Misunderstood for sure, I think. The Wii U suffered from what was probably the worst marketing campaign of any game console, ever. I didn't even know it was a new console and not yet-another-Wii-addon until halfway through it's life cycle and I think that was a pretty common misunderstanding.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And no compelling games library. What do you buy a Wii U to play? Bayonetta 2?

[–] KRAW@linux.community 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World, Smash Bros off the top of my head. It had plenty of excellent games

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, which of those would you say "Oh boy, I'm going to spend several hundred dollars on a new console so that I can play THIS game"?

The Wii U had no killer app. The Gamecube had a stronger library throughout its life than the Wii U did. The Wii U was the thing they were also making during the 3DS era. Hell, the big game that was developed for the Wii U, Breath of the Wild, became a killer app for the Switch.

Given a Wii U and a collection of games for it, you can have some fun, certainly. It also has access to the Wii's library, being essentially a Wii with an HDMI port, and it can access a lot of the older Nintendo library in a way that the Switch stubbornly doesn't. A modded Wii U is a pretty cool thing to have. The Wii U had an abysmal career but it lived so it could retire.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Mario Kart 8 was probably the "killer app" (in my opinion), fortunately the switch also gave that a second lease of life!

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Mario Kart 8 didn't sell Wii Us the way Breath of the Wild sold Switches or Halo sold Xboxen.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

Or the way MK8 sold Switches!