I used the Sunshine game streaming software and the WiiU homebrew port of Moonlight to get game streaming working on a WiiU gamepad. It’s sort of like a bootleg Steam Deck, and it works surprisingly well, but it mostly just made me want a Steam Deck.
The WiiU was ahead of its time.
Great little console.
Looking back, it almost feels like a Switch prototype. It’s a goofy little thing, but I love it. That said, I also love the Nintendo Virtual Boy, so my judgement might be questionable.
Yeah, it did so many things wrong and had so many little annoyances regarding the gamepad.
Still, great games and a wonderful charm to it.
At the time, Microsoft and Sony were playing this “more graphics = more better” game and Nintendo decided it couldn’t compete on that front. You can see a bit of the “compete on anything but graphics” mentality in the Wii and Wii U, then they took what worked and refined it into the Switch and Switch 2.
The virtual boy was ahead of its time, too. Teleroboxer is still my favorite game that no one played.
It’s one of my favorites, too! Almost like a Punch Out!! spinoff. VB Wario Land is worthy of the praise it receives, but I also really like the Virtual Boy’s StarFox-like, Red Alarm.
Red Alarm is definitely my Number 2 on VB, Followed by Wario. I need to search my basement and see if I still have them…
Teleroboxer reminds me of a cross between Punch Out & Metal Combat for the Super Scope, another underrated gem.
At least that one got a sequel!
Super deep cut (this might be my most obscure bit of Nintendo trivia as I couldn’t find any images of it online), but have you ever seen the hidden wireframe models in Red Alarm? If you shoot very specific places in game, you can reveal low-poly 3D models of a Virtual Boy, Game Boy, and even a girl in a bikini… for some reason. I wonder if Nintendo’s top brass were aware of that one when it shipped :-)
Ha!
I was about to mention those in my last comment! I remember it was like weird bits of terrain you had to shoot so many times in certain levels to get the Easter egg. Pretty sure I saw the locations in Nintendo Power…
A low poly wireframe bikini girl had to be hidden back in the day, and now there’s porn games on the Switch Store!
The WiiU crawled so the Switch could walk so the Deck could run
I agree. I think the problem with it is that it was just too complicated. With most Nintendo system what you see is what you get - with the Wii, those people having a good time swinging around their little Toblerones really are playing a game; the Switch really is a home console grade portable handheld thing; the WiiU manages to look like both those things without being either.
The forced gamepad integration didn’t help, like why tf do I need the gamepad to connect to WiFi.
It doesn’t need wifi though, PlayStation portal does. But yeah, the second screen was a questionable idea - too hard to implement in an interesting way, makes all local multiplayer games asymmetrical, makes porting difficult… Even Nintendo gave up
actually the gampad does need WiFi*, it’s just that the Wii U is the access point to its slightly non compliant WiFi ac network.
I mean connecting the console itself to WiFi, you are required to use the gamepad for most settings.
There’s no controller/wiimote fallback option.
I’m a bit confused why it never really caught on. It had so much potential. I loved playing a game while having the map on the little screen for example. Or the inventory or whatever.