Was the Wii U really that bad?
Nintendo announced this week that both
Hyrule Warriors and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze,
two landmark titles from the Wii U, would be leaving their starting console
behind and jumping ship to the Nintendo Switch. Porting games from the Wii U
seems to have become a favourite pastime for Nintendo these days, as these two
are hot off the heels of Mario Kart 8 and
Pokken Tournament making their way to
Switch and Super Mario Maker and Yoshi’s Woolly World landing on the
3DS. It’s also easy to argue that Splatoon
2 is pretty similar to the original title on the Wii U, just with a lot of
new content. Fans are also expecting the next Smash Bros to be an upgraded port of the Wii U title just with some
new characters, stages and the like.
Unsurprisingly a port of Star Fox Zero remains unannounced.
All these games jumping ship really
got me thinking: was the Wii U really that bad? I mean, this is really the
first time Nintendo’s done this. Aside from a few instances, Nintendo’s never
really done direct ports outside of the Virtual Console, instead favouring
full-blown remakes of their classic titles with upped graphics and new features.
But now the Wii U is quickly losing a lot of exclusive titles as they’re being
moved to Switch in droves.
One of the most obvious reasons why
this is happening can be answered just by looking at Nintendo’s recent sales
figures: the Switch has sold more units in its first year than the Wii U did in
its entire lifespan. The Wii U had plenty of awesome games in its library that
went undeservingly missed just because most people weren’t interested in the
console itself. By bringing them to the Switch, now those who passed on the Wii
U can give awesome games like Mario Kart
8 and Tropical Freeze a try.
But the Wii U’s library being
essentially shipped out to a much more successful console definitely has bred
some contempt among fans who bought Wii Us, making them feel like they were
“guinea pigs” for what would eventually become the Switch. There’s a lot of
similarities between the two consoles: a large tablet-style controller, as well
as two separate ways to play (one on TV, the other on the controller).
The thing is that even after just one
year, the Switch has easily made it clear that it is the superior console of
the two. Ignoring sales numbers entirely, the Switch feels like everything the
Wii U wanted to be. You can take the console everywhere with no issue, unlike
the Wii U which started to have connection issues when it was more than a few
metres away from the console. Every game makes use of the portability feature,
unlike the Wii U where some games could only be played on the TV, no
exceptions.
While the Wii U might’ve been fun
while it was the hot new thing, now that it’s a dead console its place in
history will be cemented: it’s gonna be remembered as the awkward underselling
console that Nintendo stuck in between the huge successes of the Wii and the
Switch. It tried to sell itself on the enormous record-breaking name of its
predecessor, but as a result confused the casual crowd who initially mistook it
for an extra peripheral for the Wii. And now the clunky big GamePad that could
barely make it out of the room without having connection issues looks
positively archaic when compared to the sleek and functional design behind the
Switch. The fact that the Switch is now getting some of the Wii U’s biggest
successes for free just feels like Nintendo’s kicking the poor console while
it’s down.
But despite everything, I still have
fond memories of the Wii U, and revisiting some of its greatest hits on the
Switch is a great way to look back on how good the few games the console got
were. If you haven’t given Tropical
Freeze a try, definitely give it a shot when it comes out in May.
Song of the Week
Aquatic Ambience – Donkey Kong Country
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