The Wii U Games Nintendo Are Leaving Behind
Nintendo make a lot of games, there is no denying that fact, however many of those games are made for a single platform, and when that is replaced by something new, they are often left behind. The Switch has seen a number of titles from the Wii U make the jump, along with remakes of even older games, but there are a number of games that Nintendo seem unwilling to port to Switch and that is unlikely to change.
Now Nintendo made a lot of games for the Wii U, my count has it around 50 titles published by the Big N, but surprisingly only 40% or so got Switch ports. Now that number is made up of titles like Pikmin 3 becoming Pikmin 3 Deluxe or Hyrule Warriors becoming Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. But for every game Nintendo brought over to the Switch, there are still 2 remaining on the Wii U. In case you were curious, the below is the list of Wii U games published by Nintendo originally, that have made the jump to Switch, either by Nintendo or someone else.
Bayonetta
Bayonetta 2
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Hyrule Warriors
Lego City Undercover
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Mario Kart 8
New Super Luigi U
New Super Mario Bros. U
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
Pikmin 3
Pokkén Tournament
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water
Super Mario 3D World
The Wonderful 101
Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE
As you can see, it is not a big list, but for many people the amount of games ported to the Switch feels more substantial. However, there are still countless Wii U games remaining on their worst performing console, the list reads as:
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Art Academy: Atelier
Devil's Third
Dr. Luigi
Game & Wario
Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Mario Party 10
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge
NES Remix
NES Remix 2
Nintendo Land
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Pullblox World
Sing Party
Splatoon
Star Fox Guard
Star Fox Zero
Super Mario Maker
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Wii Fit U
Wii Party U
Wii Sports Club
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Yoshi's Woolly World
There are basically three groups for the games above, I would class them as the following:
Too intertwined with the Wii U to work elsewhere
Would require some effort, but doable
Porting should be easy
Now for obvious reasons, titles like Art Academy, Wii U Party or Nintendo Land, which were built very much around the core of the Wii U’s tablet controller, fall into the first group. Game & Wario along with Mario Party 10 can both be included in the first group, if you wanted to keep all of the minigames intact.
The second group is where you would find both Star Fox games, Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, Sing Party and Super Mario Maker. They all made use of the Wii U gamepad, but are all technically portable, if a new control scheme is implemented, but it would just take a little work.
The final group is where most of the remaining titles live, the two Legend of Zelda games, Yoshi’s Woolly World and Xenoblade Chronicles X are the headline acts here. Mario Tennis and Paper Mario also fall into this category as well, along with the Mario and Sonic Olympic games.
If we only look at the third group, the ones that are easily ported, there is a much smaller amount of titles left on the Wii U, sadly the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games are not included due to licensing. So what are those remaining games and how likely are they to be brought across to Switch or even Switch 2? Let us have a look.
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Released: November 2015 | Pro Controller Support: No | Players: 4 | Porting Odds: 5%
Oh god, where to start with this one. Mario Party but with Animal Crossing, but also without the party. amiibo Festival sounded great at a concept level, but it was bland across the board. One of the best reasons to buy the game were for the amiibo it came bundled with and the good reasons ended there. The gameplay was basic and while it was decent in its visuals, it only took a few hours to see everything the game had to offer.
While I am all for game preservation, when a game is as weird and pointless as this one, I think its fine to leave it behind.
Devil's Third
Released: August 2015 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 1 | Porting Odds: 1%
Another one of those games that released and then vanished, Devil’s Third was a hack and slash action game from the creator of Ninja Gaiden, which sounds like it should have been a hit, but it was not. The game spent years being bounced around publishers and platforms, before finally ending up at Nintendo and after a few engine swaps as well. The game was lauded for its story and game design, but panned for its performance, controls and muddy graphics.
Honestly, the odds of this one getting another life are about as slim as you can get, the developer Valhalla Game Studios no longer exists, as they were bought up and them merged into another studio. Nintendo might have had Wii U publishing rights, but they don’t own the IP, so even if they wanted to do something they might not even bother. Couple all of that with the games issues, it is a bet that is not worth gambling on.
Dr. Luigi
Released: January 2014 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 2 | Porting Odds: 70%
One of the rare Nintendo made digital only releases, Dr Luigi was released for us at the start of the Year of Luigi and took the basic formula of Dr Mario, but added a bit of a twist. The game offered up four modes of play, two of them were very familiar in that they were from past games, but the two new ones were different. One mode, the main Luigi themed mode, swapped out single pills for a pack of two, that were always formed into the shape of a L. The other mode required users to direct pills using the Wii U tablet controller.
Bringing this across to Switch is honestly not an issue, the touch screen mode might be scrapped or made handheld only, but the rest will be fine. Something like this would honestly do incredibly well as a Nintendo Switch Online perk, but given Nintendo’s lack of pure digital first party games on Switch, it could also never happen. Just like visiting a doctor, this might be in with a shot.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Released: March 2016 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 1 | Our Review | Porting Odds: 90%
The only reason that this is above Wind Waker is due to how the alphabet works. While Twilight Princess was treading now familiar ground in its HD port, there is no denying that it took a beloved Wii entry, or Gamecube and made it look better. The game included a number of quality of life upgrades, like reducing the amount of tears players needed to collect in each region, but for the most part, it was the same game. As most gamers who played the original release, played on the Wii, this was also the first time seeing the map as it was meant to be as the game flipped the map on Wii to accommodate the right handed majority of players.
Will Nintendo bring this game from the Wii U to another platform, it is hard to say. There is nothing technically stopping it from happening, but we also know that Nintendo will do whatever it is that they desire.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
Released: September 2013 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 1 | Porting Odds: 95%
If reports are to be considered true, this game happened due to the developers testing some HD art, regardless of how, all that matters is that we got the game. Wind Waker was one of the best looking games on the Gamecube and still holds up today, so the HD port was always going to look great. Much like Twilight Princess HD, this game also had a number of updates to the gameplay, like faster sailing, dropping much of the back and forth in the Triforce chart quest and even allowing you to move when aiming your bow or other ranged weapon. Speed was the name of the game here, well it wasn’t but you get what I mean, as a lot of animations were also faster as well.
Sadly, much like Twilight Princess HD, there is no way of knowing if this game will ever see release off the Wii U. Fun fact out of the 20 mainline games, 13 of them are currently on the Switch, with these two games, the DS titles, the 3DS games and Gamecube game that needed the GameBoy Advance to work missing.
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Released: November 2015 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 4 | Porting Odds: 50%
Mario is quite the sportsman, but even his love of the game couldn’t help this one. Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was developed by the folks at Camelot, who have made them all, but while this was the first game that let players enjoy online matches, it didn’t do much else. The game was the first HD entry in the series, so it looked great, but it didn’t have anywhere near as many modes or characters as some past entries and even still, it didn’t do much for the core game. Thankfully, while it might be lacking in a few areas, it is one fine tennis game at its core, so playing it was usually fun.
As for it leaving the Wii U, it is unlikely, if only because there is already a new Mario Tennis game on Switch, that being Mario Tennis Aces and for some reason, Nintendo only allow Mario one release per sport, per platform. That rule does not apply when it comes to parties though.
NES Remix 1 & 2
Released: December 2013/April 2014 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 1 | Porting Odds: 10%
These games had the potential to be something amazing, they had challenges, leaderboards and nostalgia, which is why it was weird that Nintendo did nothing for 10 years. The games were basically minigames, but the games were challenges that were set within NES games and depending on the challenges, you might play as Samus Aran in the world of Mario or have Link take on Donkey Kong.
The odds of this one getting a port would have been real strong, if Nintendo didn’t recycle the concept in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. Given that games release, I doubt these will ever leave the Wii U, which is a shame as these challenges are way more fun to me.
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Released: October 2016 | Pro Controller Support: No | Players: 1 | Porting Odds: 30%
Four years after Nintendo attempted to reboot Paper Mario with Sticker Star, which did just ok, they doubled down with Color Splash and yes, they forced the world to use the wrong spelling of Colour. While it contains the name of the series, this release streamlined down much of the game to be quite linear and require players to deal out cards in battle, rather than using timing based attacks. The game is a solid game, there is nothing wrong with it, it sadly lacks the spirit of what makes a good Paper Mario game.
I would have said that this game being ported to Switch is unlikely, however Nintendo just remade Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Switch, even though there was a new entry on the platform. So while Nintendo only let Mario have one entry per sport, it seems that may not apply here. However, as the game was one of the worst performing titles, in terms of sales, Nintendo might opt to leave this entry folded up and tucked away with the Wii U itself.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Released: April 2015 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 1 | Porting Odds: 80%
Perhaps one of the hardest working developers you might not know about, Monolith Soft (not to be confused with Monolith Productions), they have been making games in the Xeno saga for more than 20 years now. Xenoblade Chronicles X is the only game not to be released on the Switch from the current series and fans are upset over that. The game offers a large open world to explore, familiar RPG elements and let you control a giant mech, it really had everything. While the release had some issues, a content release that took data from the disc to a hard drive made things better.
Given that since this games release in 2015, the studio has made two original RPGs in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3, created big expansions for both games, and remastered Xenoblade Chronicles 1. But they didn’t stop there, as they also assisted with Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Splatoon 2 and 3 and Animal Crossing New Horizons, it is likely the reason this game has not been ported is just due to a lack of time. However as one fantastic game, it really should be given another shot.
Yoshi's Woolly World
Released: June 2015 | Pro Controller Support: Yes | Players: 2 | Our Review | Porting Odds: 90%
5 years before the release of the game, Kirby laid out the pattern and Yoshi just improved upon it. This release took the concept of a world made from yarn and went to town. The characters, the world and even the game mechanics were all yarn-ified and made all the more charming because of it. While considered a bit of an easy game, there is no denying that the game has a lot of fun with what it offered players.
Much like Mario Tennis, there is already a new Yoshi game on Switch, that also features a craft aesthetic, which may be why Nintendo are not rushing to cross-stitch this elsewhere. But we know they enjoy the game as they did port it to the Nintendo 3DS in 2017, with some extra content
So there we go, a few games that Nintendo could give new life too on the Switch or even the Switch 2, or whatever it is called. There are more games that they have, which could easily get another life, but the question is will they ever do it, I doubt it, but I am happy to be proven wrong.
What Nintendo games that are stuck on older consoles, would you love to see given another shot at life?
