Here it is the end of the Wii U, In January 2017 Nintendo Confirmed that the Wii U was no longer in production and that The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would be its last game for it. This was a bittersweet moment for me, The Nintendo Switch looked like everything we all wanted the Wii U to be, truly a handheld - Console hybrid but i dunno, i still loved my Wii U ya know?
So in the final part of my Wii U journey i talk 2017 and beyond!
The Best Swansong
In March 2017 the Switch launched alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild for both it and the Wii U. So we did get a Switch at launch but as my partner is by far the bigger Zelda fan she bought the special edition and played BOTW on that but i wanted to play it as well so i picked up the Wii U version!
BOTW was a mindblowing game last year. Never before had a Nintendo game felt so modern whilst keeping its core design intact. Beyond a short tutorial section the whole map is open for you to explore! Want to find all the shrines? DO IT. Want to find all the story cut scenes? DO IT. Want to walk straight up to Ganon and take him down with a stick? TRY IT. It was amazing!
It is fundamentally a return to the formula of the first game in the series and to some this was a massive negative. By this point the Ocarina of Time/Link to the past formula of dungeons, dungeon items and gear had become the established norm for the franchise. I personally found the return to open non linear design to be extremely refreshing and aside from Xenoblade X there really isn't anything like it on the Wii U!
The Wii U version is also a fantastic version of the game. There is a lot of presumption that the Wii U version is vastly inferior to the Switch version but to be perfectly honest they are almost the same. The Switch's newer hardware helps it keep a slightly better frame rate during intense moments but overall you would really struggle to notice the difference if they were played in front of you! The Wii U also got all the DLC for the game and that is again fantastic, if you have the Wii U and not a Switch i would highly suggest that you pick this up! It will also end up being a very expensive game in about a decades time, mark my words!
I really need to sit down and write a proper review for Breath of the Wild and i probably will at some point!
The only other title released to the mass market was Darksiders: Warmastered Edition in May. Now i did a full review of this a few weeks ago so please check out that if you want more info but its a pretty solid version of a pretty good game!
The Backlog!
After that the Wii U was basically done, there was a few indie physical releases such as Axiom Verge and Shantae but they were released in incredibly small quantities so i wont count them here and of course there will be Just Dance releases until at least 2019! So i used the rest of 2017 and 2018 to catch up on my backlog! Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Paper Mario Colour Splash and the aforementioned Darksiders were all games i caught up on in 2018. I have reviews for all 3 on here so check them out!
Beyond this year i am planning to play through and catch up on alot of the titles i have missed throughout the years! Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Sonic Lost World, Super Mario Maker, Xenoblade X and many more are sat on my shelf waiting for a quiet spell in my gaming calendar!
A Closing Thought
Overall after looking back on my time with the Wii U i cant help but feel a little sad at its failure. I loved this little thing, for the last 5 or so years it has been my preferred platform full of great games that you couldn't play anywhere else at the time, The third party support died a death after 2 years but for those 2 years i picked up a ton of stuff i didnt pick up on Xbox 360 before and it felt like the console i wanted it to be, Alas the Switch is out now and kicking ass and maybe one day i will feel as strongly about that as i do the Wii U but for now the Wii U sits in the top tier of my favourite consoles of all time and i look forward to playing and writing about it for years to come!
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