Wii U Turns Two

Nintendo's latest home console - Wii U - is two year's old today. It's been 24 months of peaks and troughs, with a handful of highs and a series of lows along the way. But, in turning two, the console has hit a major milestone and stands rejuvenated, strengthened, and with another birthday reached its past achievements are steeped in increasing significance.

This time last year it wasn't looking great for the console. Sales were low, and most of the coverage you could find online was a mixture of doom-mongering and fans hoping for a turnaround in circumstance. For every cheerleader you could find a dozen naysayers, those prepared to consign the console to the rubbish pile of history. News items regarding the fortunes of the console were usually focused on how few units had been sold; the negative far outweighed the positive.

The fault was largely with Nintendo, and most of the criticism they were subjected to was fair. The console was/is a touch too expensive, the technology the drives it is relatively under-powered, and there was a slow rollout of must-have games arriving on the platform. Most of all there's the small matter of the Wii U's GamePad, which has failed to house the kind of innovation that we were promised - the kind of innovation that made the first Wii one of the best-selling consoles ever made.

However, with things starting to turn around for the platform holder, they must also take credit for that too. By sticking to their guns and staying true to their vision, Wii U is starting to look more and more like something approaching a success story. While it's safe to say that it'll never match the one-year-old Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in terms of worldwide sales, Nintendo's console has managed to carve itself out a niche in the marketplace. Consider the prognosis this time last year, we'll have to call that a result.

In the end the success all comes down to the consistent quality of the first-party titles released on the console. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Mario Kart 8 stand out alongside Bayonetta 2 as the highlights of the year, but Hyrule Warriors and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze have proved to be quality supporting acts. Add to this last year's titles, Super Mario 3D World and Pikmin 3 (to name just two), and you've got a compact yet assured selection of titles.

The glaring omission is, of course, third-party support. EA walked away early on, and Ubisoft's recently released Watch Dogs port made very little impact; simply put, it came to late. According to a variety of developers the Wii U isn't the easiest console to develop for, and with the prospect of long development times and little financial reward for the trouble, it has caused most publishers to take a step back and wait it out. But, with the console slowly picking up pace, are we going to see one of the big companies returning to the fold? Only time will tell on that front.

This last year has also seen growth on the indie front, with more digital offerings appearing on the console, with smaller studios aiming at increased exposure due to what is a less congested marketplace. The vacuum left by the absence of third-party triple-A has given rise to a greater range of indies than we've seen on a Nintendo home console before, and that is at least one silver lining to this particular cloud.

Still, it's impossible to disguise the fact there's some big games missing from the lineup this year. Far Cry 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Alien: Isolation and Destiny all spring to mind straight away. In the longterm the console is going to need some of these games - or at least their creators - to return to the platform, and while first-party games continue to bolster sales, it's the multi-platform big hitters that will make the difference in the end.

However, the growing library of stellar first-party titles and the promise of more to come (The Legend of Zelda Wii U is surely going to be another system seller), the launch of the toy-like Amiibos that will no doubt have plenty of appeal for both younger and older gamers alike, and the decreasing costs of the console; all of these things are conspiring together to make the Wii U an altogether more tempting prospect than it was this time last year.

So, two years after the console's European release, and one year after it looked in serious trouble, we can be cautiously optimistic for the Wii U's longterm prospects. It's certainly in a healthier position, even if it's still languishing behind its younger, more powerful competitors. Nintendo's continued faith in their alternative vision, their emphasis on play and innovation over pure horsepower, is starting to slowly turn things around for the console. Looking into the future, will it be enough to keep them in the game? We'll probably be able to answer that question by the time its third birthday comes around.