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The month I rediscovered Nintendo and my Wii U

I’m not a Nintendo-hater, but as of late, I’ve sure as hell had a hard time feeling positive about the company.

The 3DS. The New 3DS XL. The 2DS. The New 3DS. The New 3DS XL. A massive shortage of amiibo figurines. As a reviewer, getting games months later than outlets in America and Europe.

I could go on, but I won’t. The reason for that is simple: January 2015, the month I rediscovered Nintendo.

In case you’re unaware, we’re coming out of a bit of a dry spell. All throughout this month, I found myself nothing to play, for review or enjoyment purposes.

Or so I thought.

smashbroswiiu-1

Looking over to my bookshelf, I had a ton of titles staring back at me, practically begging to be played.

“You haven’t unlocked all of my characters yet,” Super Smash Bros. beckoned.

“You liked me when I first came out,” teased Bayonetta. “So why not try me,” her sister, Bayonetta 2, continued.

“Hey! Heeeeeeeey!” screamed Hyrule Warriors, “I’m a Zelda game you won’t get bored with immediately!”

“And if-a you-a do,” Mario Kart 8 cooed in the super-stereotypical voice I still feel guilty for conceiving,” you-a can-a always play-a me!”

With that, I set out to charge my Wii U gamepad.

Bayonetta2-header

“Wait wait wait!” a voice called out from the ether. Actually, from the internet. “Don’t forget about us, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the Metroid Prime Trilogy! You can buy us for dirt cheap right now!”

I’ll admit: it’s at this point I grumbled as I dug through my closet to find a Wiimote and a Nunchuck. And batteries.

The closet excursion was quickly forgotten as I played. Oh, did I play.

I played the sh*t out all of those games in this last month. I giggled at the randomness of Bayonetta 2. I endangered friendships when I said that I really liked Hyrule Warriors as a Zelda game.

I stand by that call, by the way. And as an aside, I’m still not sure why I’m loving Hyrule Warriors so much, especially considering Dynasty Warriors makes me want to bash my head against a brick wall. Repeatedly. But I digress.

hyrule-warriors

I kept challenging my fiancée to Mario Kart 8, moving from last place when driving against him and the rest of the AI in our first Grand Prix… to second — after him, of course — in the twentieth Cup we finished. I finally started Galaxy 2 and reminded myself of why I spent hours and hours and hours on the first Galaxy, slowly by slowly getting 100% completion. I unlocked the Duck Hunt Duo in Smash with utter delight. Right this second, I’m waiting for Metroid Prime Trilogy to finish downloading so I can see what all the fuss is about.

Yes, thank you, Twitter. I know the Metroid Prime Trilogy is amazing. You can stop telling me now, ’cause I want to find that out first hand.

I honestly don’t know if this trend will keep up. I can’t say for certain if I’ll keep going back to my Wii U when games start flowing freely on the PS4 and Xbox One. But I do know this: we’ll always have January, Wii U.


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.