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.
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.