I think the Wii U was a very good concept. For games like Zelda WindWaker and MarioKart8 it worked well.
Have about 10 games for my one.
At the time the PS4 was the new console.
Never mind.
Some games used the second screen very well. I think it was perfect for Super Mario Maker, being able to use the touch screen to move items around while still seeing the big picture on TV. And in Splatoon, the super jump was much easier to use by tapping the touch screen.
There just weren't many games that took full advantage of the concept in a good way...and not enough games in general. No proper Animal Crossing, and no new Zelda game until BOTW when Wii U was already dead.
i never really used the Wii U tablet/second screen so it was just like another Wii to me with with new games. I only used the second screen for Pikmin 3 and it worked well. I don’t think the Wii U deserves all the hate it gets.
I, myself, have a Wii U for two and a half years now, and it's a pretty neat console. I've played NSMBU, Minecraft and a few DS games (via Homebrew ) on it which you can perfectly play without having to turn the TV on as well, as well as Game & Wario, some of the features of which mostly don't mandate me to look at both the TV and the GamePad at the same time. (Unless it comes to 'Gamer' of course. )
I also have a few Wii games that I occasionally play on it, my utmost favourites out of those being WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Mario Kart Wii.
I play my Wii U all the time still. Though, a lot of that is because of the Homebrew scene for it. Before they started porting over games to the Switch, it had a pretty solid library. My main problem with the Wii U is the Gamepad. While I believe the Nintendo 64 controller is the worst, I think the Gamepad places second worst. One reason being is it ALWAYS has to be on. The battery is constantly draining on it whether the system is on or off which is pretty annoying. It's also extremely bulky feeling compared to the Switch which makes it not really the most comfortable to hold. A lot of games also make it a required controller to play which is pretty terrible since some games you want to use a different controller and not having to look at a tiny screen or hold a big, bulky controller. If the controller breaks, it is very expensive to replace it and you'll most likely have to opt for a used option. Overall, a huge oversight by Nintendo. Going back to the positives, I love that it is backwards compatible with the Wii and displays games at a nicer resolution. There are a couple of exclusives on there I know will never be ported to the Switch and also again the Homebrew scene which is probably the best Nintendo console right now for that other than the 3DS so I never plan on selling mine.
Despite the Wii U's flaws I still enjoyed my time with it. It's both sad and funny how Nintendo is porting Wii U games to the Switch and slapping a $60 price tag on them. I'm tempted to plug it in again and buy a copy of Pikmin 3 and check out the virtual library.
It wasn't a game, but I also enjoyed messing with Miiverse on the Wii U and 3DS a lot.
I do think the Wii U was an underrated and under utilised console.
In terms of games, all I really need to say is that most of the exclusives are being ported to the Switch which I think says enough about the quality of its library.
Hardware though, I enjoyed the separate screen. For the Zelda games it was just very convenient and especially with Windwaker, quite emmersive to be looking down at the map whilst sailing the seas. Games like Zombi U really took advantage of the second screen, having the inventory system be handled in real time add to the gameplay and tone of the game. For something like Splatoon, something as simple as just being able to quickly tap on a area of a map and fly there was just a quality of life addition only the Wii U could provide. Or something like New Super Mario Bros U which, whilst I think that particular series is very boring, sterile and not worth my time, the option of having somebody on the gamepad interact with the game in a different way showed a huge missed opportunity for some really cool asymmetric multiplayer games.
There were some bad examples, a huge one being Star Fox Zero. I think this points more towards the fault with Nintendo that when a console has a gimmick, they HAVE to make sure all their games use that gimmick in some way, even if it's to the detriment of the game.
The Gyro controls were also amazing. I moved onto PC around that time for genres such as first person shooters and to this day, console shooters just feel absolutely awful...Unless I'm using the gyro option on a Nintendo console.
The backwards compatibility too! My lawd, I never owned a Wii so this made it possible for me to play through all the titles I had missed out on. Alongside that, just having the Wii controllers work on the Wii U was a huge thumbs up, allowing older hardware to be used on newer systems so that you can just use those old Wiimotes in multiplayer rather than spending another £150 on three new Wii U controllers.
I think there were a lot of ideas there with many of them making their way to the Switch. I do wish the second screen was still utilised though, maybe via streaming to the TV...And the touch screen as that's a useless feature of the Switch that raises the price but never gets used.
I loved the Wii U. Whilst realistically it didn't get as much support as it should have (there were HUGE periods of nothing to play) I thoroughly enjoyed the time I did spend with the system. Usually I don't have much love for the hardware specifically, it's just the middle man that allows me to enjoy games, but the Wii U hardware and/or what it could do actually brought quite a few things to the games that Switch ports are just not able to recapture. I could play any version of Super Metroid and have basically the same experience with any version, but you'll never experience the Wii U version of Windwaker quite the same anywhere else (well, when it does get ported again).
I never played Wii U when it was a new console, but my brother has one that I’ve borrowed recently and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. It does have some shortcomings that the Switch solved, but overall it’s not a bad console at all!
I really liked the wii u, I played quite a few games on it but I had a feeling that it would not do as well as the wii since the wii was really well received when it first released. There were a lot of really good games on it, and I liked that it still had the virtual console so I could buy old games and play them (like I did on the wii.) It's a shame that it did not get a lot of attention from Nintendo, I think they realized that it wasn't going to do well so they kind of just neglected it.
I really would like them to bring the virtual console to the switch.
My family owns a Wii so we never got the Wii U. In fact, for the commercials, we assumed the gamepad was an addon for the Wii and when we found out it was a whole other console, we were like nah, since we were happy with the Wii. Since Nintendo ported a lot of the Wii U games to the Switch, I've gotten to play some of the games that way. I don't think it was a bad console, I just didn't really care or seem to think I was missing out without one. The gamepad was a cool concept though.
I have both a Wii and Wii U and I do love the Wii U (and I still use it). I just wish it had backwards compatibility with the GameCube like the Wii, then it would be much better.
Mario Maker made the WiiU worth for it me. That was and is still game with so many possibilities. I got more playtime out of it then any other game. I regularly played until SMM2 came out.
The Wii U's release was also met with a lot of confusion. I remember when it was released. I had no idea that the console even existed and it's announcement just seemed to come out of nowhere. They really did a poor job advertising it.
The Wii U was pretty good at the time. It feels less good now because most of the best games have now been ported to the Switch, but I don't really regret buying mine.
I liked the Wii U version of Hyrule Warriors. The fact that you could do couch co-op but one person used the TV and one person used the gamepad screen was kinda cool. I haven't played the Switch version (and have no interest in rebuying) but the splitscreen thing seems less good to me somehow.
I always thought the problem with the Wii U was the bad marketing job Nintendo did. At the time, the media thought the Gamepad was just a new controller for the Wii.
Overall, the Wii U has a descent game catalogue with games like:
-Super Mario 3D World.
-Mario Kart 8.
-Donkey Kong Country. Tropical Freeze.
-New Super Mario Bros. U.
-HD remakes.
-Smash Bros. For Wii U.
-Pikmin 3.
Introducing new IPs like Splatoon.
Maybe it wasn't the best of the best but it wasn't the bad of the bad neither.
) on it which you can perfectly play without having to turn the TV on as well, as well as Game & Wario, some of the features of which mostly don't mandate me to look at both the TV and the GamePad at the same time. (Unless it comes to 'Gamer' of course. 
)
