Poll: The Wii U is Four Years Old, But What Is Its Legacy?

Wii U is a fun console with a whole bunch of GREAT games but sadly its legacy is one word: Failure.

What, no one wants to go to tthe future to check?

History will not be kind to the Wii U. It's by no means a perfect console but there are some redeeming features. However terrible marketing direction, gamepad limitations, a third party mass exodus, clunky OS and a terrible launch line up will forever confine Wii U to a footnote in gaming history. If Switch is successful to a massive degree, Wii U will be the mistakes Nintendo learn from in the view of gaming historians. Oh, and TVii.

Nintendo quality standards dipped towards the end of the generation, to startling lows. Fan backlash towards Mario Party, Paper Mario, Animal Crossing and Starfox titles will be remembered.

I think people will perceive the Gamepad as a pretty bad tablet computer. Of course we know the Gamepad was developed prior to the rise into public consciousness of the iPad and others, but history will not remember this and people will consider Nintendo to have simply tried unsuccessfully to emulate Apple's success.

wii u was ok but not great so i would say its probably my least favorite nintendo console

@AVahne Just did, it seems pretty much everyone has forgotten about it and people are getting hyped for the Nintendo Switch 2.

The Wii U's legacy is:

For the first time ever Nintendo's core IPs in lovely HD. The Gamepad served as a sort of beta test for the Switch.

Games like "Bayonetta 2" and "Xenoblade Chronicles X" will become cult hits. "FAST League Racing" was the only game this past generation of hardware that scratched my "F-Zero" itch.

An introduction of this gamer in particular to franchises like "Assassin's Creed", "Mass Effect" and "Darksiders".

I truly hope the Wii U becomes as revered as the GameCube is nowadays despite it's equally obvious failure with the general public. Much like the Dreamcast, it will certainly become a case study for all manufacturers and retailers in the future. I regret nothing.

Nintendo shafted it's loyal fans by not delivering a Zelda title that it definitely hinted at almost a year and a half before the launch during E3. I know that wasn't official game footage was extremely misleading to me. I bought my Wii U day one anticipating a near future release only to held off until the next console. Not holding a grudge, just calling it like I see it.

When I love, I love forever! The WiiU is not perfect, very not, but I love it. Thanks Nintendo!!!

@Peace-Boy To when did you go? Where I went, everyone was raving about the Nintendo eye - even the bus driver I was talking to who wouldn't stop playing Pokemon GO!

@remlapgamer Breath of the Wild is still coming to the Wii U, so in what way have you been 'shafted'?

I don't think people fully grasp how many absolutely fantastic games there are that are available on the U through either Wii retail discs, Wii VC, Wii U retail discs and its VC exclusives. The amount is absolutely astonishing.

Take Metroid as an example. People are quick to point out the lack of a Prime sequel or whatever but forget about the fact that there are 8 Metroid games available for the U.

I really don't get why everyone loves the game library so much...a Mario game, a Pikmin game, a Mario Kart/Party game, a Donkey Kong game, a Smash Bros game, a Kirby game, a Star Fox a Yoshi game...it's just such a bland selection. Nothing really innovative or genre pushing. No experimentation at all. What's more, a few of those titles (Star Fox, Kirby, Mario Party) are much more lackluster than previous entries.

For me, there's three standout titles on the Wii U: Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X (although again, not as good as it's predecessor) and Pokken. It was also nice replaying WW and TP with the graphics cleared up a bit, but aside from that, I really don't think the Wii U library is that impressive at all.

The system could have done slightly better if Nintendo just knew how to make better commercials. In my opinion Nintendo commercials tend to be quite corny 😖.

In 10 years time, it'll be held up as that console I hang onto because I can play Wii U, Wii and Gamecube games all on 1 device.

Its legacy? That's a tough one. I think overall it's a bad legacy. So many problems, so much negativity. I liked the gamepad and Super Mario Maker most as a game. It was nice to finally have HD games. Even though I like the gamepad it too has load of problems. The battery life is terrible, it has no range, its display is low res, the noodleneck charging cable breaks easily. For some people its sixe and weight were problems too. If it broke what were you to do? You couldn't just buy a replacement easily in the shops.

I like how it appears dusty even in your photo. I hope they're done with the glossy finish.

@the-madprofessor Well, the question was talking about 10 years, so I went about 10 years into the future. I double checked my time dial and it was working correctly. You must've went 20 years into the future by accident, need to get those few wires fixed huh?

It's very likely that the Wii U will be remembered as a failure and one of the worst Nintendo's products, but honestly I'll never agree to such opinion.
It wasn't a perfect console, but none is, and I had a ton of fun thanks to my Wii U. As a gamer that's what I want most and it definitely delivered.

I absolutely adore my Wii U. And for my money, it has been the most fun home console of this generation. But I feel like the Wii U's fun came with a lot of Asterisks and "but's". Games that needlessly streamed things to the Gamepad, wedged in touch controls, and kind of a total lack of the true potential of gamepad gameplay. And that feels like something that became Nintendo's Wheelhouse for the past few years. "It's like x! Buuuuuuuut y." For example: Triforce Heroes! "It's like a Multi-player Zelda! Buuuuut it's a multi-player zelda with a limited world." "It's a new Metroid! Buuuuuut it's a multi-player only game." "It's a port of Mario Maker for the 3DS! Buuuuut it doesn't have proper online or console connection." Hopefully the Switch will rearrange all of this, though!

@AVahne high risk of spoilers.

I'm certain that it's legacy for me will be much like that of the Sega Dreamcast: An often overlooked and quickly abandoned system with a stunted library that that I played ravenously. I will remember it VERY fondly. And the pad? When anyone bothered to utilize it correctly(Splatoon, NintendoLand multiplayer), it was wonderful.

Nintendo was doing wonders for its game library until 2015 happened. There it just had some good here and there. Then 2016 happened and I could only wonder what the crap was going on.

Some amazing games, some extreme disappointments. I definetly don't hate the Wii U, but I was bummed by the game droughts, lack of GameCube virtual console games, and the overall low power of the console. That being said, I don't regret gettting it. Hopefully the Switch will fix these problems and becomes Nintendo's most successful console!

I was tempted to name the same thing as both my favorite and least favorite part of the Wii U: its library. In the end, I decided that my least favorite part is the Gamepad, not because I dislike it, but because almost all the system's problems can be traced back to it.

I loved the Wii U more than Nintendo ever did

It had a few "really good" games, like Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World, and Mario Kart 8.

Many of the other games though could have been "really good" as well if it weren't for the terrible trend of "Bad controls."
Games that come to mind are Star Fox Zero and Splatoon.

Definitely my least favorite Nintendo Console, but it wasn't all bad, just "mostly" bad haha. Definitely sad it was such a flop

It's not about the console, but about the memories that the console helps to foster. For my daughter and I we had lots of fun playing games cooperatively such as NintendoLand, the Pikmin 3 DLC, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, and Hyrule Warriors.

This cooperative gameplay was greatly enhanced by having a separate screen giving each of us our own unique perspective on the game, but still playing together. I believe this is very important for a less skilled and younger game player as she never felt that she was slowing me down or that I was dragging her along--she could work at her own pace and ask for help if she needed or offer help when I needed.

I think the asynchronous gameplay was simply fantastic and a great feature that, unfortunately, never really captured the casual user or was marketed as well as it could have been with those party games. It also felt truly innovative in an industry that often seems more interested in milking its cash cows as much as possible.

My kids love our Wii U and play it more than our PS4. It has plenty of games that we haven't even picked up yet so we will not upgrading to the Switch, plus no backwards compatibility kind of turns me off. Plus there's plenty of family games that we can play together and other games that we enjoy.

To me, the Wii U was just a starting point at what nintendo can do...it introduced nintendo to HD, some-what portability in it, a better E-shop.........it just missed out on everything else that made nintendo consoles what they were or are. Their other consoles, someone that never owned them could pick them up and fall in love with them, but...and I'll even say this with the Wii...it'll look its age mighty quickly.

I see it being looked for in the future, but with not many retail-games, I don't see it being the ONLY nintendo console a fan or collector would want...if it had a bigger retail library, it would be the console people would want, but the lack of that (E-Shop would be closed on it in the future) would make it a bad choice. In my opinion, the games weren't the best that nintendo usually offers either (readying the hateful replies to that statement)...they could have been a lot better and more depth, but they felt rushed to get something out to the consumers of the console, rather than time consuming (which sales probably paid a tribute to that matter). Other than that, I hope the Switch does great for them and puts them back to where they were!!!!

@the-madprofessor
Sadly Zelda wasn't released in an ideal time frame when considering what Nintendo seemed to be implying. Good thing they didn't decide to wait until the next console came out to release it

It's just a really underrated system. It's got great games, and that's all that matters.
It's ultimately the people's choice that it died so quickly because they decide to buy a lot of the same old games except with reskins rather than games with new features.

Commercially, the Wii U was a massive failure the likes of which Nintendo hasn't seen since the Virtual Boy.

History will look back on it as such. It had some good games, but the library paled in comparison to previous console generations.

I think the Wii U was a great console that had a lot of potential, but it doesn't have a classic AAA game. The NES had Super Mario Bros, the SNES had Super Mario World, the Nintendo 64 had Super Mario 64, the GameCube had Super Mario Sunshine, and the Wii had Super Mario Galaxy, but the only Mario games the Wii U had was HD versions of Super Mario 3D World and New Super Mario Bros. Wii with new features (not that these games are bad).

It's the same thing with Zelda; the NES had The Legend of Zelda, the SNES had A Link to the Past... you get my point, but the Wii U didn't even have a Zelda game. I'm glad this will be fixed with the NX.

If the Wii U's legacy could be summed up only as "the machine that plays Mario Maker," I would hail it the greatest console of all time. Offscreen play and other games are a decent bonus.

The Wii U will be admired like the Dreamcast if the Switch is a big hit. It'll be known as the first home console that took a step toward portability and will be remembered mostly (outside of its library) for its off TV play.

@Pokefanmum82 Are you really sure that you won't be upgrading to the Switch?

Wii U would've been in storage for a while if not for Smash. Once the next Smash gets released it's time to say goodbye and good riddance.

I absolutely love my Wii U. I have never once regretted being a Day One adopter. I still love my Wii U, and I'll continue to play it for years and years to come.

@Turbo857 Truthfully, I think it will be viewed as a remarkable and woefully underrated system as the Dreamcast is regardless of the Switch's success. Let ten years separate us from the console's life, and it'll be remembered more fondly than it was treated during life.

Personally, I seperate consoles into two categories: The first is where I like the console, its feature and its controller enough to sometimes feel the need to play on the console and choose which game to play later. The N64, GameCube or PS4 come to mind. Like this summer, I felt an itch to play GameCube. The second one is where I like the game library of a console but not the console itself, AKA I'd play these games elsewhere if they weren't console-exclusive. Consoles like Wii, PS3, PS2 and WiiU belong to this category.

The WiiU specifically, I was put off by the Gamepad above all else. It's not a true handheld, it's criminally underused for it to be the console's selling point and it just felt clunky. I don't like Miiverse or the overall menu layout of WiiU either. I'd rather have a customizable PS4 menu layout than this. And, of course, the storage is bad, too. I only ran into problems with it quite late into the WiiU's life cycle so I won't be dealing with this a lot longer. Haven't played on it in a month either. But I truly believe, the WiiU will be Nintendo's Dreamcast and be remembered for its great games ... and not much else.

@AVahne I wish we had a time machine that could travel to March 2017...

@G-Boy It's called Sleep.

1. I bought the Wii U in September and I love it. Mario Maker and Splatoon alone let me forget I own other consoles.

2. The problem of the Wii U is/was the lack of more first party system sellers. When the big publishers and developers abandoned the Wii, Nintendo stepped in and delivered one big game after another. Two 3D Mario games, two Zelda games, two Metroid games, the return of DKC...

It seems as if the install base was too small for Nintendo to repeat this strategy.

3. The way we look back on the Wii u will be determined by how well the Switch performs. If it tanks, everyone will look back to the Wii U as the last great Nintendo console. If the Switch is going to be a success and delivers a better experience of the Wii Us big games, like Mario Maker and Splatoon, no-one but video game historians will care about the system.

I used to say the Wii U was Nintendo's Dreamcast, but that's shifted to being Nintendo's Saturn. Iwata's statement announcing the development of a new gaming platform wasn't quite as snappy as Bernie Stolar's "The Saturn is not our future", but it sounded a similar death knell.

The past year or so of software has had a number of disappointments, and some of the games definitely feel low quality compare to previous installments in their franchises. Mario Tennis stands out particularly.

Still, I love the Saturn, and I love the Wii U. I've played so many great titles on it, from Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101 to Super Mario 3D World and Xenoblade X (though that isn't as good as its predecessor in many ways). Lots of great eshop titles too, and the option for playing Wii games on it has helped me dip into that library more. I've got a few more games I'd like to pick up for my system, from the good to the bad to the ugly to Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

I just wish it was region free so I could import a copy of the physical release of Giana Sisters, and Yakuza 1 & 2 HD. That's one of my biggest hopes for the Switch, that it loses the region requirements.

For the final question, I think an honest option would have been, "It will be treated like the Virtual Boy, and will be mentioned as little as possible."

I think the fact Switch has no backwards compatibility ties to this. They want nothing to remind people about the WiiU.

It's unfortunate, but makes a lot of sense. WiiU broke down and destroyed the great user base Wii created. Nintendo has to start over again console wise, and they won't forget that fact - by making sure to forget the WiiU.

I love my WiiU. Honestly I don't see anything wrong with it. I enjoyed what it brought to the table, such as finally having Nintendo titles in HD and being able to remote play while in the house. I look at all the awesome games that came out with it every time I look at my collection, only for it to be dwarfed by my PS4 games. I still have a considerable amount of WiiU backlog I need to get through. Sad its life ended so soon, as I was wary for the next iteration so soon, but so far I'm excited for the Switch. The WiiU will stay hooked up to my entertainment system and I don't regret ever buying it.

It comes down to one game that I ultimately enjoyed more than any other game: Super Mario Maker! I put a lot of time into that one game. I enjoyed the WiiU regardless of it's negative history. I think people are just missing out. I really don't see how the Switch is going to be a major improvement...it's all about the software, imo. Hope SMM comes out on Switch really soon!

@Shiryu I view the Gamecube as almost the opposite of the Wii U. I'm not sure what it's sales were before and after the price cut to $99 but I remember seeing ads for it everywhere and that was such a big deal. And when that happened there was a nice Players Choice libray of $19.99 games. I think that's likely why Gamecube sold 22 million to the Wii US 14 million, that's over 50% more even if it was a failure.

So the Gamecube went out with a great big last hurrah push of its quality hardware and games, Nintendo is doing its best to hide the Wii U from view. One went out fighting on its feet, one barely crawling on its knees.

3DS had a huge price cut - $249 to $169 - a few months after release and that went a long way towards it's successful rebound. Nintendo never really tried to give Wii U a chance. It's lowest price at launch was $299 for the badic, 4 years later it's cheapest price is still $299 for the delyxe. That's 4 years with low selling hardware yet it never went under $299 retail in the US.

All prices above are US, I don't know how things priced out elsewhere.

@Dezzy
How do you play Gamecube games on it?

My summation of Wii U:

Launched Nov 2012 w/ Basic model for $299
4 years later Nov 2016 Deluxe model for $299

You can'take expect videogame console hardware to sell well with the same low end price for 4 years. 3DS XL has always been $199 for 5 years but at least the New model has improved everything. Wii U is Wii U, $299 for 4 years.

For me, the Wii U's legacy is pretty much Super Mario Maker and what the GamePad did to make it something pretty awesome—and that's about it really. That doesn't mean the Wii U didn't have other great games but I'd hardly say that was it's legacy (having some great games); pretty much every console in the history of gaming has had a least a few good games, even the Virtual Boy. Oh, and I guess the amiibos where pretty cool too, but Skylanders got there first.

@rjejr They are sadly the same everywhere.

The Wii U has awesome Dreamcast-like qualities, with the bonus of extending the life of my Wii games.

Nintendo could slip a final update with a "bug" that makes it easy to install Homebrew games from unofficial sources.

@rjejr Nintendo hardware is usually pretty safe to buy at launch because the price is so stable. Not so with Playstation or XBox.

The real question is how good is the Wii U in comparison to the PS4 and the XB1?

I think I know what the answer is, and it doesn't reflect the sales figures.

It was huge stumbling block for Nintendo, but in the right direction.

It is an amazing piece of hardware that has broke from tradition and rammed with so much innovation, developers didn't know what to do with it.

That, and this is the best example of complacency. Nintendo thought they were on a high from Wii and thought recycling the name was enough to garner inter stfrom day one. Iwata was obviously ignorant to the fact the Wii was a laughing stock for the last 2-3 years of its lifecycle.

The Switch basically looks like everything the Wii U hinted at but couldn't quite pull off. The Wii U was basically a prototype of and was a testing ground for all hebideas to put into Switch. If Switch is a success, it owes it all to the lessons learned during the Wii U era.

Microsoft and Sony have been boring since the 90's and have brought nothing to gaming except marketing power. End of.
Nintendo are onto something and are about to launch the first console in almost 20 years that I'm genuinely excited about.

I never got around to buying a Wii U because I was a late adopter for the Wii and figured I could wait for the Wii U to come down into impulse purchase price range (which it never did). Now with the Switch on the horizon, and knowing that most of the games I would have wanted on the Wii U will be available on 3DS and/or Switch eventually, it leaves me with very little incentive to get one.

In many ways the Wii U and PS Vita suffered the same fate. Both appeared to be a good idea on paper, launched well and then started a long slide into obscurity. Both systems have a few standout games but mostly get by on indie releases now with true AAA games being few and far between. Both systems were let down by a platform holder that was not fully invested and preferred to focus on their other system (PS4 or 3DS) once it became obvious that supporting two systems was too expensive and spread them too thin.

The true legacy of the Wii U will be that it taught Nintendo what they needed to do with the Switch. Switch is what Wii U should have been (if the tech had been available to do it at the time). However, I still predict that Switch will struggle to get third party exclusives just like every other Nintendo console going back to the N64.

I love my WiiU, but It has not been getting any play out of me in the past 8 months.I bought it at launch and the person looked at me like I was stupid. I purchase many games and loved them.
The draw for me was the the VC with gamecube games. The VC was horrendously atrocious at the beginning. The games from the WII were not there and they were released again. The GBA and DS were nice additions, but why weren't they on there handheld. (I know the capabilities) I did have have GBA with the ambassadors program so what was the problem? I know the DS was backwards compatible.
I thought the gamepad was would be more accessible with more battery life. I did love the off TV gaming and would play it with the cord attached for batteries sake.
The legacy it will give is that despite not having 3rd party back up, and a slow stream of games, the games that it gave were quality. I purchased games I would normally not purchase and I was pleasantly surprised. We are all still waiting for BotW and unfortunately I will not be playing on my WiiU.
My 3DS is the most valuable console I have and have many. It has the most games that I would purchase. (RPG machine) This machine is in its twilight. I'm hoping to mod it as soon as the Switch is in full swing. I cannot wait for Switch. I hope Nintendo doesn't make the same mistakes as it did with the WiiU and it learned its lesson. (Sigh)
Now I want to write about my NS expectations because I was let down a little.

I like much about the Wii U - the eShop, Off-TV play and some of the retail games - but I don't really love any of it. The GamePad screen was actually very good, with no noticeable lag; so that was nice, but I'd rather just have a powerful handheld.

The Wii U's biggest legacy is probably Miiverse - that's actually a great idea. For me the biggest disappointment is that there were no games I can honestly call a classic. Wind Waker HD was fantastic, but of course that was basically a GameCube game. New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario 3D Land were both good, but neither was something that'll be hard to better. If Breath of the Wild had been released sooner (and been a Wii U exclusive) it'd have been a very different matter.

Overall, it's a fairly nice console. I don't really feel all that ripped off, but neither is it something I'm overly fond of. It's simply time to move on.

@remlapgamer I also bought mine to play the new zelda that hasn't come out yet!

I can't wait to Homebrew that bad boy.

@DESS-M-8

I have to disgree. The PS3 is my favourite console and I love it as much as my N3DS. They are a ton of excellent, quirky games for it. It's not all sports and shooters.

I had to pick the gamepad as my favorite and least favorite. Why? Because a few games made it seem cool, like how they handled some of the games in Nintendo Land, ZombiU, and Wind Waker's quick inventory and maps. Had the video been higher resolution, the London Tour Bus and other sightseeing apps could have been amazing (but why not just make them free, like on MyNintendo?)

Unfortunately, the gamepad was a big negative overall. For every good thing it accomplished, it also seemed to turn off third party devs and even Nintendo would usually whiff on incorporating it intelligently into their games. I also hate that I can't change system settings or play stuff like NES Remix without the darn thing.

To the gaming historians at large, a necessary mistake? (If the Switch pans out to be what Nintendo and fans want it to be and more).

I personally love the console, flaws and all. And (as has been stated ad nauseum) it has many. It will forever hold a place in my heart for a number of reasons:

1) Nintendo's finest efforts in some of its main first party titles

2) Introducing the world to Splatoon

3) The Gamepad. It was great in that my wife family could watch whatever they wanted and I could continue playing my game.

4) Last and most important, its the console that introduced my toddler to video games and Nintendo. She's my gaming cheerleader whenever I play Mario Kart or Splatoon. She loves making wacky looking Miis. She loves the amiibos and she can identify just about every well known Nintendo character. More than anything, Nintendo has really inspired her imagination.

Generally it was a failure.
For me it was a total success. I have missed out on so many nintendo consoles in the past. The wii u has given me access to so many great games on virtual console, wii and wii u titles. I consider this consoles library far greater than any other consoles around.

The Wii U honestly does have a spectacular game library... but only because of backwards compatibility and Virtual Console.

@sandman89
I'll love Nintendountil the day I die but they really disappointed me by not having a dedicated Zelda title for the Wii U. I feel cheated and I'm over it without holding a grudge, but that's what I think of when I reflect on the Wii U. Now I get it, Nintendo doesn't owe us anything and I know that E3 footage wasn't actual game footage but I was sold on a Zelda game being in the works and ready sooner rather than much much later.

Rephrasing myself from elsewhere... Even the existing Wii U owners don't like the games that have been released on the system, especially lately. It's been flop after flop. FE Mirage Sessions, Paper Mario, Wonderful 101, Bayonetta, Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, Star Fox Zero... flops, flops, flops! Wii U is Nintendo's worst selling home console, and even those who have it didn't want to buy those games! Bad console, bad games, owners that don't even give a damn anymore. It's a complete failure!

Wii u was ok. Got to finish most of my wii and GameCube games.
Mario maker was good.
To be honest wii u made me buy the PlayStation 4

@Shiryu I like the Wii U a lot, but I would compare the Wii U more to the SEGA Saturn to be honest

The Wii U certainly isn't my favorite system, but I love a lot of it's games! (Splatoon, MK8, XCX, M&S Sochi, M&S Rio, etc.) Even when the Switch is released, I'll most likely continue to go back to a lot of these games.

The gamepad, on the other hand... I won't miss. Honestly, I think the concept itself is a good idea, but sadly, I don't think it was used to it's full potential. Only a few games come to mind that really utilized the gamepad. I will miss the gamepad for maps and inventory's, but that's about it.

Again, so many talking about the Wii U in the past tense as if all of a sudden you can't play games on it just because there are hardly any new games left to release.

I play on mine almost every day and still have a massive backlog of games that I haven't got round to playing or haven't finished. Not to mention games like FIFA, Need For Speed, MK8, Smash Bros, Splatoon, Call of Duty, Tekken and more that are infinitely replayable in multiplayer.

No one is forcing you to stop using it just because new games have dried up. Continue to enjoy the many great games already available and get some of those that you don't have yet. Just pray that your Wii U or Gamepad doesn't break as it doesn't seem like a replacement will ever be cheap!

Pricing in my opinion has been the Wii U's biggest problem why was there never a price cut?

I think the biggest positive that the Wii U will be remembered for is it being the birthplace of Splatoon.

I've had my Wii U since launch day, and I've been with it through thick and thin. My (basically final) thoughts on the console are that it was an underutilized and underappreciated gem.

Without a doubt, it's Nintendo worst console to date (unless we count the Virtual Boy), but that's not necessarily the fault of the console itself. Nintendo is to blame for not releasing a steady amount of great games (there was A LOT of downtime between most of the top game releases) and also ignoring some of their best series, like Metroid and F-Zero. The consumers are to blame as well for not supporting third party games enough, which ultimately scared off developers and left the Wii U as basically a Nintendo games-only system. Nintendo also made some very questionable decisions over the lifetime of the console too, such as not having a unified account system that allowed cross-buy with 3DS Virtual Console games.

With all of that said, I thought the Wii U was a good console. It has some of the best games released in the last few years and I really got my money's worth out of it.

In the end it doesn't matter to me what history thinks.

I traded a zelda 3ds straight up for it so basically got mine for $150.
i have a busy life so intermittent releases didn't bother me
and i loved being able to keep playing mario maker on the gamepad when my wife turned on cutthroat kitchen

and some ALL-TIME great games are here so just like classic systems that I keep and hang on to the best 5 or 6 games.... well i have those for Wii U so it will keep getting play.

@HenFjo Let me just clarify my position because I reckon there are way too many similarities between the GameCube and the Wii U:

.Console finishes last on it's current hardware generation.

.Console has stellar first party support.

.Console has stellar 3rd party support... in the beginning, them they all shy away to rival hardware, not helped with console exclusives ending up on rival systems (to name a few "Resident Evil 4" on GameCube, "Raymen Legends" and "Zombi U" on Wii U)

.Sony is it's biggest rival (PS2 and PS4 respectively).

.Console has new game hiatus for months in a row, culminating in a release of the best / last game of its life cycle at the same time that it is released as a launch title for the new hardware replacing the current one. amusingly enough, it's a Zelda game on both consoles.

I don't know about any of you guys and gals, but I have been having a huge feeling of Deja-vu back to 2006. I still play GameCube nowadays on my Wii and I think I will have to keep my Wii U assembled since I don't believe there will be any sort of backwards compatibility this time. It will also be hard having to wait an additional 3 months to have a new system, but otherwise both consoles share in my life experience a similar fate. That's the industry for you: either the audience loves your product from start to finish or its too confused to understand the point of owning a console. It is my honest opinion both GameCube and Wii U deserved a better fate since both systems have some truly top exclusive games that no video game lover should be without.

Worst part of the console was the "pro controller."

Worst part was Nintendo trying to understand what Internet is.

Which of these things is your favourite part of the Wii U?
It's "game library" for pretty much every gaming system, not that any hardware the Wii U had stood out regardless.

Ironically, that results in the best and worst part of the Wii U being its game library.

The Wii U is Four Years Old, But What Is Its Legacy?
Remember that time when Nintendo tried to repeat the success of the Wii and fell flat on its face?

In 10 years, most people will look back on it as a mega failure. Meanwhile, I will still be playing it and loving it. The library isn't massive but it's got several of my favorite games I've played in over 30 years.
Pikmin 3
Mario Kart 8
1001 Spikes
Shovel Knight
Smash U
Tropical Freeze
Zero Mission
Metroid Fusion
Prime Trilogy
DKC 1-3
Wii backwards compatibility

Bad Things: Third party support, no real point to the gamepad, systems name, no original Zelda game (hyrule warriors is a spin off, and BoTW is coming...sometime), only good games where from Nintendo themselves, online store wasn't organized well, the system was a slightly more powerful last gen console that came out 6 years after the two it compares too, smaller selection of virtual console games than on Wii, online multiplayer.

Good things: Nintendo games, the pro controller, great couch co-op games.

It will be seen as a massive failure with great Nintendo games, so there is a great positive to the system, even with a lot of negative the system receives

It's a definitely a failure but personally a great console.

Sure you understand, my favorite part about the Wii U is the retail games library. My least favorite part is the retail games library. There are some incredible games, just... Not enough, you know? So many droughts. So many...

I have never bought a Wii U and would not consider it unless Nintendo drastically reduced the price. The specs are too outdated and there aren't enough games to justify that price. The system should have been below $150 at this point.

I've spent countless more hours on my Wii U than ANY OTHER CONSOLE including XBONE and PS4

@rdrunner1178
Easily but unofficially. Easy to figure out with google.

It just baffles the hell outta me that it's STILL on store shelves at $299? They never did a price drop like they did with the 3DS to try and push the thing. Its strategic things like this that I don't understand about Nintendo at all!

What? How can people dislike the file management so much? It's not perfect but it's A LOT better than PS4's file management o_O

you can run games from an external HDD

you can delete update data and DLC without deleting the game

It's done so many things wrong that it's always going to be a failure but weirdly it's probably my most time spent playing of all consoles. I put that down to being able to play SNES games in my lap. So much wasted potential though.

This might be controversial but in some ways I think this console had the weakest 1st party line up of all Nintendo's consoles. I loved it but the top games weren't quite as good, there wasn't enough variety and they never fully showed what the gamepad could do.

Why did nobody make a Batallion Wars game with gamepad used to flick through your squad and a battlefieldesque fps on screen?

@BinaryFragger Yeah, definitely. If Iwata hadn't said about the NX, we'd have had a load of "Nintendo are going mobile/3rd party, Nintendo is doomed" posts, just a shame that to balance it out it took the knees out of the Wii U.

I'll never understand why Nintendo didn't lower the price to $199.99 last holiday season. I think that could have helped a fair bit. Not enough to save the console at all, but I think it could have helped sales considerably.

@Utena-mobile We just bought another new PS3 because of how much we have sunk in games. I think the PS3 has kicked the 4's butt in games so far. We'll see, though.

I dig my Wii U, and the Big N's games are top-notch. I got kinda cheesed because of the Zelda thing, but they're still releasing it for the console. I'm planning on waiting on the Switch to see specs, launch lineup, and general reception. Maybe another Zelda delay will do me a favor, really.

With that said, I have definitely played my WiiU more than my PS4 and XBox One combined. In my opinion, it has some of the best games of this generation.

The Wii U is a much better console than the Wii ever was. I will keep playing it much after it's gone. Like the N64 & GCN before it, I'll remember it fondly.

And further LOL what a huge lost opportunity on the Wii U virtual console! When you just think about what it could've been picking up where the Wii left off! No Genesis or master system, Neo Geo, T16, virtual console arcade! To me adding Gba and DS was good but didn't offset the loss of these consoles. But aside from this, there were just soooo many other classics games that Nintendo didn't go after! The one vc game every Thursday snails pace didn't help and could of help fill those big retail game voids we had! I hope Nintendo corrects all this with the Switch!

Still never got my main line Metroid, or fire emblem games though

I bought it on release date for the UK and it was a great console, it worked well and it got the job done. A few months later, I sold it. Mainly because I needed the money at the time, but I've never looked back and thought it was a bad decision.

I was hoping it was going to get better, but it never really picked up which was a shame.

I look at it as kind of a lost opportunity. There were a lot of things Nintendo could have done with the WiiU gamepad that they didn't. Sim games like Civilization or strategy RPGs would have been perfect for the console, but we didn't see any.
2014 was a great year, though. Bayonetta 2, DKTR, Mario Kart, and Smash should all probably have been nominated for GOTY. Especially looking at what was actually nominated and won.

But overall it has enough great games and several innovative ones like Splatoon (probably the best game this generation), W101, and Captain Toad that it should be seen positively looking back

N64 and GameCube were systems that underachieved but are remembered fondly because of outstanding groundbreaking games like mario 64, oot, wave racer, Luigi's mansion, resident evil 4! I honestly can't see any wii u game being looked back on on the same way.

The system has had it highs but nothing you could consider groundbreaking or generation defining! Those days seem sadly lost to Nintendo now!! God I hope things change with the switch

Obviously flawed, the only console to beat it this generation is the 3DS in my opinion.

Let me put it this way: I don't play my Wii U anymore. Last time I did was last month, and only pinball. I'm more into my 3DS, Vita, and PS3 than ever before. Hopefully the Switch makes Nintendo great again.

Well, Happy 4th Anniversary Wii U...
Wii will always love U...

The Wii U was a massive disappointment that failed because it expected the market to cater to it, rather than the other way around.

However, I believe that give it ten years and everyone who ignored it will be pining away for what once was (only basing this on the fact that literally every console, except maybe the Virtual Boy, has met this fate eventually).

@BiasedSonyFan i agree the gamecube was also a failure. much like the Wii U it was a fun console but GCN had even more great games than Wii U.

once you pass the 30 million mark i think it's hard to call a console a straight up failure. that's why i hesitate to lump the N64 in with GCN and Wii U. also the N64 did way more to change the game industry as a whole than any other console to date. (well lets see where the VR movement goes at least)

We waited 4 years got vary little for the price of admission and Nintendo failed at convincing Dev's it was a good idea...

The wii u is the only console i have that crashes, especially in the beginning....
I guess the hardware and software don't go that well together....

Although I selected the option for retail Wii U games being my favorite thing about the system, I haven't bought a retail Wii U game in 2 years. Says a lot about the system...

The Wii U will not be remembered fondly. If the Switch performs well, the Wii U will just be seen as the half baked console that should have been the Switch.

"It's better than nothing!"
-Inafune's translator.

This is a great system which will become somewhat of a relic and overpriced eBay item in years to come. Fantastic first party game library with some outstanding gems..

They better find a way to let us transfer VC games to Switch. If the game pad breaks the VC games brought over from Wii and downloaded on Wii U will all be unplayable.

@Robotron2084 "Personally, it's the console that reconnected me to modern videogames."

This. I know the PS4 and Xboxes of the world are out there, neither have ever interested me, this is my successor to the Gamecube, the last console I bought. I don't care about online features or any of that rubbish (although I like Miiverse), I just want to play games. The Wii U has delivered me some truly amazing games and goes down as one of my favourite consoles of all time. I never owned a Wii but the whole system is built in should I want to dip my toes into that library.

It's been 4 YEARS ALREADY?? Man, do I feel old.....

@HenFjo Despite its bad sales the Sega Saturn had an amazing library of games. The amount of hours I lost on that machine to some amazing shooters and Capcom fighting games, the pad was literally made for fighting games. Loved it.

I found it disappointing even with a handful of really great games. Overall it's my 2nd least favorite Nintendo console after Wii. It will probably be remembered as a failure in general with a very niche crowd fondly remembering how great it was. My biggest issue was really just not enough games.

@SuperBaconKid You feel old for Wii U turning 4? NES is 31, SNES is 25, N64 is 20, GCN is 15 and Wii is 10, and I was there for all of em. Now I feel ancient! Lol

If I had bought the Wii U at launch and suffered through it's early droughts my opinion of it would probably be a bit different than what it is.As it is though, I bought it Xmas 2014 and there was a decent size library of top games there for me to catch up with,some great games on the Eshop and titles like Yoshi's WW,Splatoon and Xenoblade X on the way.I kind of felt spoiled for choice actually,it was the perfect time to buy one .Being there from day one of Splatoon and watching it evolve was really fantastic and gave me some of the most fun I've ever had gaming.So with that,the Wii U will always be held in high regard by me,despite all its obvious flaws.In some ways though,I'm kind of glad it's coming to an end. I'm more than ready for the Switch and the next gen of Nintendo gaming with fingers crossed they can make it a success.

Ive loved off TV play, the only way I get to play games when I have one telly and two kids.

for the question about which was my favorite, all of the choices were positives and if i could, i would vote for all. my least favorite was miiverse, but that was literally least of the favorites instead of a disliked aspect.

I love the Wii U! So many great exclusive games. And the gamepad is superb for off-tv play. I also love how the gamepad offers new interesting ways of playing in games such as Star Fox Zero, Game&Wario, ZombieU and Mario Tennis (2-player reverse).

The weird thing is that I regard the Wii U as being better than Wii in almost every way. Sure the Wii had a much larger game library, but the games were horrible. Most of them was shovelware and a million versions of Me and My Horse type of games. Take 10 games from each system and the Wii U will have the best.
The pro controller on the Wii U was a delight compared to the horrible options the Wii had available.

So the question is: How in the name of ass is the Wii considered a better system? It sold more... but that's just because Wii Sports and Wii Fit was a new thing back then. Remove those and you have the worst system ever.

Nintendo showed how little they care about their hardcore fans with the Wii U, and basically destroyed their reputation in my eyes forever.

@Dr_Corndog Tha's funny because that is exactly how I felt. In my opinion, the game library is both the strength and weakness of the WiiU. There is some great software on the system but ultimately there wasn't enough of it to sell systems. Plus a game like Mario Maker that finally showed the value of the gamepad came too late.

Nintendo complained that developers didn't know how to use the gamepad. Yet, Nintendo didn't bother to put it to good use in most of it's games. I'm not sure what Nintendo does in between launches, but their systems are almost dead the last two years. And the new system doesn't have great games to start. Mario Kart was the last AAA title Nintendo made. There's been some solid games like Splatoon, but many of Nintendo's title were poorly reviewed and received. I love Nintendo, but I'm going to buy the best port of a game. And that's rarely on a Nintendo console. I'll get Switch, but my expectations are to have very few AAA titles on it. Nintendo has incredible quality....on a few rare releases.
People make excuses for Nintendo, and it allows them to continue to be left behind. As a long time Nintendo fan, I can no longer pick up a title just because it was made by Nintendo.

What's wrong with the file management? Just checked and the numbering of file sizes is weird... but what else is bad about it? I don't recall ever using it as I had a hard disk attached basically from the beginning.

I bought it only because of xenoblade chronicles x, yes, only because of that. Did not regret it. I then gave it another try with Deus Ex Human Revolutions, was great again! Thus, for me, this is a keeper. I still play xenoblade chronicles x from time to time.

If eshop has no indie games and virtual console games, Wii U has no new game release at all.

That is why I feel dissatisfied with it.

It will ultimately of course be viewed as a stepping stone to the Switch. It kind of occupied that middle ground of not quite being full portable whilst attempting to build upon the "new ways to play" mantra of the Wii and DS era.

I think in years to come the Wii U will be thought of as a placeholder while Nintendo managed to achieve the Switch's hardware design.

@Robotron2084 me too. I have not owned a home console since the SNES. I have absolutely loved my Wii U.

I got just as much love for my Wii U as i did the Original Wii. Just I expected much much more from the company / console. The only games i own from Nintendo on this gen is Smash U, Kart 8 & Splatoon & WindWakerHD ~

Other games that made the console last or great for me throughout its life time were: Xenoblade X, MH3U, 007 Legends, then a ton of indie games.

Games like DKCTF, SM3DW, Bayo 2, Pikmin 3 , NSLU , were also a great addition though i dont own those i only rented them but definitely had a blast ~

The Backwards Compatibility is gonna be missed. Though half the games i loved on the wii lost their capabilities to go online. Truly a sad day.

I honestly think the Gamepad was a great idea. I'm not saying they explored its potential, but simply having the ability to relax on the sofa with a screen in my hands was wonderful.

Overall I think it was a very bad idea, but even then the console had some good games. But the console will be forgotten VERY soon, even sooner if Switch catches on!

I never got a Wii U. I have a HUGE Wii library but I also have a HUGE Gamecube library and the gen 1 Wii was a perfect way for me to play my Gamecube games in 480p on my HDTV. If the Wii U could play Gamecube games as well as Wii games I would have considered getting one. Another knock against the system for me was the poor video quality for VC games. I have around 200 combined VC and WiiWare games on my Wii and I still buy games for it today. The Wii is my retro gaming system and it just did it better than the Wii U especially with the SD card fix on the Wii. I have a SanDisk 32GB Ultra SD Card in there now and I still have plenty of room for more games. No disrespect to WiiU owners out there but to me, the Wii U is just a source of good games to port to the Switch.

Day one Wii U owner, worst gaming purchase I've ever made behind only the DSi (i already owned a DS Lite).

ZombiU was the pinnacle of Wii U gaming for me.... and it was a 3rd party launch game.

Eh, the only Wii U game that really excited me was Rayman Legends. Once Ubisoft screwed that one up by releasing it months after it was finished to make it multiplatform (with every other version being worse than the Wii U version), I held off on getting games for the console. Time passed, and soon enough, the Wii U was just an internet browser machine for me. (Until mods were created, now it can be more than that!)

Nintendo did pretty much everything wrong with the Wii U. Almost no marketing or post-release support, very little efforts at keeping a significant retail presence, limited physically locked DLC/DRM in the form of collectible statuettes, gimped Miiverse after it's original better version, and a sick joke of an online shop and Virtual Console compared to the Wii. Definitely the worst Nintendo console for me. (Sans Virtual Boy, obviously.) Hope Nintendo learns their lesson next time, and knocks the Sandwitch out of the park.

I don't get the Dreamcast references, the Dreamcast was way better than the Wii U for it's time. Even the US/UK Saturn was better, and that had a much smaller library than the Japanese version! I think a Saturn parallel is more accurate, though- a system that got screwed over by the company executives, barely sold at all, and was killed off before it's time; but is later discovered to have some great gems on it other than just the well known ones like Nights Into Dreams/Rayman Legends.

It may not be the best, but I am sad that the Wii U died so early.

It was okay. Pretty much a failure, though. There were some good games, but not enough to convince me to buy one. I know I had much more fun with my Gamecube, N64, and Wii than I ever would have had with the Wii U.

The Wii U will become one those classic collectable consoles over the years like the Sega Saturn/Dreamcast.

@tovare "Nintendo hardware is usually pretty safe"

Well I don't consider it safe when it stops getting games after less than 4 years, meanwhile the 10 year old PS3 is still getting games. I just bought a PS4 Slim for $218, I'll take cheaper hardware w/ many years worth of games over expensive hardware that's dead after 4 years. Nintneod may be slow at price cutting, but all previou sconsoles must have had beter price cuts than Wii U Deluxe, which was cut to $299 in August 2013, 3 1/2 years later it's still $299, 3DS, 2DS, Gamecube, Wii to Wii Mini, Nintnod may be slow, but not normally this slow.

@BiasedSonyFan "Gamecube had less competition from other video game platforms"

Gamecube sold against PS2 (which sold 155 million) and Xbox
Wii U sells against PS4 and Xbox 1

What less competition?

@EllenJMiller I completely agree about the Saturn Comparison. The Wii U will be remembered as having a few stand out titles, but the system as a whole will largely be looked at as a disappointment. People like the Saturn's games like Nights into Dreams and Guardian Heroes. Almost no one praises the Saturn itself

To me, the problems outweighted the positives. But I have enjoyed the Wii U for some first and second party games. Biggest problems I had:

1: Little control over te GamePad's screen. I often just want to play on the TV, and while the GamePad is a fine crafted controller that feels good to use and is often even required to play games on Wii U, few games actually make use of the 2nd screen for something other than off-TV play. I want to turn the screen off and just use the controls, but if I do by entering multiple clumsy menu's, pressing a button on the GamePad will turn it's screen on automatically. Really? Now I just turn the brightness all the way down so that it doesn't distract from my TV. But really Nintendo? A software update could still fix this problem!!

2: Weak WiFi. The original Wii also had this to some degree, but other than games like Smash Bros Brawl you didn't really notice the weaker signal. The Wii U is much more online oriented and the GamePad link has it's own separate WiFi module, and both are weak. This may not be a problem in most Japanese appartments, but in my home (and many other western homes) I can't even sit on the couch a few meters away from the console that's on a locker in the middle of the room without experiencing severe signal loss. And worst, turning on the big Xbox One that sits close to the Wii U completely eats up the Wii U's signal. As if that Xbox is telling it something..

3: Online account system. Yes, I am using 2 Wii U's. one in my parent's home where we play more multiplayer and one in my own home. Why can't I use the same NNID on 2 consoles and share it's saves? Why?? Xbox and Playstation supported this from the start. I labeled this as point 3 but this has actually been the killer for my Wii U experience. It's a letdown when I have to support 2 savefiles for Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros, not to even begin talking about Mario Maker and Rayman Legends daily challenges..

I'm confident about the Switch fixing point 1 and 2, but I am worried about point 3 as changes are high me and my bro will buy a Switch for in our parents home too!

@Dezzy And all those emulated systems that the hacked Wii mode is able to run.

@BiasedSonyFan Smatphones and tablet are competition for th ehandhelds, that's why 3DS doens't sell as well as DS, but they are not competion for home consoles.

Andif PCs were competion for home consoles PS4 woudln't have sold over 40 million in 3 eyars b/c I can almost guarantee that every PS4 owner also has a PC. Home consoles are bought to play home console games. FPS like Call of Duty and sports games like FIFA. Wii U hardly had any of those, that's why it fialed. Gamecube had a cheaper price, that's why it did better than Wii U.

And besides, Gamecube launched in 2001. I had my first PC in 1983, my 2nd in 1994. Plenty of people had home PCs by 2001. I'd wager more people did than didn't. Gamcube did have PC's as competition.

@Mogster the only game I genuinely felt was worth buying a Wii U for was splatoon. It's a shame other console shooters don't use motion controls, it somehow feels more intuitive to use motion controls than a mouse to aim

It's amazing how wrong Nintendo got the Wii U especially since they've been in the Console biz the longest. Honestly I really would like Nintendo to stop focusing on the gimmicks the only thing that did keep the Wii U afloat was the great game library it had albeit very small. I think they also confused a lot of people in the beginning with the name but I also think they messed up the name for the "new Nintendo 3ds", everytime I try to search for things for my new nintendo 3ds on ebay I mostly get new "nintendo 3ds" things not "new Nintendo 3ds" things, really annoying.

@HefHughner I will still care about all of my consoles regardless of any results.

I have my Nintendo Gamecube.
I have my Nintendo Wii U.
I have my Sony PlayStation 3 (60GB)

These three consoles are specifically in my room for backwards compatibility.
I have a reasonably large library of video games spanning many consoles.

i really loved the wiiu i just wish there was more third party games and i was able to take the gamepad out and about. The Switch will do both so i see the WiiU as a console that was the stepping stone for future console and handheld gaming

@BiasedSonyFan "since it uses a tablet for a GamePad"

Gamepad isn't a tablet, it's a controller w/ a screen on it that very rarely gets used by any games. Mostly it gets used for off TV play. If it were a tablet I wouldn't have needed to purchase 4 tablets the past 3 years since I purchased my Wii U. Tablets are god b/c they have millions of apps, Wi-Fi, multitouch for ease of use. Gamepad is a controller w a screen, not a tablet.

"Gamcube did have PC's as competition.
Not nearly as much as the Wii U had."

But it still had it. Gamecube vs Wii U sales didn't hang on the balance of more or less PC competition. Games. Price. Marketing. That's what mattered, that's what Nintendo did differently, it's on them.

I remember getting my Wii U in 2013 when Super Mario 3D World came out, at that time I honestly thought Nintendo were on top of the world and nothing could stop them! 2014 had so many promising and enticing games like Mario Kart 8 & Smash Bros so I felt like 2015 had a lot to live up too... which sadly it didn't as much. (Splatoon & Xenoblade Chronicles X are amazing but didn't reach out enough to new adopters)

I don't nessesarily consider the Wii U to be a failure, nor a success, simply a modest system with with creative ideas and memorable games, much like the Nintendo GameCube.

If I didn't have a Wii U, then I wouldn't have been able to enjoy Splatoon, which has become one of my favorite games of all time. I have to at least give it credit for that and many other of its gems.

I'm just really sad that the demise of the Wii U seems to be bringing with it the end of Nintendo using dual-screen gameplay, because that is an amazing feature that makes it incredibly hard to go back to using menus and such the old way...

Most of my friends just thought it was a new controller for the Wii, not a completely new console. Also there was hardly any add campaigns showing what the system was capable of.

A great system IMHO, I even bought it in mid-2015, when it was already known that it was declining. But, frankly, I got it for its games as a Nintendo fan, and features such the Gamepad were not relevant to me. I could have done with a traditional controller, the same way I got a Wii regardless of motion controls. I enjoy them, but they weren't what sold the console to me.

I hope in time the Wii U will be regarded as a good system with more highs than lows, and of course cruelly underrated. Because that's the word, "cruelly". I'm often defending it because it's the laughing stock of gamer friends of mine, good guys but almost unanimously Wii U haters.

@G-Boy no I will not be at least for the first year or two. We just got a PS4 this year and I still have plenty of games to buy for both the Wii U and the PS4.

@k8sMum you've not disagreed with me at all, nor have you agreed with me. You've made a completely different unrelated point.

The games released on a console has nothing to do with the hardware manufacturer, any good game on a Sony console has nothing to do with a Sony. I wholly admit, there are a raft of great games on PS3 (Sony's best console) as here were in PS2 and even more on PSOne.
There were great games on Saturn, Dreamcast, Jaguar, 3DO, had nothing to with the hardware.

The hardware that Sony produce is and always will be boring and a reiteration of everything they've already done. They are crap, at best. What are Sony are good at is developing a heap uninspired piece of hardware and then making you believe you really need/want it.

@yomanation What killed the Virtual Boy for me was two things:

1. Yamauchi forced Yokoi to hurry the project, instead of going for the more refined full color option, which would have made it more... palatable to the eyes, shall we say. Even with a higher expense, it really would have stood out more as a great step up from the Game Boy for the time. Add in a rechargeable NiMH pack like the Sega Nomad did, and that would alleviate battery costs.

2. I playtested a Virtual Boy the month it first came out in stores, back in 1995. After about 20 minutes of trying it out while my family was out doing mall errands, I felt like I was going to need a neck brace for the rest of my life if I had kept going for another 40 minutes. Just... unbelievable pain I had never experienced before, even though I was just a kid. The Virtual Boy was one of the worst ergonomic disasters of gaming/tech history.

Maybe if the Virtual Boy had corrected those two things (by making the 3D visor/tripod into an optional addon that the system as a portable console could hook into), I'd agree with you. It could have been the true Game Boy Color. But alas, it was not to be.

But yes, I see your point. A little unorthodox, but valid nonetheless. It's those kinds of mistakes that sent Sega under. Nintendo got lucky with the 3DS rebounding, and eventually Pokemon Go. They could make drastic mistakes with the Sandwitch and still survive on mobile, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

I am both pessimistic and cautiously optimistic. I am one of the heathens that wants Nintendo to go third party, so if the Switch fails, maybe I'll get my wish.

I love the Wii U but I must say Nintendo really disappointed me in one key area with the eShop. Every Thursday I held out hope that they would release the Secret of Mana for the US Wii U Virtual Console because I really wanted to play it on the GamePad's screen with the GamePad's controls without having to use a Wii Remote through Wii Mode. Every Thursday for nearly three years now they have disappointed me regarding that. The Secret of Mana was released for the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console years ago, why can't NoA release it for us here in the US? Does it have something to do with it being available on iOS? Is it exclusive to that platform?

That feeds into a bigger issue with the Wii U eShop, the Virtual Console library has been pretty lame compared to what the Wii offered, much much weaker. Also, where were the GameCube VC games that Nintendo originally touted when the Wii U launched? Broken promises. Still, I love the Wii U, terrific first party games. However, I am biased since I love 2D platformers.