8. Wii U
In essence, the Wii U was Nintendo’s attempt to double down on the immense popularity of the Wii; continuing with motion controls while innovating another “new way to play” with a tablet controller. Unfortunately though, the promise of that design was never quite realized by a killer app that actually made the tablet feel like it added to gameplay in a meaningful way. More importantly, a lack of quality third party content and a painfully slow trickle of first party games sealed the Wii U’s fate.
Still, the Wii U ended its life cycle with a solid selection of quality first party Nintendo games, including Super Mario Bros. and the gorgeous Super Mario Kart 8. More recently, IPs such as Splatoon, and after a very long wait, Breath of the Wild, were a decent swansong for its loyal fanbase. Ultimately, the Wii U’s reputation for low-quality visuals and lack of third party support tainted its reputation to such an extent that Nintendo was forced to abandon it earlier than it would have probably liked. Yet it is still a console with enough quality games to make it a better overall package than the Switch, so far.
