Topic: Wii U is better than people think

@shadow-wolf Right!!

"But I'm going to go one step further — I say that no other console or handheld in history has depended so much on its predecessor than the Switch has on the Wii U. Not just the multiple software titles; the hardware (which is an evolution of the off TV concept), sacrificing games on the Wii U in order to have a good launch year for Switch".

This is exactly what I mean but he thought I was using it as an excuse for Wii U's drought when I said exactly the opposite. I am asking what did Nintendo do with all those years since they abandoned Wi U and merged the two divisions because most of the Switch games are ports or developed by other studios.

Nintendo basically ditched Wii U to make a "better" Wii U but making many sacrifices along the way and focusing on marketing strategies, new hardware and new accessories and not so much on software. I don't need another collection of hardware including new controllers for a few games. And I don't mean just what they did during the launch window of Switch, but years before it was released and up to this point. Super Mario Odyssey (probably a cancelled Wii U game) the Splatoon rehash (before the DLC), Arms (also bare-bones at launch) and little else. And none of these games were even ready for launch, when Nintendo had delayed Switch from 2016 to 2017 to get more software ready for launch.

The only advantage that Switch has over Wii U is the portability which makes it appealing as a handheld but also it is meaningless for people playing at home and for people that think that it is too big and fragile for taking it everywhere (a recent thread says exactly this). Yes, the screen is better than the GamePad, but it's not as good as it could have been for that price and there is a long list of things that are actually worse like ergonomics, D-pad and buttons, not to mention lack of backwards compatibility regarding software and hardware (the Wii U pro controller has also Bluetooth so it could have been compatible for any game not requiring motion controls) and lack of Virtual Console.

The only great bonus that Nintendo had until now was free online gaming as few online games were available but playing them online for free made up for getting the exclusive hardware for playing them. Mario Kart, Splatoon, Super Smash Bros.... Now it's basically the same bare-bones service and same sparse games but now it's also a paid service.

Third-party support, excluding indie games available everywhere, is limited because of the defining features of Switch such as mobile (and dated) technology.

One can argue that Switch is better just because it's being supported by Nintendo at the moment but Wii U was actually better. For how long it is going to be supported anyway and will Nintendo sell 100 million Switch consoles like they said?

@skywake The Wii can do everything the GameCube can except play Game Boy games through the Game Boy Player (that's the only reason to own one nowadays). And what exactly is the Super NES other than a more powerful, 16-bit NES? It didn't have any radical changes to the control scheme, and every NES game either was or could be ported over to it (others got much superior sequels). At the time many people said confidently that the SNES made the NES obsolete (why play Metroid when you can play SUPER Metroid? Why play Punch Out when you can play SUPER Punch Out? Why play Zelda when you can play Zelda: A Link to the Past? Why play Super Mario Bros. when you can play Super Mario World or Super Mario All-Stars? Why play Castlevania when you can play SUPER Castlevania? Why play Final Fantasy when you can play FFVI? And so on). And yet in June 2018, the NES outsold the SNES and all of the modern consoles, and it's still hotly debated among retro gamers whether the NES or SNES is the superior retro Nintendo system.

With respect to the Wii U library, I think the issue is just that you don't like it. Thus far the Wii is the only console to have a Galaxy-like Mario AND an exclusive Zelda AND a Metroid AND an Animal Crossing. Actually, Metroid has skipped consoles in the past (namely the N64) and the only two Mario Galaxy games were on the same console. But that doesn't mean the Wii U is lacking in must-have exclusive E ticket games. To name a few: Super Mario 3D World, New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Luigi U, Super Mario Maker (which IMO would have won the eighth generation console war had it been a launch title), the e-Reader levels of Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Splatoon, Breath of the Wild. Some of those games have been ported to the Switch, but not all of them have been or will be (some of them can't be).

And I think the Switch's elevator pitch (something the Wii U was lacking - "the vision thing", as Jeb Bush's dad would say) isn't that it's a better Wii U. Rather, it's that it's a home console that can be played anytime, anywhere, and with anyone. That's why the Wii branding appears nowhere on the console or in any promotional materials.

Agreed. It's all very sad honestly, but true. Wii U's legacy is a depressing one.

@SuperLuigi111 said : "Wii U's legacy is a depressing one."

I think it's more the Switch librairy that is depressing... It's like the Switch lives off the Wii U...

Thus far. Let's see where we stand about 3 years from now though, the Switch will probably have Animal Crossing, maybe even a Galaxy game (although with Odyssey around I don't think there's a whole lot of demand for Galaxy, but we'll see). Not to mention that so far the Switch would be the only console to have a sandbox Mario AND a 3D Zelda AND a Metroid Prime game AND a main series Pokemon game.

The Wii U having only 1 of those is the primary reason I skipped it, those were the kind of games I was waiting to see before I could commit to a purchase but for the most part it didn't really happen. I suspect a lot of other Nintendo fans were waiting for those types of games as well.

Half of that list is linear Mario games and the other half has a port or sequel on the Switch. Beyond the Switch currently lacking a linear Mario game (although certainly that will change at some point), there's really not much there.

What's so depressing? Since when were ports so bad? Some of these games deserved a better chance than the depressingly underselling Wii U.

Besides, I'd take these ports over the Wii U's droughts any day. Remember the first year of the Wii U?

Also, did I mention we are comparing a 4-5 year console to a console released last year? Let's talk about this again in 3 years and then compare the two.

@TheLZdragon

First thing first, After 3 years 1/2, Nintendo let the Wii U down (they just gave Zelda BOTW after because it was a kind of promise). Now, on the Wii U, the system that apparently had no games :

• this is the list of EXCLUSIVE titles that we had from Nintendo :
  Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Nintendo)
  Bayonetta 2 (Nintendo)
  Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo)
  Devil’s Third (Nintendo)
  Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Nintendo)
  Game & Wario (Nintendo)
  Hyrule Warriors (Nintendo)
  Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Nintendo)
  The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
  The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Nintendo)
  The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Nintendo)
  LEGO City: Undercover (Nintendo)
  Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (Nintendo)
  Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Nintendo)
  Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo)
  Mario Party 10 (Nintendo)
  Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Nintendo)
  New Super Luigi U (Nintendo)
  New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo)
  Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge (Nintendo)
  Nintendo Land (Nintendo)
  Paper Mario: Color Splash (Nintendo)
  Pikmin 3 (Nintendo)
  Pokken Tournament (Nintendo)
  Sing Party (Nintendo)
  Splatoon (Nintendo)
  Star Fox Guard (Nintendo)
  Star Fox Zero (Nintendo)
  Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo)
  Super Mario Maker (Nintendo)
  Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Nintendo)
  Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Nintendo)
  Ultimate NES Remix Pack (Nintendo)
  Wii Fit U (Nintendo)
  Wii Party U (Nintendo)
  Wii Sports Club (Nintendo)
  The Wonderful 101 (Nintendo)
  Xenoblade Chronicles X (Nintendo)
  Yoshi’s Woolly World (Nintendo)

The Switch is right now almost half way of the 3 years 1/2, what nintendo gave :

1-2-Switch (Nintendo)
Arms (Nintendo)
Kirby: Star Allies (Nintendo)
Mario Tennis Aces (Nintendo)
Nintendo Labo (Nintendo)
Octopath Traveler (Nintendo)
Splatoon 2 (Nintendo)
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo)

I think you can make the point by yourself, espacially when APPARENTLY the WiiU had no games...

Wait a second, you included Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and Wii Sports Resorts which are ports. NSLU which was a DLC pack released physically. And wouldn't Labo count as two, not one.

Wii U is better than people think

@Cobalt You keep mentioning the HD remasters on Wii U as "exclusives", they're as "exclusive" as the Wii U ports on Switch. Also as BotW launched same day on both systems, it's not a Wii U exclusive. If you're to count New Super Luigi U on the Wii U side you have to count the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna expansion on the Switch side. There's other points too that go against your list of Wii U "exclusives".

Wii U's main advantage over Switch is pre-Wii U content, very little else. If you want to own a fantastic library of NES, SNES, N64, GBA, DS and Wii games all on 1 system then by the power of VC and backwards compatibility, Wii U is the system for you.

And that's ok, Wii U's legacy being the last Nintendo console you can outright own retro games on is still meaningful provided your console lasts a long time.

Did I ever say this?

Maybe you should also list the ports from 3rd parties on the Switch that the Wii U would have never gotten...

@skywake I apologize if I wasn't clear, I didn't refer to you when I said double standards, I meant the general internet feeling seems to have those "double standards" in regard to the Switch and Wii U game library. I agree with you though, judging both on the same terms the Switch library is better than the Wii U one, though it's IMHO very very close and much closer than the general internet opinion would have me believe.

@BlueOcean I agree with you that I'm a bit confused as to where that console & handheld merger and those years of nothing on Wii U went, because I thought those were done to prepare for a steady stream of great Nintendo first party exclusives and so far we haven't really had that at all this year (last year was pretty good though).

I think eventually though you will come to like the Switch. It's just a system that'll take some time to accumulate lots of excellent exclusives. A lot of systems seem to peak in game quantity while maintaining game quality 3 or 4 years after launch, so I think by 2020 or 2021 you might be a bigger fan of the Switch library. I think a similar case is the 3DS - no one was exactly saying the 3DS had a great library in summer 2012, but over time a lot more games came of good quality and now a lot of people say it has a great library. I'm almost 100% certain that the Switch's library will exceed the Wii U library in the eyes of most Wii U owners (assuming they do not "count" any Wii U games as Switch games; if they do the Switch will likely have already surpassed the Wii U library in their eyes) by 2021.

@Euler
You missed my point. The Wii could play GC games but to do so required getting the GC disk and it's accessories. There was also a good reason for some people to do so. With the Wii U? Even if the Switch could run Wii U discs there'd be little reason other than cost to bother. The Switch has better versions of most Wii U titles. It's better hardware and it executes the concept better.

I can't think of another previous transition where this has been the case.

The Wii U had some good titles for it's time, but most of the best titles didn't roll in until 2014-2015. The defining exclusives including Splatoon, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Mario Maker. I got to say the Wii U had picked up momentum after these and your Nintendo regulars Mario Kart and Smash were released. They were getting closer to the XBOX in sales before the Switch was announced. The games also sold really well despite being on an undersold system. It was a great console ruined by poor launch lineup and misunderstandings from the casual crowd.

I'm glad we got this gen early with the Switch which includes better graphics and big games for two of their most iconic IPs.

Agreed. And most ports to the Switch have been improved anyways.

I agree with the OP, from my perspective I thought the Wii U was (and still is) a great console. Sure, it definitely has its faults, but there are lots of great games for it, and the Wii backwards-compatibility, virtual console and apps like Netflix, Amazon video and a proper web browser are seriously underrated features that IMHO put it miles ahead of where the Switch is now.

If the Switch was an updated Wii U crammed into its gamepad that retained all its features (minus disk support obviously, although maybe then there could be a disk drive in the dock) then it would be an awesome console, but right now it's so lacking in features (not to mention the apparent ergonomics and durability issues when using it as a portable) that I have no desire to upgrade from my trusty Wii U.

I'm playing Elliot Quest on Wii U (also available on Switch).

The problem I have with Switch ports such as Elliot Quest, UnEpic, Shovel Knight, Severed, Plantera, and many other games is that they don't have the QoL features (maps, quick touch) of the Wii U version.

Something similar applies to the big games as well: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Rayman Legends - Definitive Edition, LEGO City Undercover, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, etc. all lose some great two-screen features like the 5-player modes in Mario and Rayman.

I just want to say that in most cases where you have the option between a Switch and a Wii U version, the Wii U version is better.

Breath of the Wild would have been a much better game if it came to Wii U exclusively!

1. Better graphics
It would have high-quality textures as it could launch on a 25GB Wii U disc instead of a 16GB Switch cartridge.
In early trailers you see that BotW had much better graphics. Those had to be downgraded so that it can run on a 16GB Switch cartrdige.

2. Better gameplay
I remember in the early demos they showed BotW menus and map on the touchscreen. The whole Sheikah-slate thing was based around the Wii U's GamePad. It would have been great to have the map ready at any time, and cook and manage the inventory with touch, intuitive and fast. We know from Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, Ocarina of Time 3D, and Majora's Mask 3D how good it could have been. But for Switch those things don't work out. And then they cut the Wii U version down to make it as "bad" as the Switch version, just so people think the Wii U is worse / has no benefits.

Nah. Putting aside portability, most of the big Wii U --> Switch ports have improved resolution and performance. Sometimes loading times are reduced. There's often additional content as well.

Some games really shined on the two-screen set-up, but with most Switch ports, you gain more than you lose.

Nah to you. I've shown 10 examples, 10 points for the Wii U team, and you've shown me zero. 0 points for the Switch team. You lose.

Ok. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, there you go, 1 point.

@SKTTR
What a weird, juvenile response.

Pretty much all of the big Wii U --> Switch ports have been enhanced. This includes Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Tropical Freeze, both Bayonetta games, and Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. BotW launched on both platforms simultaneously, but it's clear the game was perhaps pushing the weaker Wii U hardware to its limits, considering the lower resolution and the fact that the framerate is less stable. If the Wii U version was compromised, it was only in the sense that the game lost potential second-screen features.

Your big "point" seems to be that a handful of indie games don't have second-screen menus anymore. Obviously. And the Wii U doesn't have full, no-strings-attached portability. In these cases, I think the portability proves to be the more useful feature for most people, as it drastically increases the opportunities they have to play the game as compared to a tethered console like the Wii U.

A handful of games will always be better on Wii U, of course. Games like Rayman Legends, ZombiU, and any other game where the second screen actually added a lot to the game. With that said, it's a fairly small list. The Wii U's central gimmick wasn't well-supported, and the GamePad hindered more than helped games, in some cases.