Topic: Will there be any reason to own a Wii U?

When the Switch was announced, I went on a Wii U game buying spree and now own nearly all of the physical Wii U releases.

At the time, I thought of the Wii U as a system that would be looked back on fondly at some point in the future due to its many great games that went largely undiscovered. I think it was a very underrated and undervalued system during its lifespan, but now I'm not sure that it will hold much value in the future.

Now, with many of its best games being released for Switch and elsewhere, I am beginning to question the place for a Wii U in my cabinet. When we look back on the system in a few years, will there be any game really worth playing that hasn't been re-released? Will there be cases where people say the best version of Game X was on the Wii U? Or will it simply be largely forgotten and discarded, with no reason to own it?

To play Wii games on a higher end console. Why buy a Wii when you can have a Wii U and have the best of both worlds. The Wii is now the most irrelevant to have out of the home consoles. Plus, there's nothing remotely comparable to the Wii U's VC yet on Switch. We're not getting a good amount of classic games on Switch until later this year, and they have only confirmed NES (yawn). Additionally, I'm sure there will be a handful of Wii U games that don't get ported over to Switch. Super Mario 3D World might not get ported over, I'm sure the same with Nintendo Land (too focused on the GamePad). Plus you can have two screen gaming and use the TV and GamePad at the same time. I'm reaching a bit with all of this, but these are still solid reasons.

Well, it has that fantastic Art Academy game! It might be the best introductory digital art course in the world! And Mario Maker hasn't been ported over yet, although I'm half expecting a Switch sequel somewhere down the line. But yeah, Art Academy is great.

Retro games, while Nintendo thinks that killing VC is best option for Switch the Wii U will be better on the front of Nintendo consoles released before Wii U.

Reasons to keep Wii U :
1. You can play BOTH Wii U & Wii
2. You can browse Google & Youtube
3. There are VC on e-shop
4. Wii games look better on LED TV when being played from Wii U machine ( 720p & 1080p display Options)

I still think its exclusives/original titles(at the time) will still have a decent niche. I doubt all Wii U exclusives will be ported, plus there are some third party titles like Batman, Zombi U and Splinter Cell that have a unique control scheme. Then it course, as many have already said, the VC and Wii BC.

So yeah, while the Wii U had "lost" and probably will continue to lose a few more exclusives, I still think there are plenty of unique aspects to it to justify its use.

If you are buying a system for the reason of in the future it will be worth something then just stop. They are a f---in game system not stocks or bonds.

Ironically, I just picked up a refurb 32g Wii U yesterday evening. I skipped over Wii U during the 360/XOne transition, so I thought I'd grab one while it's on the cheap now. The ONLY two reasons I grabbed it were to play some titles I missed and a few VC games. It's definitely not something I would have 'just to collect for value'. It's not a 3DO or something.

Sidenote: To my pleasant surprise, it actually had the Zelda gamepad, and a copy of Mario Kart 8. With myNintendo discounts, I also nabbed SM 3D Land, Windwaker HD (never finished on NGC), Twilight Princess HD (loved on Wii), & Yoshi's Story. Any cheap reccommends?

For Wii U games? No. Probably not. All the best will come to Switch and all of them will be better on Switch.

HOWEVER.

Wii U is still king when it comes to VC. That's number 1.

And Wii U can easily, VERY EASILY have its vWii mode modded to play GameCube and Wii, in widescreen, output in 1080p, with a wireless Wii U Pro controller, with all your games on an SD card. Meaning it's an HD GameCube and Wii with digital library where are you never have to get up and change a disk.

And that, my friend, is worth it.

You can mod it to play Gamecube as well. So it plays 3 main consoles.

Oh and the modders have managed to get it so you can play the Gamecube games on the Wii U gamepad now. Which is just pure magic. It's the ideal way to play them because they don't look very good blown up on a massive screen.

@Sargon People above have pretty much covered it, but I'll weigh in anyways...

The biggest reason to value a Wii U is off-tv play... of NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii and (plenty of but not all) Wii U games (plus you can emulate non-Nintendo systems too), if you're prepared to soft-mod it and use emulators. If you share a TV with anyone else then off-tv play removes that barrier that can often crop up about hogging the TV. You need a TV/Monitor to play NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube and Wii games... unless you have a Wii U gamepad. Plus it is compatible with original Gamecube and Wii controllers (plus the Classic versions of the NES and SNES controllers that come with the Minis, I think). The only thing it's missing is N64 controller compatibility, and who's going to miss that thing?

And then there's the uniquely controlled/asynchronous games that rely on the gamepad. I can't list them all but the ones that come to mind include Super Mario Maker, Art Academy Atelier, Nintendoland, ZombiU, Star Fox Zero, Wonderful 101, Kirby & the Rainbow Curse/Paintbrush...

It certainly has some value given there will always be some content that's not on the Switch. Whether that's Wii U games, Wii games or even VC releases. But that's pretty much true of pretty much every console or even bits of AV gear in general. The bigger question is whether or not it is useful enough to take up one of the HDMI ports on the back of your TV.

The reason you keep your Wii u is the same reason you keep your other systems, consoles, handheld.

I've been thinking absolutely NOT. It did get a replacement Splatoon disc the other day and fired it up and loved launching those ink strikes, but I guess those too will disappear in time (Splatoon server not going to be up forever).

I am in no rush for a Switch at this point, there just isn't enough that I don't already own at this point and my kids don't care. In fact I just picked up Yoshi's Woolly World as a birthday discount, and have a hit list of about 35 more games I want to purchase before I am done.

Massive digital library.

Turbo grafx and youtube

Wii U is still the ultimate Nintendo System. You can play more Nintendo Games on Wii U than on any other system....pretty much everything except Gameboy and Gameboy color games are in the eshop virtual console.

Look in to homebrew and install all your games on to your hard drive. Then you can Install your Wii and Gamecube games to your hard drive too and play them on the TV or gamepad. For anything you can't get on the virtual console you can use retroarch to play.

There will never be another system that can play this wide of a range of Nintendo games from various sytems and best available method to play remasters for WIndwaker and Twilight Princess

I don't think any other system can recreate Game & Wario, Nintendo Land, Wii Sports Club, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Super Mario Maker, Hyrule Warriors, Splatoon, New Super Mario Bros. U, Affordable Space Adventures, Kirby, Starfox Zero, Starfox Guard, the two Zelda remakes, and many other games the way they are on Wii U.

Hyrule Warriors - Definitive Edition on Switch? Not when two players have to share one screen. It feels like a step back.

Rayman Legends - Definitive Edition on Switch? Don't make me laugh.

A remake of Super Mario Maker or Xenoblade Chronicles X on Switch that brings the same experience? Absolutely impossible.

Splatoon 2? Disappointing.

Not all is worse though. Some games are definately a good/better fit for the Switch. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze for instance. That unused black GamePad-screen felt unnatural for a Wii U game. It doesn't lose anything of essence at all but adds a few things and is one of the few games that is better on Switch.

Xenoblade X will come to Switch. And it might not be the identical experience, but any shred of value left in the Wii U version will be quickly obliterated by the ability to play anywhere you want as a handheld game or console game.

Hyrule Warriors can't be a step back when the framerate tanked to the teens with low setting texture details playing co-op on Wii U.

Rayman Legends can be played with the touchscreen like Wii U, so I would not scoff at its definitive edition moniker. Can literally do everything the Wii U version could do and more because it's available as a handheld game in addition to being a console game. With that being said I do personally think the Wii U version is best due to the accuracy of the stylus.

Splatoon 2 is amazing though. But even if it is disappointing, that just makes the first one a disappointment for the ages because anyway you slice it, it's way better than the first.

Mario Maker can also be played on Switch touch screen. Exact same experience.

The real star of Wii U, VC and modding aside, is NintendoLand and Wii Sports Club. No game, EVER, on any console, Will offer the experience of Wii Sports Club Golf. Setting the gamepad on the ground and using a motion controlled Wiimote to tee off and hit the ball off of the screen on the ground and into the television screen... that's worth buying the system for in and of itself.