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10 reasons why the Wii U failed - and how the Nintendo NX can avoid the same mistakes

Wii messed up

10 reasons why the Wii U failed - and how the Nintendo NX can avoid the same mistakes
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The NX is set to be unveiled any day now.

We're looking forward to seeing what it does new, what sort of games we'll get to play, and what we'll be able to buy at launch.

But we also want to see Nintendo learning from the Wii U. That console floundered and fumbled - and for many different reasons.

Here's why the Wii U failed, and how the NX can avoid the same fate.

Nintendo didn't reveal the console properly REggie

I remember when the Wii U was first announced. Nintendo pulled out the Gamepad, showed off some tech demos, and then left.

The main takeaway, on my Twitter feed at least, was that no one could figure out if this was an all-new console or just a peripheral for the Wii.

By not showing the console itself, and giving it a confusing name, Nintendo suddenly faced an uphill struggle in simply explaining what the damn console did.

Solution: Show the entire console, give it a name that reflects that it's a new console, and clearly show how the various elements will work. The launch games didn't explain the concept properly

Wii Sports isn't the greatest game ever made. But it explained why the Wii was important without ever uttering a word. Playing golf by simply holding the controller like a golf club said everything you needed to know.

Also, it was free and came with every Wii sold.

NintendoLand had some games that showed how multiplayer games would work when the screen was split between the TV and gamepad. But it was fiddly.

And Ubisoft had to explain how the Gamepad would work with singleplayer games, in ZombiU.

Solution: Provide a pack-in or pre-installed game that explains the console's magic. Provide some good launch games that show off the NX's talents. Star Fox Zero just confused matters Star Fox

Star Fox Zero was supposed to show how the Gamepad could improve a singleplayer game. It failed.

The game had you looking at the TV for a view of the battlefield and at the Gamepad for an intimate view through the cockpit. Which sounds good but, ultimately led to a game where your eyes darted between two substandard displays.

It was confusing, clumsy, and ultimately did more harm to the Gamepad than good.

Solution: Hopefully Nintendo will be able to come up with games that better show off the NX's unique strengths. The Wii U was missing critical features

We're not expecting the NX to have the exact same features as an Xbox One S.

But it's kinda strange that the Wii U can't even play DVDs, let alone 4K Blu-Rays. Netflix support was good, but it just showed how the Wii U can't be the only device under your TV.

Solution: Depending on how the NX works, a Blu-Ray player might not really fit. But more entertainment options in general might help more people decide to pick up the console. The Wii U was complex to set up Set up

The Wii U was a bit of a pain to set up. You had to sync your gamepad by playing some card game, put in long passwords, and go through a protracted set up process.

You know how you pair a Dualshock with a PS4? You just plug it in with a cable. Simple!

Solution: Steal that idea from the PS4, and generally try to reduce the number of steps between plugging in the console and playing a game. Hide advanced features in the settings for later. The Wii U's backwards compatibility was lacking

Okay, so until the Xbox One added some Xbox 360 games, the Wii U was the only current gen console that could play older games. We'll give Nintendo that.

But the Wii U couldn't play Gamecube games even though the hardware totally supports it (just ask hackers!), and Wii games weren't given any special treatment like Xbox games on 360.

And we had to pay again to make virtual console games work on the gamepad and show up on the Wii U homescreen. Nintendo, we know you just downloaded ROMs off the internet. Stop charging us over and over.

Solution: Any backwards compatibility is welcome, but we don't want to pay again and again for patched virtual console games and HD remasters. The Wii U's battery life was garbage Battery

The gamepad is cool bu- oh. My battery ran out. Lemme charge it up. Okay, the problem with the gamepad is that the ba- oh. Flat again. Sigh.

The Nintendo Game Boy lasted about eight years on a handful of double A batteries. The 3DS can barely do a couple days and the Wii U gamepad lasts about six seconds.

Solution: Bigger batteries! The gamepad was standard definition

There's no getting around this: the gamepad looked rough. Compare it to the screen on a Vita or an iPad and it just looks mushy and gross.

The 3DS can get away with a low resolution because the games are made for it. But putting sharp, 1080p games on a screen like that is essentially a war crime.

Solution: If the NX has a screen in the controller again, it needs to be 720p at the very least. The Wii U had almost no third party games Batman

Ubisoft was there for a bit. And we got Arkham Origins and Deus Ex. But soon enough the third party support dried up, meaning Nintendo had to make almost every Wii U game itself to keep the library stocked.

Oh, and then there are the third party exclusives. Look, Nintendo, sometimes you've got to put your money on the line. Sony coughed up for Street Fighter and Microsoft paid up for Tomb Raider.

Solution: Do whatever it takes to keep publishers making NX games, and cough up for some non-Nintendo exclusives. Nintendo still doesn't get online

Look, I'm not going to go into detail on how Nintendo still doesn't get online. About how Mario Maker was a pain and how Splatoon's online service was like Xbox Live circa-2004.

Solution: Get some engineers in who know how online stuff works. And catch up on things like sharing screenshots to Twitter and videos to YouTube.
Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer