Why The Wii U Is Still Totally Worth Buying

The Wii U is nearly dead. As Nintendo looks forward to the NX, the company hopes it can recover from one of it’s least successful ventures in recent history, handily overshadowed by Sony’s Ps4 and Microsoft’s Xbox one. The Wii U is a console based on a bad idea. The whole second screen, dedicated peripheral thing just didn’t pan out, confusing customers even as it failed to bring any meaningful gameplay advantages. And it’s a bad idea that just won’t go away: if you buy a Wii U, you’ve also got to buy that gamepad, and that lone is enough to turn most people off of the thing. But we will, for a second, look past that. The Wii U is still an excellent purchase if you want the thing that it does best.

I would argue that there are two games that make the Wii U a worthwhile buy: Super Smash Bros. Wii U and Mario Kart 8. That’s it. Buy the console, buy those two games, and you just may have gotten your money’s worth. Sure, you could round things out with a Mario in there somewhere, but it’s really those two games, plus a few extra controllers, that make this a special console in the modern landscape.

Both the PS4 and and the Xbox One are pretty abysmal when it comes to local multiplayer. Online play dominates the current gaming landscape, and even a stalwart like Halo decided to trade in its soul for 60 frames per second. But local multiplayer remains ridiculously fun whether you’re ten years old or 60: there’s just something about playing games with people that are actually in the room with you that online play can’t compare with, and it’s something I fear is consistently slipping away from us. ButSuper Smash Bros. Wii U and Mario Kart 8 remain such sterling examples of the genre that they make the Wii U worthwhile on their own.

And yes, there are basically no third party games for this system. Very soon there will be no first party games either. But nobody can take those great games away from the Wii U, nor can they take the endless hours of fun you can have just hanging out and beating on Pikachu. It is not as good a buy as either the Xbox One or PS4, with their deep libraries of varied games and bright futures. But if local multiplayer is what you want, the Wii U is worth it.