My Wii U Experience......

retro junkie · December 27, 2018, 09:32:03 PM

With my Wii dying on me, I felt that the best replacement would be a Wii U. For just $40 I could have replaced my Wii with a Wii. But add $60 and I could upgrade to a Wii U black 32gb model. It is the most reasonable path to go and plus I have the backward compatibility with all my Wii game library. Highly recommend this for anyone that still plays their Wii when it dies.

Received my Wii U the day after Christmas. First game I played was Tatsunoko vs Capcom.

I ran by my local GameXchange, needed a charger for the gamepad, and picked up Nintendoland 95 cents and Skylanders Giants 95 cents. Grabbed up Bleach for the Wii $2.95. Impressed with the console. Nintendo would have had better success if they had named this something else and avoided the confusion. This console is not a Wii. I know that it had to maintain features so that it could have the previous generation compatibility, but this console is so much more than the Wii. I am looking forward to some of the games that take advantage of the system hardware. Already it was great that Skylanders Giant offered me the option to play on the gamepad large screen and not the TV. Although I understand that not all games give you that choice, it was still awesome. Been watching game reviews and gameplay on youtube. My list is growing. I will make some decisions this weekend on what will be next. The pad is not as heavy as I thought it would be and the screen is very responsive. So far, lovin it.

I think that I am the only one that can enjoy a game system out of its era, or generation. LOL
Especially one that is considered a flop. But remember, just because it "sort-of" failed in the gaming market, does not mean that it is a bad system.

This is the best time to purchase games for this console. Nobody wants the games anymore. LOL

BLUEVOODU · December 29, 2018, 12:47:15 PM

You are 100% right. This is the time to jump on the Wii U. You inspired me to pick up Star Fox for the wii u. Right now it's $13.39 shipped / new from amazon.

Some of these games will probably be collectors bait in the future due to the lower production numbers. Insane you got nintendoland for $0.95 ... good score on that! It's a pretty fun system ... though the games were a bit sparse. Some of the games are expensive. Definitely pick up Paper Mario Color Splash, Super Mario Maker, and the Kirby games. There's a bunch more that are super fun. I'll post those up later.

Man... we need a Paper Mario color Splash topic... that was a really good game.

The only thing I wish.... Is that the later Wii's and all Wii U's were GameCube backward compatible. My Wii still is.. And that's handy.

targetrasp · December 29, 2018, 01:18:34 PM

I'm always kicking around working for a complete US release collection, the wii u may be easier than the dreamcast...

retro junkie · December 29, 2018, 09:13:53 PM

From what I understand, correct me if I am wrong, that there were only about 160 physically released games? I might consider collecting all of the games myself, targetrasp.

I stopped by my local gamestop today, haven't been in there for at least five years. LOL And did some Wii U shopping. I grabbed up Breath of the Wild, new, for $34 dollars. The rest was buy two get one free. With this and ebay, my funds are depleted for a while. Unless I can win an ebay auction for a couple of dollars.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Super Mario 3D World - $9.50 ebay
Star Fox Zero - $12 tracking it in the mail, should be Monday delivery, You got a good deal Blue
Star Fox Guard -99 cents
Nintendoland- 95 cents Gamexchange
Skylanders Giants- 95 cents GameXchange
Disney Infinity 3.0 free
Skylanders Swap Force free
The Lego Movie $1 ebay plus $3 ship
Skylanders Trap Team $1.99
Hyrule Warriors $14
Xenoblade Chronicles $14

And I won Sonic All Star Racing for $2.10 plus a couple dollars ship last night on ebay.

Right now two games that have surfaced as being quick favorites, Xenoblade Chronicles and Hyrule Warriors. And of course this has awaked renewed interest in Skylanders, been playing heavy during my time off. Go back to work this coming Wednesday.

BLUEVOODU you are right about the GameCube backward compatibility. I am going to miss that badly. I will now have to pull the Cube out every time I get that itch.

targetrasp · December 30, 2018, 12:19:50 AM

160 sounds like a reasonable number. I've not put much time in it but trying to get a North American list with any authority behind it is difficult. I've downloaded the list from Wikipedia but it has all the physical and digital releases and doesn't denote which are digital only. I'll start going through it and compose my list at some point but for now i'm assuming 157-160ish. 135 ish to go!

retro junkie · December 30, 2018, 07:06:47 PM

The time that I have spent with the console the more I feel that this system deserved more. I know the name "Wii U" led to some confusion, but I am wondering if the concept was a little behind the time, maybe too late. This should have been the Wii.

It is almost like Nintendo pulled a 32X on gamers by throwing this system out there until the true console was ready, which was the Switch. Because I really think that the Switch was there almost ready when this was released to the market.

Edit: Just found this list!!!

007 Legends
Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!
Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations
The Amazing Spider-Man: Ultimate Edition
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Angry Birds Star Wars
Angry Birds Trilogy
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
Assassin's Creed III
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue
Barbie: Dreamhouse Party
Batman: Arkham City – Armored Edition
Batman: Arkham Origins
Bayonetta
Bayonetta 2
Ben 10: Omniverse
Ben 10: Omniverse 2
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Cars 3: Driven to Win
The Croods: Prehistoric Party!
Darksiders II
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition
Deus Ex: Human Revolution — Director's Cut
Devil's Third
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Disney Infinity
Disney Infinity 2.0
Disney Infinity 3.0
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
DuckTales: Remastered
ESPN Sports Connection
Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade
Fast & Furious: Showdown
FIFA 13
Funky Barn
Game & Wario
Game Party Champions
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director's Cut
Guitar Hero Live
Hello Kitty Kruisers
Hot Wheels World's Best Driver
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Hyrule Warriors
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Jeopardy!
Just Dance 4
Just Dance 2014
Just Dance 2015
Just Dance 2016
Just Dance 2017
Just Dance: Disney Party 2
Just Dance Kids 2014
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends
Legend of Kay Anniversary
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
Lego City Undercover
Lego Dimensions
Lego Jurassic World
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Lego Marvel's Avengers
The Lego Movie Videogame
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Lego The Hobbit
Madden NFL 13
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Mario Kart 8
Mario Party 10
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
Mass Effect 3: Special Edition
Mighty No. 9
Minecraft: Story Mode - The Complete Adventure
Minecraft: Wii U Edition
Monster High: 13 Wishes
Monster High: New Ghoul in School
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
NBA 2K13
Need for Speed: Most Wanted U
NES Remix Pack
New Super Luigi U
New Super Mario Bros. U
New Super Mario Bros. U + New Super Luigi U
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
Nintendo Land
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
Paper Mario: Color Splash
The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy's Grand Adventure
Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff
Pikmin 3
Planes
Planes: Fire & Rescue
Pokkén Tournament
Rabbids Land
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing
Rayman Legends
Resident Evil: Revelations
Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
Rodea the Sky Soldier
Runbow
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Shovel Knight
Sing Party
Skylanders: Giants
Skylanders: Imaginators
Skylanders: SuperChargers
Skylanders: Swap Force
Skylanders: Trap Team
The Smurfs 2
Sniper Elite V2
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Sonic Lost World
Splatoon
SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton's Robotic Revenge
Star Fox Guard
Steam World Collection
Super Mario 3D World
Super Mario Maker
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Tank! Tank! Tank!
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition
Terraria
Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Transformers Prime: The Game
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
Tumblestone
Turbo: Super Stunt Squad
The Voice: I Want You
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper
Watch Dogs
Wheel of Fortune
Wii Fit U
Wii Party U
Wii Sports Club
Wipeout 3
Wipeout: Create & Crash
The Wonderful 101
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Yoshi's Woolly World
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
ZombiU
Zumba Fitness: World Party

targetrasp · December 30, 2018, 10:03:02 PM

I counted 161, but star fox guard was on there twice...

retro junkie · December 30, 2018, 11:47:59 PM

Aaahhh......corrected. I just did a quick cut and paste. I am going to put this into an excel sheet as a checklist.

BLUEVOODU · January 02, 2019, 08:17:32 PM

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Fox-Zero-Guard-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B00ZRZTT3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546137603&sr=8-1&keywords=star+fox+wii+u

Yeah... it's still $12.80 something shipped from Amazon... hard to believe it was that cheap. It came with Star Fox Guard as well... haven't looked too much into that though.

Nice list of games!

targetrasp · January 02, 2019, 10:23:18 PM

I think I'm going to go for the complete set. I've got a super problem paying 30 + for a Barbie game and a Cars game though... and that Mario and sonic at the Olympics seems like it's overpriced as well...

retro junkie · January 02, 2019, 11:34:22 PM

LOL, yeah there are several on that list that causes me to back up and say ....what? Such a small library and it has this?

BLUEVOODU · January 03, 2019, 12:24:26 AM

One of the most surprising IMO is the Sniper Elite V2. Which ones surprised you?

targetrasp · January 03, 2019, 06:38:10 PM

Angry Birds, Barbie, and Cars all scream beating a dead franchise...

Angry Birds peaked way before either the movie or console games every thought about coming out. The going rate for some of these is waay more than i want to pay for trash BUT there's not that many so I can deal with it. For the most part trash games go for trash game prices.

I still question the mario and sonic olympics game. it seems to be the highest (or tied for highest) average priced game on the wii u.

It does seem eBay has a few auctions that would potentially save a few bucks but for the most part there's insanely priced buy it nows on the rarer stuff.

retro junkie · January 03, 2019, 06:39:08 PM

I was very surprised to find "Injustice: Gods Among Us" on the Wii U. That is a great game. It is the first of the genre that I have played where the storyline mingled with the fighting which I found so satisfying. Great experience. Glad to see it here in the list.
Another surprise was a Tekken game. That is totally unexpected. Looking forward to playing that game.
I knew about the Batman game but was not aware of the Spiderman games.

And the Barbie, Angry Birds, and Hello Kitty I sort-of classify as ummm... well.... you know.

There are some titles in there that I feel some third parties tried to bring their Wii over to the Wii U. But there are some really solid titles in there. And I am glad.

After playing this so much during the Christmas Holidays I feel that there are many games on the DS that could have been ported, enhanced, and extra levels added. I believe it could have worked. Missed opportunity.

And only 13.56 million units of the Wii U sold world wide.

BLUEVOODU · January 03, 2019, 09:38:39 PM

I Will write more later... studying... quick comment though... I'd like to pick up Angry Birds Trilogy. I actually enjoy those games a bit. I bought Angry Birds Star Wars for PS4 for $7 I think many years back. Angry Birds Trilogy for Wii U is $40 on Amazon... and I don't see it cheaper anywhere else. I'd like to get that though... but I Won't pay anywhere near $40.

retro junkie · January 03, 2019, 11:27:30 PM

Whoa, never knew anyone that like the angry birds stuff. I just can't get into it. But it has been the original game that was on the phone that I played. Are the console games different, lego-ish?

I got Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed today. Awesome racing game.

retro junkie · January 12, 2019, 09:15:42 PM

I just found out, from personal experience, about a troubling issue with the Wii U games. And that is "disc rot." The top decal can be scratched exposing the metallic reflective material of the disc which can oxidize and deteriorate. Wii U games seem to be very fragile. They can just deteriorate too on their own. I purchased a game over ebay, Super Mario 3D world. I cannot get it to work. After researching this, I got out my flashlight and sure enough light found the areas that contain the damage.
This is disturbing. Evidently the Wii and Gamecube games are safe due to the difference in their manufacturing.
This is the first time that I consider digital download as an option. Too bad the Wii U has such a small hard drive.

BLUEVOODU · January 12, 2019, 09:26:12 PM

Isn't this typical of all CD, DVD, and Blu-ray type discs? If the top side is damaged... that's worse than the bottom side as that the top is where the data layer technically resides.

retro junkie · January 12, 2019, 10:11:58 PM

I guess I never thought about it until now. Never experienced it before.

targetrasp · January 13, 2019, 06:58:15 AM

the top being damaged is much worse. the bottom section seems to have more meat and can be ground down and polished "resurfaced" when severely scratched but once that aluminum or magnesium or whatever metal alloy foil that holds the information is touched the disc is pretty much shot. The foil must be closer to the top of the disc. Long ago I purchased a lot of PS2 and DC games (several hundred each) for pennies a disc that were all scored on the top of the disc. They were purposefully cut and came out of Texas so my assumption was Gamestop purposefully destroyed to get them out of their inventory and to keep them from finding their way back into the market. Out of what could have been a thousand or so discs I was only able to get a handful to work and for the most part they were the ps2 games. If the razor didn't make it far enough into the disc to cut the foil too much I was able to use a sharpie to cover the scratch and play the game with varying degrees of degradation. Matter of fact, Dark Cloud, one of my most favorite ps2 games, was fixed this way an I could never tell a difference.

I've experienced the fragility of the wii u games a lot. I've had at least two that I purchased new mess up like Retro mentioned. Super Mario U and Lego City both took a dive. I ended up coloring in the top of the disc where the holes were and got more life out of Mario but it eventually crapped out. Lego never recovered. Both have since been replaced. I've had another 4 or 5 resurfaced from where the kids mistreated the discs as well.

retro junkie · January 13, 2019, 07:28:41 AM

I have purchased close to twenty games or more. I have yet to try all of then due to wanting to focus on playing some. Also I was wanting to set up a external hard drive too for all the "updates" to games. I am going to go through everything today with a flashlight and trying to load just to see how many I have that are damaged. Just looked at the Batman game, top label is scratched up, won't load.

edit: found only two, Batman and Mario 3D.

BLUEVOODU · January 13, 2019, 10:17:31 PM

@targetrasp so there is something to where the Wii U games are more fragile on the disc data layer?

That's a bummer on your discs @retro junkie

yeah... when I had my shop... the 1st thing I would do is hold the disc up to light to see if there were any spots where it showed through at all.

retro junkie · January 14, 2019, 06:27:33 AM

It seems like that layer is unusually very thin and offers no protection to the data. What were they thinking? Kids are playing with these things.

targetrasp · January 14, 2019, 03:53:36 PM

I've heard tons of people swear the wii u is blue ray and isn't any more prone to disc rot or damage than other blue rays, but I'm convinced otherwise.

Wii U isn't blu ray. The biggest wii u game size I've seen was under 20 gb. Wikipedia says it's a wii u optical disc with a max cap of 25gb made by Panasonic. I'm sure its close but there's noticeable differences like the softer edges and the omission of the blu ray logo being stamped anywhere on the case.

25gb is a single layer blu ray so i'm sure the wii u disc and a blu ray are close but i'm certian there's differences. I've not had any trouble with ps3 discs. My children were toddlers during the ps3, and not one disc was rendered unplayable. I think at some points it'll come out that the foil in a wii u disc is different than a standard blu ray and that it oxidizes quicker. I'd also wager that the thickness of a wii u disc is a little less than a standard blu ray. I can't back that up but if anyone has a nice digital micrometer it'd be nice to find out.

retro junkie · January 14, 2019, 05:56:09 PM

I'm thinking that it is like Nintendo's gamecube and Wii. The format is proprietary and known only to Nintendo, like you quoted, "wii u optical disc." They are big on "No Piracy" and go out of their way to prevent it in their game discs. The Wii U hardware is not that much different from their other two disc based game consoles from what I gather, except for the HDMI. So I would guess that the format is similar to the Wii or a variation.

I have not had this problem with any of my disc based gaming systems, NG-CD, Saturn, PS1, PS2, PS3, XB360, TG16, Dreamcast, Wii, or Gamecube. And I have some games that I have purchased from some of our locals that are pretty beat up. And I have had no reservations about purchasing for any of those consoles.

If I collect all of the games for the Wii U I am going to be very picky looking for a label without flaws.

BLUEVOODU · January 14, 2019, 09:04:09 PM

I had the problem with some Neo Geo CD games. It wasn't really common... but it happened.

Yeah... Nintendo uses proprietary discs... so they used a proprietary 25GB disc. However, I wonder how close it is to a Blu-ray... because several articles do talk about that and the size similarities. It is possible it's 'rebranded' Blu-ray... but i'm not sure Sony would do that.

targetrasp · January 14, 2019, 10:47:33 PM

I think blu ray is licensed. Everything I have that's on a blu ray has the logo, none of the wii u games have it. It's probably JUST different enough to be something different. Feel the sides as compared to other discs. the wii u discs even feel different.

retro junkie · January 16, 2019, 06:32:36 AM

Installed an external harddrive today, 300gb. And I've been playing Sin & Punishment for the Wii.

BLUEVOODU · January 17, 2019, 09:03:00 PM

@targetrasp Blu-ray is most definitely licensed. However, I can only assume they could make something close to it proprietary for Nintendo. I don't think Nintendo is in the business of making discs and disc technology. However, I'm not totally sure where they got it from. It is classified as Nintendo proprietary though by everyone that talks about it.

How do you like it @retro junkie ? I did this for my PS4... but not Wii U. I haven't hit any of my Wii U Limits ... yet...

retro junkie · January 17, 2019, 10:13:55 PM

Reason I got the hard drive was the "updates." I was at first afraid of hitting a wall. But I also thought after looking through the store that there are games I might download and purchase. Some N64 games, nes, snes, and a few others just to play on the HDMI through the Wii U. I had to get a Y cord due to the Wii U not capable of handling an external drive through one usb. If I plan on purchasing the whole 160 Wii U game library then it might come in handy. I have noticed that the console is putting everything on the external drive now that I have it attached.

Many of he Wii games look amazing on the Wii U HDMI output. Worth every penny.