it's certainly a whole lot brighter.
-
Home to One of the Best Platformers Ever
Rayman Legends is incredible, and the Wii U version of the game is its definitive incarnation.
While you can now play the game on a variety of other platforms, it remains one of the few titles that actually makes great use of the Wii U's GamePad, with Murfy being able to be controlled by the player holding the touchscreen controller, solving puzzles and manoeuvring platforms for other players to leap across.
Rayman Legends is one of the greatest platformers you'll ever have the pleasure of experiencing, and the fact that it's best on the Wii U was a great boon for Nintendo.
-
Lack of Third-Party Support
It's an issue that Nintendo has suffered with since the Nintendo 64, but has been most apparent with the Wii U's line-up. A lack of support from third-party developers has meant that most of the big triple-A multi-platform titles have skipped across Nintendo's console, with a few games that were scheduled to appear on the Wii U being cancelled before they ever saw the light of day.
There have been a few third-party exclusives that have made their way to the console, with Bayonetta 2 being the most high-profile of the bunch, but Nintendo's considerable lack of support from developers outside of their own company has seen their software line-up frequently dip into dry spells.
-
The Completely Pointless TVii
Nintendo claimed that its TVii service would change the way we viewed television, but now barely anyone uses it.
Essentially over-complicating the process of watching TV (when it actually aims to simplify it), Nintendo's TVii service has proven to be so unpopular that it hasn't even bothered to release it to some regions. This will go down as a failed experiment in the company's history.
-
The Best Local Multiplayer Games
The Wii U is loaded with incredibly fun local multiplayer games, beginning with Nintendo Land and continuing with the likes of Mario Kart 8, the underrated Wii Party U and Super Mario 3D World, one of the best Mario games Nintendo has ever developed.
While the Wii U is still lacking when it comes to online multiplayer, there's still not a better console to whip out when your friends visit.
-
The Lack of Support for the GamePad
The biggest selling point for the Wii U leading up to its release was its touchscreen GamePad, with Nintendo promising that it would open up a wide array of possibilities in the future. Launch title Nintendo Land certainly hinted at how the controller could be implemented in unique ways, but consumer ambivalence led Ninty to almost entirely forget about it, using it solely for menu screens and gimmicky additions to games.
The GamePad itself had a lot of potential. While its poor battery life proved to be more and more frustrating over time, and its resistive touch screen felt a lot more imprecise than the capacitive touchscreens typically boasted by smartphones, if Nintendo would have made good on the initial ideas it had in store for the controller we could have overlooked its faults.
Instead, we were left with a clunky controller that failed to really benefit the Wii U's library of games.
