I still remember, and maybe you will remember it too, as the specialized press used almost 24 hours to realize that that big “tablet” was not a Wii device, and that “Wii U” was the name of the new Nintendo console.
Remember also the tech demo of The Legend of Zelda ? Eh, me too. We believed a lot on the arrival of a Zelda so, but in the end we have Breath of th
e Wild who, with the artistic direction he has undertaken, is definitely better this way. Pure Ubisoft had taken us to the point of taking to the Zombi U party, the exclusive one that can use the gamepad in a very effective way, a horror survival that still offers an almost unique experience. It is a pity that, as has happened to many other exclusive consoles, it has come a long time even on other platforms. We always talk about Ubisoft titles, for the most part, like the splendid Rayman Legends .
The idea of trying to recreate the success (unrepeatable in centuries of the amen, probably) of Wii smelled a mile away. How was it possible to do so with a console which, however, was already technologically old from day one? Remember the white console with 8GB of memory, right? A truffald idea of the infamous 12GB generation of PlayStation 3. My mom.
Wii U, as far as I’m concerned, has had the only truly winning idea in the Gamepad. A plasticone, a “dummy” plasticone added to limit costs, but a comfort that still amazes today. On several occasions I found it much more comfortable to play with that than with Controller Classic, the branded Mario, Link, Luigi and beautiful company coming out in conjunction with S
mash Bros , to be honest. It’s a shame that its features have been very little exploited, excluding The Wonderful 101 , the Mario Party 10 Bowser mode and that little indie jewel of Affordable Space Adventures (still one of the funniest multiplayer experiences ever today). We wanted Netflix to give it more enamel in recent times.
The Gamepad on the feet
In short, Wii U slipped its head into the guillotine hole from day one, and the blade began to fall year after year (remember the few months when it did not literally come out?), Until the run ended some weeks ago. There really is, it would not have been
right to get success for such a console. Wii at least, as detestable and overwhelmed by the industry’s ruin for some, has had the great merit of revolutionizing the video game industry, opening it at the same time to a whole new kind of audience, elevating it from niche passion to a true element of the game popular culture. You (and future analysts) judge whether this was a good or a bad thing. I think it was fundamental to a sector
that, otherwise, would risk losing more of that naphthalene shake it had for a while.
The paradoxical situation of Wii U is that, due to that Gamepad cabbage that alone costs about € 150, if you were so unlucky to break it, it’s still sold at € 299 a month by Nintendo Switch, with the multiple versions of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 now pulled behind their backs, between price lists and various Black Friday.
We complain about Switch
Price but to go home to Wii U for, for example, to recover some masterpieces like Super Mario Maker– and maybe an additional Wiimote – does not cost much less. I was often asked, and I reflected on whether it was meaning or not to try to retrieve the console for its games. Most often I find it hard to say yes, although there are many reasons (regarding software parks). Th
e most beautiful (but useless) exclusive of ever How do you define otherwise the Wii U lineup if not “useless”? At a time when the market is self-feeding with the exclusive hype, on the Metacritic page of the “Best of Wii U”, which includes a handful of multiplatforms, one of the worst titles (top 20 in the queue) comes out with an 84, and is Xenoblade Chronicles X
