In 2006, Nintendo released the Wii a system that everybody
including grandma, enjoyed. And in 2012,
Nintendo would release the Wii U. The Wii U was not a smash hit. There's a lot of reasons why the Wii
U wasn't as successful as the Wii, but the biggest was that the cell phone
ate up the casual market, meaning
that people who bought the Wii for bowling were content playing
Candy Crush on their new shiny phone. My name is Nick and this is a companion guide to my series Retro Nomics,
which follows price trends in video games. This video is meant to be
an evergreen video, so I won't get too much into the details
on the prices , but I will have a separate video
that I'll link in the PIN comment. So no matter when you see this video, the recent pricing video
will only be a click away. Think of this video
as a jumping off point. I'll leave links in the description for
you to explore if you want to go further. Louis You sold 13.5
million units in a five year lifespan, and while there are
some fantastic games on the system, the we use sales performance. Let a lot of armchair analysts
to suggest that Nintendo should leave the hardware space altogether,
like Sega did after the Dreamcast. Nintendo did see the writing on the wall
with the Wii U and quickly worked to bring a successor
that we know now as the Nintendo switch. But we're not talking about the Nintendo
switch. We're talking about the Wii U. And if you were considering buying one for the first time, now is a fantastic
time to do so. This video will give you information
to ensure that when you do buy a Wii
U, you know what you're getting into. First off, the Wii U is backwards
compatible with the Nintendo Wii and as such can use
almost every accessory made for the Wii. While the Wii U has a DVD drive. It doesn't play DVD movies or music CDs. It only plays wii and we use games. And if you are thinking of enjoying
Netflix, Hulu or even YouTube,
all of those services were shut down. So any media that you play on the Wii
U will be games. The EU is region locked,
meaning that games imported from Japan, for example,
will not play on a North American console. This region locking also extends to the
we use gamepad, which I'll get into more detail later
on in this video. The only other differences
and we use is color and storage size. If you are buying a Wii U, there are some things that are required
for first time use. As the Wii U ages,
it will be more common to see the Wii U unit by itself, which wouldn't
be a big deal for other consoles. Except you need the gamepad. The gamepad is going to come up
a lot in this video, but for now it's required to set up your Wii
U and change any of the system settings. The gamepad is also region locked,
so importing it from Japan isn't an option
unless you want a Japanese Wii U. So make sure the Wii U bundle you purchase at the very least includes the console
and a working gamepad. The other things that are required
are the AC adapter for the Wii U and the AC adapter for the gamepad. There are third party solutions
for the power, but I would recommend official parts because
the price difference isn't that big. And I always trust branded items
when it comes to powering my electronics. And next you might think that I would say
a v cables are required, but technically you can play
the majority of the games on the gamepad. The gamepad
even includes a sensor bar for wii games, but if you do want to play on your TV,
you can use an HDMI cable. Or if for some reason you want to play
on a CRT, you can do that as well. With we composite or component cables, the Wii U comes with a gamepad and that's required
at the very least to set up the system and change any settings
and also it's required for some games. The gamepad is pretty interesting. Well, now that the switch is out,
it isn't as novel, but you could play most of the Wii U games on the gamepad
with the television off, and that's
actually one of the main reasons why I bought it back
when my wife and I lived in a one bedroom apartment
with only one TV. You still need the Wii U unit to do the heavy lifting
so it's not as versatile as the switch. The Wii U gamepad also comes with a camera and also can be used as a wee sensor. When in WIi mode you can actually play
with games off of the gamepad and it can be used as a universal
TV remote, which is pretty cool. The gamepad also comes with a rechargeable
battery, which does lose its charge over time, and luckily Nintendo
did make it really easy to replace it. So if your gamepad no longer holds a charge, adding
a fresh battery should remedy that. You can also play while charging the game
pat as well. If the gamepad is too bulky,
you can use a pro controller. The Nintendo Pro Controller
isn't anything new by today's standards, but it is very comfortable
and has a considerably long battery life since the we you can play we games
we controllers are used while in Wii mode but a handful of games
and we use mode as well. Smash Brothers Wii U for example, can use
almost every week controller combination including the classic controller pro
smash brothers. We you can also use a Gamecube controller
with a special adapter. However, that's really all
you can use it for. You'll have to check each game
to see what was compatible at the time, but most games
utilize the pro controller or the gamepad. Unlike the Gamecube, the Wii U has onboard storage
for saving and installing games. The Wii U originally came in
eight gig or 32 gig models, and I would get the 32 gig model
the way wii. U mostly had a gigs, but it was
refurbished with 32 gigs in North America. 32 gigs might not seem like a lot
and you'd be right. But you can expand with a USB hard drive
as long as it has a dedicated power source. You can use a dedicated flash drive,
but Nintendo doesn't recommend this to use because of the amount of times
it gets read and written. I know that some flash drives can get pretty toasty, so if you use one,
use it at your own risk. If you go that route,
the Wii U can only support up to two terabytes of storage, so don't go
too wild for looking for a drive. Also, you will need to format it
specifically for the we use so plan on making that drive
dedicated to the Wii U. I personally haven't run out of any space,
but if you are planning on backing up your data, it might be worth it to start out with 100
gigs or so and then go from there. While the Wii U can play most of the games
on the gamepad, negating the need for a television,
the screen is still pretty tiny and not all games are playable
on the gamepad exclusively. One of the cool things about the Wii U
is that the games like Wind Waker HD, for example, can play on the TV
and then you can use your gamepad that can act as an inventory and map
without needing to pause the game. Also, if you don't want to use the bulky
gamepad, instead use a more traditional controller. You're going to need a cable. Unless you really want to play off
of that gamepad. And it's really easy this time around
compared to the Gamecube, the Wii U has HDMI
and can output to 1080 P and I'm sure that you have a couple of HDMI cables
laying around at this point. But if you want to play on a CRT, well, you can play on composite
or a component with WI cables. I don't really recommend it
unless you have a fancy 16 by nine CRT. While the Wii U will work with a four
by three display, most of the games
won't run in a full four by three ratio . It's convenient
if you want to run older games like on the virtual console
or if you want to run it in wii mode. Unlike the Gamecube, the Wii
U doesn't really have any variations, just mostly storage
related eight gigabytes and 32 gigabytes, which in North America kind of dictates
what color that you can get. The gigabyte model in the U.S. was white and the 32
gig deluxe version was black, although there are some North American white
we use out there that have the 32 gig. They weren't really sold at retail. They were refurbished by Nintendo. So keep an eye out if you're really interested in a white
we you with bigger storage space. The only significant variation is the Wind
Waker version, which I have here. The Wii
U is the first Nintendo console that I didn't buy at launch,
and the Wind Waker one was really cool. There are other variations, if you want to
call them that, but they're mostly based on what was included as a digital download
and the box looks different. Otherwise it's the same Wii U and gamepad. And like I mentioned before, the Wii
U is region locks, so don't go importing a gamepad if you aren't
going to have it with an imported console. As of the recording of this video,
no one has figured out how to make Gamepads work
outside of their respective regions. There aren't a lot of first party. We use accessories that expand the use
of the Wii U like the Gamecube did. Most of the accessories were included
in a deluxe model of the Wii
U, specifically the charging cradle, which not only displays your gamepad
but charges it at the same time. There's also the Gamecube controller
adapter, which is used with Smash Brothers. I mean, and you have amoebas
which were mainly used for Super Smash Brothers, wii u and 3DS,
but they also have a variety uses across a number of different games,
but they can easily be spoofed. So don't go spending too much money
unless you like the look of them. The Wii U has some really good games. Most are on the Nintendo switch,
but that means that they are cheap on the Wii U. The games that are expensive can arguably
be considered collector's items. The most expensive individual game
that isn't a bundle is double third, which was notoriously so bad
that Nintendo cut production of the game in North America. When it was first launched,
there were only 750 copies rumored
which made the price jump immediately. But Nintendo eventually made more,
which brought the price back down to $50 until 2020 came along
where the price returned to around $400. Will it come down? Well, you have to check out my
Retro Comics videos for that. Nintendo also
offered copies of their games digitally, and I say offered because the store has essentially been defunct
since August of 2022. Nintendo removed the ability
to add funds to the store. There was a workaround
using your switch account, but at the end of March 2023,
the store will be shut down forever. However, if you did miss out,
there is still another way to experience those games. So if modding isn't available method and while there is always risk
that you might break your Nintendo Wii U. Detailed guides are available
and when you're manager we view you can free the Wii U from its region locked
have access to homebrew and emulators along with the ability to make
and play your we you backups cheaper. Gamer echo dot UK has a really good guide and there are plenty
of tutorials on YouTube and even if you didn't
want to play your backups or homebrew jailbreaking, your review is something
that you really should consider because there is a potential of the in any and the memory corrupting potentially bricking your we you backing up the any
and the is easy to do and I'll link a video from Volterra
in the description. There aren't really any other mods
like mad chips because of the jailbreak and that makes third
party hardware solutions redundant. As the recording of this video, there are no other consoles
that play Wii U games natively. That means that if you don't want a
Wii U to play Wii U games either need to buy a switch with the Wii U ports
or emulation. CMU is a fantastic emulator that can play
your legally acquired backups, of course. As always,
I can't link to where you can find backups if he has somehow lost years,
but I'm sure if you poke around Google you'll find an archive of digital games
somewhere. But most of the physical games
currently are inexpensive. But since the eShop is no longer
accessible, finding backups of those games,
especially those locked onto the Wii U, perhaps forever. Might be a good idea to find and download. That's going to do it for this video
on the Nintendo Wii U. I hope it was helpful. Let me know in the comments what you would want to see
in future videos like this one. If you're new here and you're looking
to start buying Nintendo Wii U games, I suggest checking out retro nomics my series
that follows price trends and video games. The most current video
is pinned in the comment below. And if you're watching this in the first week of publishing,
a next new video is coming up next week. So make sure you're subscribed
for future content. If you like this video,
give it a thumbs up and share it with anyone who might find it interesting. And if you like podcasts,
check out my Super Nintendo Freemium Channel,
which hosts Super Nintendo Unscripted. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram
at Snake Tendo. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Super Nintendo
and I'll see you next time.
