Topic: Is anyone else disappointed with the Wii U's 1st Party lineup?

I have to say, we are 2 years in, and there are only 2 games I've really been impressed by, while many others are in a genre I'm not interested in or have disappointed me and let my expectations down.

Both the Wii and GC had several 1st Party games I absolutely loved in the first 2 years. Just among those I've played, there's: Melee, NBA Courtside, Metroid Prime, Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Wii Sports, Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii.

For the Wii U, I've given a fair shake to most of the 1st Party library (with the exception of Lego City, Pikmin 3, Game & Wario, Wii Party U, and Wii Fit U, and I was never interested in the last 3 anyway). And I've only really been impressed by 2 games. NintendoLand and The Wonderful 101.

Hyrule Warriors, Super Mario 3D World, and Mario Kart 8 have all disappointed me from every instance I've played them at demo stations or with friends. Having been raised on the N64, I never associated 2D Platformers with Nintendo, and they really aren't a genre that interest me. Right now, I'm really counting on games like Bayonetta 2, Smash 4, Splatoon, and Zelda U to sell me on the Wii U, because the current library, even just among 1st Party games, isn't cutting it for me.

I hope the two 1st party games you liked are Pikmin 3 and donkey Kong country tropical freeze.If they aren't then god i can't say it.One more thing you liked Nintendo Land but not Mario Kart 8? Damn that's weird man.

No.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I will say I hope you're joking.

Like I said, I've never been all that interested in 2D Platformers. I've always preferred their 3D counterparts. I mean, for a budget price ($10 or less), they are fine, but nothing I would fork out retail price for. I've never played an entry in the Pikmin franchise, but 3 seems interesting. I just omitted it from my analysis because I haven't played it or any of it's prequels. Similarly I omitted games like 1080° Snowboarding on GC and Excite Truck on Wii.

I didn't dislike Mario Kart 8 as much as I was disappointed in it. It would be a solid $30 pick up for me. But MKWii was hands down my favorite in the series, and I'm really not all that keen on what kind of feels like a pretty looking downgrade.

Compared to GameCube the WiiU is fantastic, IMO.

Compared to Wii it's OK.

I'm definitely not disappointed by the lineup, I just think there could be more games in it.

@iKhan But the 1st party games that Nintendo make are worth more than 30 dollars, and worse 10 dollars? You're making it sound like the games are crap and they don't deserve to be bought full retail price.Just because you don't like them, shouldn't mean they should be in the bargin bin.All the 1st party are worth their asking price,cause they are all amazing in their own way.

As a self-identifying Mario Kart aficionado I have no idea why you wouldn't like Mario Kart 8. The only thing that made Mario Kart Wii arguably the best Mario Kart of its time was the fact that they got online working well for the first time. Mario Kart 7 and 8 improved on that with patching and so on and not only that but the Mario Kart Wii and DS online modes are dead now. Not to mention that Mario Kart 8 is even without online IMO the best version of Kart outside of my completely irrational love of Super Mario Kart's 2D simplicity. So if you're rating it as bad purely based on the demo kiosk? Well I think that's a load of BS.

As far as the other games go, basically you just selectively rattled off a list of great games and made excuses as for why you personally are not interested in them. That doesn't make the console crap it just means your interests are different than what the library is currently catering to. Personally I'm really big into platformers of all kinds, love RTS and skipped the GC era. So from my perspective the Wii U is killing it ATM.

I'm not saying any of these games are bad (though I do have a number of issues with some choices in 3D World), I'm saying I'm personally not interested, despite being a Nintendo fan. Nintendo's sequels to games I have previously loved have disappointed me. Because like you said they don't seem to be catering to my interests. They seem much more interested in the age 25+ demo that grew up with the NES and SNES as well as casuals and kids. I suppose that's fair, as Nintendo has always done most poorly with the 18-25 demo, but I'm still not happy about it.

Mario Kart 8 disappoints because:

1. The track design isn't as good as Wii. That game's course design utterly blew me away
2. The Bikes are nerfed and far less differentiated from Karts. I get that they were OP in Wii, but the solution to that isn't removing fun mechanics that made Bikes superior, the solution is improving the advantages of Karts.
3. I prefer the item system from DS/Wii
4. I played Mario Kart Wii with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. I preferred the control offered by the analog stick, but I still loved the motion control features like shaking the remote for tricks and raising it for wheelies. From what I understand, both of those are gone.

Now I'm not saying 8 is bad. I'd actually say it's my 3rd favorite Mario Kart after Wii and 64. But the improvements it does make don't feel like the outweigh the removed elements of Wii.

Oh, I'm not saying the games are crap. I'm saying I personally am not that interested. That's kind of the whole nature of disappointment. It's very opinionated. I'm pretty thrifty with games anyway. I rarely pay full price for games, unless I'm really really invested(Smash, Zelda, and Mario Kart are rare exceptions)

Each to their own. But I couldn't disagree more.

For the most part not really? The change to HD has made things unnecessarily difficult but on average I think the quality is around the same as normal. TBH, I have way more issues with Nintendo's 3DS lineup. I mean, let's go down the list

-New Super Mario Bros U/New Super Luigi U - Generally considered the better example of the NSMB sameyness. Kinda awful in the context of where Mario is now, but on its own is seemingly solid at least. And I've seen an LP of both and it does seem a bit better than the Wii game, which I did actually like a lot in multiplayer.
-Lego City Undercover - It doesn't seem worthy to the "GTA for kids" line I heard when it was first shown, but it seems like a cool kid's game with some shameless fun in the jokes older people will get. Though I didn't enjoy what I played of the Lego Star Wars games in terms of being a video game.
-Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - Is one of those games that did its own unique thing and probably deservedly became big in Japan. I'd like to someday give on of these games the 20+ hours needed to fully get into it, but I get why people love it and is probably great for what it is based on its fanbase over here.
-Game and Wario - Seems like a mostly meh to decent level minigame collection. Some cool stuff it seems but nothing that great outside of a few cool ideas, based on what I know.
-Pikmin 3 - A game I've actually played! A fantastic continuation of Nintendo's unique pseudo-RTS that did a perfect job at feeling new while still being familiar. Also has a fairly underappreciated multiplayer section.
-Wonderful 101 - I played this game too! An insane and truly brilliant action title. Genuinely hilarious and insane while having creative, compelling and deep mechanics. And also while having enough variety between the main combat to prevent tedium.
-Wind Waker HD. An actual HD remake with significant effort! Also, Wind Waker is great and this seems to be the definitive version. Will play sometime next year (before the new Zelda I assume!)
-Mario and Sonic - OLYMPICS1!1!!!!!!11111 i don't care about this game in any way outside of being sad at the lack of a proper crossover game
-Wii Party U. Seems decent for what it is but I have no opinions otherwise.
-Super Mario 3D World. A universally beloved game, would like to play it someday.
-NES Remix. I played it, it's cool, a good way to play some old NES games I would otherwise never pay money for. Creative, but not brilliant. NES Remix 2 I assume will be cool too.
-Dr. Luigi. It's Dr. Mario again, but with a dumb gimmick. Ok...
-Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze - All I need to know is that the previous game was a masterpiece and it's a shame I don't own this yet.
-Mario Kart 8 - A game arguably too reliant on putting quality over quantity, but what is there is fantastic for a racing game. I actually own this one!
-Pushmo World - Pushmo was cool and I assume this is too?!
-Hyrule Warriors - Seems like a fun, if mostly mindless game. A game that was just shameless fanservice for Zelda fans (HEY GUYS WE HAVE THE MOON FROM MAJORA'S MASK) needed to exist.

This seems fine to me.

Really? I've still barely cracked the 3DS library (been mostly focusing on 7th gen console titles lately), but of the 3 full retail games I have on it are pretty fun.

Also, I'd be a lot more lenient on Hyrule Warriors if the game even TRIED to make the mash-A style combat more engaging. I mean, not having rumble with standard moves (special moves have it, but what good is that when I'm just watching a short cutscene of sorts), and not offering a motion control option just make the combat feel even more boring. Instead, from what I've seen, heard, and played, it feels like they cared more about piling on content than they did about actually making that content enjoyable.

My understanding is that Hyrule Warriors' gameplay mostly focused on being a good Dynasty Warriors game but that might not be good for most people. I can't say until I play it but I can respect that. But I don't deny these issues either.

My problem with 3DS is that the sequels too frequently do very little to distinguish them from past games, even by the standards of Nintendo sequels. I've skipped several games I would've otherwise bought (and will buy when they're cheaper probably) just because they didn't seem important even as a fan of these series. Which is why most of my focus on 3DS is anything except Nintendo's own games (well that and I haven't got back into Pokemon yet).

The games that are out are fantastic but I wish there were more choices

I just would like more genres supported and in most cases a few games of the same genre (not platformers though enough of those).

It's lacking variety for now and the foreseeable future.

Like others have stated I would like to see Nintendo branch out into some of the other and older IP's but they are playing it safe with Mario,Smash and Zelda titles which means there is not much variety.

Since AFAIK the OP doesn't have a Wii U, the thread becomes a bit confusing to me. Obviously, the OP will enjoy the Wii lineup more, since that's a system the OP owns and have played a lot?

@jariw His OP reads like he does have a WII U and never said he didn't.