The Wii U is my most used home gadget

When I first saw Nintendo’s Wii U console back at E3 2010 I was very much among most of the hardcore gaming crowd’s reaction: “Really Nintendo? Really. R-Really? Come on guys. Really?” and I have maintained that attitude toward it until early 2015.

The Wii U is nothing more than a souped up Wii with a 3DS for a controller, complete with the pro addon stick. It’s a mockery of what Nintendo’s consoles used to be. It’s playing toward the casual gamer market with their bowling, fitness, and golf games. They try to be edgy with their launch titles like ZombiU but we all know that the graphics processor isn’t as good as it’s competitors and it’s uselessness as a platform has made it an overpriced YouTube watching machine.

My entire last paragraph is what I would have said back in 2010. Starting with the 3DS Nintendo has begun something unprecedented in their previous consoles, mostly due to their lack of understanding in how the internet worked. They’ve started doing System Updates, and not just any updates… UI and Feature Updates.

This is where Nintendo started to understand that they may be able to release a system, sure, and people will like it, sure, and sure people will complain.. everyone does. However, maybe once and awhile they should actually listen to these complaints and try to fix something buggy or difficult to use based on user feedback.

Over the lifetime of the 3DS, the System UI and the feature list has expanded (and in some cases contracted) exponentially. Software updates alone have refreshed the experience of the 3DS and turned it into a device that has stayed current with user wants.

Now looking at the Wii U, with their recent announcement of discontinuing Tvii and the redesign of Miiverse (Adding the worlds most jerry-rigged screenshot system ever) and their several minor tweaks to the ease of use and performance updates to several small kinks they now have a platform with some very decent games and a very interesting and viable entertainment system.

I bought a Wii U back in July on the recommendation of several friends to check out the game Splatoon to which I fell in love with almost immediately. After discovering that the Gamepad also could function as a TV Remote (of which I no longer have for my TV) it quickly became something I kept by me often. Of course I watch YouTube with the device, and at first I was very turned off by the jittery nature of the UI and sensitivity of the buttons controlling playlist and video scrolling but after I learned of the ability to connect my phone to the Wii U similar to how Chromecast worked it easily became a very usable application (Yes I am now aware the PS4 does this feature as well)

Are you sensing a pattern yet? I was very jaded on buying a Wii U; however, once I bought a game that all my friends were playing and began to use the system more and more I began uncovering more and more useful items that the system provided without so much as a word of mention in the console’s marketing and advertisements. Perhaps these features were added on recent updates, I would never know considering I never looked into the device, but don’t you think that the device’s advertising should update to what’s actually being delivered to you? That’s a different rant entirely.

The Wii U has quickly soared in my entertainment center and has become something that I use quite frequently, along with other games the system provides. If you’re on the fence about purchasing the Wii U consider this: How’s your TV remote? Good? Cool. The IR sensor for the Gamepad doesn’t even need to be pointing at the TV for it to work (which blew my MIND.) Does that TV Remote have games? No? Mine does. It’s pretty cool, I can play some Mario while I watch some YouTube videos with friends on my ChromeCast. The Gamepad itself is like owning (literally) a 3DS with the power of a decently spec’d computer with genuinely fun, time-wasting games (Like the Mario 3D series, which ’ve genuinely fallen in love with, until I get bored of it from one sitting)

Nintendo did something with their hardware that all the other competitors seemed to loose track of. Nintendo took their console and said “This is for games and entertainment. Not social media, not twitch streaming, not overly obsessive motion controls (ironic really), and not for complex and over the top features that no one asked for.” There’s a store for buying more apps and games, there’s a token social media platform for game community, there’s a friends list for your friends, a skype clone, and then everything else is an app like the games themselves. Nothing is over sold and nothing is overdone (With the exception of Tvii, but that is being REMOVED because it didn’t work, which is a good move on Nintendo’s part.)

At its essence, compared to it’s competitors, the Wii U feels the most like a game console. And perhaps that’s why it sold poorly at launch. People only saw it as this feeble games console compared to the computer-in-a-box nature of things like the PS4 and the Xbox One.

Not to mention the Wii U is behind on some community aspects in terms of multiplayer that the PS3 and Xbox 360 perfected upon launch. The Wii U, at it’s essence, is building it’s online and multiplayer userbase for the first time (The Wii has no bearing on the interactions with the Wii U, friendcodes don’t get ported over) and with the introduction of the Nintendo Network ID system they Wii U feels like more of a multiplayer-centered console while still maintaining it’s focus on it’s games rather than its system features.

That focus seems enough to have the developers of Wii U games focus more on quality of their game more than the use of the system’s features itself. One of the many reasons I love Splatoon so much is because of it’s passive acknowledgement of Miiverse and it’s toggling use of gyroscopic controls. Sure it’s launch games focused on the gimmicks of the system, but that’s true of all new hardware. Now that the phase of “newness” is over we are starting to see Wii U games become actually decent, fun games that no one ever expected to be fun (Or did expect to be fun if your a Smash Bros. fan)

But in all honesty if you have $300 to blow and you want to get a Wii U, make sure you have friends that have games similar to the ones you want to buy. Or just take the Wii controllers from your old Wii and invite your friends over for a night of good, old fashioned splitscreen fun on your 4K HDTV playing the new MarioKart and reminiscing of the time that you used to fall off the edge of Yoshi Valley back on the Nintendo 64. It’s like everyone has their own 720P Viewport. (Note, I don’t own a 4K HDTV, but I’m open to donations.)

But seriously, we bash Nintendo for their seemingly gimmicky consoles and motion controls but in the end Nintendo is really trying to engage the user in something intuitive and fun. I have more fun playing the Wii U with my friends more than I do the Xbox One or PS4 because of the games that can be played on the Wii U. Nintendo has their niche, and to be frank I would rather not see them start to mimic the computer-in-a-box nature of the Xbox One or PS4. That arena will soon be dominated by the SteamOS Machines and Windows 10 anyway.