Pricing, branding, and that critical absence of a system-selling concept or game doomed the Wii U to a slow start. A great idea does not always deliver a killer hook, and it felt like momentum was lacking.
ZombiU was excellent, meanwhile, but not a system seller. Rather than just waggle a Remote, the controls and concepts could get surprisingly complex, taking some of the collection’s games beyond less-skilled players. Yet the nature of asynchronous play is that it isn’t always immediately intuitive and simple. Nintendo Land is underestimated to this day at its best, it can be incredibly fun. Like all Nintendo systems, then, it would live or die on its concept and exclusives. It was harder to be enthused by ports of the likes of Mass Effect 3, however, as it was well known that around a year later ‘next-gen’ systems from Sony and Microsoft would again put Nintendo’s system behind on power terms.
ZombiU remains a game with simple but excellent execution, and it was an early scene-setter. Nintendo Land is underestimated to this day at its best, it can be incredibly fun Yes, there were third-party ports with some optional GamePad play thrown in, but early-on Nintendo Land and ZombiU set the stage for how the two-screen setup could shine. We were invited to a press preview at Nintendo of Europe in the months ahead of release, and could see how the vision of the system was shaping up. Hitting Eurogamer Expo 2012 for some more hands-on time before the November launch - Images: Nintendo LifeĪsymmetrical play was to be the replacement for motion controls, and there’s little doubt that it excited some developers early on. A picture of four people in a room all focused on separate screens was posed as the challenge, with the Wii U striving to replace that dynamic with a gaming system that made multiple screens a shared experience for all. With its successor, Satoru Iwata and his team had observed the rise of smartphones and their impact on family units, or indeed groups of friends. The goal of the Wii was to provide intuitive gaming to attract a ‘blue ocean’ of gamers. What was clear was that the same philosophy that drove the Wii was actually behind the Wii U. Yet, despite the portents of doom triggered by that reveal, a number of us were fascinated and genuinely anticipating the system. Some fault can be found with the press conference and related videos, or with the actual brand name, or even that glossy plastic shell on the GamePad, but even years after the darn thing released some less-focused consumers still thought - understandably - that it was an unnecessary Wii add-on. When the first question in most interviews that summer was “erm, is it a peripheral for the Wii?”, then trouble was ahead. I’m not sure who was ultimately in charge of the E3 2011 reveal presentation for the system, but it was a miscalculation. When the first question in most interviews was “erm, is it a peripheral for the Wii?”, then trouble was ahead And you know what? The Wii U was – whisper it – exciting. At that point, I was Features Editor on these pages and all-in on that day-to-day Nintendo Life. Yet with this anniversary, I was asked to think back to the launch of the system, and in particular pre-launch. After all, it’s actually pretty darn cool, and it’s backwards compatible with Wii games. Of course, some of us – including this humble scribe – still have the charming if flawed system hooked up. Yes, it’s very sad, let’s all take a moment… In fact, if you disregard the Virtual Boy, it is Nintendo’s worst-selling 'mainline' console. But, as most reading these pages know, it was a sizeable commercial failure for Nintendo. It’s been off the market long enough that it feels like the system should be in its teens by now. The Wii U is now 10 years old, which may come as a surprise. It's the 10th anniversary of the Wii U's North American launch and to mark the occasion we invited erstwhile Nintendo Life editor and all-around thoroughly nice chap Thomas Whitehead to reminisce about the machine, the time he first got his hands on it, and the hot takes he had pre-launch.
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