TOKYO: As is the case every year, I spent my holiday break doing two things: eating too much takeout food and playing lots of video games. While I fulfilled my takeout quota with flying colors, there was something different about my annual holiday game binge — it was done almost entirely on my new Nintendo Wii U.
Even as my more powerful Xbox One sat in my living room, begging me to finally start my inevitable 80-hour Dragon Age adventure, it was Nintendo’s humble brick that kept me hooked. Maybe it was the fact that I could slay demons in Bayonetta 2 while still watching football on TV. Or the fact that my controller has a built-in touch screen perfect for navigating Netflix and YouTube. Or, simply, it’s the fact that the Wii U offers some of the most polished, smartly crafted games on any console.
From the sheer joy delivered by Nintendo’s top-notch exclusives to the surprising versatility of the system’s tabletlike GamePad, I’m convinced that the $300 Wii U is the best gaming console
As publishers continue to rush out broken, buggy games at the expense of gamers everywhere, Nintendo remains defiantly committed to quality. In a year when high-profile titles such as Assassin’s Creed Unity, Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Driveclub came stumbling out of the gate with game-breaking issues, Nintendo churned out hits like Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, all of which exuded the level of painstaking polish that the brand is known for.
Of course, good games need to do more than simply work, and the Wii U’s diverse library delivers in spades when it comes to fun. There’s simply no better system for playing games with friends, whether you’re throwing banana peels in Mario Kart 8, engaging in eight-man brawls in Super Smash Bros. or barreling through frozen jungles together in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
The Wii U has more than just the nostalgic lure of Mario and company going for it, too. Hack-and-slash hit Bayonetta 2 proves there’s a place for adult action games on Nintendo’s console, and 2014 multiplatform game of the year contenders Child of Light and Shovel Knight shine on the system.
The Wii U can’t rival the third-party support of its competitors, but games like Resident Evil: Revelations, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Mass Effect 3 (and if you really must, Watch Dogs) ensure that there’s something for everyone. Thanks to the Wii U GamePad’s unique touch screen, these titles often pack second-screen features that their non-Nintendo versions lack.
While Xbox 360 and PS3 games are useless on the Xbox One and PS4, the Wii U is compatible with just about all of the 1,300-plus games released for the original Wii. That gives the Wii U the largest library of any new-gen console, and provides a perfect excuse for checking out classics like Super Mario Galaxy or the Metroid Prime trilogy for the first time. Most Wii peripherals carry over to Wii U as well, which will save you a pricey trip to GameStop in search of extra controllers for your weekly Mario Kart tournament.
When you factor in the Wii U’s stunning new-generation offerings, a massive back catalog, downloadable NES, Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance classics and a steady stream of indies, you’ve got a library of titles that no other platform can top.
When Nintendo debuted the Wii U’s touchscreen GamePad in 2012, I laughed, brushing it off as a gimmick guaranteed to fail. Flash forward to 2014, and it’s my absolute favorite thing about the system. Like the motion-sensing Wii Remote before it, the Wii U GamePad reinforces the fact that it’s not just the games that make Nintendo consoles special, it’s the way you play them.
