Nintendo has run out of parts to fix broken Wii U consoles as the failed format takes its last step towards the grave.
The Wii U was such a failure that it broke the whole concept of console generations. Released in 2012 as a sequel to the hugely successful Wii, it was a complete disaster from the get-go, with a poor game lineup and incredibly little marketing.
Despite the Wii’s success, most people didn’t even know the console existed, with the original model being discontinued in 2015 and all production ceasing in 2016.
In 2017, it was replaced by the Switch – Nintendo’s second generation console – and apart from a steady stream of ports, from a small selection of Wii U exclusive games, the console was quickly forgotten – until now, as Nintendo announced the end of all hardware support for the format.
Nintendo already shut down the Wii U eShop last March, but continued to offer free repairs in Japan until it announced that they had run out of replacement parts.
As early as last May, there were warnings that support would only last as long as spare parts lasted, with repairs in the West already halted due to insufficient demand.
While few will mourn the departure of the Wii U, it does bring with it a number of very good exclusives. For reasons that remain unclear, the excellent Xenoblade Chronicles X still hasn’t been ported to the Switch. Some speculated that it was held back to fill the current period before the Switch 2 launch, but it still hasn’t been announced.
Xenoblade Chronicles X doesn’t particularly make use of the Wii U GamePad, which makes the lack of a port all the more puzzling, but most other games that haven’t made this journey.
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Star Fox Zero could possibly be retrofitted to use normal controls, but the poor reception of the original (even though we liked it) makes that unlikely. Which means the Tower Defense Star Fox Guard deck game is also lost to history.
Then again, no one likes Paper Mario: Color Splash or the terrifying Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, so they’re no loss. There have been rumors that Kirby And The Rainbow Paintbrush will make the jump to the Switch, but given how integral the Wii U GamePad was, it seems impossible that Game & Wario will ever be ported over.
Again, Game & Wario isn’t very good, so few people will bemoan its disappearance, but probably the biggest loss is the opening title, Nintendo Land.
Compiling asymmetric multiplayer games like Mario Chase, Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, and Luigi’s Ghost Mansion have been great fun, yet without a very specific Wii U hardware setup, they can’t work on any other format – at least not with just one console .
The Nintendo Land games had a very short lifespan, but they were excellent party games and it’s sad to know that they can’t be experienced on a modern format or any console once the world’s supply of Wii Us crumbles.
However, it’s not out of the question that a couple of these games, Xenoblade in particular, could appear on the Switch before or even after the release of the next console. Wii U remasters of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess would require very little effort for Nintendo to port, so they also seem relatively likely.
In terms of hardware, although the Wii U is now officially a dead format, and although its early demise gave birth to a much better console, it’s sad to see it take so many unique games with it.
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