Just Gonna Go Ahead and throw this out there that I think the reason why it seems like they are not supporting it as much as they used to is because they are pouring all their resources into developing Tears of the kingdom. My guess is that the tears of the kingdom has been nearly Complete for a while now. But now I think that nintendo struggles with the current strength of their console as far as hardware goes. I have a nagging feeling that because nintendo cares about the fidelity of their first party titles developed in house, That a good deal of development time has been spent optimizing the game.
I do think that both Iwata and Reggie gave Nintendo a humanity and humility that hadn't been seen before, or really since, in the executive branch of Nintendo. Iwata describing himself as a gamer foremost I think was very much lived out in his philosophies and approaches to everything he did; his actual gamer personality made it genuine. And one of the reasons why Reggie was such an effective marketer is because he connected with people on a genuine level, even when not being as avid a gamer. He was a person.
@@alexandrebelair4360this, 100 percent this. Iwata era Nintendo did some very shady stuff, never forget how they would sue people for 50 million dollars and how they treated content creators
@@chooongusbug724 barely anyone ended up paying anything after getting sued. Nintendo just wanted it to be news to scare off other bad actors, and they made that clear to those found guilty. Wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. The creator program stuff was kinda whack though.
Ever since Iwata passed and Reggie left, I haven't stopped thinking about those two. Nintendo feels completely different now. They've gone from creative to professional in mindset to appease investors, which is a path a majority of companies have taken nowadays. Although I keep thinking about the time when Iwata was still alive, and I have to say I haven't really thought much about Iwata until his passing, but he was really a true gamer more than a businessman. He balanced both his professional life and gaming life in a way that was attractive to everyone other than investors. He went out of his way to make sure what he was working on was the best possible product he could make, even if it shortened his life, which is why I think he died early as dark as that sounds. In a way, I think Nintendo's new direction is punishment for not considering the health of those who did everything they could to satisfy us, but that's just me.
@@yxxnkxm I'm including Reggie because he was friends with Iwata, and I felt like when they were around, Nintendo was synergetic in more angles than one. What Iwata and Reggie have in common was that they were mainly the spokesman for the company, and they always felt present. It probably isn't essential nowadays to be that way, but that sort of behavior can foster a creative environment to its peak. In general, I think the both of them set the example of how a true leader should be, but we still have yet for someone else to follow their footsteps.
I just like the idea of picking up and playing a game. I am one of those gamers that realize as nice as "sound effects" and charm is I want to play games. I never want to see apologetic Nintendo again. I don't want to not know how it feels like to panic because there are too many good games to play.
I think Satoru Iwata was the main reason that Nintendo was great. Since his passing, I think they are going somewhere else.. Just a feeling I have right now
They're definitely going somewhere else and it's right to the bank with all the success they've managed to have in recent years. Nintendo is at the mountain top finally after generations of just barely reaching it and surviving the fall off the mountain with the Wii U.
@@coltonwilkie241Not even their most profitable system yet calm down. Also, you left out the greed, bad online, and lackluster legacy support. An ecosystem where you own nothing is eventually where they are going, just rent all your oldies.
@@InkyBlitz actual coping the switch is their most profitable system ever. It hasn’t gotten a price drop even the games. The games are the highest selling in the series. And it has been the most profitable since 2020. Regardless if that’s how you feel that’s fine
@@neoPeake No, it isn't. The Nintendo DS is. It takes all but 3 seconds to confirm this. I never discounted the major success of the Switch. It's their most successful HOME SYSTEM thus far, and I own one. It isn't their biggest system yet, and there's still a chance it might not be. There's a reason I said "yet" I'd be shocked if the NDS was supplanted despite the success. Especially since we've reached the end of the Switch's life.
@@InkyBlitz yup you find the official life time sale and if you’ll see that the switch sold more software. Not just that if you multiply unit sold and price that they are sold at the switch made more profit. Sure the DS sold more but the switch made more money. It’s simple math lil bro
I remember when the Switch first came out and was missing Netflix, I thought to myself. “Oh, it’s just because it’s new. In a few months, I’m sure we’ll have it.” Nearly six years later, I’m realizing that I thought that about a lot of features. Themes, the virtual console, a web browser, but the Switch today still feels like it’s missing a lot of basic features, like we’re still in that first year and waiting for those features to come.
It clear that console features haven't been a priority. It does make sense though because nowadays everyone has another device that does all that for them, which is probably why Nintendo chose to focus solely on the games, but it still sucks for the people that valued those features.
@@wizawhat I was one. The Wii U was the central control hub for my TV. I used it to browse the web, watch online movies and videos, etc., and it was much more convenient than other options.
It's also about security and speed. The web browser proved to be a weak point in the past, so that had to go, and the Wii U menu was slow AF, so they've kept everything very minimalist this time around.
The old Nintendo directs were like seeing old friends and spending quality time with them - the new ones are like getting presents on Christmas morning. Both are worth getting excited for but only one fills your cup back up and strengthens bonds. I wouldn’t want Christmas every day but I’d kill to see my best friends every day.
This video perfectly encapsulates the feeling of emptiness I get when booting up my switch. I never had a Wii U, but the old Nintendo experience was still strong in my time with the 3ds. When I look at my excitement from getting my first 3ds and utilizing its extra little AR Camera features, it makes me realize how much the switch just lacks life to it. Being able to take pictures and place my mii on my birthday cake, hearing the menu music that felt like home, the eventual addition of themes, the little mascots on certain menus, it all made the 3ds feel like more than just a device to play games on, it was pure joy in a way I think the switch can never replicate.
I respect you feel that way. However I thought those things were kind of goofy I just wanted to play the games and the switch is heading towards 10x the games as the Wii U had, 10811 compared to 1381. To me and my interests, that is game set and match.
One of the things I've noticed that really backs up this video is the overall UI of the systems. You touched on this comparing the Wii U and Switch home screens, but in that same era was the 3DS, which still offers a MASSIVE library of themes as far as handheld systems go. It even had cool backgrounds for games not even on the system itself, like Breath of the Wild. Early on in the switch's lifespan I remember being excited to see what kind of cool themes would release for it, but to this day the options are still literally called "Basic" white and black.
@@o-neil I had that one too, pretty neat of Nintendo to add on themes from games that weren't even necessarily 3DS titles. It was good marketing for sure lol but definitely also a nice option to offer for fans.
The Wii U's sense of community is what I miss the most, the starting menu showed groups of Mii's gathered around discussing different things about the game that they were playing, and with the use of the Miiverse games like Splatoon and smash 4 felt alive and you never really felt alone while playing a game, even if it was a single player game. It had such a fun sense of community that I haven't really seen since the Wii U and it honestly made my time with the Wii U really enjoyable. When you can make someone like me who isn't a fan of multiplayer games have fun with one then you did something right.
Funny, I never had a Wii U, but when looking other people's videos, pics, etc. The main menus and miiverse integration into games always seemed to have a nice atmosphere, it really felt "alive"
I always loved the vibe the Wii U had. From the unique menu ui to the chill but heartwarming songs of the eshop. Even Miiverse was a fun social expirement that had a unique feeling that no other social media platforms could replicate. And the games were unmatched, fundamentally challenging many of their core series to make unique, innovative that we’re still fun and felt like they still understood the core identity of that series. It’s just to nice to know someone feels the same way I do.
Okay, you're speaking to me on a spiritual level. It's making me feel emotional. I know they were always a big corporation but I miss when they seemed like a bunch of cool people making cool toys rather than the stoic entertainment company they present themselves as now. Even just doing "Furukawa Asks" articles and videos would make a big difference, we've only had a couple of interviews in that style since Iwata passed.
The unfortunate thing is, the legendary developers behind some of these big franchises are moving away from designing them and getting ever closer to retiring. The window to hear them speak about game development closes nearer, all the while their successors/understudies that _are_ designing these games don’t get to say anything.
@Jaquan Kelsor People enjoy art, and can sometimes have a profound effect on our culture. It’s normal to be curious about creators’ reasons and inspirations behind their choices. Especially for a new medium where a lot of people who started it are still alive and _can_ be asked and have information archived. Unlike film where a lot of its origins and works have eroded or died off. That can be (and to some extent has) prevented. I have to wonder why you even watched this video if you think so little of art and artists/creators, as it’s obvious from the headline that’s what it would be about. Why waste your time watching (and responding) to something you disdain? Don’t waste your time if that’s how you feel.
@Jaquan Kelsor There’s a difference between “disagree, but want to hear the other side of the argument”m and having your mind made up. Which would then make it pointless to watch the video because you weren’t open to change to start. That’s the impression I got. I’m still not sure what exactly it is you’re complaining about, if you could be more specific. “…bend over to the company” for what? That implies a scenario where the subject justifying the company taking advantage of them because they hav a favourable bias towards that company. But nothing detrimental is happening. People are just interested to know other’s artistic inspirations. Why is it okay to love games, but not be interested in what inspired someone to create them? If you see it as art, why devalue it and say “they’re just some worker” as if they’re just mindless grunts? If your point is “people are more interesting in [higher level creative] than [lower level artist/musician/etc], there’s plenty of reasonable reasons for that. People only have enough memory to remember so many things/people. It makes sense people gravitate towards the most notable, rather than every single worker, because it’s not possible to remember that many people. And more importantly, you can’t be aware of what each person contributed in the first place. If people wanted to know, it’s not even documented (and they aren’t all on social media or be public about it). Plus, you have to be interested in that game to even be interested in the staff behind it. Nintendo is obviously going to have a lot of attention around them because they’ve been around (in gaming) for 40+ years, basically since it’s inception, still making hardware and some of the most notable franchises and game consoles of all time. These creators created _decade-spanning_ franchises. Most IP don’t last that long, only a handful become that successful and have an impact on pop culture. It’s a miracle if you do, and some people have _multiple_ franchises like these under their belt. This isn’t limited to Nintendo fans, or even the upper echelon. People follow individual artists, musicians, designers, and so on. It all depends on what people are _personally_ interested in. You focus on “Nintendo fans” as a group, because it’s a large enough group for _you_ to notice, but pretend like people don’t do it with individuals or even other industries. “Do you think highly off[…] the company that made the car you drive around in?” This is silly, because one of the most common questions is/was “what is the make and model of your car?” Because a lot of people _are_ interested in car designs (aesthetically and mechanically). If what you meant was “I don’t think someone likes Ford cars and justifies the company’s choices, the way Nintendo fans would”, you’d probably be wrong, but you’re just not aware of them (and younger people not caring about cars as much as the older generations). But also, that’s a completely different topic than what I mentioned anyway. “Films/tv haven’t eroded either, they stay static in time and you can watch a movie or show you enjoyed ten years ago” My point was about the origins of film. They started in 1895, yet films from then until at least the 1930’s weren’t preserved (or preserved correctly) and hundreds of film reels eroded and are lost to time. Same goes for more information about its origins because the people involved died and preservation wasn’t thought about (or easy) until much later. With video games, that industry started just before the birth of the internet (late 70’s). Information could be easily catalogued much sooner (90’s/00’s), and there were plenty of magazines that had developer interviews for games as early as the NES, and probably even Atari 2600. Video games are a young enough medium where we _can and have_ preserved its origins, and we’re lucky enough to live in a time where people who were there when it started or created franchises that have lasted for almost as long as the medium has existed, are still alive. We can still ask them questions before we lose that opportunity (they retire or die). Every other industry before was subject to paper which can get lost or deteriorate beyond comprehension. That’s not an issue anymore because we have the internet where dozens of websites could archive the same information if one goes down. I think it’s extremely important to recognize this opportunity because there is no second chance. I follow channels like The Gaming Historian and Did You Know Gaming because I like hearing about game history. Some of which we’re getting _new_ information because these channels contacted people involved (who are still alive) and they spoke about their experience and talked about concepts or showed art or what have you. I have no personal attachment to Metroid for example, but that doesn’t mean DYKG’s interview about ex-Retro Studios staff wasn’t interesting. Same goes for the baseball accessory the Gaming Historian talked about. “Why games and not cars, sandwiches, etc?” Because I personally care more about games. Someone else cares more about cars. And I’m sure there’s people who care about the presentation of sandwiches (it’s even a category that’s graded on cooking competition shows). That just comes down to personal tastes/interests. There’s nothing wrong with that.
2001 to 2015 Nintendo had a "heart" but when Iwata died, Nintendo went back to its roots, becoming a soulless corporation. the iwata era was one filled with success, failure but in the end they still had heart.
If they had heart they wouldn't have failed so miserably. Clearly their heart wasn't in it otherwise the Wii U era would've been a massive success, but it ended up being a massive blunder.
I feel like this video perfectly summed up my thoughts about the wii u and switch. The switch feels safe, almost sterile and lifeless. While every time I boot up my wii u or 3ds, I just feel happy and ready to play something. Little things like the ui and themes go a long way for me. I'm really disappointed that nintendo didn't do anything creative or fun with the switch ui.
Yknow "safe" is actually a really good way to describe it. Maybe Nintendo wanted to draw people in with a sleek, no-nonsense UI after the Wii U's failure, and maybe with Switch 2 they'll be more willing to give it some character? Idk, I hope so, I love the Switch but the interface is painfully........meh....
I'm glad more and more people are coming out and saying this. I love the Switch, but it's the least "Nintendo" Nintendo system I've ever played. Everyone thought the Wii U Gamepad was a big Fisher Price tablet, but I think the Switch is a budget Android tablet with some of the flimsiest, dead on arrival controllers my hands have ever touched. What I'd give for the Switch to have more of the Wii U's character
@@solarwinds5114 I’ll take a lazy UI if it means we got some of the most critically acclaimed games Nintendo’s ever made and actual third party support lol😊
Nintendo is like Disney. Once both was companies that just seemed like they had endless of magic. Now both companies are greedier then ever, have no connection with long time supporters and overall not producing much unique things. Interestingly they both started to dwindle at the same point.
They aren't dwindling in the slightest. Not financially, by any metric. Both Nintendo, as Disney are on the peak of there corporate performance. By far. Nintendo does need to make a pro version of the Switch though. Without losing acces to the massive Switch library of games. No wacky new 'features', just build on the success formular with keeping crossgen compatible with the XBSS/XBSX and the PS5. That's all they need to keep the gravy train going 😉
@@MrMickey1987 Nintendo financially is one thing. They doing fine, but for how long will that keep up when more and more people with income slow down there spending on there products and services. And more people turn there backs on them for having the repeated experience of anti-consumer friendly. Nintendo don't care about there old-school supporters who have been there since the late 80's or early 90's despite THAT GROUP have been the most spending one as well. There was never much they needed to do for this group, and it would in the longer run bring more loyal costumers. And NO, any reprresentative that use "consume" services or products is losing my attention because that is my line. I'm a costumer, not a consumer when I commit purchases. BUT Disney Corporation is not doing great. They have lost $billions on commercially failed movies & series and lost even more support capital from there former fans of Marvel & LucasFilm. There merchandise have lost sellong power as well and rightfully so as there ever exposing woke-agendas have proven to be toxic by nature and creates BS.
@@MrMickey1987 Probably misunderstood the point Yes, they are both now much more profitable than they've ever been, but in the process it's like the quality (AKA: "Endless Magic") of their work has gone down significantly, relying mostly on third party studios (Integrating them into the core brand in Nintendo's case and outright just buying them in Disney's case). Not a 1-1 case, Disney owns much more, but there are some similarities in their histories.
@@Axel230 I'd rather have Nintendo successful with owning their niche (the hybrid console market) instead of them pushing some new wacky feature as a tie in to their new console in the name of creativity and flaming out big time. They struck lightning with the Wii. That won't happen again. Their entire history worked towards the Switch. That's what Nintendo is all about. A great console experience on the go, that's their thing. Just up the power enough to keep cross gen happening, so they keep the third party developers happy, while at the same time keep pushing out stellar first party games. That's it, that secures Nintendo's place in a three horse market. They cannot beat Sony and Microsoft at there own game. They should not even try it. The handheld is where Nintendo's strength's at, it has been since the Gameboy. The tech finally has catched up far enough to make their hybrid destiny a reality. That's Nintendo's end game, right there!
@@MrMickey1987 Valid point but I dunno, it's like the "Weird & Creative" factor that always characterized Nintendo is starting to take a back seat for a more average console experience. It's respectable and understandable why they'd aim for a more general console experience (Which does have a bit of creativity being hybrid), but can't deny the wacky factor had its own kind of appeal that made Nintendo stuff feel unique. It's like Valve is slowly taking that place instead now, having tried their hands at VR and their own Hybrid console, but even Valve hasn't released a unique title in the past decade besides Half Life Alyx.
I def agree with the Wii U take. I spent countless hours playing BO2, Nintendo Land, MK8 and smash. I loved Miiverse. I most especially miss their creative E3 presentations. Miyamoto with the shield, Wii would like to play, the puppets, Iwata vs Reggie. All that charm just feels gone. Thank you so much for this video that really touches on something a lot of us feel but never really understood
As a 2010s kids, I grew up in the Wii U era. It’s still hard to believe it was Nintendo’s worst selling MAINLINE console when so many of my friends had it. I mean it made sense since we we’re basically the only people who bought it as anyone over the age of 10 would have been burned by the bad commercials and turned to the PS4 or maybe Xbox One instead.
@@S.J.C._Entertainment True. Because all of the cool people owned one. The reason why the Wii & Switch sold more is because the Wii was owned by so many seniors and the Switch is owned by so many adults.
I still find it crazy the Xbox One sold so much better with a worse library of exclusives and lesser value. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S made their predecessors obsolete. The Switch didn’t do that with the Wii U, it just made people appreciate the Wii U more and realize the Switch, while still a good console, is kinda overrated.
@@ThomastheDankEngine8900 true. Which is why unfortunately Nintendo is shutting down the eshop because they know that people are still praising the wii u and 3ds for it's virtual console and better UI. That and Nintendo probably isn't happy that people don't like switch online and aren't using it or it doesn't have as much subscribers as they like. I highly doubt it's because of inflation or financial issues because they've recovered from the wii u and are the richest company in Japan today. Why can't Nintendo be like how they were in the wii and ds to wii u and 3ds days? They were so much consumer friendly back then and now. They don't care about their fans at all and treat us like trash. =( and i guess another problem is people just accepting that Nintendo is this way now like in terms of greediness or they don't care or use arguements like inflation which doesn't make sense because again they're the richest company in Japan right now. They don't have to charge 70 bucks or 60 bucks for games. But they will cas they can get away with it because some people will buy anything Nintendo regardless of quality. It's just sad honestly. =( sorry for long rant
Switch erased 3DS's amaizing stuff too, like Streetpass. 3DS was very similar to WiiU in many regards, and none of that is left in the Switch. Many best 3DS games weren't even ported, so WiiU's legacy is better preserved on the Switch. Switch release also caused WiiU's version of Breath of the Wild losing tablet features, like map, which was previously shown (on a Direct, I believe). 34:20 I think one can find quite a few simillarities between "Modern Directs" and The Game Awards: lots of trailers, not enough time to talk about why any of the game was nominated and why the winner was chosen. Both feel sanitized and are full of ads.
I was literally falling asleep during The Game Awards for that exact reason. Back in the day I thought all I wanted was less talking more gaming, but at least since I've become an adult I've gained much more appreciation for the developer insight and discussion
@@RTU130 wanna meet up, so I can share puzzle swap pieces? I finished all of the available panels I ever downloaded. SP felt like a hidden community. I sat at the relays to share my data with others. It was more of a feature than what they did to the mii on the switch.
I definitely took the social features for granted at the time with my 3DSXL. I forgot about Miiverse, and I do miss it. You captured that social element so well!
@@cookieguy9885 why not in execution? it outsold both those consoles. I loved the GCN and owned the Wii btw. Both those consoles had constant dry spells. especially the Wii which fell off hard in 2008.
In a lot of ways I feel similar to you in regards to the switch management. For some games it even made me feel bad about giving them money and, most of all, participating in the stats that tell them "yeah you can keep doing this, you're doing fine". I remember fondly the times of the Wii U, even when it wasn't perfect, I feel like they took risks, they took chances, and they were always thinking of taking care of the little customers they had. Hearing about the passion the game developers have for the games is always incredible, and it's something I miss very much. But, even when I've started to drift away from Nintendo and its console, I look to the future with hope. Hope that someday this massive company might start feeling a little bit more like the home it used to be for me.
Couldn't agree more. Even if at the end of the day, all corporations are trying to suck the money out of us, I appreciate when the they at least try to make us feel valued. I don't really feel that this generation and I definitely feel more alienated from the developer's perspective than last gen.
@@wizawhat I hope Nintendo can a have a second golden age. Or even better, A Platinum Age. No out of control copyright law, no shady decisions, just pure passion and fun.
@@rickyrackey7930 if you actually think the Wii U was a "golden age" but the Switch isn't, then I'm sorry to say that you are in an EXTREME minority on that opinion. Switch is the first time it's felt like they've been trying since the SNES days!
@@rogertaylor5538 I think the switch is the first time that I’ve truly been interested in an Nintendo console probably since the Nintendo 64 oh, more recently, or at least my last Nintendo system I had, which was the Wii.
I think the same thing could be said about Splatoon on WiiU. It's a 3rd person shooter game but when you need to superjump to your teammate you glance down and FIND your teammates to jump to and when you use the inkstrike special your Inkling PULLS OUT A MODDED WiiU where you both pick a spot and fire. The game pad was meant to be immersive and it made me FEEL immersed Thanks WiiU, you helped create my childhood and one of the strongest franchises in nintendos arsenal
I love the Switch and definitely fixed a lot of issues that the Wii U had but I REALLY miss the charm that the 3DS and Wii U had. They could at least give us some music or themes on the Switch menu.
I'm saving up a bit for a new 3DS to homebrew, can't wait to have it in my grubby little hands! I desperately want the 3/2DS family to get back into fashion
It's interesting to see how the perception of what constitutes 'old Nintendo' has evolved over time. For many long-time fans, 'old Nintendo' refers to the pre-Wii era, encompassing the GameCube and all prior systems. They often reminisce about the iconic Nintendo E3 shows, seeing the company's peak in the legendary 2004 E3 event. The Wii-U era is not worth mentioning for the older generation. The fact that this time is referred to as the 'old Nintendo era' by the video creator, shows how big a role nostalgia can play.
There's a generational difference. A lot of fans who grew up with the Gameboy and (S)NES seem to like the Switch 's minimalistic UI. They say it's great for just playing games and avoids the bloat of later Nintendo systems. However, gen Z and younger millennials, those who grew up with the Wii, Wii U, and DS family, think it feels soulless without a UI. They're used to the Mii Channel, charming quirks like 3D, and even Netflix. The Switch lacks that.
@@supervivo7069 I think the Switch, while having some amazing games on it, is pretty soulless and I grew up with consoles that didn't have main menus you were supposed to normally see. Nintendo used to be ABOUT being charming, even to a fault, but it seems like they are moving away from that, and I think in some ways that's a bit sad.
I agree. The Wii and Wii U was not old Nintendo. It was new Nintendo trying to gain the non-gamer market because they couldn't compete with Sony Playstation and even Xbox. Most of the fans of Nintendo had grown up and just wanted more adult oriented game. But now there is a change in trend in gaming. It's going back to the old ways of platforming, simple games to pick up game. The Switch brought back the old casual gamers.
Awesome video, it's really evident that Nintendo was turning away from the wii u as hard as they could with the switch in terms of how it felt. The mii maker is hidden in the settings and the lack of music and themes make it feel more like a machine than an environment for games. I'm hopeful for the future however, now Nintendo is in a comfortable position thanks to the switch they could be more relaxed with the next console meaning there's room for the developers to be a lot more creative. I love the switch but I think it's time for a refresh with a new console.
As long as that refresh is a switch successor with backwards, compatibility with the current Nintendo switch library, then I’m all for because it would be a mistake for Nintendo to drop backwards, compatibility with the current switch library.
In many ways I feel the same way about Sony. The PSP, PS3, and especially the Vita felt like Sonys most ambitious consoles, and even if first party support didn't stick around super long for those platforms, the games they did create were some of the most diverse and creative. With Sony's more successful consoles, the games feel a lot more safe. It's kinda hard to believe the PS4 and Vita were part of the same generation, because the differences in approach between them were just so massive. I think in the case of both Nintendo and Sony, when they're struggling they're much more willing to just throw anything at the wall to see what works, whereas they're much more calculated in periods of success.
youre sooo right. i cant see open world action adventures with too long storys anymore. i miss tearaway wipeout ape escape parappa the rapper gravity rush
@@user-pn9xp1gz2l Nintendo ok, but they're few and far between. Sony.. eh.... they're loved by the media but consist of a lot of surface level "cinematic experiences" with fancy graphics games.
Even Xbox all of them died with Switch Ps4 and xbox one i will always remember the old sony and Nintendo even Microsoft men i miss my old PlayStation times who the studios was in japan and hat hot anime girl games zero censored things and had so many cool little tool in the ps3 system the ps5 feels empty soulless and the company becoming American destroyed everything else its over for all 3 but Nintendo has the most potential to save them sony is gone forever
I really miss Miiverse and Wii U Chat in particular. Those two apps helped me make and connect with friends in a way that I have not experienced since. The Switch just has a barebones phone app (which isn’t even widely accessible) and that’s pretty much it. Not saying it needs something similar, but they just feel so disconnected in comparison.
Thank you for making this video. You were able to put into words a lot of what I've been feeling with the state of modern Nintendo, but never really was sure what it was. I guess in a way I feel a bit of relief/vindication knowing now that I'm not the only one who feels this way
i stayed up until 2 am to watch this and you made something special. miiverse was so special with me interacting with so many people all across the world who cared about the same things as me was captivating. all the features of the wii u with miiverse, or video chat, and the main plaza showing what you’re friends were doing made it feel so personal and special and that is where it outshines the switch
Holy shit, I’ve had this viewpoint for YEARS and thought I was alone on this. I’m actually freaking out over someone having my exact same feelings on this subject
Another thing is that the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS were all meant to be more than gaming systems, but integrated in daily life. Like the Wii Forecast and News channels, the Wii U's TVii and video chat, and the 3DS and even DSi's photo and audio apps.
The switch feels way more lifeless than the Wii U simply because it lacks system/store music. The Wii U eshop music right now, a week before you can buy anymore games, sounds so sad dude.
Personally, I bump the WiiU shop music out of my stereo whenever I shop online. Should have an app made that cranks that shit automatically whenever I open up amazon
For me it's not just the Wii U, but the 3DS as well. When the Switch was released and didn't have things such as themes, streetpass, play coins, AR, download play, etc. it was something I expected them to still be working on. I expected that they just needed to push the Switch out for BOTW, and hadn't finished all those other features yet. I really thought they'd announce those at a later date, but no attempt was ever made. I think that's my main problem with the switch. Every time before that a new console/handheld leaned on its predecessor and made it better by adding new features. The Switch didn't do that, it did not combine the strengths and weaknesses of it's predecessors, as I expected from a hybrid system, it was just a hard reset of all these systems.
The switch has good games sure but I hate the console itself. Rather than combine the strengths of handhelds and home consoles all it did was combine the weaknesses. It’s a bad portable console as it’s hard to carry around and it has barely any battery life. It’s too weak and underpowered to be a good home console. The joycons are too small to be comfortable and suffer a bad case of drift, and finally basically none of its unique features ever get any use. I hope Nintendo can put in the effort to make their next console decent.
As a lifelong Nintendo fan I absolutely loved this video. You captured exactly what I've been feeling these past few years, especially as an Animal Crossing fan. These games just don't have soul anymore, they cater to an audience that isn't us, the diehard Nintendo supporters. It's totally okay to look for new gamers, which New Horizons and the Switch in general certainly did, but what's not okay is neglecting your core audience for it. Animal Crossing was never about customization, it was about community, and so is Nintendo. I'm trying to stay hopeful for the next console, but I don't think anything will ever reach the love I had for the DS, the Wii and the Wii U.
I feel the same way, switch is so disappointing compared to the potential it had. Because of its success, Nintendo decided to drip feed content and play it safe which is what Nintendo always stood against. The Wii U filler ports without transfers was mad disrespectful to loyal fans who supported Nintendo during their Wii U days
Yeah, I played almost every big Nintendo game that came to the Wii U. While getting them on the switch with the ability to play them on the go was a dream… it also felt kinda cheap. I think a lot of fans would’ve been more happy getting new games with new concepts rather than rehashing the old ones. It kinda makes you wonder what Nintendo devs have been doing this whole time. I mean, we’ve been playing the same Mario Kart game for almost 10 years wtf.
@@therealjaystone2344 I know, the quality is terrible and as much as I’d love new tracks I just can’t support the quality. I gladly would pay another 60 dollars if the quality was the same as the OG tracks
@@Ferrichrome Mario kart 9 won’t be the same quality as of MK8. Probably gonna be a step down of quality but way more tracks than the dlc. At least Nintendo listened to the fans after the wave 1 bash.
I didn't expect to get so emotional over this video when I clicked on it. Wonderful video. I've been a proud owner of a Wii U for almost 10 years. "I want my console to pull me away from my PC." This is exactly how I've been feeling for a while. R.I.P. Satoru Iwata
@@wizawhatyou drop a switch enough time it gets messed up, you drop a wii u gamepad the floor gets messed up. As a owner of both that has been my two experiences in contrast.
And here I was thinking I was the only WiiU fan out there. It's hard to express just what the promise of the WiiU meant for me, even if it was too late in my life for it to be fully realized, but I will never forget the feeling it created for me when I got it. I love my Switch, but it's basically only half the machine I wanted it to be.
Little late finding this video, but it hits hard. I see people in the comments saying that the only reason so many people that relate to this video is strictly due to nostalgia. That definitely plays a part, but Nintendo's ideas of their identity, and what their relationship is with their customer, has drastically changed. As a family man, I fell in love with the WiiU as a concept from Iwata's original Nintendo Direct. I wanted to share my love for Nintendo with my family and the WiiU and 3DS made that all too easy. The WiiU was not just a game console, it was a centerpiece in our household, and we used it for everything. Nintendo was also a huge part of our life at the time. I would finish work, sit down on the couch, pop out the WiiU gamepad, and instantly feel connected to the gaming world, yet without alienating my family. Nintendo Directs were so personable and fun that even members of my family who weren't that into video games would sit down and enjoy them with me. The 3DS did the same thing. There were a few times where I would keep getting streetpasses in very odd places, but I eventually found out who it was and we connected and became friends. Gaming was able to part of my life without interrupting my work, family, and social life. The Switch is a great gaming machine, but that is it. So much of its potential in its hardware is also underutilized. When I pull out my Switch to play, no one else is drawn to it like they were with the WiiU. I enjoy Nintendo's video games, but unfortunately, they can't be as big a part of my life as they once were because it feels like I have to sacrifice other parts of my life to get into them. I believed in Iwata's dream of using games to connect people to his dying breath and still do. Unfortunately, it seems that in this day and age, such a vision does not lead to as many sales as their current strategy. I still believe such a dream can be achieved, and the WiiU and 3DS era were a small taste of what can be accomplished, but I don't see anyone pulling the strings at Nintendo that has the character, charisma, and dream to accomplish it.
There was definitely a stronger sense of community with the 3Ds and Wii/WiiU. The sad thing is that this community still feels stronger than what is here with the switch. The switch is bland is trying to be more like modern counsels then being nintendo. There’s no longer catchy music as you let it sit on the main screen, just an empty void of just you and the screen.
I love that you made this video. From the very beginning I had this indiscribable feeling with the Switch that something was just "off", something was missing from it that made it lack the typical Nintendo passion and feel. My partner always thought the same, but we couldn't properly explain it. I am actually one of the people that skipped the WiiU, so I am really glad that you talked about your experience with it. During the video I realized that all the things you love and cherish about the WiiU are the things I love about the 3DS! I loved the weirdness of the Miiverse. I just enjoyed browsing for new menu themes, so that just starting up my console felt like a fun and personal experience. And I loved the excitement that came with checking if I met new people over street pass so I could finally get some new puzzle pieces. All of these things are so silly and trivial, but they were what made the 3DS feel unique to me. When I boot up my Switch I am met with a blank menu that only serves the purpose to pick and start a game. Our Switch has been gathering dust for quite some time now...
Why has your Switch been gathering up dust? It's the games that matters, the Wii U had more personality but the Switch has a better library and is still a better console.
I also skipped the Wii U, but due to not having the budget for another console after the 3DS. To be honest, I think the poor marketing choices, such as calling it the Wii U, also failed to get me more interested in getting it. But when my then-boyfriend invited me to his house and we played on his Wii U, I realized it was a pretty neat console, besides being great for modding lol. I already regretted having never experienced the Wii U when it was the current Nintendo console, but this video just made me get really sad about it. Maybe if Nintendo took the time to show the fans what makes their new releases worth it like they used to do, I'd find first- and second-party Switch games more interesting. And if they put more effort into the experience of using the console again (such as in menus, apps, innovative gameplay and whatnot), I'd want to get a Switch even if I just had MK8. It's so frustrating that they're about to release a new console and it doesn't seem like enough games have taken advantage of the touchscreen or the other features.
Absolutely beautiful. I've been feeling drawn back to the wii u and 3ds for the past few years now and I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in this. It can easily be mislabeled as JUST nostalgia for those simpler times but I always felt that there was more to it. This video summed up perfectly those feelings I wasn't able to put into words. Well done! Loved the video!
Going through the Wii U and 3DS eshops the last few days prior to closure really made it apparent that Nintendo has lost a lot of it's quirky mojo with the Switch
@@glungusgongus how would I not? I grew up watching the old commercials, and in my eyes, they far surpass many newer ones. And not to mention the music on the eShops
@@glungusgongus why can't I hold on to great memories? Why should I grow up in that sense? Why is Nintendo's quirkiness back then such an issue for you?
Often, I find myself tired of my Switch, and going back to my Wii U and 3DS. Those systems have a more personality in the UI, and it's more welcoming. 3DS has themes, and stamps. Wii U at the time was an amazing UI and Miiverse application. It was am interesting social media network to share with fellow Nintendo fans.
I was worried about being the only one who felt this way, and although not for the same reasons as you, I completely agree. Nintendo seems to have lost its magic. These new games don't sparkle, the console itself is so simple and everything that surrounds it is different. My favorite console of all time is the 3Ds, I feel that everything that Nintendo did for it was amazing. Even past consoles such as the Wii U, the Wii, the N64, etc are like this. I hope one day Nintendo can find itself again and be what it once was again!
This kind of hits hard for me because I still think there have been some real flashes of brilliance in the switch lineup, like mario odyssey and smash ultimate, but they're few and far between. And it starts to feel like the game selection is only good BECAUSE of the switch's longevity, rather than the other way around
"These new games don't sparkle." Wtf are you smoking? I can name LOTS of Nintendo franchises that are at their best on Switch, while many on Wii U are mediocre or awful
Yeah, Nintendo only made amazing games for the 3ds that everyone loved and absolutely no one hated, such amazing games like Federation Force, Sticker Star, Mario Sport Superstar, Yoshi's New Island, Spirit Camera, Zip Slash, all the Mario Party's for it or Steel Diver. It's definitely not that you are looking at it with nostalgia glasses while being overly negative about the Switch's library.
I think it kind of proves your point how excited I got seeing clips from the old Directs. I had no idea those were a thing. I'm someone who basically never watches promo stuff like that because I assume it's more like you mentioned.. just a bunch of trailers. It reminds me excited I'd get watching indie devs streaming their development and how excited that got me to see the finished game.
I love the idea of streamed development. Got a ton of respect for anyone that does that because I can imagine it being really stressful to show off your game in an unfinished state
ill be completely honest.. i dont think ive cried, like at all, in the past few years up until this point, until I saw this video, and then decided to revisit the mii maker song from the wii u.. and the culmination of everything said in this video started to make me miss the wii u even more than I already had. It was almost heartbreaking.. simply put this video made me cry, break down even.. because it helped me remember what made the wii u so special and reinforced the importance of it, and its role played in my teenage years l.. thank you man will cherish this moment I think back to it from time to time. (I know this sounds like a personal issue and it probably is. I just felt like sharing it that’s all anyways.. keep up the great work..)
@Paraone Ngatai Yeah the switch is better now, but it wouldn’t be if Nintendo treated the Wii U better. I still enjoyed the Wii U more than the Switch when I still had it. I even just ditched my switch whenever I’m home just to play the Wii U at my spare time. Now that Nintendo shut everything down, I had no choice but to continue using my switch. Least I enjoy it a lot more now, but damn I wish Nintendo can just make better decisions sometimes..
The WiiU Era fucking sucked. Unless you were a literal fucking child. There were literally no games on WiiU.the games that did came out fucking sucked. You seriously gonna say that Star Fox Zero is better than anything on switch?
the wii era, as well as the 3ds era will always be most memorable to me. me and my sister would CONSTANTLY play on the wii, and we still do, but mostly through the wii u's virtual wii. What im baffled by when reminiscing is how we tried to use the wii to its full extent, by playing around in the photo gallery, where we used to DRAW on that. im a digital artist and nowadays i cant draw on the wii for shit 💀 credit to little me, i guess. We would make a BUNCH of miis with little to no relevance other than to make up characters or recreate ones from our favorite medias, and we would make them play boxing in wii sports or give them an instrument to play in wii music. 3ds was a little bit after our wii obsession, and yet we still tried to find ways to play together, either through the games with streetpass. I only play 3 or 4 games on the switch. acnh, splatoon 3, miitopia, and smash bros. not sure what this says about me, but im lucky i own SO many wii games and 3ds games, comparatively to what i have on my switch. I think the difference is... the switch is trying too hard to be like other modern consoles. the home menu is SO boring, i remember opening the Themes tab in the settings and saying "..thats it?" as my poor child soul was crushed that christmas morning. the wii, wii u and 3ds all have very unique home menus, and ive always wondered why Nintendo downgraded so HARD. every other console had music. the switch's lack of music makes me forget that i have it left on and its battery drains faster than my energy levels (in all fairness, its 3 years old). nintendo is trying to reach SOME kind of audience, but it'll occasionally spoon feed its older generation fans every so often. the eshop is just an indie game flea market. i never used the eshops on the wii, wii u or 3ds, since weve always bought the physical copies. instead of giving us little things like themes or even games like badge arcade to spend our money on, we have to pay for online access on the switch. this comment feels too long, so im gonna stop now.
Yeah they gave us so many little charming things over the years and now they take it away so suddenly. Obviously people are disappointed to not see what they expected to see. I could do without a photo gallery like the Wii's (it was a novel concept but let's be real, I barely ever used it after I stopped being a kid, and the 3DS's camera sucked), but all the other fun things like Miiverse, the Check Mii Out channel, or something as basic and universal as UI themes, there really was no need to get rid of that kinda thing, nobody complains about a little classic Nintendo quirkiness. Well, now that I think about it, some people do think that "only the games matter". Alright, but that's just a subjective opinion, not everyone just cares about the games. Nintendo has been experimenting with providing unique experiences since before they even became a video game company, I think. It wouldn't hurt the quality of the games on the Switch if there were better looking themes that aren't devoid of personality, or small apps that aren't games but can still be pretty fun nonetheless. One of the reasons a lot of die-hard Nintendo fans love Nintendo is precisely because it's different from its competitors and doesn't just focus on being a platform to play games on, it wants to be fun in many other ways. There's nothing wrong with that, nor does praising previous Nintendo consoles for having a lot of charm equal an insult to the Switch or its games. It's not like it's a matter of "charm vs. good games" either, so...
I think the WiiU has to be one of my favorite console's just because of how good of a time I had with it even when I wasn't primarily focused on gaming. It was the only device I had that could really easily put things like youtube on the screen or any internet pages. I can remember having friends over and after playing some of the games, we would settle down and watch youtube together or even once when I put up a webcomic for us to read. I remember having people play the ZombiU and Chasing Aurora demo's and having a lot of fun there too. It made everything really accessible and easy, all of my Wii stuff worked with it and was easy to use, it was sturdy. And miiverse was very fun! I think seeing the state of Splatoon 3, I am fully supportive that they got rid of miiverse since a lot of kids are on these platforms. Maybe the moderation used to be better, but it tends to feel like people are just worse in what they put out for kids... Still, at the time miiverse was exceptionally good, and I enjoyed stopping to read a lot of where it was incorporated in games. There were a lot of games I got to play on the WiiU compared to the Switch as well, but that may just be my tastes. With the Switch being poorly designed (should not hurt my hands so badly undocked when the gamepad avoided this issue fine) and having a lot of issues like drift, it feels like a cheap mobile game. In the sense that these are problems Nintendo was famous for avoiding in the past. Every single controller they have made is going to break? When else has that happened? And gone completely unfixed? It feels like they're just okay with putting out cash grabs now because of things like this. (Pokemon did not help my views at all, though that is a diff company....) Nintendo has been my favorite game company my whole life and I had a great deal of confidence in them. But it's all kind of fallen apart since the Switch, or maybe since Iwata's death.... I hope they can bounce back, but for now the PS5 is very good for me
The Switch is not really poorly deigned, I mean undocked it is just fine, drift is annoying though but it does not feel like a cheap mobile game. But drift is not even a new problem. Not all of them, pro controllers are still fine. But what they are putting out is mostly not cash grabs, the Wii U era was not innocent either and it was a clunky gamepad with a underutilized gimmick.
@@Jdudec367 I almost exclusively play undocked, which is why I run into such issues with hand pain, which wasn't a problem with DS/3DS/WiiU. It feels like they sacrificed something just to make joycons uniform which I don't think was entirely necessary. Playing undocked has made the location of the charging port a massive pain for me, a sacrifice made for the docking gimmick which also can cause warping to the system last I heard. If they had designed it to function just with a wire instead of needing to be docked, it seems like the warping wouldn't be an issue, and then I could play undocked a lot more comfortably. Bad choices all around if you ask me. (Though of course, this assumes the warping is from a lack of proper heat ventilation, which I am not positive about.) To me problems of this type are much worse than the gamepad screen not getting used enough/creatively enough. It could be that given I had WiiU it dramatically cuts down on games I consider to be Switch games. It's left me with only a few games for Switch, probably the least of all my Nintendo consoles. Really dislike the current handling of 'virtual console' as well given this would have been a nice system for it. And then the situation with that Mario 3 in 1 type game just makes me feel a little jaded about it all. It's not as though one issue has made me feel like Nintendo is developing worse practices or anything, but all together I do feel less forgiving about all this. Used to be very eager back when the Switch first launched
@@ObsessedwithZelda2 Hm weird, the Wii U gamepad is around as big and is thicker too. They did not sacrifice anything too major though. I do not see how, you can just disconnet the charger and charge the Switch directly while playing. Eh I do not know if it can actually warp the system or not. Well yeah you can still do that with the charging cable. It is not really bad choices. Frankly though that led to the Wii U being underpowered, the gamepad being unreplacable, being clunky etc all unneeded issues which I would argue is worse. It does not do that for me, I mean sequels still count. I do not see why with how many Switch games there are. Fair enough then. Also fair, but then again they did that shit with 4 swords too on 3DS but even worse since that game is hardly ever rereleased and you cannot even buy it online for the 3DS, sure it was free but still only for 4 days, they could have just given it a actual price after 4 days instead of taking it off completely, I used to have it too but not anymore.
You could really apply that statement at the end to the gaming industry as a whole. None of the big three are really doing anything innovative anymore, just capitalizing on their current market. Valve sure may be doing interesting things from the hardware angle, but I miss the polished but completely left field videogame. It's a similar message from Funke's "I Miss TF2" video where even if Valve wasn't struggling, the sort of new and wild concepts they introduced with their regular updates and blog posts made things fun and exciting. I miss it. I miss the passion and excitement. Indies may grow to fill that space, but I suspect we'll likely enter an age of complacency from the first party publisher.
It's funny, back during the Wii U days, a lot of people were begging Nintendo to be a little safer and focus on fleshing out their existing IPs. They've done that this generation, but it's left me with quite a hollow feeling. As I've grown older with more games in front of me than ever before, I find myself craving the new ideas and experiences that feel like a piece of art rather than a product, and indies are DEFINITELY scratching that itch.
Switch era felt like Nintendo grew up. No more wacky UI, no more gimmick, no more treating Nintendo like a toy company. They are part of the gaming industry now.
Nintendo hardware was (and still is) always underpowered. Their consoles always sold well though because of the charm and innovation the consoles had. But with the switch, they have lost pretty much all of that charm, but still kept the crappy hardware
@@professionalbreather62That's just incorrect lol. You're right if talking solely about the Wii onwards, but that would be a very nearsighted way to look at it. Gamecube, Nintendo 64, SNES, NES were all on par with their respective competitors, if not superior.
For me, it's the themes and various system music. Now that the Steam Deck is out, my Switch is honestly just a Pokemon and Zelda machine. I *want* to populate it more, but any third party titles I want on the Switch are also on Steam Deck, which go on sale more and equally often perform better. I find myself now using community plugins and extensions to personalize my Steam Deck in an attempt to bring back the fun feeling I had with the 3DS and Wii U. The fact that Nintendo lists it's two themes as "Basic" Black and White would naturally make people think there'd be more options in the future. And we still don't have any. I'd happily pay $2-3 again for more themes just so I can have a sense of playfulness and personality with my Switch.
48:06 -- no upgrade path is something that still bugs me. I finally picked up MK8 Deluxe after they had it on sale with the new DLC, but the price points hurt when I'd already purchased these games on the Wii U.
@@wizawhat Totally. I loved Bowser's Fury, but I wish I could have purchased it on its own for a lower price instead. It felt like I was being punished for supporting Nintendo during the Wii U era. The fact that Nintendo already had an upgrade path in place for Wii to Wii U Virtual Console games makes it that much worse.
This is a great video but man I disagree with so much of this lol 1) I feel like you gloss over just how laggy and slow the Wii U interface was. It took sooo long to get in and out of some apps or menus, even booting up took kind of a silly amount of time. That’s the cost of having a lot of ancillary features 2) I just don’t get how you can think the Wii Us library is anywhere near the switch’s. It doesn’t have any Mario game on par with odyssey, it had BotW but switch had it too and also TotK now. Switch got mainline animal crossing, two splatoon games, a bunch of mainline pokemon games (not the highest quality imo but still, Wii U had none). And switch’s 3rd party support is just so far beyond Wii Us it’s not even comparable, and having many of these games as portable versions is a big value proposition 3) the Wii U hardware itself was just bad. The gamepad had a low res screen with terrible battery life, it didn’t have capacitative touch at all time where that was the entire appeal of relatively new tablet touch devices (it defeated the purpose of any web browsing type features). It had limited storage. And honestly for every game that made good use of the gamepad, there were games like Star Fox zero that awkwardly forced it into use, plus 20 more where it really doesn’t add anything. Switch definitely fumbles legacy games and online support but Wii U wasn’t *that* much better tbh. And I get that steamdeck can basically be a better indie machine but that’s only come out the past year or so, for the last 6 years there hasn’t been a much better way to have a portable library of indie games at a similar price point Idk this feel very much like rose tinted glasses to me
First off, thank you! I'm glad we can respectfully disagree. I'll reply to each of your points. 1) This gets brought up a lot, but I genuinely cannot relate to complaints regarding the speed of the interface. I like to dedicate at least a solid hour to any gaming session, so the minute or two it takes to get into a game has really never bothered me. I'll just walk up to my console, turn it on, and maybe grab a glass of water and a snack and by the time I'm really settled in, any loading is already over. A slow interface would be less acceptable with a handheld console because they're supposed to support quick, start and stop play sessions, but that's not what the Wii U is for. 2) Maybe I communicated this poorly, but what I was trying to get across through comparison is that if you're someone like me (a highly engaged Wii U owner that isn't particularly into remakes and remasters) There isn't as wide a canyon separating the Wii U and Switch first party libraries. I have to stress a couple aspects of that - disinterest in remakes/remasters and first party games. I had a ton of fun with games like DKC TF, Nintendo Land, Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3, Splatoon, Captain Toad, Mario Maker, and Smash to name a few. That's not all my games either as I did play a lot the 3rd party offerings that were available (W101, Rayman, MH3U, etc) and I'm still adding a couple to my library today like Yoshi Wooly World and Hyrule Warriors most recently. Even Super Mario 3D World - for being an overall lesser game then Super Mario Odyssey, hit for me in a way the latter cannot. I really appreciated the multiplayer aspect. I also... actually like Star Fox Zero. Seriously. And I talked about it candidly and honestly in another video for about 30 minutes. Wii U really hit for me at a time when I could be thoroughly engaged with all of its offerings. You also need to consider the quality and volume of 3DS games released at the time when comparing this generation and last (something I was thinking about while making this but failed to bring up). The Wii U's life cycle was also cut around a year or so shorter than what is typical for most console generations. Maybe if it were more successful there could have been even more in the tank? The Wii U has A LOT of holes, particularly with missing franchises and 3rd party games - but as a PC owner that also isn't driven by portability, I was able to overlook them and enjoy what I had. 3) The Wii U was definitely a product of its time, and without the full commitment to a hybrid, it is much easier to argue that the lack of power was just bad. The battery life was also objectively terrible. However; I actually really preferred how the controller felt in my hands, and for gaming I prefer resistive touch. I know there are styli for capacitive screens now, but any game that was thoughtfully and precisely using the Gamepad touch outside of the occasional digital button press (Mario Maker for example) benefitted from a stylus and resistive screen. 4) Now that the library has been filled out, I think I'm starting to change my mind on the Switch's legacy model - as long as it continues to build with the next console. Comparing the Switch to the Steamdeck in the way I did was a mistake, as the Steamdeck in practice is shaping up to be more of a niche product than I made it out to be. I know that was long (sorry), but it's been awhile since I really responded to opposing arguments on this video and I felt interested. I understand why a lot of people believe I'm looking back on the Wii U with rose tinted glasses. There's definitely a lot of nostalgia for the good times throughout this video, but I still reject the notion that I'm blinded by it. While many people were deriding the Wii U in its 'prime', I really was just quietly and happily playing it at the time, and the only thing that was truly boring or exhausting for me was the constant negative reputation it had.
I know man...me too...I still have iwata in my streetpass park..Everytime I go there it makes me remember the good ol times, the 2005-2014 era really was Nintendo's peak, I also feel incredibly bored with the switch, never have been with my ds, wii, or 3ds..
@wizawhat Thank you so much for giving the Wii-U some justice. Folks focus too much on how bad it was marketed and end up forgetting what it provided. It was uniquely fitted for me at the time cuz the TV downstairs broke and I didnt have a TV in my room for a while but all I needed was the gamepad and I put in so many hours from there. We should never forget the MiiVerse (and the godly stage for it in Smash 4), the drawing feature to help unite artists, and not only is the multiplayer aspect more welcoming and better implemented than the Switch's, but getting the Wii controllers is much cheaper than getting a bunch of Joy-Cons or pro controllers to do multiplayer with friends. Me and my ex played only a few games together on it but oml were they the most fun times we've had as far as gaming. I also like how big yet comfy feel of the pad with it's smoothed corners, opposed to my Switch Lite's smaller corners. ik i was supposed to get the real Switch, but it's branching versions are so unfriendly and undercooked it's not even funny, even wore if you're a content creator (which i am and i've been stuck with this stupid thing. at least i've streamed my Wii U before...)
I 100% relate to this! I was actually thinking just recently how more magical and charming the wii U and miiverse days really were. I'm glad I found this video. My favorite direct of all time was E3 2014 which had Zelda botw teaser, Smash 4, pokemon ORAS, Hyrule warriors as a few highlights, along with the hilarious Robot chicken skits in-between. Don't even get me started on that duel between Reggie and Iwata LOL
I dont know....over the last few years i have spent a surprising amount of time playing switch socially, if you are with a group of twenty-somethings who are a mix of gamers and non-gamers it seems like that thing is destined to come out to play jack box, mario kart or the like. I even got my 70 year old never gamed ever dad to get really into a game of switch jeopardy
What still confuses me is that the Switch was given a touch screen like the Wii U gamepad and the DS lineage, but it doesn't come with its own stylus. It's almost like getting a burger without seasoning mixed into the patty after just eating 3 burgers that had delicious seasoning mixed into the patties.
While I definitely don't agree with everything you mentioned, I can tell everything you talked about comes from a place of love. Much like the passion you mentioned missing from Nintendo Directs of old, I feel the passion exuding throughout this video. And god I miss Miiverse so much LOL
What an absolutely wonderful video. It's so hard to articulate this stuff but you did it flawlessly. I was actually emotional when realising how much of the old Nintendo is "gone"... 😥
Just cant agree with this. At all. I stopped gaming for a decade and a half and came back to it with... the wii u. Spent 2 years experiencing nothing but jealousy and constant frustration with that system. I tried to love it. I got back in touch with my old gaming friends and brought it to them. Everybody hated it. Finally i had to admit i hated it, too. Spending 4 months ewth no games pretending Pikmin 4 was going to make up for the 90 games the other systems got in that time. Then going 7 more months getting something like a Wario Micro Game collection and Cat Mario. All the while everyone i knew piling up mountains of amazing games. I held on to Nintendo because of a sense of loyalty for my childhood. Eventually i came to grips with a basic fact. You need to pick a PS or Xbox as your main and get a Nintendo as your secondary device and youll hit that sweet spot. Most of us that grew up with Nintendo have a hard time admitting we dont see all their games as "must buy" anymore. I never liked things like Pokemon and Kirby or Animal crossing. Mario Kart stopped being great for me sometime around Gamecube or Wii. I always pretended to like Pikmin more than I really do. And I just cant care about Zelda anymore when so many story heavy RPGs with great exploration come out nowadays. Nowadays, for me, Nintendo is basically Smash Bros and Mario Party. Admittedly, growing old and not having many gaming friends left doesnt help, but when i do get people together, those are the 2 funnest in person multiplayer games in existence. Apart from those its nice to be able to pick up the new 3d Mario, DK Country and possibly a Metroid if it looks good. Sorry this kinda went from a wii u vs switch post to an anti nintendo post without me realizing lol but i guess ill sum it all up like this: Nintendo consoles are great as secondary gaming systems, but the Wii U was awful even as that.
Oh and also this video honestly strikes me as the kind of thing people think now when reiniscing bit almost nobody actually felt like this at the time as they were living thru it. Like when you think back to your first date with a girl as a magical life changing experience but then you remember actually you were sweating and panicking thr whole night. Its better looking back at it than when you were in it
Thank you, there is something quintessentially Nintendo about a novel, childlike and mystical universe that you have to immerse yourself into. Personally, I am just discovering Nintendo and am kicking myself for missing the opportunity to get a 3DS (got a 2DS XL instead). 2 screens, 3D, strange Miiverse, street pass... Nintendo seems to be at its best when it is is own subculture, with novel hardware that allows it to innovate in software as well.
What really sucks about the Wii U is how good of a console it was. Like it's insane to me how anyone thinks the switch is better aside from the TWO advantages it has. Complete portable gameplay and the no requirement for disks. The Wii had backwards compatibility for the Gamecube. The Wii U had backwards compatibility for the wii. What does the switch have? To play the switch you basically require a pro controller since the cheap disaster that is the joycons are bloody abysmal to use. For the wii U the gamepad was like unbelievably unmatched. Here's the thing. The switch feels cheap and fragile. Not care in the world put into it. The Wii U felt heavy, had good analogs. Had a stylis/that pen you have for touch screen. Switch has none of that. Game like Mario Maker played better on the Wii U for both casual and content creation play but ON switch not even being able to use both the switch screen and the TV at the same time is already a flaw in itself. They messed up New Super mario brothers deluxe control wise which confuses me insanely. MK8Deluxe is still missing the one key component that i personally want back and that's MK WII's physics and item distribution. (Cause it just made so much goddamn sense, WTF coins?) < this one is obviously a very personal nitpick. And then you have to pay for an online subscription for the switch. I have barely used my switch because of the online subscription you need for it. I used the WIi U all the time. Even on Mario kart 8 because i was trying to get into that game. I uploaded mario maker Courses very often. Nintendo is not getting a dime form me in terms of a subscription when I've already payed for their games and console. F that. Like please tell me if I'm crazy. I'm currently 3:59 into the video. But how i feel is that the Wii U felt like it had effort put into it. The switch feels like a cheap plasticy 3rd party garbage. LIke i wanna use my Wii Remotes and classic controller or my WIi U bloody gamepad. Switch IMO is a waste of money. Unless you think you're going to play it OFTEN.
The Wii U era made being a Nintendo fan a laughing stock. It wasn’t even a console that socially brought together a community where people can all talk about the games it had compared to PlayStation or even Xbox. Can’t really say I miss that era since I can actually meet people who have a switch and plays it’s games regularly
I'm sorry but i have to push back on one thing you said regarding the games on the switch. The Switch, even when you remove the ports, has one of the strongest libraries of any Nintendo system. The exclusive games on the switch are absolutely incredible. Zelda totk, Mario Odyssey, Animal crossing new horizons, Luigis mansion 3, fire emblem three houses, Astral chain, Monster hunter rise, Smash bros. Ultimate, Bayonetta 3, Splatoon 2 and 3, Mario Maker 2, Xenoblade 2 and 3 etc. There is no shortage of amazing games on the switch even when you remove the Wii U ports.
The Switch has the strongest library on a Nintendo console since the SNES despite that i'm more of a quality over quantity guy myself (Gamecube basically).
Some people argue the spirit of Nintendo died when Iwata passed away. Others argue it died when Reggie stepped down. To me the spirit of Nintendo died when they announced paid online subscriptions for their services. That's the moment to me when Nintendo stopped being the unique house of ideas and changed to another money grubbing corporation and things kept going down hill with more games getting released incomplete or broken on launch day.
I can relate to this. I have an OLED switch and for some reason I'm so attached to my wii U and can't stop playing it. The switch honestly gathers dust. The wii U is so unique and cool where as the Switch just feels like a modern day game boy that you can play on the TV. I know that's over simplified but thats how it feels. Plus the ergonomics of the joy cons is horrendous, the wii U gamepad is great to hold for hours.
Well, first of all, its absurd how much I can relate and agree to your talking points. Second, post Wii U I turned into a PC player and rarely ever got up the motivation to play on a console. But the Wii U? I still have it plugged in, along with my PS3 and now the Steam Deck. A weird mix, but its my mix. As for Handhelds, I still use the DS and PSP. Though now I have moved that mostly to the Steam Deck, to be honest. It's my frankenstein Wii U PSP hybrid something and I love it
Steam Deck is my dream machine. Not just for emulation, it just does everything since it's a PC after all. But it can also work wonderfully as a console.
When Iwata passed and Reggie left, I knew Nintendo would suffer a huge change. They were so special and they had a great connection with fans. They will be missed...
The biggest flaw in this video is that you're forgetting a crucial thing: The games. Compare the game libraries between WiiU and Switch: they just dont compare. The Switch's is better. Maybe there are less additional features on the switch, but Nintendo went back to what they shouldve focused on for the WiiU: its a game system. When I used my WiiU, almost all the extra features I never even selected once. I'd slot in the game and that was it. Most fun I had with it was Windwaker remaster, which is a gamecube game. Switch has Two mainline fire emblem games, an amazing Zelda game, Mario Odyssey, Pokemon, Splatoon, the list goes on. WiiU was trying to do too much and shouldve just been a video game console like the switch knows it is.
Zelda came out simultaneously on the wii u though. And splatoon literally started on the wii u 💀 The best selling switch game is literally a wii u port. I can go on. I don't even dislike the switch and frankly it was a smart decision to port the wii u games, but let's be real.
The thing is though, a lot of the switch’s library are ports or sequels to Wii U games. As someone who had a Wii U and loved it, the switch doesn’t have nearly as many games that I loved. Hell, I even played botw on Wii U initially, only picking it up on switch when I wanted to replay it years later. It’s basically been Mario odyssey, smash ultimate, Luigi’s mansion 3, and the new Kirby. (And fire emblem which I don’t really like personally). Meanwhile Wii U had: dkctf, captain toad, 3d world, splatoon, smash 4, Nintendoland, Mario maker, yoshi’s wooly world, wind waker, Mario kart 8, botw, and pikmin 3. Although there is technically less games on Wii U, it felt like everything that did come out were bangers with unique ideas. Literally half of the switch library is borrowing from the Wii U, whether that be direct ports like Mario kart and donkey Kong or sequels that feel like minor updates to the originals, like Mario maker and splatoon. Even though it was “failing” at the time, being a Wii U owner still felt good because there was always something to look forward too. Meanwhile with switch, there hasn’t been a single interesting game for me since Kirby, which should not be happening on such a successful console.
@crystalblade13 maybe I’m biased because I can’t stand xenoblade and pokemon. But some of those you mentioned like oragami king, animal crossing, and astral chain, were very disappointing imo. That’s obviously subjective though, and I think it’s hard to leave out your preferences when talking about if a system has a good library or not. However splatoon 2 and Mario maker 2 were way too similar to the originals in my opinion. They were great for non Wii U players, but both of those felt like I was playing the same game. Luigi’s mansion 3 was indeed a banger though.
Thank you for making a video like this. I absolutely agree that my feelings towards Nintendo have changed for the worst. I don't hate them, but I miss the Wii U days of Nintendo so much because of exactly the reasons you stated.
Video essays like this don’t typically have an emotional impact on me, but this oddly hit close to home. I’ve felt astray during much of the Switch’s later years, and I think you’ve articulated a great deal of why that is. Considering how much of a punchline the Wii U tends to be, I sincerely thank you for speaking up about some of what made that system experience special for the people who took part in it.
Exactly. But when it comes to the Switch I actually feel like within the past 1-2 years Nintendo has turned themselves around by not releasing overpriced Wii U ports and focusing more on great original games instead.
Absolutely beautiful video and more than relatable. Nintendo really did change with the passing of Iwata and with the Switch itself. Nintendo got way more… corporate. Which is kinda weird to say, since that what they are, but back then it still felt different. Way more fun. And way more special. Your video explained it perfectly. It’s unfortunate, really….
I still remember when the switch was first announced. Seeing that initial trailer sent my mind buzzing with the possibilities: a handheld powerful enough to run any of Nintendo's home console games, and local play with two controllers built right into the system that you can share. It was so exciting imagining what Nintendo might do with it; virtual console ports of any game in Nintendo's history even up to the GameCube and Wii were possible and many would be available handheld for the first time ever, local play could flourish in an era where every other company had all but abandoned it, and even the Wii U's asynchronous multiplayer would potentially get a second shot at life by pairing two switches together to mimic the gamepad. It really does stink looking back and seeing just how little of this potential was actually realized. Even local play, something that should've been the easiest thing on switch was utterly ruined by the joycons. I was genuinely looking forward to getting tons of joycons like I had GameCube and Wii controllers in the past, having a full set so that anyone would be able to join in whatever local multiplayer games the system offered. But then the first pair I got began to drift. Then the second, and then the third... Then my brother's joycons too, and his replacement, as well as that of basically everyone I knew online who owned a switch. I went from being fully ready to stock up on joycons to refusing to buy another until Nintendo announced that the issue had been fixed, which never even happened as far as I'm aware, and it sucks how much this one thing dragged down the entire system. Years of playing the switch with a sour taste in my mouth because of my faulty joycons, and so many potentially great multiplayer sessions where we lacked enough functional controllers to go around.
As much as it's good to look back on old memories fondly, it's important to realize that nothing stays the same forever, people will change, the future can never replicate the past but only be good in it's own new way. There will be good things about the switch to look back on that the next line won't replicate. One thing I really agree with is co-op staying in video games. As an aspiring indie game dev, I want to include co-op gameplay in almost every game I make, because I remember all the good memories of playing with my siblings, and I see games as a way to connect with others and hang out.
Loved this video. For me I hate to say it, but when Etika passed away I slowly stopped interacting with the community. He was the guy that kept me talking with people in the nintendo community. He made nintendo directs feel like even more of an event. I've probably watched his reactions to nintendo directs more than normal directs themselves. The wii u days really were the best days. I hope we can get back to that one day!
This made me cry almost because etika genuinely made me feel so connected to the community. Like I watched his videos constantly and was always so excited to see a new reaction to what's new.
Etika was the face of the core nintendo community. funny reactions apart, he perfectly represented the hype of the "nintendo announcement", new smash characters, new first party releases, just overall passion for nintendos charm. very sadly fitting that the last big thing he reacted to was probably the most requested smash character ever up to that point (banjo)
Same, I completely abandoned my since and recently beat Xenoblade 1 and 3. Etika was the light for me for Nintendo games, I never really buy Nintendo games either since I go for either PC or PlayStation 5 right now. But, before, I was buying Nintendo games left and right. It’s crazy how impactful Etika was for me for the Nintendo community.
I completely agree. Nintendo isn't horrible right now, and they're definitely making steps in the right direction, but the 3ds/wii u era was something magical.
I miss the Wii U times too. I remember being able to buy new games for 20-30€ easily and Nintendo even gave away another game with Mario Kart 8. And Miiverse was amazing. Now, you get games (half of which are 10-years-old ports) for 45-60€. Nintendo Selects are nowhere to be seen. The menu and experience, although polished, are sterile. Wii and Wii U were blowing with magic. The sounds and whistles of every channel will forever stay in my memory.
I discovered the existence of the Wii U only on 2016, it was reaching the end of its lifetime but even after the Switch came out I've grown so attached to it. The multiplayer(in the games that did feature it) was some of the best I've ever experienced, and finding out about who Iwata was and how much he was an important figure in my life made me appreciate those times a lot more as well. Backwards compatibility also made me get back in contact with some of my childhood games. There's so much to love about the Wii U and the era it represents. Thanks for making this video!
my uncle who works at nintendo says he is gonna sue you for being mean to the switch
F%ck your uncle
fk outta here John Nintendo
Shut up, Nester.
Just Gonna Go Ahead and throw this out there that I think the reason why it seems like they are not supporting it as much as they used to is because they are pouring all their resources into developing Tears of the kingdom. My guess is that the tears of the kingdom has been nearly Complete for a while now. But now I think that nintendo struggles with the current strength of their console as far as hardware goes. I have a nagging feeling that because nintendo cares about the fidelity of their first party titles developed in house, That a good deal of development time has been spent optimizing the game.
❤
I do think that both Iwata and Reggie gave Nintendo a humanity and humility that hadn't been seen before, or really since, in the executive branch of Nintendo. Iwata describing himself as a gamer foremost I think was very much lived out in his philosophies and approaches to everything he did; his actual gamer personality made it genuine. And one of the reasons why Reggie was such an effective marketer is because he connected with people on a genuine level, even when not being as avid a gamer. He was a person.
Nintendo always acted without humility. Reggie and Iwata, while great, was just a facade.
@@alexandrebelair4360this, 100 percent this. Iwata era Nintendo did some very shady stuff, never forget how they would sue people for 50 million dollars and how they treated content creators
@@chooongusbug724 barely anyone ended up paying anything after getting sued. Nintendo just wanted it to be news to scare off other bad actors, and they made that clear to those found guilty. Wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. The creator program stuff was kinda whack though.
@@Gamefreak924 don't simp for billion dollar corporations 🤓
@@chooongusbug724 >uses nerd emoji unironically
Every time I see Satoru Iwata in any form of media, I get sad. What a man to have existed.
Be happy that he actually existed 🤝
Sorry if this sounds a bit tasteless, but you'd probably get sad for different reasons, when you realise he was referenced in YIIK.
He took Nintendo in the right direction and also gave Monolith Soft the time they needed to make Xenoblade Chronicles
Same here, I miss him
for real! 😞
Ever since Iwata passed and Reggie left, I haven't stopped thinking about those two. Nintendo feels completely different now. They've gone from creative to professional in mindset to appease investors, which is a path a majority of companies have taken nowadays. Although I keep thinking about the time when Iwata was still alive, and I have to say I haven't really thought much about Iwata until his passing, but he was really a true gamer more than a businessman. He balanced both his professional life and gaming life in a way that was attractive to everyone other than investors. He went out of his way to make sure what he was working on was the best possible product he could make, even if it shortened his life, which is why I think he died early as dark as that sounds. In a way, I think Nintendo's new direction is punishment for not considering the health of those who did everything they could to satisfy us, but that's just me.
i agree with you about iwata but reggie?
he was just a meme guy.
imo reggie is one of the most over rated in game industry.
@@yxxnkxm I'm including Reggie because he was friends with Iwata, and I felt like when they were around, Nintendo was synergetic in more angles than one. What Iwata and Reggie have in common was that they were mainly the spokesman for the company, and they always felt present. It probably isn't essential nowadays to be that way, but that sort of behavior can foster a creative environment to its peak. In general, I think the both of them set the example of how a true leader should be, but we still have yet for someone else to follow their footsteps.
I know right? I think the only thing stopping the company from going woke is that NCL is in charge and very very conservative.
That is because the people in charge are different now.
@@yxxnkxm I only watched nintendo direct because if Reggie
Phenomenal video, I still think the Switch as a system is significantly better, but the charm of Nintendo's Wii U era is unmatched
I just like the idea of picking up and playing a game. I am one of those gamers that realize as nice as "sound effects" and charm is I want to play games. I never want to see apologetic Nintendo again. I don't want to not know how it feels like to panic because there are too many good games to play.
Hey Vail love your videos
Lol youre just wrong
Is you rael?
the 13 million wii u vs 120 million switch is unmatched
I think Satoru Iwata was the main reason that Nintendo was great. Since his passing, I think they are going somewhere else.. Just a feeling I have right now
They're definitely going somewhere else and it's right to the bank with all the success they've managed to have in recent years. Nintendo is at the mountain top finally after generations of just barely reaching it and surviving the fall off the mountain with the Wii U.
@@coltonwilkie241Not even their most profitable system yet calm down. Also, you left out the greed, bad online, and lackluster legacy support. An ecosystem where you own nothing is eventually where they are going, just rent all your oldies.
@@InkyBlitz actual coping the switch is their most profitable system ever. It hasn’t gotten a price drop even the games. The games are the highest selling in the series. And it has been the most profitable since 2020. Regardless if that’s how you feel that’s fine
@@neoPeake No, it isn't. The Nintendo DS is. It takes all but 3 seconds to confirm this. I never discounted the major success of the Switch. It's their most successful HOME SYSTEM thus far, and I own one. It isn't their biggest system yet, and there's still a chance it might not be. There's a reason I said "yet"
I'd be shocked if the NDS was supplanted despite the success. Especially since we've reached the end of the Switch's life.
@@InkyBlitz yup you find the official life time sale and if you’ll see that the switch sold more software. Not just that if you multiply unit sold and price that they are sold at the switch made more profit. Sure the DS sold more but the switch made more money. It’s simple math lil bro
I remember when the Switch first came out and was missing Netflix, I thought to myself. “Oh, it’s just because it’s new. In a few months, I’m sure we’ll have it.” Nearly six years later, I’m realizing that I thought that about a lot of features. Themes, the virtual console, a web browser, but the Switch today still feels like it’s missing a lot of basic features, like we’re still in that first year and waiting for those features to come.
It clear that console features haven't been a priority. It does make sense though because nowadays everyone has another device that does all that for them, which is probably why Nintendo chose to focus solely on the games, but it still sucks for the people that valued those features.
@@wizawhat
I was one. The Wii U was the central control hub for my TV. I used it to browse the web, watch online movies and videos, etc., and it was much more convenient than other options.
It's also about security and speed. The web browser proved to be a weak point in the past, so that had to go, and the Wii U menu was slow AF, so they've kept everything very minimalist this time around.
@@Howitchewstofeel5gum
That’s a shame. I prefer the slower, fuller Wii U menu to the snappy new one by far!
@@Howitchewstofeel5gum the E shop was still faster on wii U than it was on switch by a MILE (unrelated I know but it's the truth)
The old Nintendo directs were like seeing old friends and spending quality time with them - the new ones are like getting presents on Christmas morning. Both are worth getting excited for but only one fills your cup back up and strengthens bonds. I wouldn’t want Christmas every day but I’d kill to see my best friends every day.
Well said
damn this is real
Bro doesn't even reply to his criticisms maybe he's famous
They are the same. You were just young
Fax.
Just over a year later, we've lost 2 more features for this console. RIP Iwata and the Wii U.
This video perfectly encapsulates the feeling of emptiness I get when booting up my switch. I never had a Wii U, but the old Nintendo experience was still strong in my time with the 3ds. When I look at my excitement from getting my first 3ds and utilizing its extra little AR Camera features, it makes me realize how much the switch just lacks life to it. Being able to take pictures and place my mii on my birthday cake, hearing the menu music that felt like home, the eventual addition of themes, the little mascots on certain menus, it all made the 3ds feel like more than just a device to play games on, it was pure joy in a way I think the switch can never replicate.
I agree frisk
Metroid is singlehandedly keeping my spirit alive... Here's hoping for an amazing Metroid Prime 4
The switch is a shitty lifeless underpowered and overpriced tablet
don't forget the sounds
I respect you feel that way. However I thought those things were kind of goofy I just wanted to play the games and the switch is heading towards 10x the games as the Wii U had, 10811 compared to 1381. To me and my interests, that is game set and match.
I miss Iwata and Reggie :(
It's like you can really feel their absence. At least Reggie is maybe still offering Nintendo advice sometimes.
me too
Who are they?
I wish Iwata was there to do the same. RIP legend.
@@capn_l Former presidents of the company
@@RubenDari Iwata seems like he was a very genuine person.
One of the things I've noticed that really backs up this video is the overall UI of the systems. You touched on this comparing the Wii U and Switch home screens, but in that same era was the 3DS, which still offers a MASSIVE library of themes as far as handheld systems go. It even had cool backgrounds for games not even on the system itself, like Breath of the Wild. Early on in the switch's lifespan I remember being excited to see what kind of cool themes would release for it, but to this day the options are still literally called "Basic" white and black.
they absolutely lost millions by neglecting that feature, I would have loved buying themes for the switch
I had the breath of the wild 3ds theme, it was really cool
@@o-neil I still have that one installed. Think I got all the Zelda ones when they were available and its still really cool
@@o-neil I had that one too, pretty neat of Nintendo to add on themes from games that weren't even necessarily 3DS titles. It was good marketing for sure lol but definitely also a nice option to offer for fans.
Switch has zero personality. Had I known that, I wouldn’t have bought it in the first place.
The Wii U's sense of community is what I miss the most, the starting menu showed groups of Mii's gathered around discussing different things about the game that they were playing, and with the use of the Miiverse games like Splatoon and smash 4 felt alive and you never really felt alone while playing a game, even if it was a single player game. It had such a fun sense of community that I haven't really seen since the Wii U and it honestly made my time with the Wii U really enjoyable. When you can make someone like me who isn't a fan of multiplayer games have fun with one then you did something right.
I've always felt this way, too, but I didn't know how to put it in words. You said it perfectly 🥲
Funny, I never had a Wii U, but when looking other people's videos, pics, etc. The main menus and miiverse integration into games always seemed to have a nice atmosphere, it really felt "alive"
It managed to make me feel part of a living comunity, despite basically nobody else around me having a WiiU too
It’s because the community was so small.
I absolutely love the Wii U home menu, but the 3ds one is also a banger
Here I am believing I'm the only human that feels this way about current Nintendo
There's at least two of us!
@@wizawhat It's obvious most Switch games are just recouping lost Wii U sales
@@wizawhat make that three
Same
You can really tell the difference round 19' was when nintendo really started to change
I always loved the vibe the Wii U had. From the unique menu ui to the chill but heartwarming songs of the eshop. Even Miiverse was a fun social expirement that had a unique feeling that no other social media platforms could replicate. And the games were unmatched, fundamentally challenging many of their core series to make unique, innovative that we’re still fun and felt like they still understood the core identity of that series. It’s just to nice to know someone feels the same way I do.
Okay, you're speaking to me on a spiritual level. It's making me feel emotional. I know they were always a big corporation but I miss when they seemed like a bunch of cool people making cool toys rather than the stoic entertainment company they present themselves as now. Even just doing "Furukawa Asks" articles and videos would make a big difference, we've only had a couple of interviews in that style since Iwata passed.
The unfortunate thing is, the legendary developers behind some of these big franchises are moving away from designing them and getting ever closer to retiring. The window to hear them speak about game development closes nearer, all the while their successors/understudies that _are_ designing these games don’t get to say anything.
Basically, it's the "shut up and work" aspect of the business. 😂
@Jaquan Kelsor People enjoy art, and can sometimes have a profound effect on our culture. It’s normal to be curious about creators’ reasons and inspirations behind their choices. Especially for a new medium where a lot of people who started it are still alive and _can_ be asked and have information archived. Unlike film where a lot of its origins and works have eroded or died off. That can be (and to some extent has) prevented.
I have to wonder why you even watched this video if you think so little of art and artists/creators, as it’s obvious from the headline that’s what it would be about. Why waste your time watching (and responding) to something you disdain? Don’t waste your time if that’s how you feel.
@Jaquan Kelsor There’s a difference between “disagree, but want to hear the other side of the argument”m and having your mind made up. Which would then make it pointless to watch the video because you weren’t open to change to start. That’s the impression I got.
I’m still not sure what exactly it is you’re complaining about, if you could be more specific. “…bend over to the company” for what? That implies a scenario where the subject justifying the company taking advantage of them because they hav a favourable bias towards that company. But nothing detrimental is happening. People are just interested to know other’s artistic inspirations.
Why is it okay to love games, but not be interested in what inspired someone to create them? If you see it as art, why devalue it and say “they’re just some worker” as if they’re just mindless grunts? If your point is “people are more interesting in [higher level creative] than [lower level artist/musician/etc], there’s plenty of reasonable reasons for that.
People only have enough memory to remember so many things/people. It makes sense people gravitate towards the most notable, rather than every single worker, because it’s not possible to remember that many people. And more importantly, you can’t be aware of what each person contributed in the first place. If people wanted to know, it’s not even documented (and they aren’t all on social media or be public about it). Plus, you have to be interested in that game to even be interested in the staff behind it.
Nintendo is obviously going to have a lot of attention around them because they’ve been around (in gaming) for 40+ years, basically since it’s inception, still making hardware and some of the most notable franchises and game consoles of all time. These creators created _decade-spanning_ franchises. Most IP don’t last that long, only a handful become that successful and have an impact on pop culture. It’s a miracle if you do, and some people have _multiple_ franchises like these under their belt.
This isn’t limited to Nintendo fans, or even the upper echelon. People follow individual artists, musicians, designers, and so on. It all depends on what people are _personally_ interested in. You focus on “Nintendo fans” as a group, because it’s a large enough group for _you_ to notice, but pretend like people don’t do it with individuals or even other industries.
“Do you think highly off[…] the company that made the car you drive around in?”
This is silly, because one of the most common questions is/was “what is the make and model of your car?” Because a lot of people _are_ interested in car designs (aesthetically and mechanically). If what you meant was “I don’t think someone likes Ford cars and justifies the company’s choices, the way Nintendo fans would”, you’d probably be wrong, but you’re just not aware of them (and younger people not caring about cars as much as the older generations). But also, that’s a completely different topic than what I mentioned anyway.
“Films/tv haven’t eroded either, they stay static in time and you can watch a movie or show you enjoyed ten years ago”
My point was about the origins of film. They started in 1895, yet films from then until at least the 1930’s weren’t preserved (or preserved correctly) and hundreds of film reels eroded and are lost to time. Same goes for more information about its origins because the people involved died and preservation wasn’t thought about (or easy) until much later.
With video games, that industry started just before the birth of the internet (late 70’s). Information could be easily catalogued much sooner (90’s/00’s), and there were plenty of magazines that had developer interviews for games as early as the NES, and probably even Atari 2600. Video games are a young enough medium where we _can and have_ preserved its origins, and we’re lucky enough to live in a time where people who were there when it started or created franchises that have lasted for almost as long as the medium has existed, are still alive. We can still ask them questions before we lose that opportunity (they retire or die). Every other industry before was subject to paper which can get lost or deteriorate beyond comprehension. That’s not an issue anymore because we have the internet where dozens of websites could archive the same information if one goes down. I think it’s extremely important to recognize this opportunity because there is no second chance. I follow channels like The Gaming Historian and Did You Know Gaming because I like hearing about game history. Some of which we’re getting _new_ information because these channels contacted people involved (who are still alive) and they spoke about their experience and talked about concepts or showed art or what have you. I have no personal attachment to Metroid for example, but that doesn’t mean DYKG’s interview about ex-Retro Studios staff wasn’t interesting. Same goes for the baseball accessory the Gaming Historian talked about.
“Why games and not cars, sandwiches, etc?”
Because I personally care more about games. Someone else cares more about cars. And I’m sure there’s people who care about the presentation of sandwiches (it’s even a category that’s graded on cooking competition shows). That just comes down to personal tastes/interests. There’s nothing wrong with that.
@@kelsormjaquansounds like you are the one that mop the floor
@@kelsormjaquan why even replying then? You intelligence really look like somebody that mopping those floors
2001 to 2015 Nintendo had a "heart" but when Iwata died, Nintendo went back to its roots, becoming a soulless corporation. the iwata era was one filled with success, failure but in the end they still had heart.
Good times
If they had heart they wouldn't have failed so miserably. Clearly their heart wasn't in it otherwise the Wii U era would've been a massive success, but it ended up being a massive blunder.
"Nintendo went back to its roots", their roots was making card games.
@@coltonwilkie241Lack of thinking, not heart. Also Wii/NDS
Cope
@@InkyBlitzWii kinda sucks
I feel like this video perfectly summed up my thoughts about the wii u and switch.
The switch feels safe, almost sterile and lifeless. While every time I boot up my wii u or 3ds, I just feel happy and ready to play something.
Little things like the ui and themes go a long way for me. I'm really disappointed that nintendo didn't do anything creative or fun with the switch ui.
Yknow "safe" is actually a really good way to describe it. Maybe Nintendo wanted to draw people in with a sleek, no-nonsense UI after the Wii U's failure, and maybe with Switch 2 they'll be more willing to give it some character?
Idk, I hope so, I love the Switch but the interface is painfully........meh....
I'm glad more and more people are coming out and saying this. I love the Switch, but it's the least "Nintendo" Nintendo system I've ever played. Everyone thought the Wii U Gamepad was a big Fisher Price tablet, but I think the Switch is a budget Android tablet with some of the flimsiest, dead on arrival controllers my hands have ever touched. What I'd give for the Switch to have more of the Wii U's character
Agreed. The Switch just feels more lazy to me
@@solarwinds5114 I’ll take a lazy UI if it means we got some of the most critically acclaimed games Nintendo’s ever made and actual third party support lol😊
@@IceBlueLugiahell nah
Nintendo is like Disney.
Once both was companies that just seemed like they had endless of magic.
Now both companies are greedier then ever, have no connection with long time supporters and overall not producing much unique things.
Interestingly they both started to dwindle at the same point.
They aren't dwindling in the slightest. Not financially, by any metric.
Both Nintendo, as Disney are on the peak of there corporate performance. By far.
Nintendo does need to make a pro version of the Switch though. Without losing acces to the massive Switch library of games. No wacky new 'features', just build on the success formular with keeping crossgen compatible with the XBSS/XBSX and the PS5. That's all they need to keep the gravy train going 😉
@@MrMickey1987 Nintendo financially is one thing. They doing fine, but for how long will that keep up when more and more people with income slow down there spending on there products and services. And more people turn there backs on them for having the repeated experience of anti-consumer friendly.
Nintendo don't care about there old-school supporters who have been there since the late 80's or early 90's despite THAT GROUP have been the most spending one as well. There was never much they needed to do for this group, and it would in the longer run bring more loyal costumers. And NO, any reprresentative that use "consume" services or products is losing my attention because that is my line. I'm a costumer, not a consumer when I commit purchases.
BUT Disney Corporation is not doing great. They have lost $billions on commercially failed movies & series and lost even more support capital from there former fans of Marvel & LucasFilm.
There merchandise have lost sellong power as well and rightfully so as there ever exposing woke-agendas have proven to be toxic by nature and creates BS.
@@MrMickey1987 Probably misunderstood the point
Yes, they are both now much more profitable than they've ever been, but in the process it's like the quality (AKA: "Endless Magic") of their work has gone down significantly, relying mostly on third party studios (Integrating them into the core brand in Nintendo's case and outright just buying them in Disney's case).
Not a 1-1 case, Disney owns much more, but there are some similarities in their histories.
@@Axel230 I'd rather have Nintendo successful with owning their niche (the hybrid console market) instead of them pushing some new wacky feature as a tie in to their new console in the name of creativity and flaming out big time.
They struck lightning with the Wii. That won't happen again. Their entire history worked towards the Switch. That's what Nintendo is all about. A great console experience on the go, that's their thing.
Just up the power enough to keep cross gen happening, so they keep the third party developers happy, while at the same time keep pushing out stellar first party games. That's it, that secures Nintendo's place in a three horse market.
They cannot beat Sony and Microsoft at there own game. They should not even try it. The handheld is where Nintendo's strength's at, it has been since the Gameboy.
The tech finally has catched up far enough to make their hybrid destiny a reality. That's Nintendo's end game, right there!
@@MrMickey1987 Valid point but I dunno, it's like the "Weird & Creative" factor that always characterized Nintendo is starting to take a back seat for a more average console experience.
It's respectable and understandable why they'd aim for a more general console experience (Which does have a bit of creativity being hybrid), but can't deny the wacky factor had its own kind of appeal that made Nintendo stuff feel unique.
It's like Valve is slowly taking that place instead now, having tried their hands at VR and their own Hybrid console, but even Valve hasn't released a unique title in the past decade besides Half Life Alyx.
I def agree with the Wii U take. I spent countless hours playing BO2, Nintendo Land, MK8 and smash. I loved Miiverse. I most especially miss their creative E3 presentations. Miyamoto with the shield, Wii would like to play, the puppets, Iwata vs Reggie. All that charm just feels gone. Thank you so much for this video that really touches on something a lot of us feel but never really understood
As a 2010s kids, I grew up in the Wii U era. It’s still hard to believe it was Nintendo’s worst selling MAINLINE console when so many of my friends had it. I mean it made sense since we we’re basically the only people who bought it as anyone over the age of 10 would have been burned by the bad commercials and turned to the PS4 or maybe Xbox One instead.
I swear like 70% of the people I know own or owned one. Honestly odd how low it sold when it seemed a butt-ton of people owned one.
@@S.J.C._Entertainment i still remember the smash bros 4 trailers good times
@@S.J.C._Entertainment
True. Because all of the cool people owned one. The reason why the Wii & Switch sold more is because the Wii was owned by so many seniors and the Switch is owned by so many adults.
I still find it crazy the Xbox One sold so much better with a worse library of exclusives and lesser value.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S made their predecessors obsolete.
The Switch didn’t do that with the Wii U, it just made people appreciate the Wii U more and realize the Switch, while still a good console, is kinda overrated.
@@ThomastheDankEngine8900 true. Which is why unfortunately Nintendo is shutting down the eshop because they know that people are still praising the wii u and 3ds for it's virtual console and better UI. That and Nintendo probably isn't happy that people don't like switch online and aren't using it or it doesn't have as much subscribers as they like. I highly doubt it's because of inflation or financial issues because they've recovered from the wii u and are the richest company in Japan today. Why can't Nintendo be like how they were in the wii and ds to wii u and 3ds days? They were so much consumer friendly back then and now. They don't care about their fans at all and treat us like trash. =( and i guess another problem is people just accepting that Nintendo is this way now like in terms of greediness or they don't care or use arguements like inflation which doesn't make sense because again they're the richest company in Japan right now. They don't have to charge 70 bucks or 60 bucks for games. But they will cas they can get away with it because some people will buy anything Nintendo regardless of quality. It's just sad honestly. =( sorry for long rant
Switch erased 3DS's amaizing stuff too, like Streetpass. 3DS was very similar to WiiU in many regards, and none of that is left in the Switch. Many best 3DS games weren't even ported, so WiiU's legacy is better preserved on the Switch.
Switch release also caused WiiU's version of Breath of the Wild losing tablet features, like map, which was previously shown (on a Direct, I believe).
34:20 I think one can find quite a few simillarities between "Modern Directs" and The Game Awards: lots of trailers, not enough time to talk about why any of the game was nominated and why the winner was chosen. Both feel sanitized and are full of ads.
I was literally falling asleep during The Game Awards for that exact reason. Back in the day I thought all I wanted was less talking more gaming, but at least since I've become an adult I've gained much more appreciation for the developer insight and discussion
with the amount of people who own a switch, a streetpass equivalent would be insane
I miss Streetpass
@@RTU130 wanna meet up, so I can share puzzle swap pieces? I finished all of the available panels I ever downloaded. SP felt like a hidden community. I sat at the relays to share my data with others. It was more of a feature than what they did to the mii on the switch.
All the reasons you pointed out are trivial.
I definitely took the social features for granted at the time with my 3DSXL. I forgot about Miiverse, and I do miss it. You captured that social element so well!
It was so good you forgot about it?
Nintendo was at it's most creative and intersting during the Gamecube/early Wii era.
I mean Nintendo still creative now
Look at totk
@@basilplushie2534 Yes, but it's few and far between. A lot of first party Switch games are average at best.
Switch is better than both those consoles
@@GabiN64 Idea-wise? Yeah probably. In execution, though? Definitely not
@@cookieguy9885 why not in execution? it outsold both those consoles. I loved the GCN and owned the Wii btw. Both those consoles had constant dry spells. especially the Wii which fell off hard in 2008.
In a lot of ways I feel similar to you in regards to the switch management. For some games it even made me feel bad about giving them money and, most of all, participating in the stats that tell them "yeah you can keep doing this, you're doing fine". I remember fondly the times of the Wii U, even when it wasn't perfect, I feel like they took risks, they took chances, and they were always thinking of taking care of the little customers they had. Hearing about the passion the game developers have for the games is always incredible, and it's something I miss very much.
But, even when I've started to drift away from Nintendo and its console, I look to the future with hope. Hope that someday this massive company might start feeling a little bit more like the home it used to be for me.
Couldn't agree more. Even if at the end of the day, all corporations are trying to suck the money out of us, I appreciate when the they at least try to make us feel valued. I don't really feel that this generation and I definitely feel more alienated from the developer's perspective than last gen.
@@wizawhat I hope Nintendo can a have a second golden age. Or even better, A Platinum Age. No out of control copyright law, no shady decisions, just pure passion and fun.
@@rickyrackey7930 if you actually think the Wii U was a "golden age" but the Switch isn't, then I'm sorry to say that you are in an EXTREME minority on that opinion. Switch is the first time it's felt like they've been trying since the SNES days!
@@rogertaylor5538 I love the switch, I’m talking about taming the copyright law.
@@rogertaylor5538 I think the switch is the first time that I’ve truly been interested in an Nintendo console probably since the Nintendo 64 oh, more recently, or at least my last Nintendo system I had, which was the Wii.
I think the same thing could be said about Splatoon on WiiU. It's a 3rd person shooter game but when you need to superjump to your teammate you glance down and FIND your teammates to jump to and when you use the inkstrike special your Inkling PULLS OUT A MODDED WiiU where you both pick a spot and fire. The game pad was meant to be immersive and it made me FEEL immersed
Thanks WiiU, you helped create my childhood and one of the strongest franchises in nintendos arsenal
I love the Switch and definitely fixed a lot of issues that the Wii U had but I REALLY miss the charm that the 3DS and Wii U had. They could at least give us some music or themes on the Switch menu.
Pray tell, what issues?
Having gotten into Homebrew recently, I've been playing more of my 3DS than my Switch lately.
Can't tell if meme or serious or both, but I love it
@@wizawhat completely serious
@@wizawhat Homebrew New 3DS is genuinely thrilling to me.
Same :d
I'm saving up a bit for a new 3DS to homebrew, can't wait to have it in my grubby little hands! I desperately want the 3/2DS family to get back into fashion
It's interesting to see how the perception of what constitutes 'old Nintendo' has evolved over time. For many long-time fans, 'old Nintendo' refers to the pre-Wii era, encompassing the GameCube and all prior systems. They often reminisce about the iconic Nintendo E3 shows, seeing the company's peak in the legendary 2004 E3 event. The Wii-U era is not worth mentioning for the older generation. The fact that this time is referred to as the 'old Nintendo era' by the video creator, shows how big a role nostalgia can play.
There's a generational difference. A lot of fans who grew up with the Gameboy and (S)NES seem to like the Switch 's minimalistic UI. They say it's great for just playing games and avoids the bloat of later Nintendo systems.
However, gen Z and younger millennials, those who grew up with the Wii, Wii U, and DS family, think it feels soulless without a UI. They're used to the Mii Channel, charming quirks like 3D, and even Netflix. The Switch lacks that.
@mounirzahran6745 idk literally anything can be called old. there’s no universal gate blocking things from being called an adjective.
That's a great point. I grew up with a Wii and I still associate "old Nintendo" with the SNES era.
@@supervivo7069 I think the Switch, while having some amazing games on it, is pretty soulless and I grew up with consoles that didn't have main menus you were supposed to normally see. Nintendo used to be ABOUT being charming, even to a fault, but it seems like they are moving away from that, and I think in some ways that's a bit sad.
I agree. The Wii and Wii U was not old Nintendo. It was new Nintendo trying to gain the non-gamer market because they couldn't compete with Sony Playstation and even Xbox. Most of the fans of Nintendo had grown up and just wanted more adult oriented game. But now there is a change in trend in gaming. It's going back to the old ways of platforming, simple games to pick up game. The Switch brought back the old casual gamers.
Awesome video, it's really evident that Nintendo was turning away from the wii u as hard as they could with the switch in terms of how it felt. The mii maker is hidden in the settings and the lack of music and themes make it feel more like a machine than an environment for games. I'm hopeful for the future however, now Nintendo is in a comfortable position thanks to the switch they could be more relaxed with the next console meaning there's room for the developers to be a lot more creative. I love the switch but I think it's time for a refresh with a new console.
Anything that allows developers to be more creative, I can get behind. I sincerely hope I'm wrong to be worried about the future
As long as that refresh is a switch successor with backwards, compatibility with the current Nintendo switch library, then I’m all for because it would be a mistake for Nintendo to drop backwards, compatibility with the current switch library.
In many ways I feel the same way about Sony.
The PSP, PS3, and especially the Vita felt like Sonys most ambitious consoles, and even if first party support didn't stick around super long for those platforms, the games they did create were some of the most diverse and creative. With Sony's more successful consoles, the games feel a lot more safe. It's kinda hard to believe the PS4 and Vita were part of the same generation, because the differences in approach between them were just so massive.
I think in the case of both Nintendo and Sony, when they're struggling they're much more willing to just throw anything at the wall to see what works, whereas they're much more calculated in periods of success.
this. exact this. The Vita could have been what the switch is today if pushed properly
youre sooo right. i cant see open world action adventures with too long storys anymore. i miss tearaway wipeout ape escape parappa the rapper gravity rush
Even though PlayStation and Nintendo are putting out great games but ok
@@user-pn9xp1gz2l Nintendo ok, but they're few and far between. Sony.. eh.... they're loved by the media but consist of a lot of surface level "cinematic experiences" with fancy graphics games.
Even Xbox all of them died with Switch Ps4 and xbox one i will always remember the old sony and Nintendo even Microsoft men i miss my old PlayStation times who the studios was in japan and hat hot anime girl games zero censored things and had so many cool little tool in the ps3 system the ps5 feels empty soulless and the company becoming American destroyed everything else its over for all 3 but Nintendo has the most potential to save them sony is gone forever
I really miss Miiverse and Wii U Chat in particular. Those two apps helped me make and connect with friends in a way that I have not experienced since. The Switch just has a barebones phone app (which isn’t even widely accessible) and that’s pretty much it. Not saying it needs something similar, but they just feel so disconnected in comparison.
Thank you for making this video. You were able to put into words a lot of what I've been feeling with the state of modern Nintendo, but never really was sure what it was. I guess in a way I feel a bit of relief/vindication knowing now that I'm not the only one who feels this way
Same here
i stayed up until 2 am to watch this and you made something special. miiverse was so special with me interacting with so many people all across the world who cared about the same things as me was captivating. all the features of the wii u with miiverse, or video chat, and the main plaza showing what you’re friends were doing made it feel so personal and special and that is where it outshines the switch
I'm always glad to hear that I wasn't the only one who loved miiverse!
I still cry everytime I think of Satoru Iwata. That man was like the Walt Disney of Nintendo.
Damn I did not expect to stay for the entire hour,. but this was pretty elegantly put. You can really feel the passion behind those words.
Hi yo
@@idontcheckmynotifications fancy seeing you here
Holy shit, I’ve had this viewpoint for YEARS and thought I was alone on this. I’m actually freaking out over someone having my exact same feelings on this subject
WHY WONT SONIC LET YOU LEAVE 😰😰 he is supposed to be silly.....
Your name and pfp are gold omg
@@sonicsillies Sonic says.
You're definitely not alone, friend.
Stop thr cap. UA-cam comments be so over the top.
Another thing is that the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS were all meant to be more than gaming systems, but integrated in daily life. Like the Wii Forecast and News channels, the Wii U's TVii and video chat, and the 3DS and even DSi's photo and audio apps.
The switch feels way more lifeless than the Wii U simply because it lacks system/store music. The Wii U eshop music right now, a week before you can buy anymore games, sounds so sad dude.
Personally, I bump the WiiU shop music out of my stereo whenever I shop online. Should have an app made that cranks that shit automatically whenever I open up amazon
It's not just that, the interface, details, sounds were something else. Standarization kills charm.
For me it's not just the Wii U, but the 3DS as well. When the Switch was released and didn't have things such as themes, streetpass, play coins, AR, download play, etc. it was something I expected them to still be working on. I expected that they just needed to push the Switch out for BOTW, and hadn't finished all those other features yet. I really thought they'd announce those at a later date, but no attempt was ever made.
I think that's my main problem with the switch. Every time before that a new console/handheld leaned on its predecessor and made it better by adding new features. The Switch didn't do that, it did not combine the strengths and weaknesses of it's predecessors, as I expected from a hybrid system, it was just a hard reset of all these systems.
Dude I wish the switch had street pass
Yeah, Streetpass was so much fun (and still is if you find someone)
The switch has good games sure but I hate the console itself. Rather than combine the strengths of handhelds and home consoles all it did was combine the weaknesses. It’s a bad portable console as it’s hard to carry around and it has barely any battery life. It’s too weak and underpowered to be a good home console. The joycons are too small to be comfortable and suffer a bad case of drift, and finally basically none of its unique features ever get any use. I hope Nintendo can put in the effort to make their next console decent.
As a lifelong Nintendo fan I absolutely loved this video. You captured exactly what I've been feeling these past few years, especially as an Animal Crossing fan. These games just don't have soul anymore, they cater to an audience that isn't us, the diehard Nintendo supporters. It's totally okay to look for new gamers, which New Horizons and the Switch in general certainly did, but what's not okay is neglecting your core audience for it. Animal Crossing was never about customization, it was about community, and so is Nintendo. I'm trying to stay hopeful for the next console, but I don't think anything will ever reach the love I had for the DS, the Wii and the Wii U.
I feel the same way, switch is so disappointing compared to the potential it had. Because of its success, Nintendo decided to drip feed content and play it safe which is what Nintendo always stood against. The Wii U filler ports without transfers was mad disrespectful to loyal fans who supported Nintendo during their Wii U days
Now you felt how Sony fans for a while stood up for the transfer from ps4 to ps5
Yeah, I played almost every big Nintendo game that came to the Wii U. While getting them on the switch with the ability to play them on the go was a dream… it also felt kinda cheap. I think a lot of fans would’ve been more happy getting new games with new concepts rather than rehashing the old ones. It kinda makes you wonder what Nintendo devs have been doing this whole time. I mean, we’ve been playing the same Mario Kart game for almost 10 years wtf.
@@Ferrichrome and their DLC is a slap to the face for us that the quality isn't MK8 like compared to the OG one.
@@therealjaystone2344 I know, the quality is terrible and as much as I’d love new tracks I just can’t support the quality. I gladly would pay another 60 dollars if the quality was the same as the OG tracks
@@Ferrichrome Mario kart 9 won’t be the same quality as of MK8. Probably gonna be a step down of quality but way more tracks than the dlc. At least Nintendo listened to the fans after the wave 1 bash.
The switch is great imo but I do agree that the wii u is heavily underrated and overhated
Exactly
As a fan of the PlayStation 3 I know how you feel
Nah, Wii U is garbage
@@EbolaGW
Damn what a username. It says a lot
@@ianeons9278
Doesn't change the fact the Wii U is still garbage
I didn't expect to get so emotional over this video when I clicked on it. Wonderful video. I've been a proud owner of a Wii U for almost 10 years.
"I want my console to pull me away from my PC." This is exactly how I've been feeling for a while.
R.I.P. Satoru Iwata
This video could be boiled down to "Remember when Nintendo was the underdog, and because of that, more genuine? Also the switch is a paperweight."
Am I wrong though
It’s his own opinion. Let him have it.
@@WARIOWORLDGCN when did i say that his opinion was wrong? don't put words in my mouth i didn't say
Yea basically, and I agree with it
@@wizawhatyou drop a switch enough time it gets messed up, you drop a wii u gamepad the floor gets messed up. As a owner of both that has been my two experiences in contrast.
And here I was thinking I was the only WiiU fan out there. It's hard to express just what the promise of the WiiU meant for me, even if it was too late in my life for it to be fully realized, but I will never forget the feeling it created for me when I got it. I love my Switch, but it's basically only half the machine I wanted it to be.
Exactly
Little late finding this video, but it hits hard.
I see people in the comments saying that the only reason so many people that relate to this video is strictly due to nostalgia. That definitely plays a part, but Nintendo's ideas of their identity, and what their relationship is with their customer, has drastically changed.
As a family man, I fell in love with the WiiU as a concept from Iwata's original Nintendo Direct. I wanted to share my love for Nintendo with my family and the WiiU and 3DS made that all too easy. The WiiU was not just a game console, it was a centerpiece in our household, and we used it for everything. Nintendo was also a huge part of our life at the time. I would finish work, sit down on the couch, pop out the WiiU gamepad, and instantly feel connected to the gaming world, yet without alienating my family. Nintendo Directs were so personable and fun that even members of my family who weren't that into video games would sit down and enjoy them with me.
The 3DS did the same thing. There were a few times where I would keep getting streetpasses in very odd places, but I eventually found out who it was and we connected and became friends. Gaming was able to part of my life without interrupting my work, family, and social life.
The Switch is a great gaming machine, but that is it. So much of its potential in its hardware is also underutilized. When I pull out my Switch to play, no one else is drawn to it like they were with the WiiU. I enjoy Nintendo's video games, but unfortunately, they can't be as big a part of my life as they once were because it feels like I have to sacrifice other parts of my life to get into them.
I believed in Iwata's dream of using games to connect people to his dying breath and still do. Unfortunately, it seems that in this day and age, such a vision does not lead to as many sales as their current strategy. I still believe such a dream can be achieved, and the WiiU and 3DS era were a small taste of what can be accomplished, but I don't see anyone pulling the strings at Nintendo that has the character, charisma, and dream to accomplish it.
There was definitely a stronger sense of community with the 3Ds and Wii/WiiU. The sad thing is that this community still feels stronger than what is here with the switch. The switch is bland is trying to be more like modern counsels then being nintendo. There’s no longer catchy music as you let it sit on the main screen, just an empty void of just you and the screen.
I love that you made this video. From the very beginning I had this indiscribable feeling with the Switch that something was just "off", something was missing from it that made it lack the typical Nintendo passion and feel. My partner always thought the same, but we couldn't properly explain it.
I am actually one of the people that skipped the WiiU, so I am really glad that you talked about your experience with it. During the video I realized that all the things you love and cherish about the WiiU are the things I love about the 3DS! I loved the weirdness of the Miiverse. I just enjoyed browsing for new menu themes, so that just starting up my console felt like a fun and personal experience. And I loved the excitement that came with checking if I met new people over street pass so I could finally get some new puzzle pieces.
All of these things are so silly and trivial, but they were what made the 3DS feel unique to me.
When I boot up my Switch I am met with a blank menu that only serves the purpose to pick and start a game. Our Switch has been gathering dust for quite some time now...
Why has your Switch been gathering up dust? It's the games that matters, the Wii U had more personality but the Switch has a better library and is still a better console.
Ignorant take
The switch does have better games and i care more about the games than the charm.
I also skipped the Wii U, but due to not having the budget for another console after the 3DS. To be honest, I think the poor marketing choices, such as calling it the Wii U, also failed to get me more interested in getting it. But when my then-boyfriend invited me to his house and we played on his Wii U, I realized it was a pretty neat console, besides being great for modding lol. I already regretted having never experienced the Wii U when it was the current Nintendo console, but this video just made me get really sad about it.
Maybe if Nintendo took the time to show the fans what makes their new releases worth it like they used to do, I'd find first- and second-party Switch games more interesting. And if they put more effort into the experience of using the console again (such as in menus, apps, innovative gameplay and whatnot), I'd want to get a Switch even if I just had MK8. It's so frustrating that they're about to release a new console and it doesn't seem like enough games have taken advantage of the touchscreen or the other features.
Absolutely beautiful. I've been feeling drawn back to the wii u and 3ds for the past few years now and I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in this. It can easily be mislabeled as JUST nostalgia for those simpler times but I always felt that there was more to it. This video summed up perfectly those feelings I wasn't able to put into words. Well done! Loved the video!
Same
Going through the Wii U and 3DS eshops the last few days prior to closure really made it apparent that Nintendo has lost a lot of it's quirky mojo with the Switch
@@glungusgongusyou obviously don't understand how Nintendo used to be.
@@glungusgongus how would I not? I grew up watching the old commercials, and in my eyes, they far surpass many newer ones. And not to mention the music on the eShops
@@glungusgongus why can't I hold on to great memories? Why should I grow up in that sense? Why is Nintendo's quirkiness back then such an issue for you?
@@glungusgongus however, the marketing and first impressions are everything, games add on to it.
@@glungusgongusdon’t be mean
God I miss Iwata. Great video
Often, I find myself tired of my Switch, and going back to my Wii U and 3DS. Those systems have a more personality in the UI, and it's more welcoming. 3DS has themes, and stamps. Wii U at the time was an amazing UI and Miiverse application. It was am interesting social media network to share with fellow Nintendo fans.
You never truly realize how lucky you are to have something before it's gone.
I was worried about being the only one who felt this way, and although not for the same reasons as you, I completely agree. Nintendo seems to have lost its magic. These new games don't sparkle, the console itself is so simple and everything that surrounds it is different. My favorite console of all time is the 3Ds, I feel that everything that Nintendo did for it was amazing. Even past consoles such as the Wii U, the Wii, the N64, etc are like this.
I hope one day Nintendo can find itself again and be what it once was again!
This kind of hits hard for me because I still think there have been some real flashes of brilliance in the switch lineup, like mario odyssey and smash ultimate, but they're few and far between. And it starts to feel like the game selection is only good BECAUSE of the switch's longevity, rather than the other way around
"These new games don't sparkle." Wtf are you smoking? I can name LOTS of Nintendo franchises that are at their best on Switch, while many on Wii U are mediocre or awful
Yeah, Nintendo only made amazing games for the 3ds that everyone loved and absolutely no one hated, such amazing games like Federation Force, Sticker Star, Mario Sport Superstar, Yoshi's New Island, Spirit Camera, Zip Slash, all the Mario Party's for it or Steel Diver.
It's definitely not that you are looking at it with nostalgia glasses while being overly negative about the Switch's library.
Sometimes you guys idealize the past way too much. Wii U had lots of moments when it lacked game releases to look foward to
Incredible video! I really miss this side of Nintendo and I'm so glad I'm not crazy for thinking it either. Thank you for making this!!
Dude! You make such excellent content with Nintendo Life. It means a lot to me to know you enjoyed this, thank you!
Aww dude that's so kind of you to say! Hopefully Nintendo is listening :))
I think it kind of proves your point how excited I got seeing clips from the old Directs. I had no idea those were a thing. I'm someone who basically never watches promo stuff like that because I assume it's more like you mentioned.. just a bunch of trailers.
It reminds me excited I'd get watching indie devs streaming their development and how excited that got me to see the finished game.
I love the idea of streamed development. Got a ton of respect for anyone that does that because I can imagine it being really stressful to show off your game in an unfinished state
I loved my Wii U, it actually got me into console gaming.
Proof?
I still have mine and it works
ill be completely honest.. i dont think ive cried, like at all, in the past few years up until this point, until I saw this video, and then decided to revisit the mii maker song from the wii u.. and the culmination of everything said in this video started to make me miss the wii u even more than I already had. It was almost heartbreaking.. simply put this video made me cry, break down even.. because it helped me remember what made the wii u so special and reinforced the importance of it, and its role played in my teenage years l.. thank you man will cherish this moment I think back to it from time to time. (I know this sounds like a personal issue and it probably is. I just felt like sharing it that’s all anyways.. keep up the great work..)
Glad people are appreciating how much of an amazing era the Wii U was before the Switch.
It wasn't
Way better than the switch. Every good game on the switch is a Wii U port or an older game
@@corralzin4909 That's a lie and you know it
@Paraone Ngatai Yeah the switch is better now, but it wouldn’t be if Nintendo treated the Wii U better. I still enjoyed the Wii U more than the Switch when I still had it. I even just ditched my switch whenever I’m home just to play the Wii U at my spare time. Now that Nintendo shut everything down, I had no choice but to continue using my switch. Least I enjoy it a lot more now, but damn I wish Nintendo can just make better decisions sometimes..
The WiiU Era fucking sucked. Unless you were a literal fucking child. There were literally no games on WiiU.the games that did came out fucking sucked. You seriously gonna say that Star Fox Zero is better than anything on switch?
the wii era, as well as the 3ds era will always be most memorable to me. me and my sister would CONSTANTLY play on the wii, and we still do, but mostly through the wii u's virtual wii. What im baffled by when reminiscing is how we tried to use the wii to its full extent, by playing around in the photo gallery, where we used to DRAW on that. im a digital artist and nowadays i cant draw on the wii for shit 💀 credit to little me, i guess. We would make a BUNCH of miis with little to no relevance other than to make up characters or recreate ones from our favorite medias, and we would make them play boxing in wii sports or give them an instrument to play in wii music. 3ds was a little bit after our wii obsession, and yet we still tried to find ways to play together, either through the games with streetpass. I only play 3 or 4 games on the switch. acnh, splatoon 3, miitopia, and smash bros. not sure what this says about me, but im lucky i own SO many wii games and 3ds games, comparatively to what i have on my switch. I think the difference is... the switch is trying too hard to be like other modern consoles. the home menu is SO boring, i remember opening the Themes tab in the settings and saying "..thats it?" as my poor child soul was crushed that christmas morning. the wii, wii u and 3ds all have very unique home menus, and ive always wondered why Nintendo downgraded so HARD. every other console had music. the switch's lack of music makes me forget that i have it left on and its battery drains faster than my energy levels (in all fairness, its 3 years old). nintendo is trying to reach SOME kind of audience, but it'll occasionally spoon feed its older generation fans every so often. the eshop is just an indie game flea market. i never used the eshops on the wii, wii u or 3ds, since weve always bought the physical copies. instead of giving us little things like themes or even games like badge arcade to spend our money on, we have to pay for online access on the switch. this comment feels too long, so im gonna stop now.
Hear Hear!
Yeah they gave us so many little charming things over the years and now they take it away so suddenly. Obviously people are disappointed to not see what they expected to see. I could do without a photo gallery like the Wii's (it was a novel concept but let's be real, I barely ever used it after I stopped being a kid, and the 3DS's camera sucked), but all the other fun things like Miiverse, the Check Mii Out channel, or something as basic and universal as UI themes, there really was no need to get rid of that kinda thing, nobody complains about a little classic Nintendo quirkiness.
Well, now that I think about it, some people do think that "only the games matter". Alright, but that's just a subjective opinion, not everyone just cares about the games. Nintendo has been experimenting with providing unique experiences since before they even became a video game company, I think. It wouldn't hurt the quality of the games on the Switch if there were better looking themes that aren't devoid of personality, or small apps that aren't games but can still be pretty fun nonetheless. One of the reasons a lot of die-hard Nintendo fans love Nintendo is precisely because it's different from its competitors and doesn't just focus on being a platform to play games on, it wants to be fun in many other ways. There's nothing wrong with that, nor does praising previous Nintendo consoles for having a lot of charm equal an insult to the Switch or its games. It's not like it's a matter of "charm vs. good games" either, so...
I think the WiiU has to be one of my favorite console's just because of how good of a time I had with it even when I wasn't primarily focused on gaming. It was the only device I had that could really easily put things like youtube on the screen or any internet pages. I can remember having friends over and after playing some of the games, we would settle down and watch youtube together or even once when I put up a webcomic for us to read.
I remember having people play the ZombiU and Chasing Aurora demo's and having a lot of fun there too.
It made everything really accessible and easy, all of my Wii stuff worked with it and was easy to use, it was sturdy. And miiverse was very fun!
I think seeing the state of Splatoon 3, I am fully supportive that they got rid of miiverse since a lot of kids are on these platforms. Maybe the moderation used to be better, but it tends to feel like people are just worse in what they put out for kids...
Still, at the time miiverse was exceptionally good, and I enjoyed stopping to read a lot of where it was incorporated in games.
There were a lot of games I got to play on the WiiU compared to the Switch as well, but that may just be my tastes.
With the Switch being poorly designed (should not hurt my hands so badly undocked when the gamepad avoided this issue fine) and having a lot of issues like drift, it feels like a cheap mobile game. In the sense that these are problems Nintendo was famous for avoiding in the past. Every single controller they have made is going to break? When else has that happened? And gone completely unfixed? It feels like they're just okay with putting out cash grabs now because of things like this. (Pokemon did not help my views at all, though that is a diff company....)
Nintendo has been my favorite game company my whole life and I had a great deal of confidence in them. But it's all kind of fallen apart since the Switch, or maybe since Iwata's death....
I hope they can bounce back, but for now the PS5 is very good for me
The Switch is not really poorly deigned, I mean undocked it is just fine, drift is annoying though but it does not feel like a cheap mobile game. But drift is not even a new problem. Not all of them, pro controllers are still fine. But what they are putting out is mostly not cash grabs, the Wii U era was not innocent either and it was a clunky gamepad with a underutilized gimmick.
@@Jdudec367 I almost exclusively play undocked, which is why I run into such issues with hand pain, which wasn't a problem with DS/3DS/WiiU. It feels like they sacrificed something just to make joycons uniform which I don't think was entirely necessary.
Playing undocked has made the location of the charging port a massive pain for me, a sacrifice made for the docking gimmick which also can cause warping to the system last I heard. If they had designed it to function just with a wire instead of needing to be docked, it seems like the warping wouldn't be an issue, and then I could play undocked a lot more comfortably. Bad choices all around if you ask me. (Though of course, this assumes the warping is from a lack of proper heat ventilation, which I am not positive about.)
To me problems of this type are much worse than the gamepad screen not getting used enough/creatively enough.
It could be that given I had WiiU it dramatically cuts down on games I consider to be Switch games. It's left me with only a few games for Switch, probably the least of all my Nintendo consoles. Really dislike the current handling of 'virtual console' as well given this would have been a nice system for it.
And then the situation with that Mario 3 in 1 type game just makes me feel a little jaded about it all.
It's not as though one issue has made me feel like Nintendo is developing worse practices or anything, but all together I do feel less forgiving about all this. Used to be very eager back when the Switch first launched
@@ObsessedwithZelda2 Hm weird, the Wii U gamepad is around as big and is thicker too. They did not sacrifice anything too major though. I do not see how, you can just disconnet the charger and charge the Switch directly while playing. Eh I do not know if it can actually warp the system or not. Well yeah you can still do that with the charging cable. It is not really bad choices. Frankly though that led to the Wii U being underpowered, the gamepad being unreplacable, being clunky etc all unneeded issues which I would argue is worse.
It does not do that for me, I mean sequels still count. I do not see why with how many Switch games there are. Fair enough then.
Also fair, but then again they did that shit with 4 swords too on 3DS but even worse since that game is hardly ever rereleased and you cannot even buy it online for the 3DS, sure it was free but still only for 4 days, they could have just given it a actual price after 4 days instead of taking it off completely, I used to have it too but not anymore.
You could really apply that statement at the end to the gaming industry as a whole. None of the big three are really doing anything innovative anymore, just capitalizing on their current market.
Valve sure may be doing interesting things from the hardware angle, but I miss the polished but completely left field videogame.
It's a similar message from Funke's "I Miss TF2" video where even if Valve wasn't struggling, the sort of new and wild concepts they introduced with their regular updates and blog posts made things fun and exciting.
I miss it. I miss the passion and excitement. Indies may grow to fill that space, but I suspect we'll likely enter an age of complacency from the first party publisher.
It's funny, back during the Wii U days, a lot of people were begging Nintendo to be a little safer and focus on fleshing out their existing IPs. They've done that this generation, but it's left me with quite a hollow feeling. As I've grown older with more games in front of me than ever before, I find myself craving the new ideas and experiences that feel like a piece of art rather than a product, and indies are DEFINITELY scratching that itch.
@@wizawhat I mean they did play it safe with the Wii U at times, look at all the Mario games and stuff, this gen is no safer.
Switch era felt like Nintendo grew up. No more wacky UI, no more gimmick, no more treating Nintendo like a toy company. They are part of the gaming industry now.
There's still a gimmick????
Nintendo hardware was (and still is) always underpowered. Their consoles always sold well though because of the charm and innovation the consoles had. But with the switch, they have lost pretty much all of that charm, but still kept the crappy hardware
@@professionalbreather62I mean there is still a gimmick that is a real selling point.
@@professionalbreather62That's just incorrect lol. You're right if talking solely about the Wii onwards, but that would be a very nearsighted way to look at it. Gamecube, Nintendo 64, SNES, NES were all on par with their respective competitors, if not superior.
welcome to the industry where aids runs around
For me, it's the themes and various system music.
Now that the Steam Deck is out, my Switch is honestly just a Pokemon and Zelda machine. I *want* to populate it more, but any third party titles I want on the Switch are also on Steam Deck, which go on sale more and equally often perform better.
I find myself now using community plugins and extensions to personalize my Steam Deck in an attempt to bring back the fun feeling I had with the 3DS and Wii U.
The fact that Nintendo lists it's two themes as "Basic" Black and White would naturally make people think there'd be more options in the future. And we still don't have any. I'd happily pay $2-3 again for more themes just so I can have a sense of playfulness and personality with my Switch.
48:06 -- no upgrade path is something that still bugs me.
I finally picked up MK8 Deluxe after they had it on sale with the new DLC, but the price points hurt when I'd already purchased these games on the Wii U.
I felt this big time on Super Mario 3D World. Paying $60 to play Bowser's Fury which I beat in like, a day, felt pretty bad
@@wizawhat Totally.
I loved Bowser's Fury, but I wish I could have purchased it on its own for a lower price instead.
It felt like I was being punished for supporting Nintendo during the Wii U era.
The fact that Nintendo already had an upgrade path in place for Wii to Wii U Virtual Console games makes it that much worse.
This is a great video but man I disagree with so much of this lol
1) I feel like you gloss over just how laggy and slow the Wii U interface was. It took sooo long to get in and out of some apps or menus, even booting up took kind of a silly amount of time. That’s the cost of having a lot of ancillary features
2) I just don’t get how you can think the Wii Us library is anywhere near the switch’s. It doesn’t have any Mario game on par with odyssey, it had BotW but switch had it too and also TotK now. Switch got mainline animal crossing, two splatoon games, a bunch of mainline pokemon games (not the highest quality imo but still, Wii U had none). And switch’s 3rd party support is just so far beyond Wii Us it’s not even comparable, and having many of these games as portable versions is a big value proposition
3) the Wii U hardware itself was just bad. The gamepad had a low res screen with terrible battery life, it didn’t have capacitative touch at all time where that was the entire appeal of relatively new tablet touch devices (it defeated the purpose of any web browsing type features). It had limited storage. And honestly for every game that made good use of the gamepad, there were games like Star Fox zero that awkwardly forced it into use, plus 20 more where it really doesn’t add anything.
Switch definitely fumbles legacy games and online support but Wii U wasn’t *that* much better tbh. And I get that steamdeck can basically be a better indie machine but that’s only come out the past year or so, for the last 6 years there hasn’t been a much better way to have a portable library of indie games at a similar price point
Idk this feel very much like rose tinted glasses to me
First off, thank you! I'm glad we can respectfully disagree. I'll reply to each of your points.
1) This gets brought up a lot, but I genuinely cannot relate to complaints regarding the speed of the interface. I like to dedicate at least a solid hour to any gaming session, so the minute or two it takes to get into a game has really never bothered me. I'll just walk up to my console, turn it on, and maybe grab a glass of water and a snack and by the time I'm really settled in, any loading is already over. A slow interface would be less acceptable with a handheld console because they're supposed to support quick, start and stop play sessions, but that's not what the Wii U is for.
2) Maybe I communicated this poorly, but what I was trying to get across through comparison is that if you're someone like me (a highly engaged Wii U owner that isn't particularly into remakes and remasters) There isn't as wide a canyon separating the Wii U and Switch first party libraries. I have to stress a couple aspects of that - disinterest in remakes/remasters and first party games. I had a ton of fun with games like DKC TF, Nintendo Land, Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3, Splatoon, Captain Toad, Mario Maker, and Smash to name a few. That's not all my games either as I did play a lot the 3rd party offerings that were available (W101, Rayman, MH3U, etc) and I'm still adding a couple to my library today like Yoshi Wooly World and Hyrule Warriors most recently. Even Super Mario 3D World - for being an overall lesser game then Super Mario Odyssey, hit for me in a way the latter cannot. I really appreciated the multiplayer aspect. I also... actually like Star Fox Zero. Seriously. And I talked about it candidly and honestly in another video for about 30 minutes. Wii U really hit for me at a time when I could be thoroughly engaged with all of its offerings. You also need to consider the quality and volume of 3DS games released at the time when comparing this generation and last (something I was thinking about while making this but failed to bring up). The Wii U's life cycle was also cut around a year or so shorter than what is typical for most console generations. Maybe if it were more successful there could have been even more in the tank? The Wii U has A LOT of holes, particularly with missing franchises and 3rd party games - but as a PC owner that also isn't driven by portability, I was able to overlook them and enjoy what I had.
3) The Wii U was definitely a product of its time, and without the full commitment to a hybrid, it is much easier to argue that the lack of power was just bad. The battery life was also objectively terrible. However; I actually really preferred how the controller felt in my hands, and for gaming I prefer resistive touch. I know there are styli for capacitive screens now, but any game that was thoughtfully and precisely using the Gamepad touch outside of the occasional digital button press (Mario Maker for example) benefitted from a stylus and resistive screen.
4) Now that the library has been filled out, I think I'm starting to change my mind on the Switch's legacy model - as long as it continues to build with the next console. Comparing the Switch to the Steamdeck in the way I did was a mistake, as the Steamdeck in practice is shaping up to be more of a niche product than I made it out to be.
I know that was long (sorry), but it's been awhile since I really responded to opposing arguments on this video and I felt interested. I understand why a lot of people believe I'm looking back on the Wii U with rose tinted glasses. There's definitely a lot of nostalgia for the good times throughout this video, but I still reject the notion that I'm blinded by it. While many people were deriding the Wii U in its 'prime', I really was just quietly and happily playing it at the time, and the only thing that was truly boring or exhausting for me was the constant negative reputation it had.
I know man...me too...I still have iwata in my streetpass park..Everytime I go there it makes me remember the good ol times, the 2005-2014 era really was Nintendo's peak, I also feel incredibly bored with the switch, never have been with my ds, wii, or 3ds..
Great video. Miiverse was so underrated, it gave the Wii U such a homey feeling
@wizawhat Thank you so much for giving the Wii-U some justice. Folks focus too much on how bad it was marketed and end up forgetting what it provided. It was uniquely fitted for me at the time cuz the TV downstairs broke and I didnt have a TV in my room for a while but all I needed was the gamepad and I put in so many hours from there. We should never forget the MiiVerse (and the godly stage for it in Smash 4), the drawing feature to help unite artists, and not only is the multiplayer aspect more welcoming and better implemented than the Switch's, but getting the Wii controllers is much cheaper than getting a bunch of Joy-Cons or pro controllers to do multiplayer with friends. Me and my ex played only a few games together on it but oml were they the most fun times we've had as far as gaming. I also like how big yet comfy feel of the pad with it's smoothed corners, opposed to my Switch Lite's smaller corners. ik i was supposed to get the real Switch, but it's branching versions are so unfriendly and undercooked it's not even funny, even wore if you're a content creator (which i am and i've been stuck with this stupid thing. at least i've streamed my Wii U before...)
I 100% relate to this! I was actually thinking just recently how more magical and charming the wii U and miiverse days really were. I'm glad I found this video.
My favorite direct of all time was E3 2014 which had Zelda botw teaser, Smash 4, pokemon ORAS, Hyrule warriors as a few highlights, along with the hilarious Robot chicken skits in-between. Don't even get me started on that duel between Reggie and Iwata LOL
I dont know....over the last few years i have spent a surprising amount of time playing switch socially, if you are with a group of twenty-somethings who are a mix of gamers and non-gamers it seems like that thing is destined to come out to play jack box, mario kart or the like. I even got my 70 year old never gamed ever dad to get really into a game of switch jeopardy
What still confuses me is that the Switch was given a touch screen like the Wii U gamepad and the DS lineage, but it doesn't come with its own stylus. It's almost like getting a burger without seasoning mixed into the patty after just eating 3 burgers that had delicious seasoning mixed into the patties.
Because capacitive touch screen dont need a stylus, only resistive touch screens.
May not need, but a stylus can be pretty nice regardless
While I definitely don't agree with everything you mentioned, I can tell everything you talked about comes from a place of love. Much like the passion you mentioned missing from Nintendo Directs of old, I feel the passion exuding throughout this video.
And god I miss Miiverse so much LOL
#bringbackmiiverse
What an absolutely wonderful video. It's so hard to articulate this stuff but you did it flawlessly. I was actually emotional when realising how much of the old Nintendo is "gone"... 😥
Just cant agree with this. At all. I stopped gaming for a decade and a half and came back to it with... the wii u. Spent 2 years experiencing nothing but jealousy and constant frustration with that system. I tried to love it. I got back in touch with my old gaming friends and brought it to them. Everybody hated it. Finally i had to admit i hated it, too. Spending 4 months ewth no games pretending Pikmin 4 was going to make up for the 90 games the other systems got in that time. Then going 7 more months getting something like a Wario Micro Game collection and Cat Mario. All the while everyone i knew piling up mountains of amazing games. I held on to Nintendo because of a sense of loyalty for my childhood. Eventually i came to grips with a basic fact. You need to pick a PS or Xbox as your main and get a Nintendo as your secondary device and youll hit that sweet spot. Most of us that grew up with Nintendo have a hard time admitting we dont see all their games as "must buy" anymore. I never liked things like Pokemon and Kirby or Animal crossing. Mario Kart stopped being great for me sometime around Gamecube or Wii. I always pretended to like Pikmin more than I really do. And I just cant care about Zelda anymore when so many story heavy RPGs with great exploration come out nowadays. Nowadays, for me, Nintendo is basically Smash Bros and Mario Party. Admittedly, growing old and not having many gaming friends left doesnt help, but when i do get people together, those are the 2 funnest in person multiplayer games in existence. Apart from those its nice to be able to pick up the new 3d Mario, DK Country and possibly a Metroid if it looks good. Sorry this kinda went from a wii u vs switch post to an anti nintendo post without me realizing lol but i guess ill sum it all up like this: Nintendo consoles are great as secondary gaming systems, but the Wii U was awful even as that.
Oh and also this video honestly strikes me as the kind of thing people think now when reiniscing bit almost nobody actually felt like this at the time as they were living thru it. Like when you think back to your first date with a girl as a magical life changing experience but then you remember actually you were sweating and panicking thr whole night. Its better looking back at it than when you were in it
Sorry for typos
I loved playing the Wii U. It gave me so much happiness. I still enjoy the switch, but the Wii U made me feel something that the switch can’t.
Thank you, there is something quintessentially Nintendo about a novel, childlike and mystical universe that you have to immerse yourself into. Personally, I am just discovering Nintendo and am kicking myself for missing the opportunity to get a 3DS (got a 2DS XL instead). 2 screens, 3D, strange Miiverse, street pass... Nintendo seems to be at its best when it is is own subculture, with novel hardware that allows it to innovate in software as well.
Those who get it, get it 💁♂️
3DS is the best. I still play mine daily.
What really sucks about the Wii U is how good of a console it was. Like it's insane to me how anyone thinks the switch is better aside from the TWO advantages it has. Complete portable gameplay and the no requirement for disks. The Wii had backwards compatibility for the Gamecube. The Wii U had backwards compatibility for the wii. What does the switch have? To play the switch you basically require a pro controller since the cheap disaster that is the joycons are bloody abysmal to use. For the wii U the gamepad was like unbelievably unmatched. Here's the thing. The switch feels cheap and fragile. Not care in the world put into it. The Wii U felt heavy, had good analogs. Had a stylis/that pen you have for touch screen. Switch has none of that. Game like Mario Maker played better on the Wii U for both casual and content creation play but ON switch not even being able to use both the switch screen and the TV at the same time is already a flaw in itself. They messed up New Super mario brothers deluxe control wise which confuses me insanely. MK8Deluxe is still missing the one key component that i personally want back and that's MK WII's physics and item distribution. (Cause it just made so much goddamn sense, WTF coins?) < this one is obviously a very personal nitpick. And then you have to pay for an online subscription for the switch. I have barely used my switch because of the online subscription you need for it. I used the WIi U all the time. Even on Mario kart 8 because i was trying to get into that game. I uploaded mario maker Courses very often. Nintendo is not getting a dime form me in terms of a subscription when I've already payed for their games and console. F that.
Like please tell me if I'm crazy. I'm currently 3:59 into the video. But how i feel is that the Wii U felt like it had effort put into it. The switch feels like a cheap plasticy 3rd party garbage. LIke i wanna use my Wii Remotes and classic controller or my WIi U bloody gamepad. Switch IMO is a waste of money. Unless you think you're going to play it OFTEN.
The Wii U era made being a Nintendo fan a laughing stock. It wasn’t even a console that socially brought together a community where people can all talk about the games it had compared to PlayStation or even Xbox.
Can’t really say I miss that era since I can actually meet people who have a switch and plays it’s games regularly
I'm sorry but i have to push back on one thing you said regarding the games on the switch.
The Switch, even when you remove the ports, has one of the strongest libraries of any Nintendo system. The exclusive games on the switch are absolutely incredible.
Zelda totk, Mario Odyssey, Animal crossing new horizons, Luigis mansion 3, fire emblem three houses, Astral chain, Monster hunter rise, Smash bros. Ultimate, Bayonetta 3, Splatoon 2 and 3, Mario Maker 2, Xenoblade 2 and 3 etc.
There is no shortage of amazing games on the switch even when you remove the Wii U ports.
The Switch has the strongest library on a Nintendo console since the SNES despite that i'm more of a quality over quantity guy myself (Gamecube basically).
@@saricubra2867 Gamecube is legit man. That was my first console in fact 😃
I think that the Wii U still has an amazing library of games but I agree. The Switch has plenty of great ORIGINAL games as well.
I don't think he really counts games like fire emblem bloom and xenoblade as true nintendo games
Some people argue the spirit of Nintendo died when Iwata passed away. Others argue it died when Reggie stepped down. To me the spirit of Nintendo died when they announced paid online subscriptions for their services. That's the moment to me when Nintendo stopped being the unique house of ideas and changed to another money grubbing corporation and things kept going down hill with more games getting released incomplete or broken on launch day.
This!! Its so sad that you can’t buy n64 games individually and they’re tied to a sub service..
I can relate to this. I have an OLED switch and for some reason I'm so attached to my wii U and can't stop playing it. The switch honestly gathers dust. The wii U is so unique and cool where as the Switch just feels like a modern day game boy that you can play on the TV. I know that's over simplified but thats how it feels. Plus the ergonomics of the joy cons is horrendous, the wii U gamepad is great to hold for hours.
Well, first of all, its absurd how much I can relate and agree to your talking points.
Second, post Wii U I turned into a PC player and rarely ever got up the motivation to play on a console.
But the Wii U? I still have it plugged in, along with my PS3 and now the Steam Deck. A weird mix, but its my mix.
As for Handhelds, I still use the DS and PSP. Though now I have moved that mostly to the Steam Deck, to be honest. It's my frankenstein Wii U PSP hybrid something and I love it
Steam Deck is my dream machine. Not just for emulation, it just does everything since it's a PC after all. But it can also work wonderfully as a console.
When Iwata passed and Reggie left, I knew Nintendo would suffer a huge change. They were so special and they had a great connection with fans. They will be missed...
The biggest flaw in this video is that you're forgetting a crucial thing: The games. Compare the game libraries between WiiU and Switch: they just dont compare. The Switch's is better. Maybe there are less additional features on the switch, but Nintendo went back to what they shouldve focused on for the WiiU: its a game system. When I used my WiiU, almost all the extra features I never even selected once. I'd slot in the game and that was it. Most fun I had with it was Windwaker remaster, which is a gamecube game. Switch has Two mainline fire emblem games, an amazing Zelda game, Mario Odyssey, Pokemon, Splatoon, the list goes on. WiiU was trying to do too much and shouldve just been a video game console like the switch knows it is.
Zelda came out simultaneously on the wii u though. And splatoon literally started on the wii u 💀 The best selling switch game is literally a wii u port. I can go on. I don't even dislike the switch and frankly it was a smart decision to port the wii u games, but let's be real.
@crystalblade13 well, I would HOPE the switch would have more games considering they don't have any other hardware to develop/publish for 💀
@crystalblade13 you just explained how and why the 3DS took resources from the Wii U while both were in production
The thing is though, a lot of the switch’s library are ports or sequels to Wii U games. As someone who had a Wii U and loved it, the switch doesn’t have nearly as many games that I loved. Hell, I even played botw on Wii U initially, only picking it up on switch when I wanted to replay it years later. It’s basically been Mario odyssey, smash ultimate, Luigi’s mansion 3, and the new Kirby. (And fire emblem which I don’t really like personally).
Meanwhile Wii U had: dkctf, captain toad, 3d world, splatoon, smash 4, Nintendoland, Mario maker, yoshi’s wooly world, wind waker, Mario kart 8, botw, and pikmin 3. Although there is technically less games on Wii U, it felt like everything that did come out were bangers with unique ideas. Literally half of the switch library is borrowing from the Wii U, whether that be direct ports like Mario kart and donkey Kong or sequels that feel like minor updates to the originals, like Mario maker and splatoon.
Even though it was “failing” at the time, being a Wii U owner still felt good because there was always something to look forward too. Meanwhile with switch, there hasn’t been a single interesting game for me since Kirby, which should not be happening on such a successful console.
@crystalblade13 maybe I’m biased because I can’t stand xenoblade and pokemon. But some of those you mentioned like oragami king, animal crossing, and astral chain, were very disappointing imo. That’s obviously subjective though, and I think it’s hard to leave out your preferences when talking about if a system has a good library or not. However splatoon 2 and Mario maker 2 were way too similar to the originals in my opinion. They were great for non Wii U players, but both of those felt like I was playing the same game. Luigi’s mansion 3 was indeed a banger though.
Thank you for making a video like this. I absolutely agree that my feelings towards Nintendo have changed for the worst. I don't hate them, but I miss the Wii U days of Nintendo so much because of exactly the reasons you stated.
it’s so sad the wii u was about bringing people together and now if you want to play split screen minecraft, BOTH profiles need nintendo switch online
Video essays like this don’t typically have an emotional impact on me, but this oddly hit close to home. I’ve felt astray during much of the Switch’s later years, and I think you’ve articulated a great deal of why that is. Considering how much of a punchline the Wii U tends to be, I sincerely thank you for speaking up about some of what made that system experience special for the people who took part in it.
You’re getting emotional over a fucking video game system lmao.
Exactly. But when it comes to the Switch I actually feel like within the past 1-2 years Nintendo has turned themselves around by not releasing overpriced Wii U ports and focusing more on great original games instead.
Absolutely beautiful video and more than relatable. Nintendo really did change with the passing of Iwata and with the Switch itself. Nintendo got way more… corporate. Which is kinda weird to say, since that what they are, but back then it still felt different. Way more fun. And way more special. Your video explained it perfectly. It’s unfortunate, really….
After Iwata's passing it just hasn't been the same.
I still remember when the switch was first announced. Seeing that initial trailer sent my mind buzzing with the possibilities: a handheld powerful enough to run any of Nintendo's home console games, and local play with two controllers built right into the system that you can share. It was so exciting imagining what Nintendo might do with it; virtual console ports of any game in Nintendo's history even up to the GameCube and Wii were possible and many would be available handheld for the first time ever, local play could flourish in an era where every other company had all but abandoned it, and even the Wii U's asynchronous multiplayer would potentially get a second shot at life by pairing two switches together to mimic the gamepad.
It really does stink looking back and seeing just how little of this potential was actually realized. Even local play, something that should've been the easiest thing on switch was utterly ruined by the joycons. I was genuinely looking forward to getting tons of joycons like I had GameCube and Wii controllers in the past, having a full set so that anyone would be able to join in whatever local multiplayer games the system offered. But then the first pair I got began to drift. Then the second, and then the third... Then my brother's joycons too, and his replacement, as well as that of basically everyone I knew online who owned a switch.
I went from being fully ready to stock up on joycons to refusing to buy another until Nintendo announced that the issue had been fixed, which never even happened as far as I'm aware, and it sucks how much this one thing dragged down the entire system. Years of playing the switch with a sour taste in my mouth because of my faulty joycons, and so many potentially great multiplayer sessions where we lacked enough functional controllers to go around.
As much as it's good to look back on old memories fondly, it's important to realize that nothing stays the same forever, people will change, the future can never replicate the past but only be good in it's own new way. There will be good things about the switch to look back on that the next line won't replicate. One thing I really agree with is co-op staying in video games. As an aspiring indie game dev, I want to include co-op gameplay in almost every game I make, because I remember all the good memories of playing with my siblings, and I see games as a way to connect with others and hang out.
*its own (possessive)
it's = contraction of "it is" or "it has"
Excellent video! My feelings on Nintendo's last two generations are exactly the same, I miss that strong sense of identity so much 😩
Loved this video. For me I hate to say it, but when Etika passed away I slowly stopped interacting with the community. He was the guy that kept me talking with people in the nintendo community. He made nintendo directs feel like even more of an event. I've probably watched his reactions to nintendo directs more than normal directs themselves. The wii u days really were the best days. I hope we can get back to that one day!
JoyCon boyz 😢
This made me cry almost because etika genuinely made me feel so connected to the community. Like I watched his videos constantly and was always so excited to see a new reaction to what's new.
Etika was the face of the core nintendo community.
funny reactions apart, he perfectly represented the hype of the "nintendo announcement", new smash characters, new first party releases, just overall passion for nintendos charm. very sadly fitting that the last big thing he reacted to was probably the most requested smash character ever up to that point (banjo)
Same, I completely abandoned my since and recently beat Xenoblade 1 and 3. Etika was the light for me for Nintendo games, I never really buy Nintendo games either since I go for either PC or PlayStation 5 right now. But, before, I was buying Nintendo games left and right. It’s crazy how impactful Etika was for me for the Nintendo community.
I completely agree. Nintendo isn't horrible right now, and they're definitely making steps in the right direction, but the 3ds/wii u era was something magical.
I miss the Wii U times too. I remember being able to buy new games for 20-30€ easily and Nintendo even gave away another game with Mario Kart 8. And Miiverse was amazing.
Now, you get games (half of which are 10-years-old ports) for 45-60€. Nintendo Selects are nowhere to be seen.
The menu and experience, although polished, are sterile. Wii and Wii U were blowing with magic. The sounds and whistles of every channel will forever stay in my memory.
Nintendo just had a lot more personally back then, from the menu music, to the eshop music, and just overall more lively.
I discovered the existence of the Wii U only on 2016, it was reaching the end of its lifetime but even after the Switch came out I've grown so attached to it. The multiplayer(in the games that did feature it) was some of the best I've ever experienced, and finding out about who Iwata was and how much he was an important figure in my life made me appreciate those times a lot more as well. Backwards compatibility also made me get back in contact with some of my childhood games. There's so much to love about the Wii U and the era it represents. Thanks for making this video!