So last night Nintendo announced the release date for its next console the NX.
Which sorta means that the Wii U is on its last legs.
I understand why the Wii U struggled to make a dent this generation, but you know what? I think it was home to some of the best games of the last five years. What were some of your favourite Wii U games?
I actually have a lot.
— Splatoon might be my all-time favourite. A smart, clever, interesting take on the multiplayer shoot.
— Mario Kart 8. Possibly the best Mario Kart since the original.
— Super Mario 3D World. A game I still play every goddamn weekend with my three-year-old son.
— Super Mario Maker. Again, a game I still play regularly.
— Pikmin 3 was also super good.
— The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD honestly might still be the most beautiful video game ever made.
This is just off the top of my head. It feels like I’m missing a lot.
What are your favourite games on the Wii U?
Comments
71 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: What’s The Best Game On The Wii U?”
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze. That game needs more love.
One of the hardest, but fairest platformers made. Only things that brings it down is its terrible implementation of co-op.
I’d go as far to say Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
I have four copies of that game! (2 on 3DS, and i lost one wii u copy so i got another one)
… if that doesn’t speak for the quality of the game, I don’t know what will!
Probably Splatoon. So crazy it could only come from Nintendo. So fun it could only come from Nintendo.
We still hit up Mario kart regularly. I wish they’d release more virtual console games. And reduce the price. $10 for a 20yr old game is too steep. Especially when you want to buy 9 of them.
[Gets out the ol’ 3,000,000 megaphones]
SPLATOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!
Still playing it. Still not level 50. Still not above a B rank
The Wonderful 101. Best game number one top.
Then Pikmin and Splatoon.
Yep definitely The Wonderful 101.
Huge amount of content, great mechanics, lots of detail in the characters (all 100+ get bios), good story, 5 player multiplayer.
Also knows how to turn it up to 11.
Then 14. And 15.
I didn’t expect to go in the comments and see W101 love! Quite possibly my favorite game on the WiiU, so much fun.
Splatoon and Mario Kart are my personal favourites
Mario Kart no question. SSB4 second.
Monster Hunter. Especially since it had cross-save and local multi capabilities with the 3DS version (which Nintendo later claimed wasn’t technically feasible ever for any game they do).
I bought my Wii U for the Monster Hunter bundle, and those local multi capabilities were enough of a bridge to get my wife playing Monster Hunter, which I’m then going to apply as further credit for getting her playing Dark Souls.
Worth every cent.
Apart from that, Smash is pretty OK and it was nice playing the updated version of Wind Waker.
It started gathering a lot more dust when the other basic functionality like YouTube and twitch went to hell, saw a brief resurgence of use when Netflix launched here (until I used the vastly superior PS4 app) but doesn’t get much love these days.
Personally I don’t see why anyone would use a console to play Netflix. I have some but I think I’ve tried it once. Chromecast master race here.
I already own the consoles and didn’t see a need to specifically buy a Chromecast just for Netflix?
The Netflix app was great until they replaced the native Gamepad functionality with a simple mirror of what’s on the TV. Searching for shows was great using the native Gamepad keyboard rather than Netflix’s square thing.
I’m glad to see the amount of Nintendo stuff on here at last, I got no problem with the deluge of stuff that’s popular (I have about 70 hours clocked in Dark Souls 3 as of last night so I get it) but when we usually get stuff about Wii U games there’s always some weird sort of lip service around.
The eshop is great, and I would love to recommend some of the more esoteric and downright obscure games on there but that’s not my role, that’s Kotaku’s. Affordable Space Adventures is a key example. I’ve eyed it off for aaaaaaaages, it’s not meant to be an equivalent to bloody Far Cry or whatever, but no bugger seems to want to write about it on here. Unless it’s flogged for cheap in a bundle!
But enough wine.
Lego City Undercover: Get this game. It’s GTA for the family, if you want to be reductive.
It’s a great funny story-based open world game that’s not like most other Lego games. That is to say, it’s original but uses the ‘oldschool’ Lego sets that were around before the licensed stuff. Police, Fire Fighter, SPAAAAACE, the game is practically a launch title so it’s rough in places (load times for one) but it’s totally under-rated.
Bayonetta 2: remember Bayonetta.
Hyrule Warriors: this was a hell of a surprise.
I’m purposely leaving out the eshop gems I mentioned above. There’s plenty on there too.
Affordable Space Adventures is in the Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle! get it cheap now!
HOW ABOUT THAT.
THIS… Such a good game, and a great co-op experience.
We still have almost-weekly Smash Bros nights with friends. Friends who have never cared about Nintendo before, love the game.
Mario Maker feels like a once-in-a-lifetime game too, having grown up with those iterations of classic Mario and the inclination to make my own levels in everything I could.
In fact, I’d argue that the Wii U’s Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, and 2D and 3D Mario platformers were all the best in their franchises.
Oh and Yoshi’s Woolly World!
Screw the haters, I bought my Wii U at a midnight launch and have loved pretty much every game I’ve played on it.
I’d be into Smash so much more if I had friends to play it with.
They added that online tournament functionality just a little bit too late when the hype had died off and many had moved on to other games.
There are weekly Smash meetups at UTS on Tuesday nights, you should come on down 🙂 There are also regular tournaments that run every couple of weekends.
Wrong state, but thank you for the invite 🙂
Ahh sorry 😛
Well, whatever state you happen to live in, you’ll find a Smash scene there which you should totally go along to.
I was quite surprised at how good Yoshi turned out to be, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. How about those S levels, hey?
SNES Yoshi’s Island was one of my favourite games growing up, so Woolly World appealed on nostalgia, but was just a great platformer in its own right too.
I honestly wasn’t expecting it to follow Yoshi’s Island so closely in terms of gameplay, I guess I thought we’d be getting something more watered-down.
W101 landed on the power rangers anniversary and just nailed it.
Bayonetta 2 was also very, very good. So, so much better than the recent DMC.
XCX is my rpg of the year. It did the classic xeno thing of having more ambition than budget, but it had some amazing moments/things.
ZombiU is still underrated, as is Lego city undercover. They were both great answers to staleness of their respective genres, and did well by the gamepad.
Mh3u is probably the best value game I’ve ever played.
But Splatoon is the single best. It has some of the depth of tribes, but is utterly approachable. I prefer it competitively over any other console shooter released so far. COD is for babies by comparison.
Do you play ranked at all Cubits? We currently have 3, Numbers, me and Gorzy. (splattershot, 52deco and roller or slosher respectively) we need a 4th
I play a lot of ranked, and I think I already have you added on my Wii U, scree. We should play in a squad sometime =)
Yeah, I think we’re already friends on WiiU. Do you have a steam or twitter so I can tell you when we’re gonna squad up?
Yeah, my twitter is @eRonin 🙂
My internet has been crippled since Feb, splatoon has been unplayable since.
I’m STILL dealing with iinet techs about what should be really simple!
That superbly sucks
All the games Mark mentioned are awesome, and Pikmin 3 might be my favourite on the system. Bayonetta 2 is amazing, but I feel the most underrated game on the system is The Wonderful 101. Awesome game, especially if you play without using the touchscreen and opt for using the second joystick and shoulder button instead.
So glad to see so much more W101 love around here.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is hands down my choice. I liked Bayonetta 2 but it was more or less a polished version of the first game so it didn’t really have that same “Wow, where’d this come from?” impact that XCX did.
The nintendo costumes in bayonetta 2 were amazing. And the chain chomp.
The Wonderful 101 is still my favorite.
Monster Hunter was my most played. (though the kids have probably racked up more hours on Minecraft by now)
Bayonetta 2 is still a perfect gem of a game.
The first party games probably don’t need to be mentioned individually, but there are about 10 or so that are must haves.
Lego City Undercover.
If you disagree then you’re wrong and shut up!
I have a bit of love for Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. With less time to play games, and with the discounted price it was just about the perfect size game. Long enough to keep me occupied for a while but short enough for me to hunt down all the hidden bits and complete it 100%
Can’t believe I forgot about that too. Brilliant game.
ZombiU was brilliant so much better than the PC PS4 X1 versions the gamepad really made that gqme great with the inventory management and zombie radar, i think it’s incredibly underrated.
Splatoon is amazing too, Game and Wario was a big hit with my friends with the pictionary game.
Do many people still play Mario Kart 8? I play it a few times a week but I never see any Aussies on it 🙁
How do you know it’s the Wii U that’s on its last legs? How do you know it’s not the 3DS that’s going to be superceded?
Regardless, the system has actually had a lot of excellent games, the pinnacle of them I think being Super Smash Bros and Xenoblade Chronicles X. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Bayonetta 2 are right up there as well, and Mario Kart 8 was also great fun.
We know the new Zelda is simultaneously launching on Wii U and NX.
So presumably it’s a “GameCube -> Wii” type of situation.
It could also be launching on a portable system alongside a console too. Wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened either.
Launching on two consoles and a portable?
No, that will not happen.
My money in on the NX being some kind of hybrid system.
There are two ways this could go. Handheld device that then plugs in and plays on TV. So you essentially have the whole console in a handheld. So console weight, plus a battery. No.
Then you have the handheld that plugs into a box for TV play but the box also has some smarts to make it more powerful. So you have a fully realised handheld with the smarts inside to make it work, and then that again for the rest of the box. Since the Wii U was gimped somewhat by the cost of the gamepad, an even more advanved gamepad that can function by itself will leave even less for the console itself (unless the price is jacked up crazy high).
Since the most widely reported rumours are that it will be more powerful than a PS4, I can’t see the cost of a fully realised handheld holding up. There is no way they would eat that cost and there is no way they would price it that high either.
You do make good points, but just keep in mind that by next year, the 3DS will be 6 years old. The DS was on the market 7 years before the 3DS was released. It’s not unreasonable to believe that Nintendo are planning to release a 3DS successor within this time period.
This is why I’m banking on a hybrid. Instead of having two products on the market with segregated player bases, they have one product on the market that serves both demographics.
The pricing may be an issue sure but you probably don’t think about what the combined price of the Wii U + 3DS is, and there are many many gamers that own both systems. But you’re not going to be buying a “Wii U + 3DS”, you’re just going to be buying a “NX”.
Well either way I’ll be buying it. I guess we’ll see later in the year. Probably a direct or something will show it all off.
They have also been talking about having a unified architecture between their console and handheld platforms though, so I think it more likely to still have the two separate platforms, we’ll just see a lot more cross-compatibility between them. Somehow.
I can merely agree with Mark’s selection because my Wii U broke last night when I covered it in my salty, salty tears. :'(
Mario Kart 8. No doubt about it.
Followed by DK
I dunno about the best but I think Mario Maker is up there. It was the first game where the gamepad, at least in my opinion, was used to its full potential.
My mandatory ZombiU fanboying: Original concept, best legitimate non-gimmicky usage of the WiiU Gamepad I’ve seen to date, great execution, great setting and punishing difficulty.
Most underrated game on the system by far, and tragic because given the uniqueness of the WiiU’s position, and the fact the 3rd parties have all but abandoned it – we’ll likely never see it’s like again.
I’ve only had my Wii U for a little over a year but my favourites on it are Splatoon, Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Mario 3D World, and Xenoblade Chronicles X. And Splatoon. I plan on returning to more games that were released before I bought it, like Pikmin 3, Lego City, Bayonetta 1+2, and Windwaker HD. I heard some of the older games were getting a cheaper version released but I haven’t seen those in stores yet.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Seriously is one of my favourite consoles ever, right behind the N64. So many great games! They were few and far between a lot of the time, but there were so many solid and wonderful titles. This is going to become a cult classic lineup I’m willing to bet.
My personal picks:
Toad’s Treasure Tracker
Mario Kart 8
Bayonetta 2
Splatoon
Zelda Twilight Princess HD
Games I imagine would be on that list above but haven’t played, is based on what I’ve read about them:
Mario 3D World
Super Mario Maker (haven’t played a ton, but have played it)
DK T-Freeze
Monster Hunter 3
I agree. Absolute killer games. It’s strange that people bag it because it didn’t sell well. We are all gamers, not investors in the company.
Amen to that!
The WiiU is still the console of choice whenever we have people over.
Nintendoland
Mario Party 10 (I think?)
Mario Kart 8
-all still great fun with loads of people.
Playing by myself it would have to be Wind Waker (I never owned a GC) and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker which are both great. I loved XCX too!
(I tried Smash Bros but I am definitely too old for it now, last time I played it I had no idea what on earth was going on)
mario kart. not much else i liked.
I’m still of the rather unpopular opinion that Super Mario 3D World is the best Mario game yet. A perfect marriage of the best that the best of 2D Marios has to offer (SMW) with the best of the best 3D Mario (Mario Galaxy). A game impossibly charming with scaling challenge and tons of hidden stuff. Extremely rewarding.
Super smash brothers – the only reason why I ever buy Nintendo consoles
I am torn between MK8, Bayonetta 2 and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze.
There are like 10 brilliant other games too but the aforementioned 3 are my best.
The fact games like Wonderful 101, Pikmin, Mario 3D world, Smash Bros etc are also a cut above most other games makes it baffling no one bought a Wii U.
Mass Effect 3 Remastered.
Ahh, the joy of stealthily following a player and hearing that sweet, sweet pop of my roller running them over…
I feel that Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival is severely underrated. I was pleasantly surprised when I played it after picking it up from one of those Big W clearances for $30-something. The stalk market makes it addictive. Only thing that annoys me is having to open up amiibo to play it. Would happily pay the RRP for it.