Wii U Retrospective—Before Nintendo Made the Switch

Today is the two year anniversary of the Switch’s launch. What better way to commemorate than with a retrospective focusing on the Wii U? Back in 2011 I wrote about the reveal of the Wii U and felt it was little more than a stopgap system until the Wii’s real successor could be launched. In some ways I wasn’t wrong. While the Wii U was pretty much Wii HD with a touchpad, it never matched the popularity of the original Wii. It failed as a system for a variety of reasons. Consumers who loved the original Wii never realized the Wii U was an entirely new console and not just an add on, others moved onto mobile gaming, and other gamers felt disappointed the Wii U didn’t match the power of the PlayStation 4/Xbox One. It also didn’t help that Nintendo didn’t have a robust lineup for the system out of the gate and that third-party support was never really there.

In typical Damage Control fashion, we’ll honor the Wii U with a list of games personally meaningful to us.

 

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE | Developer: Atlus, Intelligent Systems | Publisher: Nintendo | Release: 2015

This game originally started out as an announcement of Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem at E3 2013. Speculation ran rampant on what the possibilities would bring. Would this title be a tactical RPG in the style of Fire Emblem with Shin Megami Tensei elements? Would it be an SMT tactical RPG with Fire Emblem characters? Not quite. The end product was VERY different from the initial reveal. It can be best described as Persona with Fire Emblem characters set in modern-day Tokyo. The battle system is similar to Persona 3: Portable in terms of UI, and enemy weaknesses are a fusion of FE and SMT. Fire Emblem characters make their way into the game in the form of mirages who don’t remember their past and accompany a main cast who take part in various aspects of show business. If I had one wish for Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, it’s that Nintendo would consider a Switch port of this excellent, but overlooked game.

 

Xenoblade Chronicles X | Developer: Monolith Soft | Publisher: Nintendo | Release: 2015

As a spiritual successor to Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X was an interesting contrast to its predecessor in many ways. Fans didn’t have to beg Nintendo of America to release the game in the West as it was shown at E3 in 2015. It was also more in the style of a Western RPG that focused on exploration, rather than the heavily story-driven, more typical JRPG narrative of the original Xenoblade. To further drive that difference home, the character players controlled was created, instead of a set protagonist like Shulk. On one hand it meant said protagonist was little more than a self-insert, on the other hand, it helped with the feeling of immersion. The story of humans exploring the new planet of Mira and creating bases was interesting, but it took a while to get going. And I’m not going to lie, I never made it to the point in the game where mechs, aka Skells are introduced. Still what little I played was fun, and like Tokyo Mirage Sessions, a Switch port would be nice.

 

Game & Wario | Developer: Nintendo, Intelligent Systems | Publisher: Nintendo | Release: 2013

For many fans of the WarioWare series, Game & Wario was a disappointment. The games never lived up to the standard set by the WW series and the mini-games were lackluster at best. I have no such attachments to the WarioWare series, therefore Game & Wario wasn’t much of a disappointment to me. The game was a fun multiplayer experience that was often brought out during game nights when friends were visiting. Among the single player games, “Gamer”,” Ski”, and “Design” were favorites, while “Pirates” was a little too close to the offerings in Nintendo Land for comfort. While “Islands”, “Fruit”, and “Sketch” rounded out our multiplayer group experiences. That multiplayer fun lasted until we got into the Jackbox Party Pack games, but Island is still played from time to time.

 

Mario Party 10 | Developer: NDcube | Publisher: Nintendo | Release: 2015

I’m not a fan of the Mario Party games. I never played them growing up, and I quickly learned after research that they weren’t my type of game. I was roped into playing Mario Party 10 during a game night with friends. The experience wasn’t bad as we mostly stuck to Bowser Party. The fun of playing with friends made up for getting out of my comfort zone. Like Game & Wario, Jackbox quickly replaced this game and I can’t say I was sad to see it go. All in all, Mario Party 10 had to be one of my least favorite experiences on the Wii U.

 

The Wii U rode into the sunset the moment the Switch was released in 2017. After experiencing both systems, the Switch is a better console all around. I just hope that some the Wii U’s more notable games are eventually ported, rather than being left to die on a system that never really took off.