It’s undoubtedly time to put my Wii U out to pasture

When the news hit in September 2018’s Nintendo Direct that a brand-new Animal Crossing was coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2019, I immediately told Melanie this: “Well, looks like I need to buy a Switch next year.” Sure, sure, there are plenty of other Switch-only games I’ve been wanting to play, such as Super Mario Odyssey, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee!, and Octopath Traveler, but nothing has gotten me as excited as the prospect of losing myself once more into the world of chattering animals, larger-than-life debts, and a thousand and one things to collect. Plus, similar to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, this is playable on the go, which is how I’ve always preferred to play; sorry about that, Animal Crossing: City Folk.

That, unfortunately, means the Wii U needs to go into storage. Why, you so nicely ask? Well, I only have so much space in our entertainment center, and right now the three slots are taken up by our cable box, the Xbox One, and the sadly underused Wii U. My PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Xbox 360 (also now basically unused due to the solid amount of backwards-compatible games on the Xbox One), along with my NES Classic, are upstairs in my office/drawing space. Now, my Wii U library is quite small, tiny enough that I don’t feel odd listing every single game I own for it right here and now, both digitally and on disc:

• Affordable Space Adventures
• amiibo tap – Nintendo’s Greatest Bits
• EarthBound
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
• NES Remix
• New Super Mario Bros. U/New Super Luigi U
• Nintendo Land
• Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse
• Super Mario Maker
• Temple of Yog
• Wii Fit U

Honestly, originally, I only bought a Wii U for Wii Fit U, as I was trying to work some exercise into my life at the time, and I’d rather gamify working out than go to a gym and feel super not confident on machines and such. It came with a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U/New Super Luigi U, though I don’t know if I played it at all yet since getting my Wii U back in…oh my god, 2014. This is probably the most underused console I’ve ever owned, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seeing the most action on it, followed by Super Mario Maker and the Netflix app. Yikes on that last part.

Since the Wii U is backwards compatible with the Wii, though you still have to use the sensor bar and keep those WiiMotes full of fresh batteries, which is beyond exhausting, I’ll list all my Wii games too that will eventually just go into storage soon, many of which I haven’t even played once, ugh, because I’m a terrible gamer-man:

• Disney Epic Mickey
• FlingSmash
• Heavenly Guardians
• Legend of the Dragon
• The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest
• MySims Agents
• MySims Kingdom
• Super Paper Mario
• Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure

Some of these I’ve played and already written about here on Grinding Down, but I just don’t know if I will ever to get trying them all out. Which is a dang shame, especially for Super Paper Mario and MySims Agents, which, of the latter, is completely different than the version I played on the Nintendo 3DS. Same goes for The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, though this would be my third variation of that game (one on the PlayStation 2, and one on the Nintendo DS).

Either way, I’m going to try to milk out a few more posts about some of these games before eventually boxing them up and, most likely, never seeing them again.

Stay tuned.