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Which black sheep console had it worse, Wii U or Sega Saturn?

Which doomed system had it worse?


  • Total voters
    302

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
The weird thing about Switch vs. Wii U is that the Wii U was a much more innovative console. Even something like using the gamepad for the camera in Fatal Frame makes that version better than the Switch (or any other) version of the game. The two screens, when done right, was something unique and fresh.

A Wii U exclusive BotW would have been even more amazing than what we got.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
The weird thing about Switch vs. Wii U is that the Wii U was a much more innovative console. Even something like using the gamepad for the camera in Fatal Frame makes that version better than the Switch (or any other) version of the game. The two screens, when done right, was something unique and fresh.

A Wii U exclusive BotW would have been even more amazing than what we got.

Still so salty they literally pulled features out of the Wii U version for Switch parity
 
I never played the Saturn, but I have a love/hate relationship with the WiiU.

Currently I have it kicking around because it’s a nice GC emulation machine and can play Wii and VC games all in one. The Pro controller is also great and I still have 2 of them which I use on it, my computer, and my new Switch via an adapter.

The WiiU’s library itself? Ughhhhh I guess it’s great if you really like their 2.5 Platformers. It lacks a lot of the variety that the Wii had. The Wii had stuff like Mario Galaxy, Prime 3, Zelda, and bunch of unique 3rd party efforts as well.

The WiiU has only 3 games that I felt made purchasing it actually worth it. Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Breath of the Wild, and of course BotW was a Switch game too. There was no Metroid game, BotW took it’s whole short lifespan to release, so I had to get that fix with HD remasters of WW and TP, and the new Starfox game I waited forever for sucked.
In terms of it’s own library, it’s severely lacking.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Gamecube, Wii and Wii U share the same CPU, with twice the clocks in each iteration due die shrink in half.

Switch has nothing to do with them. It is an ARM Cortex platform with Nvidia Maxwell graphics, compared to the PowerPC CPU and AMD graphics of the Wii U.

There are many ports of the Wii U, but they are just ports with no inherent advantage in hardware.

I meant it still feels like the Switch isnt much stronger than the Wii U.
Pikin 3 is better on the Wii U, and Im pretty sure the Wii U can probably play all the games the Switch has released
 

Markio128

Member
From my own perspective, I have much more adoration for the Saturn and I played some tremendous games on the system, so I guess I‘d say the Wii U had it the roughest. I barely remember my time with the Wii U.
 

BlackTron

Member
I never played the Saturn, but I have a love/hate relationship with the WiiU.

Currently I have it kicking around because it’s a nice GC emulation machine and can play Wii and VC games all in one. The Pro controller is also great and I still have 2 of them which I use on it, my computer, and my new Switch via an adapter.

The WiiU’s library itself? Ughhhhh I guess it’s great if you really like their 2.5 Platformers. It lacks a lot of the variety that the Wii had. The Wii had stuff like Mario Galaxy, Prime 3, Zelda, and bunch of unique 3rd party efforts as well.

The WiiU has only 3 games that I felt made purchasing it actually worth it. Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Breath of the Wild, and of course BotW was a Switch game too. There was no Metroid game, BotW took it’s whole short lifespan to release, so I had to get that fix with HD remasters of WW and TP, and the new Starfox game I waited forever for sucked.
In terms of it’s own library, it’s severely lacking.

For me the real death knell was Starfox. I would give up the gamepad and all its features in all other games to get this ONE game to have been designed without it.

I say "designed" because it's too integral to the game to port it. Wii U totally killed the 64 reimagining of SF. Despite how useful the system is, this final insult pissed me off so much I get sour thinking about it and don't use mine.
 
For me the real death knell was Starfox. I would give up the gamepad and all its features in all other games to get this ONE game to have been designed without it.

I say "designed" because it's too integral to the game to port it. Wii U totally killed the 64 reimagining of SF. Despite how useful the system is, this final insult pissed me off so much I get sour thinking about it and don't use mine.
I wouldn’t even blame Starfox on the WiiU, but Miyamoto’s insistence that it only be controlled with the Gamepad. It could’ve had alternate control schemes and been fine. Hell a Wiimote IR aiming option for the main game would’ve gone a long way to make it more playable, and that was already an option in multiplayer ffs.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I wouldn’t even blame Starfox on the WiiU, but Miyamoto’s insistence that it only be controlled with the Gamepad. It could’ve had alternate control schemes and been fine. Hell a Wiimote IR aiming option for the main game would’ve gone a long way to make it more playable, and that was already an option in multiplayer ffs.

Wasn't he given a directive to make something use gamepad features?

Probably something we won't know
 
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BlackTron

Member
I wouldn’t even blame Starfox on the WiiU, but Miyamoto’s insistence that it only be controlled with the Gamepad. It could’ve had alternate control schemes and been fine. Hell a Wiimote IR aiming option for the main game would’ve gone a long way to make it more playable, and that was already an option in multiplayer ffs.

Of course there was no requirement that the gamepad be used (see: Donkey Kong) however the gamepad not only created the opportunity for it, it also created a situation where Nintendo felt like they needed to justify it somehow.

I wish Platinum had been contracted to make a SF64 reimagining on Switch instead. It would be fully insulated from Nintendo/Miyamoto's desire to legitimize the existence of the Gamepad. To this day the best use of the Gamepad I can remember was with it's pack in launch game Nintendo Land, especially the Luigi minigame.
 

Boss Mog

Member
Wii U was the worse console of the two but it had the die hard nintendo fans to support it, Saturn didn't have that kind of fanbase behind it.
 

Metnut

Member
Gotta give the Wii U some credit. It’s games make up a significant portion of Nintendo’s first-party Switch games the past few years.
 

tkscz

Member
The WiiU saw better support during it's run than the Saturn did. I know people like to say it had no third party games but on launch it had more third party support than the N64 and GC. EA, WB, Ubisoft, Capcom, and more. Saturn didn't even get that. I know people here blame the hardware for the WiiU's failure but in truth it was all marketing. From name to advertisement, Nintendo wouldn't give up on a crowd that gave up on them long ago. And worse, confused them by not showing that it wasn't just a Wii add-on or even just the Wii itself. The Wii was over and Nintendo refused to move on.

The Saturn was more of a showing of Sega's incompetence as a company. While the WiiU's hardware played little in it's failing as they at least made the attempt of making it more powerful than the PS3/360, Sega thought it would be a good idea to stick with 2D hardware when even the SNES was attempting at moving onto 3D hardware. Sega's original idea was basically the 32x as a stand alone console, then they saw that the Playstation and Nintendo (Ultra) 64 were 3D consoles, they freaked, and their solution was to haphazardly slap a 3D processor on it without much testing (testing is something Sega wasn't known for doing) causing programming difficulties for third parties. Rather than taking their time and pushing the Saturn back, they went full in on releasing it the same year as the PS1, and then charging $100 more for the Saturn. To top it off, Saturn didn't really get ANY killer Sega IPs on it. Not even Sonic the Hedgehog. The one game in development, Sonic Extreme, got canceled for some pretty fucked up reasons, one main one being that Yuji Naka was acting like a fucking baby when they (Sega Institute of America, creators of Sonic 2) asked to use the Nights into Dreams engine (the man actually threatened to quit if they used the engine). The WiiU saw Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Super Mario 3D Land, Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade X, and a lot more support from Nintendo.

The WiiU, while not a rousing success by any means, at least saw Nintendo trying, but failing, at pleasing two audiences. It wasn't until they let go of the grandma's and soccer moms that they saw success again. The Saturn was just more evidence that the Genesis was a successful fluke for Sega and that they were never really good at the console market. Seriously, look at their history in consoles from the business side.
 
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Alan Wake

Member
I kind of like them both. But neither of them could carry you through an entire generation without leaving you with lots of frustration. As a Saturn owner I saw sequels to games I loved (Resident Evil and Tomb Raider not least) launch on other consoles. I bought the Wii U after it was discontinued and loved my time with it, but it could never have replaced Xbox One and PS4.

Since almost every exclusive Wii U game has been ported over to Switch and/or other consoles, I feel the Saturn remains the more unique console of the two.
 
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