======SB Recommends Wii U Games======

Nintendo's kinda-awkward followup to the Wii. Their first HD console and the first entrant into the eighth-generation console wars, its default controller is a large, strange combination between tablet device and traditional gamepad - a hi-res 16:9 touchscreen with traditional grips, buttons and analogue sticks on either side, plus built-in peripherals like a camera and microphone. Some games and apps can be streamed directly onto the controller, eliminating the need for the TV altogether, while others use it as a supplementary second screen, much like a DS. It is also backwards-compatible with most Wii games, controllers and peripherals. 

The combination of odd hardware, a small but intriguing software selection, and a dismal market performance is already earning the system comparisons to the Sega Dreamcast, though Nintendo shows no signs of backing out of the console race just yet.

=====Recommended Wii U Games=====
  ***//Bayonetta//** (also on: 360, PS3)

  ***//Bayonetta 2//**

  ***//Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut//** (also on: 360, PC, PS3)
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Out of all the seventh-gen games haphazardly ported to the system by third parties, this is the only one apart from //Bayonetta// that's generally accepted as actually being superior on the Wii U - mostly due to smart integration of the Gamepad for complex map and menu navigation, plus a few other imaginative interface quirks. No amount of rebalancing and UI improvements will fix that godawful swindle of an ending, though.
    * Felix: Others that are at least acceptable, by the way (on top of being great games to begin with, which cost almost no money on Wii U because no one bought them), include FIFA 2013 and Mass Effect 3.

  ***//Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze//**
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: The rebooted //Donkey Kong Country// games don't quite have Rare's distinctive personality, but from a level design standpoint they're vastly superior to any of the SNES titles. This one even ropes in ex-Rare maestro David Wise to compose the score, so that's nice.

  ***//The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD//**
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Allegedly smoothes over some of //The Wind Waker//'s problems with pacing, fetch-questing and lax difficulty, at the bizarre cost of actually looking aesthetically //worse//, by a significant margin, than the original version of the game released over a decade prior. Considering that the visuals are nigh-universally agreed to be //Wind Waker//'s strongest point, your mileage may vary on whether this constitutes a dealbreaker.

  ***//Mario Kart 8//** (also on: Switch)
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: I'm no //MK// maven, but this is definitely head and shoulders above the Wii version. Cheap items are nerfed and/or marginalized, and the prominence of items and luck-based shit in general is diminished; the visuals, music and SFX are far less obnoxious; and customization options are even deeper. A lot of the new courses are a little... funky for my tastes, but there are an equal number of "classic" courses so whatever. Online play is really... functional.

  ***//Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate//** (also on: 3DS)

  ***//Ninja Gaiden III: Razor's Edge//** (also on: 360, PS3)
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Really hard to recommend, especially if you haven't played the previous two vastly superior games. Team Ninja's apology for the trainwreck that was //Ninja Gaiden III// vanilla basically makes the standard combat play more like //Ninja Gaiden II//, and even makes a few positive tweaks to the engine, but ultimately it just isn't nearly enough to compensate for the game's fundamentally broken health system, lobotomized level design and disgraceful boss fights.

  ***//Pikmin 3//**
    * Felix: My wife played this up until the first or second boss when it actually got tense and immediately lost interest and I couldn't really blame her. It's good at being facile and is visually interesting, but it had no excuse for actually being challenging.

  ***//Splatoon//**

  ***//Super Mario 3D World//**
    * Felix: Actually as fantastic as everyone says. My biggest complaint is that it feels like a shame to "waste" the easy early levels on single-player if you don't have three friends around right when you start the game, since it starts out very accessible and gets very challenging toward the end.

  ***//Super Mario Maker//**

  ***//Super Smash Bros. for Wii U//** (also on: 3DS)
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Unimaginative title aside, this is a huge step up over //Brawl// in pretty much every respect, while remaining different enough from //Melee// to be its own thing. The 3DS version is a glorified demo.

  ***//The Wonderful 101//**
    * Felix: I really don't think this is very good -- there are a lot of dual-screen gimmicks, more stuff to do in the menus than I wanted to look at, and most of the combat seems to take an artificially long time. Only played the demo, though. It's definitely aesthetically well-realized, but to be honest, so are all of Platinum's games.

  ***//Xenoblade X//**
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: This game is a fucking mess but I played over 150 hours of it and don't immediately wince at the thought of playing it some more so it must be doing something right.

  ***//ZombiU//**
    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: A survival-horror roguelike, which is about as interesting as it sounds. The difficulty is refreshingly unforgiving and the design is mercifully light on latter-day Ubisoft bullshit.

=====See also=====
  * [[wii]] - Playable via backwards compatibility.
  * [[virtual_console]] - Certain NES, SNES and GBA games are available on the eShop, with N64 and DS games to come (supposedly). The rest can still be purchased and played in Wii Mode.
  * [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?t=39382&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0|Forum thread]]