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Consoles and handhelds

Nintendo Wii U

9owners with an opinion
67%of verdicts positive
1/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for value and repairability; criticized for ease of use and design.

What people wrote

Likes it
This is great. A few years ago, I decided to buy a WII U, since I have basically every Nintendo console system since the NES. But the gamepad screen was broken and I couldn't sync the gamepad to the screen until I fixed it. And I tried to see if there was any alternative, but there wasn't until now. Hopefully that means more WII Us can be saved... You can sometimes find used Wii Us for $30 without the gamepad, while the gamepad itself costs around $100..
Doesn’t like it
I bought my Wii U used and it had a parental code. I called Nintendo and they gave me a code that worked to unlock it. I'm sure they don't do that anymore. Not related to that, but what is the value of a Wii U without the gamepad? Those things were never sold separately, so are near impossible to find, and a Wii U without one is not useable.
Neutral
There's loads of laptops with RJ45 jacks that fold up to take up less space when not being used. There were also PCMCIA ethernet cards where the jack pops out and you insert the cable downwards. I don't think Apple cares enough about ethernet on laptops anymore to bother. Personally I find the choice of SD card slot puzzling. USB A or ethernet would have been far more useful IMO. I have exactly one device with full fat SD and it's a 10 year old Wii U.
Doesn’t like it
I’m years behind on games, but if I have the choice to play an older (say, SNES) game on a PC emulator or on the Wii U (my newest console) Virtual Console, the PC emulator quality of life is miles better, even though I don’t particularly care about graphics. I don’t have the time to spend hours grinding at games any more, but on an emulator, I can play every game with my preferred xbox elite controller, and map save state/load state/fast forward to paddles on the controller. It basically eliminates replaying of areas in games due to difficulty, since save/load-state makes death near-impossible, and any parts of the game that are progressing too slowly I can run at 10x speed.
Likes it
The Wii U was a failure in marketing and odd design choices. The former has been discussed quite well by others, so I want to focus on the design choices that didn't help its long-term success. The console initially promoted the gimmick of being a controller for cable TV, as seen by the blue TV button the bottom of the gamepad. This was at a time when cable TV was starting to die out for the younger crowd. The original Xbox One made a similar misguided focus on controlling TV, while the overall market was making a major shift to streaming in that period. Next, the gamepad used a resistive touchscreen instead of a capacitive one. Phones with capacitive touchscreens had been the norm for years at this point, making the Wii U touchscreen feel very low quality. The gamepad came with too small of a battery, which limited the gamepad's use as a portable console, which was already tied down to being nearby the console itself to stream games smoothly. The battery could be easily upgraded to a larger size, but it had to be purchased and installed later on. The base console only had 8 GB of storage. The deluxe model only came with 32 GB of storage and cost an extra $150 (for $350 total). The console largely focused on using discs for games, but the next gen of Xbox and PlayStation consoles showed that internal storage was important. The Wii U had an SD card slot, but SD cards could oddly not be used to expand game storage; USB storage could be used however. The Wii U had some very stro…
Likes it
I don't want to dispute your experience, just add that in my experience, the game pad was perfect* for Batman: Arkham City. You would look down at it in the same situations where Batman would look down at his gadgets. So even though the game pad wouldn't work well for every game or every person, I think it had undeniable inherent benefits in some situations. * They bungled the audio aspect, though. If you played with headphones, you couldn't route game pad audio through them.
Likes it
The Wii U had a rich feature set. Firsts for a Nintendo home console: - OTB web browser - OTB audio and video chat with friends, native support for 3rd party headsets - real-time direct messaging (via Miiverse) notifications and other friend notifications via the home button LED - Ability to view online status of friends - High definition graphics - 5+ player synchronous local multiplayer - built-in Nintendo TVii service - built-in support to use the gamepad as a TV remote - eShop selections for mobile retro consoles (e.g. GBA, DS) - background installations and updates - accelerometer, gyroscope, front-facing camera, touch screen, IR sensor, NFC all packed into the gamepad - full backwards compatibility with a prior console (Wii) Not to mention, all online services were free to use. And those still existing, are still free. Edit: As a kid, this was the first console that had just enough 3rd party support for me to enjoy games like Fifa, Need for Speed, and Call of Duty akin to an Xbox 360, while also hosting all my favorite Nintendo games. It was a fun system, even if it was poorly advertised and a bit awkward. But I enjoyed the gimmicks and I still use it, mostly for playing exclusives that never made it to the Switch.
Neutral
Wii U has a great library now, even if you only played 3 of them. I personally have almost 30 games for the system, more than Xbox One or PS4 put together, and I've certainly played the Wii U more than the other two (although I did recently close the gap a bit with Xbox One and The Witness). That being said, I have a feeling a lot of them are going to be essentially re-released on either the 3DS or the Switch (several already have been, or been announced), so I wouldn't recommend anyone get a Wii U now, unless you find it dirt cheap.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
The Wii U was a somewhat underwhelming console with poor marketing that therefore did not sell very well. The Xbox One launch was a shitshow of controversy full of the kind of tonedeaf and user-hostile garbage that Microsoft has made itself infamous for. It's not about the hardware or the sales numbers, it's about Microsoft absolutely loathing their users.
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
While I agree, I also am happy to hear this. For example, the Xbox 360 was released in November, 2005. For it to still be somewhat functional, 18 years later - is a testament that Microsoft somewhat cares(cared.) Nintendo side, wiiu, 3ds, etc are all dead for their e-store, but the hardware is solid. Homebrew is alive, sure but offically, no. And they all have similar release dates.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
It came out in a weird time for technology and Nintendo always uses slightly older hardware. I had a Playstation 2 and 3 before, but since we became parents, we wanted something family-friendly. We seriously considered a Wii U, but were totally put of by the Wii U controller, which seemed clunky, annoying, and expensive to replace in case it breaks. It was the primary reason we went for the XBox One that generation. We got a Switch pretty soon after it was released and love it (our daughter also has a Switch Lite).
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
The Wii U was unfortunately not a very successful console, but I feel that it had plenty of power to make fantastic looking games and great experiences. It came out in a weird time for technology and Nintendo always uses slightly older hardware. As a homebrew device it is amazing. There are still exploits being found with a new, safe, simple method out now thanks to some crazy dedicated modders. There’s a whole homebrew sdk. The Wii U can also run Wii and GameCube games by reconfiguring the hardware (or some other sort of firmware voodoo). That’s three generations of video game libraries that can be explored on one console! Always felt like it deserved more popularity, but it couldn’t compete with the ps3/4 and Xbox 360/one.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
I just think that without the draw of the motion controllers, the Wii U screen just really wasn't good enough to make the console worth using. The Nintendo switch was brilliant, you just had to think like a 13 year old to understand why that was always going to sell like gangbusters. The games library was just too weak honestly, I think that was the main thing. The software problems were in large part caused by Nintendo under-speccing its machines catching up to it. Multiplatform's were particularly adversely affected. All in all you were better off buying a PS4 honestly.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
> Always felt like it deserved more popularity, but it couldn’t compete with the ps3/4 and Xbox 360/one. The Wii U marketing was a total disaster. Using the same name as a well established, casual platform, with a tiny suffix + pushing the "same gamepad compatibility" makes this hardware looks like an expensive "revised" version. I can't understand how Nintendo didn't catch on this.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
The reason I explicitly noted Nintendo and Apple is because they are not "rando companies". They are companies with explicit track records of not focus grouping every product to death. You say the Wii was "mixed", but that's just wrong. It outsold the PS3 and XBox 360. The Wii U was a misstep, but the Switch is essentially a Wii U/Game Boy hybrid. Because Nintendo saw what was off with the Switch and made the changes. As for Apple, they were lambasted for removing the Home button, removing the audio jack, making their own chips. But those have all been not the major missteps people thought they were.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
> The only reason the hardware sells is because it's the only way to get the software. The hardware definitely makes a huge difference: 1. Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros., Splatoon, etc. are very similar to their Wii U counterparts, but the Wii U was a failure. 2. Hybrid gaming existed before the Switch (Super Game Boy, PSP 2000, PSVita/TV, iPhone/iPad...) but Nintendo executed it perfectly.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
I don't agree with you on these points - my experience of console/PC gaming vs phone/tablet gaming is that phone/tablet gaming experiences tend to be very shallow drop in/out experiences compared to what is available on console or PC. Even the heavily curated Apple Arcade doesn't have any good examples of this that I've seen. I've not seen a Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, or even Mario Kart 8 tier experience on mobile. Given that, I don't see Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft abandoning their dedicated hardware any time soon. Sales are still strong, and there's no evidence of consumers abandoning these consoles for mobile-led gaming as yet. Maybe it'll happen, but I'm skeptical. Playing big gaming experiences on a phone display with phone controls (or worse, some kind of bolted-on-extra controls) sounds like a miserable experience to me. You mention games like fortnite a bit in other comments, and the court documents from Epic's case show the revenue share for fortnite is not in favour of iOS or Android - it's PS4 by some margin - https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/apple... edit: for Sega, given you raised that example - Sega had a series of missteps in the console hardware market that Nintendo don't have any real analogue for - the Mega CD, the 32X, the Saturn (outside Japan) - all of those led to losing consumer confidence. And then, the Dreamcast failed against the behemoth that was the PS2. The closest I can come to this for Nintendo is the Wii…
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
The past 20 years for Nintendo have been pretty interesting, to say the least. They started with the Gamecube, a console that sold weak numbers and faced stuff competition despite it's library of modern classics. They followed that up with the iPhone of game consoles, the Wii, and moved hundreds of millions of units like it was no big deal. Seeking to capitalize on that same success, they made the Wii U, which seemingly forgot all of the things that made the Wii great in the first place. Then they fixed it with the Switch, identifying the disappointment that people felt with the Wii U and streamlining the product to really dig in to consumer trends. It's a lot of ups and downs, and that's without even touching on their software and handheld history. It's got me wondering what's up at Nintendo. Their mainstay studios like HAL Laboratories and MercurySteam haven't changed all that much over the years, and their presentation quality and infatuation with design has yet to waver. Overall, I'm starting to think their hardware and management teams are the weakest links: their least successful and least appreciated ventures have been when they wandered outside of their walled garden to make a quick buck (Super Mario Run or Mario Kart Grand Prix, anyone?), second only to their questionable hardware designs over the previous 2 decades. I have nothing but respect for the way Nintendo's developers and engineers deliver a polished product for all kinds of consumers, but I struggle to imag…
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
I mean, don't threaten me with a good time. The Wii U and 3DS are both excellent emulators for a number of different systems once they've been rooted, and arbitrary platform exclusivity (especially with Nintendo) is a huge issue for game access and game preservation, particularly for games on discontinued systems. Emulation/portability helps with all of that, even when it's not officially supported. There are potentially console-specific economic reasons why we might not want to give people the freedom to root their own consoles without exploits, but importantly those are pretty console-specific. The economics of profitability for game manufacturers are pretty much the only good argument for letting consoles be so locked down, and I'm not 100% convinced even they are a good justification. But regardless of whether or not they're a good justification, they don't really apply to iPhones, products that aren't sold at a loss and don't base their entire model around recouping costs through software sales. And absent those economic arguments, of course it would be good to allow users to load homebrew onto consoles and/or to install emulators that allow loading games from other consoles. It would be wild for anyone to look at forcibly, artificially tying games/software to a specific piece of hardware with a limited lifetime and limited availability, and view that as anything other than at best a necessary evil.