Is the Wii U worth it in 2019

The Wii U was released all the way back in 2012. The Nintendo Switch was released in 2017. Does it make sense, now in 2019, to get a Nintendo Wii U?

I have a launch Nintendo Switch, one of the first ones, with the worse battery life and the hardware/firmware issue that makes them easier to homebrew. Years ago the wife and I had a Wii, but we eventually ended up selling our Wii and moving to PC games. The main motivator was the frustration of “Adult” games, or games that appealed to more than the “casual” gamer. That was of course before I had kids and I had time to actually delve deep into some games. We have a Wii again, this time it sits in my daughter’s room, and the whole family has Nintendo 2DS XLs, so we’re not strangers to Nintendo hardware and games.

So why the Wii U? I had the opportunity to trade an aging laptop with a coworker who wasn’t using their Wii U Deluxe edition. It came with Mario Kart 8 on it, and the Super Mario Wii U and Super Luigi Wii U game. I already had Mario Kart 8 on Switch, but after selling that back to Game Stop, along with my Breath of the Wild for Switch and getting Breath of the Wild (Deeply discounted) for the Wii U, I was ready to start playing.

The first thing I noticed about the Wii U is the gamepad is large but very comfortable. It fits in my hand nicely, although I prefer the staggered stick layout of the Switch/Xbox better. I have played a few games on the gamepad screen, but I am not the target market for the Wii U gamepad (or Switch) for on-the-go gaming. I have a Nintendo 2DS for that. So the gamepads’ dismal battery life has not been a problem for me at any point.

After booting the Wii U and setting up my profile and logging in to my Nintendo Network account, the main screen popped up. This is where I think the Wii U’s biggest problem is very easily seen. There’s one layout and setup on the TV, and then a totally different layout on the gamepad screen. And to do some actions requires you to use one type of screen or another. It feels very disjointed and feels lime I’m trying to work with a bipolar device. One of the biggest factors that I’ve seen touted as the Wii U’s failure was that it was poorly marketed and that it was not well defined on what you can and can’t do with the device. The Switch is very much a direct descendant of the Wii U, but with a more clearly thought out marketing strategy and usage scenario.

Once a game is launched it takes it a few moments to load the content from a disc and then launch. It’s quite a difference from the Switch, which feels like it launches titles almost instantly. Once the titles are launched I couldn’t tell the difference from Mario Kart 8 or Breath of the Wild on the Wii U from their counterparts on the Switch. Mario Kart 8 is launched from the system memory and it still takes it some time to load the content. Booting into a Wii game is also very slow and it seems like the system has to “boot” into the Wii subsystem. My TV flashes and seems to lose connection to the Wii U for a moment, and then the Wii boots up. It seems less like software emulation and more like hardware emulation.

The major upside to the Wii U is that it is backward compatible with the Wii software and accessories. My dad gave us the Wii he and mom had, which had Wii fit and Super Mario Wii. We put that Wii upstairs in my daughter’s room, but my wife and I kept the Wii fit and Wii Balance board. It worked with no issues on the Wii U. I’ve also been buying used Wii games off of eBay and from Game Stop. Like Pikmin games, and Kirby, and Legend of Zelda games. This means that we can play them on the main television, or my daughter can play them on her TV. It also means that I get to play games from some of my favorite franchises at a much-reduced cost.

I’ve also been picking up Wii U games at a reduced cost. I plan on picking up the Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker HD here soon, and I picked up Xenoblade Chronicles X earlier last month. I just picked up the NES Remix collection as well as Splatoon. And there are others, like Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess that we have for the Wii, but I want in HD, that we’ll get. Pikmin 3, Yoshi’s Wooly World, and Kirby’s Return to Rainbow Road are a few others. Some of these have been re-released on the 3DS platform, and some will probably be remastered or have been remastered for the Switch.

The other part of the Wii U is the Nintendo eShop. There are tons of games in the various virtual consoles that range from the NES through the Game Cube and Wii. My concern is that the way Nintendo treats licensing on the 3DS and Wii U is very unusual, especially when compared to Xbox/Playstation. Nintendo ties the license of the eShop purchase to the Nintendo ID AND the console. So if you upgrade from a Wii U to another Wii U and use the transfer process, you’re all good. BUT, if your Wii U breaks you have to contact Nintendo and get them to restore your purchases on the new console. And then there’s the limit of 32GB of on-board storage with the option to add 32GB through an SD card or 2TB through an external HDD. None of those sound super awesome, especially considering I have a 2TB SSD in my PS4 Pro and that thing is stupid-fast.

There’s also the fact that the Wii Shop was closed down earlier this year and there’s now no way to re-download any virtual titles you may have already purchased. This is a problem for all digital-only games (except GoG) because at any moment the company could decide you no longer need access to that game. Granted, the Wii Shop Channel was around from 2006 to 2019, so really 13 years for a digital service like that wasn’t bad, and before shutting down users had the option to transfer to a Wii U if they had one. As long as paths exist to transfer and continue to use data like that then purchasing digitally is not as scary. It’s just that buying digital games for a system that’s already 7 years old has me a bit spooked.

So is the Wii U worth it? Considering right now Game Stop is selling Wii’s for $60 to $70, depending on if it’s the Wii or the Wii Mini, and the Wii U is selling for $110. Is it worth the $50 to $40 price jump if I’m only playing Wii games? Is it worth it if I already have a Switch?

The answer isn’t very straight forward. On one hand, you have a very solid console that has a great set of first-party titles and an extensive array of virtual console games to play. Most of the physical games you can purchase for it are very cheap, as long as you don’t mind used. It works with all the previous Wii accessories, so if you have an old Wii collecting dust this can revive a lot of those games and accessories. On the other hand, the system is not being manufactured anymore (as of 2017) and support is going to be very limited from Nintendo. There are no more games being developed for the Wii U by Nintendo, and most third-party publishers have already moved on to the Switch. The eShop is still working, but for how long into the Switch’s lifecycle will that remain?

The Wii U is worth it simply for the large selection of Wii and Wii U titles that haven’t been ported to the Switch, and the cost. Even if the Wii U is $110, most of the games are under $20, although some games are still $40 used (Twilight Princess HD). But you can get a Wii U and a full collection of games and a few accessories for less than a Nintendo Switch costs. For our family, the Wii U has been a welcome addition to the game consoles.