Poll: What Was The Best Wii U Launch Game?

I think mario u/Nintendo land or Arkham city wins by default

Black Ops 2 was genuinely brilliant on Wii U. Wiimote controls on a version of CoD that actually looked great was ace to finally get and being able to play split screen online with both players having a full screen was magic at the time, still one of my favourite uses of the GamePad

This is so hard, it’s unfair! Ima go with scribnauts, I know, I know, but I really enjoy that game and besides Mario and Batman, I think it’s great!

I went for Arkham City and Mario U, although the latter only got really good with the awesome Luigi U DLC.

New Super Mario Bros. U and ZombiU for me. Nintendo Land was also excellent, a lot of fun had with that game in my house.

While I have a large number of these (13 out of 25) I spent most of my time playing scriblenauts and nintendo land at first. Tekken Tag 2 gets an honorable mention from me (and should be ported to switch).

Definitely Nintendoland. An absolute gem of a multiplayer game and I would love to see a sequel someday.

I would say epic mickey 2: the power of 2, I know it was rushed, but it's so amazing at the same time, epic mickey (1) is my favourite game ever so that helped too... I also loved black ops II though, so it's in between those 2

I'm going with Zombi U and Nintendo Land.

Nintendo Land is hands down the best if you have any interest in local multiplayer fun.

I’d say Batman Arkham City is right behind it with New Super Mario Bros. U coming close. Also, shoutout to Sonic Racing Transformed. That is the only kart racer that can compete with Mario Kart for me.

I only had Nintendo Land for the first month or so of the Wii U's life. It was such a good game. The multiplayer games were great, but even the single player games had some replayability. The Donkey Kong level was the best.

After that probably Batman. New Super Mario Bros U was really good too.

NSMBU is great but Sonic Transformed is better. But that's a strong roster overall.

Nintendoland. Came with the console

Definitely Nintendoland. Probably Arkham City 2nd

I played Black ops 2, Fifa 13 and Sonic Racing to death at launch too.

Both the launch line-ups of Wii U and Gamecube were quite poor, and both performed poor. In contrast, both Wii and Switch had Zelda as launch games and great sales numbers. Coincidence or not?

Ah yes, THAT FIFA cover. Who doesn't smile while getting beaned in the crotch by a flying logo? XD

For me, the best titles are a toss up between New Super Mario Bros. U and Batman: Arkham City - Armored Edition. The former is a decent platformer, and the latter is still my favorite Batman game.

Special shout-out to Nintendo Land however; it did some truly unique things and was a fun time. I'm sure it would've been one of my top two if I'd ever had a chance to play the multiplayer modes with others.

Tank tank tank is missing from the list. I remember getting that at launch and having quite a lot of fun with it.
From the list my fondest launch memories are with Nintendo land and ZombiU. So I voted for those

Looking at this list reminds me how this was the beginning of the end for the Wiiu.

Nintendo Land for sure, the multiplayer action on that one was unparalleled, really would love to see a switch sequel with more games and maybe ports of the better minigames.

Nintendo Land is such a unique title. Nintendo has never released any other game like it before or since. It simply stands on its own. I had to go with that one. Probably my favorite Wii U experience, followed by Lego City Undercover.

I actually booted up Just Dance 4 again recently (the only game in the series that I've played) and it is genuinely a really fun game with some great songs.

Nintendo Land is obviously the best launch game I've played though. It's so creative with its Gamepad usage and has a brilliant mix of multiplayer and solo games.

Did it hae that many Launch Titles? Wow well anyways altho played BLOPSII ALOT more for obvious reasons as well as AC3 I've got to give it to ZombiU as top then AC3 then BLOPSII

Nintendo Land is a work of total genius.

Donkey Kong Crash Couse is outstanding.

Metroid Blast is a a classic.

Should be played by all.

@Max_the_German Gamecube had a weak launch line-up, but Wii U had a rather strong one. Something fot everyone, something completely new, some enhanced ports.

Although it was a poor choice for a launch title and did little in the way of innovating from previous games, I still think New Super Mario Bros. U is a solid title and one that I don't regret double-dipping on when it came to Switch.

That said, there was something really special about Nintendo Land. It took advantage of the Wii U's unique hardware unlike any other game, and the asymmetrical gameplay was so much fun. Metroid Blast, Mario Chase, and Luigi's Ghost Mansion were all such a good time with friends and family. I'd still love to see it somehow come to Switch so I can finally get rid of that console. It could work by allowing you to connect 2 Switch consoles via wireless play--one to be used in handheld, and the other while docked. Pac-Man Vs. does this to mimic the Game Boy Advance connector.

Nintendoland was great - so much potential! It's unfortunate that so few of the ideas ever really bloomed into something bigger. We all had a blast playing it!

New Super Mario Bros U and Nintendo Land

If only Nintendo Land had Wii Bowling, things might have been different.

Overall, Arkham City is the best game on the list but it sucked as a launch game given most people who wanted to play it had already done so. NintendoLand is the exclusive I've played and enjoyed the most of the titles on that list, but this was overall a shocking launch and like many others I didn't take the plunge until Super Mario 3D World finally delivered a system-selling game. PSVR2 seems to be modelling it's launch on the Wii U for some reason, with no essential games and overpriced hardware that you can't do much with at launch.

Nintendoland (duh) 😉 Solid single player and multiplayer content and lots to unlock via pachinko! ZombiU was a great experience but the sheer content and polish on Nintendoland edges it out.

ZombiU, though Nintendo Land was cool from what little I played of it.

I voted for New Super Mario U, but CoD was a close 2nd. It had a fantastic single-player campaign to play through, and the online multiplayer actually worked really well (and it was a free service).

Binding of Issac Afterbirth was the best launch title hands down

I say Batman, but i wasn't a fan of the Game.
Darksiders 2 had so long Loading Times, it wasn't fun.

My Favourites are Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Yoshis Wooly World, Mario 3D World, Bayonetta 2, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Wind Waker, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles X and i am sure i am forgetting some

Nintendoland was great fun with mates and loved some of the one player games like ninja stars too

@larryisaman Yep, had many hours of fun playing BOII on Wii U, that separate screen gameplay was just too awesome.

Voted Nintendo Land and ZombiU. The last one I didn't really play all that much, but I loved the concept and thought it was a really unique take on the whole thing. Nintendo Land speaks for itself.

Mario Bros U was just a bit too bland for me unfortunately.

Sonic racing transformed by a slight margin, although did enjoy Black ops as well.......why are they not mentioning Sonic racing, I picked it up on launch day....

Nintendoland great as it was, my vote goes to Zombi U. Great use of the game pad and a blast to play!

I’m sure it wasn’t the intention but this article/list was depressing and based on the poll results it doesn’t seem it I’m the only one that felt that way.

It might had well have only left the choice between NSMBU, ZombiU and Nintendo Land.

Batman, Darksiders, Nintendoland and ZombiU.

Oh I loved my WiiU

@Sinton Something for everyone? LOL no. The Switch's lineup had something for everyone. The Wii U was mainly casualized linear platformers, party games, and gimped third party ports. One thing the Wii U's lineup, both at launch and through its entire life, was desperately missing from its lineup was the ambitious, open area adventure games, especially from its first party studios. The only first party games it had of this caliber were Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is a side game in a niche IP that hasn't really sold well, and BotW, which came far too late to save the Wii U and ended up benefiting the Switch more. Meanwhile, 3D Mario didn't get the grand, ambitious, and creative sandbox adventure it typically gets, instead getting 3D World which felt like a glorified DLC pack of 3D Land on the 3DS (although it did get an open world side mode... but again that was on the Switch and didn't salvage the issue on the Wii U). Metroid got nothing, with people thinking that Prime 4 was just around the corner but constantly got shafted by Nintendo until 2017 (and still isn't even out, but that's because of an unexpected restart). And there really... wasn't anything else remotely close to this kind of experience that filled the void that these IPs left aside from the two games mentioned. They put way too much time on casual mini games, rehashy linear platformers that felt like glorified DLC packs of Wii/3DS games, and multiplayer games. The open single player adventure games got shafted badly on the Wii U. I remember leading up to E3 2013 when Iwata teased that they were showing a 3D Mario game, a 3D Zelda game, Mario Kart, and a beloved IP from Retro Studios I got hyped thinking we were getting a sandbox 3D Mario game and Metroid Prime 4, and then when I saw it was just 3D World and Tropical Freeze that was an utterly crushing disappointment. That pretty much sums up the issues with the Wii U's lineup. It didn't feel like we needed 3D World and Tropical Freeze because those games give off the same vibe as NSMBU, lazy, rehashy, uncreative linear platformers. But we needed an actual sandbox Mario game and Metroid because there wasn't anything remotely close to those experiences on the Wii U.

Additionally, the overall lineup was lacking... quite a few IPs. I mentioned Metroid skipping, but beyond that Luigi's Mansion got nothing, and several prominent IPs (Kirby, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem) only got spinoffs but didn't get a main entry. So there were quite a few holes in the lineup.

So yeah, I wouldn't say the Wii U, or any part of its lineup, has something for everyone, to the contrary it felt really lacking. The Switch's lineup is just about everything the Wii U's should've been (the only major gripe I have is no original Mario Kart and no original DK game, and if the rumors are true we'll be crossing DK off that list by the end of the generation).

The best one is Arkham City: Armored Edition, since it's THE definitive version of the game, with the Gamepad additions, better worked character models, and including all of the extras that came as DLC on the original release. Then it's Nintendo Land and Black Ops II.

@Bolt_Strike dude, the Switch on launch only had Zelda, 1-2 Switch, and Super Bomberman R. You could say, that the product itself was better, talking about the console, hence the continued success of the Switch. The Wii U had better sales on its launch window than the PS4, but, on the long run, the interest faded away.

This list reminds me why I waited until Wind Waker HD came out to buy a Wii U.
NintendoLand and ZombiU get my vote.

@Edu23XWiiU Oh right, I tend to think more in terms of launch year than launch day, i.e. I'm thinking in terms of the Switch's entire 2017 lineup (looking at the Day 1 lineup feels kind of worthless IMO because it's usually somewhat limited). And 2017 Switch is peak Nintendo IMO, that lineup truly has something for everyone with tons of highly regarded and diverse games, a lineup that I'm skeptical will ever be topped (although everyone seems to want Nintendo to replicate it seeing how people are constantly looking for a future year to be "the next 2017"). Nevertheless, the point still stands, because no range of time for the Wii U, launch day, launch year, all time ever had a lineup that I would describe as "having something for everyone" (in fact I found pretty much as many Switch games I wanted in 2017 as Wii U games I wanted throughout its entire life). It felt sorely lacking in certain genres and IPs.

NintendoLand for the win! That's how you do a launch game to feature what the system can do

NSMBU, Arkham City and Nintendo Land

Wii U actually had a solid launch, which looks even better when you compare it to gen 9 systems (including, arguably because it only had 2 games, the Switch). The first year of the Switch was much better than Wii U's, though.

Mass Effect, Call of Duty, Tekken, WATCH_DOG, ZombiU, the Batman Arkham games, DuckTales Remastered, Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Devil's Third, Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, Mighty No.9, Paper Mario: Color Splash, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Deus Ex, Injustice, etc. None of these return for the Switch even the four that Nintendo also own.

ZombiU was pretty sweet so I voted that

Nintendo Land was a free pack-in game that's leagues better than it probably needed to be, so that's the right answer. But purely in terms of game quality, I'd say Arkham City. That's still one of my favorite open world games ever (by understanding more than rest of the genre that less is more), one of the highlights of that entire generation, getting that as a launch game should've been a bigger deal than it was.

Tekken Tag and ZombiU for me.
I put in over 600 hours into Tekken in online matches.
Wish they would port it to Switch.

I have over 80+ games for my Wii U.
I love how people say that the Wii U had no games but are playing Wii U ports on Switch.
If it wasn't for Wii U the Switch lineup would of had holes in it everywhere.
I also bought a brand new Xenoblade Chronicles Limited Edition Wii U console when the Switch came out on clearance, still sealed.
One of my favourite Nintendo consoles.

@Bolt_Strike I disagree (about the launch, not the it's lifecycle, which was rather underwhelming). More than 30 launch day games, including only the second home console 2D Mario game in 20 years, a first party tech-demo / party game in Nintendoland, some new 3rd party experiences showcasing the new console (the underrated ZombiU), decent ports of games just a few days or weeks old (Assassin's Creed III, CoD: Black Ops II, Just Dance 4, Tekken Tag Tournament 2), brand new games (Scribblenauts Unlimited, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and the (disappointing) Disney Epic Mickey II, plus some good digital releases (Little Inferno, Mighty Switch Force!). Plus sports games (FIFA, Madden, NBA). That's more than, say, the PS4 (mostly ports plus Killzone, Knack and Resogun) or the PS5. It wasn't the launch games that killed the Wii U, it was the terrible message (is it an accessory to the Wii, a new console?) and the lack of continued support.

@Bolt_Strike Which genres were lacking?

For me, Wii U was a comeback to nintendo after a long long time, so my first trio of games, Mario U, Smash Wii U and Wind Waker (Which I had played for a while on a gamecube long long before) was a pure nostalgia fuel. Especially with all those figurines in Smash

I am certain that Wii U didn't have Assassins Creed, Batman, Cod, or Mass Effect because I have been told for a literal decade that the Wii U had absolutely no 3rd party support and that's what killed it. And I've also been told it wasn't an advertising issue. So please don't lie to us, that system had no games, so definitely couldn't have these 3rd party games at launch.

1 Blackops 2
2 Tekken tag
3 ZombiU
4 Asassin creed

Man this poll made me realize what a beauty the WiiU was.

ZombiU was actually the only good launch game. Nintendoland was... let's say it had its uses.

@Bolt_Strike well, that day 1 launch lineup for Wii U had a lot of everything hehehe. But I agree with you, 2017 is still the Switch's best year. With Zelda, Mario Oddyssey, and for me, Ultra Street Fighter II and DOOM, the Switch proved it had a lot to offer, and that continues to this day.

I forgot how strong of a launch lineup the WiiU had. If only they could’ve kept up the momentum!

My top pick is ZombiU. Though NintendoLand deserves a mention as well. That is pretty much my only reason to return to the system anymore.

@Sinton I mentioned that, it's the single player adventure games primarily, the ones that let you explore vast open areas/worlds. You know, your BotWs, your Mario Odysseys, your Pokemon Legends Arceus', etc. The Wii U almost completely lacked those types of experiences (it had some, but they were all either niche IPs, remakes, or cross gen titles and weren't remotely prominent during the Wii U's lifespan). No sandbox Mario, no Metroid, and Zelda being cross gen really hurt the Wii U's lineup. Some Western Nintendo fans even consider those IPs to be "the Big 3" (perhaps erroneously so because Metroid sells far less than the other two, depending on your definition of "big") because 3D Mario, 3D Zelda, and Metroid tend to be some of the largest, most ambitious, most explorable, and most console feeling IPs Nintendo has and all three of them were let downs in different ways (3D Mario because its game wasn't an open explorable sandbox and was more of a NSMB-esque linear platformer, 3D Zelda because it was frequently delayed to the point of becoming a cross gen title, and Metroid because it was absent entirely). In fact I'm going to make a bold claim and say the lack of those types of games were a factor in the Wii U not selling well (probably not the biggest factor, the confusing marketing and overall lack of games were probably larger factors, but I think it still played a part). Those types of games are very important to a console's lineup because they help market the console as AAA, they show the console is capable of grand, ambitious experiences that you would want to sit down and immerse yourself in for long periods of times. Not having them makes the Wii U look like a casual machine that can't run the big, beefy games that console gamers tend to gravitate to.

Wow port city.. assassin's creed 3 was a great game, the last one where the future narrative actually mattered, but yes black flag was better in every way

@Edu23XWiiU Again, I don't really agree. I don't find anything in that launch lineup I like, and there's only a handful of games I like in the Wii U's entire lineup. The Switch had just as many if not more games I liked Year 1 than the Wii U did all time.

2012... when Nintendo consoles had parity with the current gen. systems and the ports weren't a giant blur-fest. I'll take a sharp resolution and locked frame-rate over any amount of fancy eye-candy.

Nintendo land 100%. Best launch game and second best game on the console. Still boot that one up sometimes for both single player and multiplayer.

NintendoLife, thank you for having an actual poll rather than a ratings board! You guys are great!

A lot of these choices were not exclusive to the Wii U, and while I did like New Super Mario Bros. U, it was just more of the same from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the GamePad was non-essential to the gameplay. If Nintendo's going to push for innovation, then the launch titles should showcase what the Wii U can do that can't be done anywhere else. My votes go to NintendoLand and ZOMBI U. Even if the latter would receive ports to modern systems, this is a game that was made for Wii U.

@Bolt_Strike You could explore vast open worlds, as we knew it in 2012, in Assassin's Creed III, Batman: Arkham City and Darksiders II. It's not as if the Wii U were worse than any other launch consoles, bar the Switch, in this regard.

Which consoles did impress you at launch?

I ended up playing 10 of those games you have listed. Some good gaming and some good times. I loved Nintendo Land and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Batman AC (AE) in particular. Mass Effect 3 was ace too

I’m glad ZombiU is getting some love.

My son and I loved Nintendo Land but ZombiU wins. Fantastically atmospheric game with great graphics, locations, narrative and use of Wii U tablet too.

@Herna That Wii U kept me going for several great years, namely because it was my first HD home console system. Lack of games just made me appreciate the ones I had, it was my gateway into 2assasin's Credd", and "Mass Effect" to mention a few, along with some super proper "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" action and of course the best version of "Tekken Tag Tournament" and "Need For Speed: Most Wanted" along with some exclusives to this day like "Tank!Tank! Tank!" and of course "Xenoblade Chronicles X". No need to mention all the Nintendo first party stuff because they are so good they still sell like hotcakes nowadays as enhanced Switch ports. Failed system yes, but failed to deliver at home? Never.

Probably Zombi U from my stand point.

Man, this article makes me sad. Zombi U and Nintendo Land I reckon. What refreshing video games with some unique gameplay. While the specheads were crying about it looking like a Fisher Price toy, I was too busy thinking every pad needs a touch screen. Gah...gaming is too mainstream these days for it's own good. Really hope Nintendo revisit the dual screen concept at some point. If we can still use our Switches as control pads for inventory / maps etc, for the next console, that would really be something. (maybe something could plug into the cart slot?)

@Max_the_German while the gamecube's launch line-up wasn't amazing, smash bros melee and pikmin came out very shortly after. I'd say it was worth buying by the end of it's launch year, whereas imo the wii u wasn't worth buying until a year later at the earliest (and partially because of a gamecube port).

Nintendo Land was truly fun and I played it a lot! I wish they would bring a new one and with smooth online it would be a blast!!

If I had been in the market for home consoles and financially equipped for the launch, I would have probably walked out of a store with stuff like AC3 or Batman Arkham Knight myself. Maybe Sonic Racing and Epic Mickey 2, too. Instead, the autumn of 2012 was when I finally procured a PSP to accompany my DS Lite. ¯(ツ)/¯

ZombiU was a great GamePad tech demo (and a decent horror game in its own right), and NSMBU is probably my second favorite 2D Mario.

Crazy to think how bad sales were on this console, considering how strong third party support was out of the gate. Guess no level of support is going to make up for a poorly-advertised console with a gimmick people don't like.

Wii U had so many great games. ZombiU and Nintendoland for me, but I waited till Hyrule Warriors, that was my personal reason to buy the console back then.

@wolfsniffer I don’t say that Gamecube had a but lineup in th efirst couple of months. I bought mine a couple of weeks after launch, together with Smash Bros. and Rogue Leader, which both are fantastic to this date. But maybe that wasn’t enough to compete with the PS2 and its GTA3 etc., and a new Zelda could help a lot. This is all speculation though.

@Sinton They're third party games that were downgraded to run on the Wii U. They needed first party games to show this. You can play third party games on Xbox and Playstation and better. The Wii U needed a game like that that you had to buy a Wii U to play.

It is pretty rare that I'm ever impressed with a launch lineup, or even a launch year lineup. It does usually take until Year 2 or 3 for things to really get going. But that's part of the issue here, the lack of open adventure games didn't really get fixed Year 2 or 3 and their idea of "getting things going" was "more linear rehashy platformers". The lack of open adventure games was a consistent theme throughout the Wii U's entire lifespan and an issue with the total lineup, not just its launch lineup. The kinds of games I expected from the Wii U, such as sandbox 3D Marios or Metroid Prime 4, weren't just absent from the launch lineup but they were absent from the system entirely.

To answer your question though, the only lineup off the top of my head that I was really impressed with was the Switch, and more for launch year than launch day. Having the likes of BotW, MK8D, Splatoon 2, XC2, and Mario Odyssey in its first year is extremely impressive and more than I ever would've expected.

Nintendo Land - SO MUCH!

I wish we'd gotten more gaming like that - one person on the pad, 4 on the console - it was unique and remains unique, though I get it, MOST everyone wants more of the same (I'm just not in the group that gets stoked for CoD 19!)

Based on hours my household had nearly 100 hours on NintendoLand (and similar amounts on many of the other amazing party games on Wii U).

While there were some decent third-party titles at launch, it was all Nintendo for me, with the brilliant Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U.

@Bolt_Strike Yeah, I rarely buy consoles at launch. The Switch may in fact be the only one.

Great article, and I agree with most of the commenters too.
I never had a problem with the wii u, lots of games to play and fun ideas using the game pad. The only thing wrong with it was that not enough people bought it.

And zombiu for me, but only just.

Voted for Nintendoland and Racing Transformed.

Like @AcridSkull, I only picked one up once the Wind Waker special edition dropped but I eventually picked up Batman, Darksiders, and NewSMBU. Really loved Darksiders but the screen tearing issues were distracting, so Imma have to go with Batman. Still the only one of that series I've played, but a buddy gave me Asylum on PS3 so I should probably get around to that.

Man, I loved Nintendo Land. Still do, actually! So many great memories playing that with family/friends. Mini/party-game GOAT.

@Bakajin in my opinion Asylum is the far better game, it's more like a MetroidVania.

Funky Barn all the way!

The Wii U is still chugging in the house here, with over 150 games on it. Mass Effect could have been the winner had EA not been EA. Had they just included the trilogy edition released on other consoles. NintendoLand and Batman: Arkham City got the most hours of the launch titles for me.

Regardless of which is the best, I think the Wii U did have a pretty solid lineup at launch. It's just a shame that they couldn't keep up the pace afterwards. Nintendo's own philosophy of delaying games and third-party developers skipping the system after launch were major factors in the Wii U's failure.

Granted, though, Xbox One and PS4 both had pretty slim pickings in terms of first-party titles during and after their launches, yet they were bolstered by third-party releases, so I doubt it was "low sales" due to a lack of games that scared them away from the Wii U.

Plus, the Wii U was on par in terms of graphics and power with the Xbox 360 and PS3, so it wouldn't have been a lack of power, either. And for the record, third-party developers were porting their latest releases to those systems well after the Xbox One and PS4 launched, but not doing the same with the Wii U.

Not only that, but the Wii U had a traditional-style Pro Controller, and you could use the Wii Remote and all it's accessories with the Wii U, so there was no reason for third-party developers to be scared away by the Wii U GamePad either. They could have gotten around it by using different controllers, or just do something basic with the touchscreen on the GamePad, like a map.

So the question becomes: what was the REAL reason why third-party developers stopped developing for the Wii U? My guess Nintendo, in their hubris from the success of the Wii, wanted too much of a cut of the profits (similar to their early guidelines for YouTube Partners playing their games), and the third-party developers got scared away by that.

And then when Nintendo got shellacked with poor sales of the Wii U, in no small part due to the third-party developers fleeing the system, they realized they made a big mistake by getting too greedy, and offered to take a smaller cut of the profits for third-party titles on the Switch. And now we're seeing a bunch of great third-party titles getting released every year for the Switch.

It's just a theory, of course. A Game Theory (sorry, I just had to do that).

I WISH 'NintendoLand' was bought to Switch, either as a port or modern update, as I never got to play it with me not having a Wii 2.

The only launch titles I've played are New Super Mario Bros. U (I hadn't played NSMB2 before that), Nintendo Land, Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition (which was the first Wii U game I bought after I got my system in 2013) and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge.

I also have SiNG PARTY with the Wii U Microphone sealed, even though I bought it as a second-hand game.
The employees of that store sometimes got orders of selling brand new games as second-hand games. I distintly remember them offering Captain Toad, Twilight Princess HD and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World with their respective amiibo being sold for about 30%~50% off. I regret not getting them when I could have.

Anyway, I'm going off-topic. The best launch title for the Wii U in my opinion would be... either New Super Mario Bros. U or Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition. Maybe Nintendo Land, but I haven't played it enough to formulate an opinion about it.

While I don't have it, I played the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed demo and it would have been also a solid choice for best launch game.

I've only played 2, 3, and 4, but Assassin's Creed 3 is my favorite. The combat and parkour were both significantly improved from 2, but it still had the sprawling cityscapes and proper notoriety system that 4 abandoned. I also like that it told a story where the protagonist had good intentions, thought out and successfully executed on every step of his plan, but still failed to achieve his original goal. ZombiU was also really cool. I'm not great at survival horror games, so I appreciated being able to backtrack through prior areas to scrounge for resources and build my nerve up before pushing forward in the story. Nintendo themselves didn't put out any Wii U games I loved until 2014, so there were a couple years there where I had a really high opinion of Ubisoft.Too bad that didn't last.

I think Arkham City's the best of those games but it's also a pretty underwhelming launch title because it had already been out for quite awhile at that point. So I guess NSMBU or Pikmin, though Pikmin benefitted a lot from its Switch port.

Batman: Arkham City. Didn't play it on Wii U but I did play it on PS3 and I'm sure the Wii U version is comparable enough that nothing on this list tops it. I did like New Super Mario Bros. U but it's a distant second.

Pretty stacked lineup! Too bad this was practically 60% of all games that came out on the system.

Racing transformed was amazing albeit not an exclusive

Blops 2 is awful. I bought it because everyone said it was so great. I was shocked at how basic and easy every facet of the campaign was, and how little player agency there was.

Nintendo Land and Arkham City, hands down. Land is still a favorite in my friend groups to this day, and City introduced me to the rest of the wonderful franchise even though it was a pretty late port.

Ignoring the fact that they are ports and the very questionable choice of only releasing the finale of a trilogy, Batman and Mass Effect were the best Wii U launch games. New Super Mario Bros Wii U was just fine but I think Nintendo would have nailed it had they released Super Mario 3d World at launch instead

Super Mario Chase and Metroid Blast from Nintendolans for Switch (somehow) pleeeeeeease

The most fun I had at launch was TRINE 2. That was the game I played most.

I'll go with ZombiU because it was the most surprising one. With Mario I knew what I was getting, Nintendo Land was a cool experiment but much like Wii Sports it's charm fizzled out really really quickly. The rest of the lineup was old 3rd party ports I could've had on PS3. But ZombiU was the one fresh new game in the lineup and was way better than I anticipated. I honestly avoided it for several years because it looked like a throwaway title but later found it for like $10 and decided to try it. Highly recommended especially for that price.

For me, NintendoLand.
By quite the margin.

@Bolt_Strike Batman Arkham City was reason alone to get a Wii U, and that's the best game of the system. En gustos hay generos.

Well... Epic Mickey 2 was... decent. I will have to go with New Super Mario Bros. U as my personal favorite. It doesn't help that I haven't played any of the other games.