It’s an easy business to sit and discuss the failures of the Wii U — lacking purpose, chunky design, confusing name — but what about its successes? It’s a much shorter list, we’ll admit, but one of the things that many of us will agree on is its stellar games library (we mean, just look at how many have made the jump over to Switch).
With the console turning ten at the end of last year, we are now in the period of decade-old Wii U announcements popping back into our heads at a moment’s notice. Once such anniversary took place yesterday as we noticed on Twitter (thanks to @NintenDaan) that a whopping ten years have passed since the console’s ‘Nintendo Games’ Direct presentation aired.
Very much a one-man show with some occasional cameos, this Direct is a rather low-key affair compared to the presentation style that we see today; this being said, there were some quality announcements to be made. Some of these highlights are teased in the above Twitter post, but let’s briefly rundown some of the top-notch content teed-up by the late, great, Mr. Iwata.
Aside from announcing updates to the Miiverse (some of which never materialised), this is a Direct that did its best to make the Wii U news last. We got confirmation of the brilliant Virtual Console service, pointing out that Game Boy and GBA titles would be added in the future *looks at the Switch and sighs*, the reveal of a Yoshi game that would later turn into Yoshi’s Woolly World, updates on Bayonetta 2 and news of Super Smash Bros.’s delay.
All this isn’t even to mention the reveal of Wind Waker HD and a teaser from Eiji Aonuma about another ‘game-changing’ title coming to the series in the future (what could that have possibly been, we wonder??).
It’s true, the presentation might be a little more stripped back than the music-filled trailer-fest that we are used to these days, but it is a nice trip into the past all the same. You can watch the ‘Nintendo Games’ Direct in full down below to get reliving those decade-old memories.
The Wii U-years content is stretched pretty thinly across the 36-minute runtime, but there is something to be said for seeing real people in a Direct showcase instead of just a voiceover with video after video — and come on, we will always treasure those Iwata presentations.
What do you make of this old, personal tone to the Direct? Would you like to see it come back? Fill out the following poll and then let us know your thoughts in the comments!
