Nintendo put on the kind of show at E3 this year that may well have saved the Wii U’s bacon at the very last minute. And now we know what’s coming, there’s more reason than ever before to keep the faith in the plucky underdog.
Nobody has ever doubted the Wii U’s prowess in terms of hardware – it’s always been the games that have let the little bugger down. Launch a console with few decent games and nobody’s going to buy it…keep it on the shelves for months with a poor library of titles and it’s going to get panned – the tale of the Wii U wrapped up in a sentence.
However, Nintendo decided at this year’s E3 that the time had well and truly come to make good on its promise to give the Wii U a real shot at glory. Some insisted that any such efforts would be too little too late, but if you ask us, any of the following five titles is reason enough in its own right to buy a Wii U.
Hyrule Warriors
Set to touch down on September 26 in the US, Hyrule Warriors is best described as something of a Zelda spinoff that’s less about solving puzzles and more about chopping enemies to bits. And as the lead character is none other than Link himself, it’s a pretty great title to check out for anyone obsessed with the whole Zelda saga…of which there are millions of us!
Super Smash Bros.
We’ve been hearing about Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ever since the console first touched down – the fact that it still hasn’t launched treads a fine line between excitement and blind rage. Still, having been pegged as perhaps the game to get the Wii U consoled finally out in the kind of numbers Nintendo hoped for, Super Smash Bros. could follow Mario Kar8’s success story with gusto.
Star Fox
An undeniable icon of Nintendo’s glory days, Star Fox hasn’t seen the light of day on a full-fat console since it arrived on the GameCube. Few would argue that it was the original SNES version that broke the mold and while the Wii U take on Star Fox undoubtedly has its work cut out, there’s no questioning how amazing it looks.
Mario Maker
If you need this one spelling out for you, you just don’t get it! A title that allows you and all Wii U owners to make your own levels for Super Mario Bros. and share them via a vast network of other creative souls. No question about it – Mario Maker could be the most successful title in the recent history of Nintendo.
Zelda
And finally, you really don’t need to give a game a long and complicated title when a single word says it all – Zelda. There was never any doubt that Zelda for Wii U was and is going to be a massive success, but after seeing the preview video of the thing at E3 this year, it’s likely to blow the market wide open.