from Hacker News

Wii U Architecture

by flipacholas on 10/31/22, 6:32 AM with 158 comments

  • by ace2358 on 10/31/22, 7:36 AM

    The Wii U was unfortunately not a very successful console, but I feel that it had plenty of power to make fantastic looking games and great experiences. It came out in a weird time for technology and Nintendo always uses slightly older hardware.

    As a homebrew device it is amazing. There are still exploits being found with a new, safe, simple method out now thanks to some crazy dedicated modders.

    There’s a whole homebrew sdk. The Wii U can also run Wii and GameCube games by reconfiguring the hardware (or some other sort of firmware voodoo). That’s three generations of video game libraries that can be explored on one console!

    Always felt like it deserved more popularity, but it couldn’t compete with the ps3/4 and Xbox 360/one.

  • by Bondi_Blue on 10/31/22, 3:21 PM

    The Wii U had a rich feature set. Firsts for a Nintendo home console:

    - OTB web browser

    - OTB audio and video chat with friends, native support for 3rd party headsets

    - real-time direct messaging (via Miiverse) notifications and other friend notifications via the home button LED

    - Ability to view online status of friends

    - High definition graphics

    - 5+ player synchronous local multiplayer

    - built-in Nintendo TVii service

    - built-in support to use the gamepad as a TV remote

    - eShop selections for mobile retro consoles (e.g. GBA, DS)

    - background installations and updates

    - accelerometer, gyroscope, front-facing camera, touch screen, IR sensor, NFC all packed into the gamepad

    - full backwards compatibility with a prior console (Wii)

    Not to mention, all online services were free to use. And those still existing, are still free.

    Edit: As a kid, this was the first console that had just enough 3rd party support for me to enjoy games like Fifa, Need for Speed, and Call of Duty akin to an Xbox 360, while also hosting all my favorite Nintendo games. It was a fun system, even if it was poorly advertised and a bit awkward. But I enjoyed the gimmicks and I still use it, mostly for playing exclusives that never made it to the Switch.

  • by meibo on 10/31/22, 7:22 AM

    The Wii U was such a fun console with so many great games, it's a shame that it was relatively inaccessible due to horribly bodged marketing and weird choices - luckily they're porting most(but not all) of the gems. I actually think that the gamepad screen did contribute a lot to a lot of games, especially if there was a lot of action and you were able to use it as a map/for quick actions.

    It's good that they basically built a product that was impossible to market badly with the switch, it probably sells itself, considering the form factor and all of the first and third party support they have now.

  • by m_st on 10/31/22, 8:59 AM

    My reason to buy a Wii U back then was that whenever I found the time to play a video game, I had to go through a session of Windows Update, Steam update and game update that I lost interest by the time it was ready.

    Compare that to the Wii U back then: Turn on and play.

    Nintendo even achieved to keep this mindset with the Switch: It will update in the background so usually you just turn it on and play.

  • by langsoul-com on 10/31/22, 7:52 AM

    I reckon Nintendo has the best strategy almost game consoles. Not focusing on the power/realism and instead of other aspects.

    At some point, if someone buys a ps5 or xbox for power only. Then they just get a pc, those consoles takes years to design. By the time they're released, it's already outdated

  • by m_st on 10/31/22, 8:55 AM

    Slightly OT but Wii U games seem to be a topic here: There were many great games, but the IMHO single best game on this console was Lego City Undercover. It was like a less violent GTA. Such a joy to play, plenty of jokes, fantastic open world and great story mode with funny missions.

    Luckily they ported it to other consoles too. My kids are still playing it with their friends.

    I hope they are working on a successor.

  • by mkw2000 on 10/31/22, 3:59 PM

    I loved and still do love my Wii U and still use it semi regularly to this day. There was something about the Wii and Wii U that was lost on the Switch. They just had that special Nintendo "feel" and vibe

  • by lynguist on 10/31/22, 2:47 PM

    Another badly designed Nintendo console. Now hear me out:

    NES: Well designed. SNES: Well designed. N64: Hampered by the originally 12-24 MB cartridges as opposed to 650 MB CDs. GameCube: Well designed. A little hampered by the 1.4 GB mini DVDs as opposed to 7.8 GB DVDs. Wii: Underpowered, but a surprise smash hit capturing that era’s sensibilities (like the PS2). Wii U: Clunky and awkward, which however led to the Switch. Switch: Well designed.

    GB: Well designed. GBC: Well designed. GBA: Well designed, however with a very bad audio quality as compared to the SNES. NDS: Well designed, again with very bad audio quality, and a surprise smash hit capturing that era’s sensibilities (like the PS2). 3DS: Hampered by its pitiful 2004 era 200 MHz CPU and 240p display. Clunky and unremarkable, which had a success in its second half of existence because people just want Nintendo games. Switch: Well designed.

  • by tenebrisalietum on 10/31/22, 2:21 PM

    copetti.org's writeups about the classic consoles are really good. So copetti.org has interesting details on Nintendo's other flop - the Virtual Boy. What I found interesting about that is the VB uses moving mirrors and a vertical LED strip to generate the display - a teensy bit similar to DLP.

  • by bobsmith432 on 10/31/22, 2:39 PM

    The Wii U plays Wii and Gamecube games better than an actual Wii since you don't have to fondle composite cables and can just plug an HDMI in

  • by pjmlp on 10/31/22, 6:33 PM

    One of the few game consoles that actually supports a subset of OpenGL, yet most WebGL 2.0 games are not up to Wii U ones.

  • by 29athrowaway on 10/31/22, 7:46 AM

    I wanted to buy this console to play StarFox Zero, but then never did.

    The game didn't age as gracefully as other StarFox games.

  • by lights0123 on 10/31/22, 3:23 PM

    The article says:

    > Similarly to how the Wii Remote mangles the Bluetooth protocol to avoid third-party usage

    with "mangles the Bluetooth protocol" being a broken link. Anyone have information on this? I'm interested in how so.

  • by pwpw on 10/31/22, 2:14 PM

    The Wii U was a failure in marketing and odd design choices. The former has been discussed quite well by others, so I want to focus on the design choices that didn't help its long-term success.

    The console initially promoted the gimmick of being a controller for cable TV, as seen by the blue TV button the bottom of the gamepad. This was at a time when cable TV was starting to die out for the younger crowd. The original Xbox One made a similar misguided focus on controlling TV, while the overall market was making a major shift to streaming in that period.

    Next, the gamepad used a resistive touchscreen instead of a capacitive one. Phones with capacitive touchscreens had been the norm for years at this point, making the Wii U touchscreen feel very low quality.

    The gamepad came with too small of a battery, which limited the gamepad's use as a portable console, which was already tied down to being nearby the console itself to stream games smoothly. The battery could be easily upgraded to a larger size, but it had to be purchased and installed later on.

    The base console only had 8 GB of storage. The deluxe model only came with 32 GB of storage and cost an extra $150 (for $350 total). The console largely focused on using discs for games, but the next gen of Xbox and PlayStation consoles showed that internal storage was important. The Wii U had an SD card slot, but SD cards could oddly not be used to expand game storage; USB storage could be used however.

    The Wii U had some very strong game releases that eventually saw successful ports to the Switch, and it also had the best Virtual Console release of games in any console ever, that the Switch still has not matched. The value of a Wii U by the end of its life was insane. It's the only console where so many incredible games (almost all of Nintendo's catalogue through the Wii - but not the GameCube) could be played on the system. I think the console just focused on all of the wrong things in the minutia. Tie that with terrible marketing, and the console was doomed to failure. The Wii U's genius was later revised upon and proved to be a success with the Switch. Despite it's failures, the Wii U was a great console that is one of my favorites of all time (along with the PlayStation Vita).

  • by tb_technical on 10/31/22, 2:46 PM

    It's a great console to hack! :)

  • by whywhywhywhy on 10/31/22, 1:18 PM

    The concept of this machine was such a mess. You can truly tell something was rotten in the org chart when a bizarre console/tablet compromise is what they actually shipped with a straight face.