The best Wii U games of all time

Nintendo doesn’t often have massive blunders, but the Wii U was certainly a dark time for the company. Riding high off the huge success that the best Wii games brought, the Wii U tried to keep that momentum by building on that branding. That strategy ended up backfiring big-time in the sales department, but not due to a poor lineup of games.

While it wasn’t powerful enough to compete with the best PlayStation 4 games and best Xbox One games that came out around the same time, the Wii U had amazing entries in almost all it’s major franchises, plus some new IP that we think are some of the best games of all time. Sure, most of these Wii U games have been ported over and are now some of the best Switch games, but let’s go back to their origin and see just how great this misunderstood system was.

You can also take a look at our lists of the best GameCube games and best N64 games if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic.

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The Wonderful 101

84% Platforms Wii U Genre Strategy, Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure Developer PlatinumGames Publisher Nintendo Release August 23, 2013 The Wonderful 101 is one of the main reasons to buy a Wii U, as the Platinum-developed title was released exclusively for the platform. Instead of controlling a single character, you take charge of a group of superheroes, which you can turn into different objects using morphs. It’s a bit like if Pikmin was an action game, and although it’s an unlikely pairing, it works well. That’s thanks to the signature Platinum flare present in the game. Like all of the Japanese studio’s titles, the animations and effects are over-the-top in the best way, often filling the screen entirely. Wii U — The Wonderful 101 Trailer

Bayonetta 2

89% Platforms Wii U Genre Hack and slash/Beat 'em up Developer PlatinumGames Publisher Nintendo Release September 20, 2014 Bayonetta 2 has an interesting history. Despite the original game being critically successful, it didn’t sell well upon launch, forcing Sega to drop