Wii U



"How U will play next."

So you want to buy a Wii U in the era of the Nintendo Switch (and beyond)? With most of the library ported to the Switch, the console is a harder sell than ever. However, there is quite a small, but robust library here, with some additional features that make the Wii U still worthy of consideration in a post-Eshop world.

Here's what the Wii U can do in 2023, since the eShop is dead, this list assumes you're hacking your system, which is as easy as putting files on an SD card now:
 * Play Wii U Games - No brainer
 * Off TV Play - If you never leave the house, it's functionally the same as the Switch.
 * Full Wii Mode Functionality - Wii Games and Homebrew run excellently on the Wii U
 * Play Gamecube games - With Homebrew, you can very easily create custom Gamecube injections, Nintendo might not have taken the opportunity to give us these titles on the eShop officially but that doesn't mean the Wii U isn't an excellent place to play these titles. Gamecube games work with the excellent Pro Controller as well.
 * Play Nintendo DS games - While the selection of DS games on the eshop was sparse, with homebrew, you gain access to games like Chrono Trigger DS, which when combined with the unique Gamepad, means some games are best played on the Wii U. This is also extremely handy if you're trying to capture DS game footage.
 * Play NES, SNES, TG-16, N64 and Gameboy Advance Games via the Wii U Virtual Console. - The console functions well as a "Best of" Nintendo type console. You can play nearly every game from every major Nintendo franchise here.
 * Web Browser functionality while limited, still functions for Youtube. Use Frogfind.com if you're just looking to quickly search for cheats/guides/etc.

Wii U discs have a high failure rate and suffer from disc rot issues (See: This GBAtemp Thread).

'''Wii U Systems are prone to NAND Failure if not powered on for over a year. This renders the system unusable without extensive hardware modifications. See: This GBAtemp Thread The issue stems from low-quality NAND and the Wii U's OS performing an ungodly number of read/writes to said NAND.'''
 * This type of failure is extremely common on NAND manufactured by SK Hynix, however, users with Samsung NAND have also reported failures.
 * You can use this homebrew software to check which manufacturer you have.
 * It should go without saying that if you haven't backed up your sysNAND (Because Jailbreaking is hard for Nintendies.) it's pretty much now or never if soldering isn't an option.
 * Even if your system boots up that doesn't mean you're out of the woods. If you are unable to change system settings or dump the NAND then it might as well be dead.
 * For readers willing to solder there are workarounds being developed to replace the faulty NAND chips (See: This GBA temp Thread).

The List
This icon indicates the game has Off TV Play. When necessary, sub-notes should be written beside it (in parenthesis if you wish).

Nintendo eShop releases


WARNING: the Wii U eShop will be shut down in March 2023.

Virtual Console
Currently, there are six systems that have VC games on the Wii U as of typing: the NES, the SNES, the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo DS, and select Wii games. While some may be turned off by NES games still costing $5 a pop and ask why not just emulate, at the very least the GBA games are well-ported. In addition, the Wii games are very fairly-priced ($10 for the Metroid Prime Trilogy for its first week!), and allow Gamepad play if the Wii Classic Controller could be used to play them. You can find specific game recommendations on their respective pages.

Games will only be listed below if they are Wii U-exclusive in the West. For non-exclusive titles, please see the page for the appropriate console.