I think this era of Nintendo was special to me because it’s what turned me back into a Nintendo fan. During the wii and ds era, I was all in on the xbox 360 and ps3. I got a Wii very late into its life cycle and only ever played 4 games on it, Wii sports, galaxy, galaxy 2, and skyward sword. I just wasn’t into what Nintendo was selling anymore. It was dissapointing because I loved my GameCube, but as a teenager, I was more into mass effect and halo then Mario and Zelda.
Then in 2013 the ps4 and xbox one came along. i was 20 at the time, so out of my teenaged years. I got my ps4 at its midnight launch and then during those following months I just felt numbed, dissapointed by it all. Yeah, killzone, knack, and infamous second son looked very pretty, but was this really all I could expect from the next generation of consoles? There was just nothing exciting to me about the way these titles played. Watchdogs was the straw that broke the camels back, so much hype, and it was about as pedestrian as you could expect, and it didn’t look much better than an Xbox 360 title, so I couldn’t even latch on to the graphics. Drive club just kept getting delayed, and the majority of releases seemed to be remasters from the 360 and ps3. I felt deflated.
Around the time Mario kart 8 released, I went to my friends house. He had a Wii U, and insisted we play some Mario kart. I enjoyed double dash on the GameCube, but thought that Wii was dreadful and never played the ds version. Begrudgingly i said okay, and he turned on his Wii U. First off, I was just so impressed by the Amount of personality it had. The menu music, the mii’s running around waru waru plaza, it felt so cozy and inviting. He booted up the game and we ended up playing for about 4 hours straight. I could not believe how much fun it was, even despite its lower horse Power, how great the visuals were, how much fun watching our replays was. I loved every minute of it. Then, he put in super mario 3d world, a game I largely ignored because i assumed it was just a sterile new super mario bros style game. Again, I was just blown away by how much fun we ended up having, how great the music was, and how clean the visuals were.
When I left I knew I had to have a Wii U, I felt a passion for Nintendo I hadn’t felt since those nights playing twilight princess and Luigi’s mansion on my tiny little crt that was in my room.
The very next day, I packed up my ps4, all the games I had for it, and traded them to GameStop. I used the store credit to get the wind waker hd edition Wii U, mario kart 8, and super mario 3d world. I also grabbed a pro controller. Mario kart 8 also came with a free digital Wii U game, so I had pikmin 3 to play as well! Needless to say, I was knee deep in the Wii U ecosystem from 2014 to early 2016. I poured 100 hours into mario kart 8, I almost 100 percented 3d world, I loved every minute of wind waker hd. From captain toad, to Kirby and the rainbow curse, and Mario maker, that system created some incredible memories for me.
It also renewed my interest in the 3ds, which I now consider one of the greatest systems of all time, and I have almost a complete collection of 1st party games for.
The switch is on fire now, and I’d argue that their switch line up is one of their best first party line ups of all time on any Nintendo system, but I’ll always have a tinge of nostalgia for the Wii U and 3ds, because without them, I’m not sure I would have gotten back into Nintendo games the way I did.