Around 12 years ago, I was pretty young and was about to experience the firstNintendohome console launch I was aware of—theWii U’s. I had already loved myWiiand DS growing up, so this new thing excited me like no other.
Of course, that’s not how it went for most gamers. Most people saw a system with some great first-party software, middling hardware, awful loading times, and a gimmick that got in the way more often than not.
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For me, though, and for most Nintendo fans who properly gave the Wii U a chance, it was a rather engaging system and an awesome time to be a fan, with most of us feeling rather sympathetic towards the low sales of the system.
The Wii U sold so terribly that it put Nintendo through dire financial straits, only held together by decent sales from the3DS. This failure was so pronounced, they had to verify their next system did everything differently, no matter what.
The Switch Situation
A few things happened to make theNintendo Switchwhat it was. First, the Wii U’s terrible branding that made it seem like a Wii accessory had to be changed, and one of the biggest misconceptions about the system had to be made a reality.
Plenty of people thought the Wii U would let you take your console games anywhere, including yours truly, and the idea was so inviting that the Switch was built entirely around that concept, a handheld home console with high-quality games.
While that concept started to move around 2014, unfortunately, in 2015, Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, passed away. He was perhaps the best president of any gaming company ever, and that’s for many reasons.
He took a cut to his salary to prevent layoffs. He was a man who genuinely felt passionate about video games, and while he helped work on the Switch at first, Tatsumi Kimishima took the reins after his passing, and a change in leadership was rather apparent.
Kimishima helped pioneer the Switch by going for the objective heavy hitters in the first year—a port of the Mario Kart that barely anyone got to play before, the biggest Zelda game ever, a new 3D Mario, a Splatoon sequel, and more.
These were all great games, but Nintendo slowly began to get more predictable with their releases,gunning for easy Wii U ports, remakes of beloved games, and the occasional new entry in fan-favorite franchises.
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This kept going on and on until the Nintendo Switch games in these last few years have felt entirely dry of creative drive. They’re all good games, objectively, but they’re nowhere near the level of out-of-the-box creativity we used to get.
That feeling of Nintendo going from the game company that just wanted you to have fun while making an affordable console for the whole family drifted away, and that’s even clearer when comparing the systems themselves.
The Wii U Was Great
The idea of a tablet connected to the TV was great, genuinely. It allowed for similarly designed games to the DS, which make use of two screens and keep the game bouncing between different places with a feeling of constant engagement.
It was awesome to me that I could play Smash on the gamepad in bed, and all the games looked just as good as the ones I had on the TV, instead of settling for the downgraded DS-quality titles that pretended to be the same game.
While the Switch provides a similar portability, it also feels incredibly sterile. The bubbly, comforting, and stylized menus are replaced with a boxy, basic UI that functions and provides zero flavor to chew on.
Every Wii U game on Switch had some sort of compromise to contend with, whether it was the removal of Nintendo’s incredibly brave attempt at making a social media platform, or stripping the game of unique features that depended on the gamepad.
On top of the hardware just being more interesting and innovative, Nintendo was doing everything to keep their dedicated Wii U enjoyers happy, going as far as giving you an entire full game for free if you boughtMario Kart 8.
While Nintendo nowadays is figuring out theoptimal way to discount their gamesenough for more people to buy them, Wii U-era Nintendo just dropped half their biggest titles to $20. Meanwhile, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still $60 on the original Switch.
Even then, a large majority of Wii U titles were either under $60 or would be soon after release. Nintendo releasedDonkey Kong Tropical Freezeat $50, dropped it to $20, then re-released it with barely any new content on the Switch for $60, and it’s still that price today.
A gimmicky, small party game like1-2 Switchwould’ve been a $20 downloadable title on Wii U, but the Switch made it a $50 full release, and you can bet it would be a full $60 if it released on the Switch 2.
Switching To The Sequel
After 8 years of the Switch, Nintendo revealed their next system, and instead of something innovative, interesting, and a new product that completely redesigns their past work into something new,it’s an incredibly safe, $450 Switch with some better specs.
While this would be normal for Sony or Microsoft, Nintendo always does something new in the gaming space every time—even with the Switch—but this shows they’re getting super comfortable at the top of sales charts, and feel no need to be better.
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The truth is, even if the Wii U was an innovative, incredibly consumer-friendly system that made Nintendo out to be a friend that genuinely cared about every Wii U owner, it failed, really hard, and they may never want to try anything like it again.
Iwata would have pushed Nintendo to still innovate, to find ways to sell the console at a high quality and a low cost, and to ensure low-income families could afford it, instead of being priced out of their favorite hobby by a greedy corporation.
That era is gone, and now people like me aren’t sure if they can afford anything they put out. Nintendo is telling you that you need a stable, high income to enjoy their games, and they don’t care if you can’t manage to scrape up $500 for Mario Kart.
Microsoft and Sony often get called scummy for releasing consoles that change almost nothing, making people pay for game upgrades, re-releasing games constantly, and constantly raising prices, but now Nintendo is doing the same thing.
I was a dedicated Nintendo fan for over half my entire life, but these last few years of the Switch, I’ve felt far less compelled to support their scummy shift to greedy tactics and awful anti-consumer practices, and it’s made me quite bitter.
Mario Kart World looks like everything I’d ever wanted from the series, Donkey Kong looks like it’ll be just as good as Mario Odyssey, and I love Kirby Air Ride, but I can’t afford all of that without breaking the bank, and that feeling sucks.
Will This Ever Change?
If you’re like me and want a Wii U-era Nintendo back, one that cares about its consumers and won’t do everything in its power to exploit anyone with money, then there’s quite a simple solution—unless you happen to be a game journalist thatneedsto play these games, of course.
Simply don’t buy it. The reason Nintendo was so consumer-friendly in the Wii U era is that they desperately needed to work for their consumers, because no one was buying the Wii U for a variety of reasons.
Now, to send a message that you find this anti-consumerism unacceptable, you simply don’t buy what they put out. You put your money on the table, and only let them have it if they come back with a better offer. Though I’d love to play these games, I don’t need to buy them.
I hate the current state of Triple-A games, and don’t want to sit down and let Nintendo push that state further below the bar than I ever thought possible. I’m not paying to makeZelda run at an acceptable frameratebecause they said I had to.
Devices like the Steam Deck show you can put a very similar amount of power in a similar form factor for $100 cheaper, and Nintendo knows that. They won’t sell this console at anything other than a massive profit, because they think they can.
Regardless of how bad, corporate, and anti-consumer my previously favorite video game company is now, I know you never have to buy what they put out. Other games are always there, and you and me both have a backlog of games to play instead.
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