I liked the Wii U. It was, however, a failure. The lack of strong advertisement, triple A support, and a few other reasons led to its demise.
What did I like about the Wii U?
The main feature of the Wii U was being able to play off the TV screen. Despite the limitations of this feature, I still liked it. I found myself taking advantage of this feature more than I thought I would. My dad often used the TV thus being able to play on the gamepad was awesome. Unfortunately, the gamepad was utilized poorly.
Being able to play massive games on the gamepad was cool. While the gamepad was bulky and clunky, playing games on the gamepad was not a bad experience. Unfortunately, with the existence of the Nintendo Switch, the main feature of the Wii U is extremely overshadowed.
I pre-ordered the game.
I bought the game. Bought the game on release. It’s very rare for me to buy games on release. I was either a junior or senior in high school. I had to focus on school and did not have a car at the time. My parents did not like video games. It was hard at points to pre-order games and then get them on release.
Super Mario 3D World arrived in my hand on release.
Peeling through the thin coated plastic. My nail dug through the coated plastic, which unwrapped and scalped off the plastic case. An artistic plastic case.
The game was co-op. My sister liked playing certain co-op games. The co-op was amazing in Super Mario 3D World. And the game was amazing. The 3D worlds were a thing of beauty. While the story was simple and bare bones, the new features were a nice addition. Additionally, the game felt new and fresh.
I played a lot with my sister, and we almost completed the game, even making it to Star World. Unfortunately, we never completed the final stage in Star World.
Super Smash Bros was a big deal in my school.
Everyone that owned a 3DS or Wii U had to have Super Smash Bros. The game led to some cut throat competitions that occurred during lunch in the commons.
Occasionally, a Wii U would sneak into school during school events. Whenever there was a school event there would never be class. The turnout had serious range. Fifteen people. Twenty people. Twenty-five people. Several people within the school would come to play Super Smash Bros. Controllers were scattered everywhere. Different controllers with different owners. A projector would rest in the middle of the room, blasting against the grim white boards. Projecting a game feeding through the Wii U.
Tournaments and other events were going on throughout the room. Eight player smash was also crazy on the Wii U. Eight people running around, fighting against each other. Every year a Wii U would find a way into campus. Several years everyone would be playing Super Smash Bros on a 3DS or a Wii U.
One of my first games on the Wii U was Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Blacklist.
I pre-ordered the game. Pre-ordering got me free DLC. The game looked promising and I also was a big fan of the Splinter Cell series. I pre-ordered the game for the Wii U. There was a serious dearth of triple “A” games for the Wii U. Ubisoft made a decent effort in porting over a few games to the Wii U. A few of the Assassins Creed games found their way towards the Wii U.
I enjoyed playing Splinter Cell Blacklist on the Wii U. The game, however, failed to really take off and flopped in sales. Additionally, the Wii U port had a few issues.
I enjoyed most of the story and I enjoyed the online a ton. But it was not done well on the Wii U. Sometimes my Wii U would crash and burn. I would have to restart my console and then search for an eternity for another online match. Searching for a match online was impossible. Additionally, the online modes would suffer with dramatic dropped frames that would hurt gameplay.
The story was fun even though it felt easy at points. Still, I still enjoyed the game for what it is.
I enjoyed my Wii U.
The console itself had a few flaws. But the games were some of my favorites. I mainly enjoyed the first part games from Nintendo. However, there were a few decent triple “A” title games (even though there were hardly any to begin with). And while the system had some major flaws, I still enjoyed my Wii U and felt like I got my money’s worth.
So what did you like about the Wii U?
