The last few months have been rough for current-gen consoles. Several of the year’s biggest releases—“Driveclub,” “Assassin’s Creed: Unity,” and “Halo: The Master Chief Collection,” to name a few—have been plagued with glitches, network issues and other problems. The nature of the gaming industry means that the latest editions of storied franchises are pumped out on a yearly basis, with more money spent on advertising and marketing than on development and quality control.
To look at the current libraries of the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One is to look at a whole lot of nothing—at least as far as system-selling exclusives are concerned. Many triple-A titles are released on seemingly every platform at the same time, leaving gamers looking for a unique experience out in the cold. It’s a bad situation made even worse by a current trend of HD rereleases of games from the previous generation—in some cases, publishers expect players to pay full price for a year-old game that hasn’t had much, if anything, done to update it for the current generation of consoles beyond higher-res textures.
That’s where Nintendo’s Wii U comes in. Released in November of 2012, it was the first of the so-called “eighth generation” of video game consoles. Though it had a shaky start, and continues to have some issues with hardware and software availability, recent first-party releases have transformed it from an “also ran” to a serious contender for the average gamer’s dollar.
One of its most recent and most anticipated releases is “Super Smash Brothers,” released on Nov. 21. It offers a unique take on the fighting game genre, giving players the choice between a stable of characters from across Nintendo’s library, including old favorites (Mario, Luigi, Link,) newcomers (Mega Man, Little Mac and the trainer from Wii Fit) and characters that no one’s ever heard of (Shulk? Marth? R.O.B.?). There are a number of gameplay modes that are a blast to go through, whether alone or with on the couch with friends or connected to other players online. The recently released “Amiibo” line of collectable figurines adds a new dimension to the game, allowing players to train AI fighters to fight against. Those same Amiibos can be used to unlock extra stuff in other Nintendo games.
Another big Wii U release is “Mario Kart 8,” released in May of 2014. The eighth edition of the venerable kart racing series offers new characters, new tracks and the same fast-paced action gamers have enjoyed since the game’s first release, way back in the Super NES era. Like “Super Smash Bros,” the game supports both local and internet-based multiplayer.
Of course, this being a Nintendo platform, there’s a bevy of Mario games on the market, the latest of which is “Super Mario 3D World”. The game offers five playable characters, new items and a more open style of gameplay, reminiscent of earlier 3D Mario titles such as “Mario 64.” It’s an excellent game, and a worthy successor to the Mario throne.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Wii U’s library has been growing steadily since its release, and there are games for every taste, like “Bayonetta” (And its sequel, “Bayonetta 2,”) “The Wonderful 101,” “Pikmin 3,” “Hyrule Warriors” and “Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate” just to name a few. What’s more, the Wii U is almost completely backwards compatible with the Wii’s library and peripherals—something neither the Playstation 4 nor the Xbox One can claim. Older Nintendo games from the NES, Super NES and Gameboy Advance eras are also available through the Virtual Console.
Looking to the future, there’s “Splatoon,” “Xenoblade Chronicles X,” a new, open-world “Zelda” title (As teased by Nintendo during their digital event at E3 2014) and a rumors of a new Star Fox title.
Admittedly, the Wii U isn’t perfect. Despite a long list of solid first-party exclusives, third-party games remain rare. Most Wii U peripherals won’t work with Wii games, meaning that players have to track down Wii remotes, nunchucks and controllers—and those can get expensive. Sales and discounts on games and peripherals are uncommon, and low print runs of the physical copies of some games means that prices for used first-party titles remain high. Nintendo’s internet services aren’t integrated nearly as smoothly as similar systems on the Playstation 4 or Xbox One. And even with the bigger hard drives offered in deluxe models, users frequently need to buy third-party external hard drives to fit all their downloaded games on.
Similarly, many of the Wii U’s benefits are as a result of its lifecycle—as stated before, it was the first of the current-gen, predating its competitors by at least a year. Pickings were slim that first year, and it really took some time for the console to come into its own. That extra year led to a larger first-party library, more development time for new games and deeper price cuts for new consoles.
In many ways, buying a new generation of video game console is an investment. The Playstation 4 and Xbox One have only been around for a year or so. E3 2014 showed that many of Sony and Microsoft’s “big-hitter” games will be coming out in 2015, and it’s no mean feat to imagine that in the coming years, more and more exclusives will come out for both those consoles, and their prices will drop further. As of right now, though, and with the holiday gift-giving season fast approaching, the Wii U looks like a good investment, especially for gamers who want to play with their children or non-gaming family members and even moreso when gamers can pick up a new, deluxe model Wii U bundled with a game for less than $400 (Or even cheaper, depending on the retailer) or a refurbished model for less than $300.
Some poor, unfortunate, fun-hating souls might scoff at the cute characters, bright colors and simple gameplay of many Wii U games. But when the quality of the games is this high, a little bit of color and levity and simplicity can be forgiven, especially for players who have grown tired of grim and gritty settings in games and just want to play something fun.
