Current Events > The poor Wii U has aged awfully

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's so slow to start up and do anything. The main OS is a giant screen to advertise Wii U Miiverse features that are all turned off. Game Pad is cumbersome to use compared to any other gaming controller.

It's all just a bit sad now. At least security on this thing is completely abandoned lol. It's stupidly easy to back up Wii U games to play on PC.

Also the Wii U Pro Controller still rocks.

That Christmas E-Shop music though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11ln-E_vWj4

Once that gamepad goes it's pretty much gone, gonna be hard to get one

The only reasons to still have a Wii U in 2022 are for homebrew/emulation and to play the best Call of Duty game (Black Ops 2) on the only system where it's not flooded with hackers. Of course, that comes at the cost of there only being like 30 players left in the entire player base on that system, but at least none of them are hackers.

The system felt old when it was new.

furb posted...

The system felt old when it was new.

I remember the initial update took something like 3 hours before you could play anything lmao

The system didn't even install games!

Calwings posted...

The only reasons to still have a Wii U in 2022 are for homebrew/emulation and to play the best Call of Duty game (Black Ops 2) on the only system where it's not flooded with hackers. Of course, that comes at the cost of there only being like 30 players left in the entire player base on that system, but at least none of them are hackers.

Xenoblade X as well.

As well as The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, but those are enhanced ports.

Once they port Xenoblade X Definitive Edition, it'll be useless

Wind Waker HD really deserves a better home than the Wii U.

The good news is Wind Waker HD can be emulated pretty well. I was playing it on the Steam Deck and it ran really well.

The gamepad was good for Zelda/Mario Maker.

PiOverlord posted...

The gamepad was good for Zelda/Mario Maker.

I don't mind the concept of a touch screen in the controller. I think the problem overall was it never justified the size of the controller or the battery life

If it was like size of a single DS screen and was meant for inventory or a map (which was 90% of the best uses for it lol) I think it would have went down a bit better. I think Nintendo thought things were gonna be more interesting (like what happened to the DS) than they ended up being lol.

PiOverlord posted...

The gamepad was good for Zelda/Mario Maker.

It was fun to browse Netflix with when they still had anything semi-worth watching

Punished_Blinx posted...

I don't mind the concept of a touch screen in the controller. I think the problem overall was it never justified the size of the controller or the battery life

If it was like size of a single DS screen and was meant for inventory or a map (which was 90% of the best uses for it lol) I think it would have went down a bit better. I think Nintendo thought things were gonna be more interesting (like what happened to the DS) than they ended up being lol.

I think a marriage of the Switch/Wii U would be great. Having the TV and gamepad available at the same time was useful honestly.

Punished_Blinx posted...

I don't mind the concept of a touch screen in the controller. I think the problem overall was it never justified the size of the controller or the battery life

If it was like size of a single DS screen and was meant for inventory or a map (which was 90% of the best uses for it lol) I think it would have went down a bit better. I think Nintendo thought things were gonna be more interesting (like what happened to the DS) than they ended up being lol.

It's that size because Nintendo was experimenting with off-TV play, as one of the selling points was being able to play the game on the GamePad while the TV was being used for something else.

...Of course, in practice, it didn't work out that well (the GamePad needing to be within a certain distance of its console to work; the GamePad's battery life; and I think some games outright didn't support off-screen play, or needed both the GamePad and the TV to function), but it did lay the foundation for the Switch down the line, which almost-perfected the off-TV concept.

Solar_Crimson posted...

It's that size because Nintendo was experimenting with off-TV play, as one of the selling points was being able to play the game on the GamePad while the TV was being used for something else.

...Of course, in practice, it didn't work out that well (the GamePad needing to be within a certain distance of its console to work; the GamePad's battery life; and I think some games outright didn't support off-screen play, or needed both the GamePad and the TV to function), but it did lay the foundation for the Switch down the line, which almost-perfected the off-TV concept.

Yeah true. Kinda crazy how much things changed 5 years later in retrospect.

Even stuff like Steam In-Home streaming did that concept better a little bit later.

PowerOats posted...

Once they port Xenoblade X Definitive Edition, it'll be useless

Thats pretty much the only holdout that is worth a damn now that Fatal Frame 5 got a port.

I miss the wiiU pro controller probably my favorite pad next to the dual sense and 360 pad.

I wanted to get one to see what it was about. I am glad I held off on that.

i unironically think the Wii U is better than the Switch

My bad exp with the GC, Wii, and WiiU are why I never brought the switch. Figured it'd be the same affrair where they'd be nothing to play buy but 1st party games and a handful of 3rds, maybe. And afterwards nothing to play except smash.

With the console otherwise collecting dust on self. That's was literally the case for all 3 consoles. And while the switch didn't end the same I still can't get over the money and faith I wasted on Nintendo then.

The Wii u was excruciatingly slow even at launch. The menu was ridiculous.

the game pad felt like a leapfrog thing

I think the WII U just never got a chance to shine due to the stupid name and the fact that so much of the technology went into the tablet controller which is actually really nice to use and hold but a lot of the gimmicky ways to use it (such as in Game and Wario) just never appealed to me much as an adult.

I still think it was a failure but when I bought it on sale at some Best Buy Christmas in July thing (this around when DK Tropical Freeze was newish) , I was happy I bought it and had no regrets. I got to mess around with the virtual shop channels play some old wii games. I bought Mario Kart 8 too and one of my friends got so obsessed with it, he bought his own Wii U and would bring it over. Pretty amusing how we'd play online in different races generally but at the same time.

I loved the gamepad for WWHD. Checking charts and menus and swapping items while playing was great. It's so annoying that they nerfed BotW for Wii U just so the Switch version didn't miss out on anything.

And the size never bothered me. I got a pro controller for multiplayer games and somehow that never clicked with me. The battery life on the gamepad wasn't great and it's annoying that you couldn't easily turn it off when you weren't using it, but those are the only problems I remember having with it.

Never really noticed the system being slow before. Not any more so than any of the other current systems tbh

I feel like the Switch is really clunky when it comes to pairing and setting up controllers. The Wii U is a snap once it is synced to your system, you are just off and running every time. Even when you switch controllers on the fly or mid game. I thought the Wii U was fast enough. Youtube worked fine, Netflix worked fine other Miiverse stuff worked fine. I had some issues with wi-fi but I also had an adaptor for ethernet cable which was fast so that was mostly a non issue.

Implying there was a time the Wii U wasn't considered awful

Kamil posted...

I think the WII U just never got a chance to shine due to the stupid name and the fact that so much of the technology went into the tablet controller which is actually really nice to use and hold but a lot of the gimmicky ways to use it (such as in Game and Wario) just never appealed to me much as an adult.

I still think it was a failure but when I bought it on sale at some Best Buy Christmas in July thing (this around when DK Tropical Freeze was newish) , I was happy I bought it and had no regrets. I got to mess around with the virtual shop channels play some old wii games. I bought Mario Kart 8 too and one of my friends got so obsessed with it, he bought his own Wii U and would bring it over. Pretty amusing how we'd play online in different races generally but at the same time.

I don't regret it either. 2014 was pretty good for the Wii U and Virtual Console stuff was often bargain bin level of good lol

rexcrk posted...

Never really noticed the system being slow before. Not any more so than any of the other current systems tbh

It's the OS. PS4 and Xbox One were way quicker. Thanks to stand-by you could be playing a game within a few seconds.

Wii U alleviated a bit with the update that let you choose a game to boot up immediately with the system (this wasn't there at launch) but if you need to do anything with the settings or go to the shop it was still a slow ass experience. The shop literally has a minigame to play while it loads.

With a few exceptions I usually wait a year or two when a system comes out before getting it. After 2 years the Wii U was basically already dead in the water with almost no games.

Punished_Blinx posted...

The shop literally has a minigame to play while it loads.

Does anything happen if you win, I don't even remember but that was sort of a novel idea. Reminded me how one of the Namco games on the PSX let you play a little Galaga while a game loaded. It was fun. Also the load was like 20 seconds? It wasn't that long.

Kamil posted...

Does anything happen if you win, I don't even remember but that was sort of a novel idea. Reminded me how one of the Namco games on the PSX let you play a little Galaga while a game loaded. It was fun. Also the load was like 20 seconds? It wasn't that long.

You get a little jingle lol

20 seconds wasn't long compared to the 360 and PS3 but it was long compared to basically everything that released not long after

metralo posted...

i unironically think the Wii U is better than the Switch

I somewhat agree in the sense that in their base forms the Switch doesn't really do a whole lot more than the Wii U did. But the Switch is a more powerful console and at this point also has access to the majority of Wii U games. So for those reasons alone, the Switch is obviously better. The most modern console should be the best.

But yeah I think the Wii U failing was complete bullshit. It was a perfectly fine console.

There was no big X-factor that justified releasing a console that didn't even handle 360 and PS3 ports in 2012 particularly well.

Really the Wii U as a whole is a bunch of mistakes that all stacked up together. You've got the weird branding, the slow game output of the first couple of years, the poor third party support, the weak hardware and just the general pitch not really being the right thing at the right time.

I always felt the gamepad looked like a childrens toy

Like those LeapFrog things

Punished_Blinx posted...

Also the Wii U Pro Controller still rocks.

That thing is a piece of shit, the right stick on top is atrocious.

The Wii U flopped big time. Was it as big a flop as the Virtual Boy, probably not. But yeah even though I was an outside dog and things I did grow to it like for different reasons. I can admit an absolute failure when it comes down to the hard facts.

Also the Virtual Boy was worse than the Wii U, I thought that was a piece of shit as a younger person, but if people find some pleasure and fun in it, cool. Also it had Jack Bros that game actually seemed damn cool.