The Wii U, despite its low sales and numerous flaws, had some truly incredible games launched for it, including the likes ofXenoblade Chronicles X,Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE,Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze,Pikmin 3, and so many more. Naturally, due to the console’s poor sales, the majority of these games were ported to the Nintendo Switch. This was an excellent decision both for Nintendo and the consumer, as more people got access to these great games, and Nintendo made a lot of money from porting its existing library.
However, the release of Wii U ports to the Nintendo Switch slowed down after a while, and a few of the console’s best games were left trapped on the system. It gave people a reason to still buy one in 2024, even despite the eshop closure. Of course, this all changed with the announcement thatXenoblade Chronicles Xis coming to Switch.It’s seemingly the final nail in the Wii U’s coffin, but not something fans should worry about too much, especially thanks to one nifty feature of the Switch 2.
Xenoblade Chronicles X Coming To Switch Has Killed The Wii U
There’s No Reason To Buy One Now
It’s fair to say that onceNintendo shut down the Wii U eshop, there were few reasons left to buy the console. It was already an unpopular device - albeit one that was perhaps a little misunderstood - andfans had the majority of its best games on the Nintendo Switch. However, there were a few titles that were big enough to warrant hopping on eBay and picking up a second-hand Wii U for maybe more than its worth. These games wereXenoblade Chronicles XandThe Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
There are a handful of other titles still stuck on the Wii U. These include a remaster ofTwilight Princess, the party gameNintendo Land, the fairly well-receivedPaper Mario: Color Splash,Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, the controversialStar Fox Zero,Game & Wario, and the dreadfulDevil’s Third. However, of the ones still stuck on the platform in 2024,XBCXandWind Wakerwere the sought-after for Switch ports.
Of course,the aforementionedXenoblade Chronicles Xport put a stop to that, and now, with no eshop or worthwhile exclusives, the Wii U is completely dead. They’re far too expensive secondhand, and the fact that the port ofXBCXis aDefinitive Edition, meaningnew content and enhanced visuals, makes playing the original a downgraded experience.
Fans could still buy one to play the handful of fairly decent exclusives it has left. However, as Nintendo has proven it’s willing to bring over the Wii U game it didn’t think was possible to port,it feels like only a matter of time before those remaining few titles jump ship. Even if fans never seePaper Mario: Color SplashorGame & Warioon the Switch, it already has several of the better games in those series, and isn’t made worse by their absences.
The Switch 2’s Backwards Compatibility Makes The Wii U Redundant
Players Will Be Able To Carry Over Its Entire Library
The Wii U essentially dying, though, isn’t particularly surprising, or really that sad. It only stuck around for five years before the Switch dropped, which was a year less than the Wii, and faded into obscurity the moment Nintendo moved on from it. Its death was always expected, unlike the Wii, which can be bought for relatively cheaply and still has a lot of exclusives that never made it over to the Switch. However, the fact that the majority of its library is basically on the Switch now means that fans don’t ever need to bother with buying one.
To make matters worse, it looks like theNintendo Switch 2 will have full backwards compatibility, meaning that all the Wii U games on the Switch can be carried over, making the console even more redundant.Players will likely be able to buy Switch ports of Wii U games for a long time nowand still play them on modern hardware. This also means Nintendo will still have an incentive to continue bringing over the last holdovers from the Wii U, eventually making it entirely obsolete.
In many ways,it feels like this is what the Wii U was always destined for. Naturally, that isn’t true, as Nintendo didn’t make a console so that it would purposefully fail so it could repackage its games for its next console. That’s ridiculous. However, it does feel like, in a way, the Wii U, with its ability to switch between the TV and its clunky tablet, its huge ambitious titles crammed onto already aging hardware, and its move to more mature games, was the blueprint for the Nintendo Switch.
10 Best Wii U Games Of All Time
During the Nintendo Wii U’s console lifetime, there were many wonderful games released for the system that remain highly regarded even today.
There’s something special about the Wii U dying this way, as it is rare for a console to go out in such a fashion. Older consoles are still kept alive by their library of games, with people picking them up and reliving their childhoods. However, it’s hard to imagine that will ever happen with the Wii U. It’s a modern system that had a small player base that’s unlikely to feel nostalgic for it, had its entire library robbed by its successor, and now has lost the one remaining reason to buy it,Xenoblade Chronicles X.
