The Wii U first launched eight years ago today

Eight years ago today, on November 18, 2012, Nintendo’s Wii U hit the North American market. Coming from behind the Wii, Nintendo’s most successful home console of all time, hopes were undoubtedly high for this latest console, but we all know how the story unfolds from there.

With its bulk GamePad controller and HD visuals – a first for Nintendo at the time – the Wii U quickly appeared in Europe on November 30 and in Japan on December 8 of the same year. Customers could opt for a white “Basic” set with 8 GB of memory, or a black “Premium” set with 32 GB of memory and a copy of Nintendo Land or ZombiU.

Of course, the Wii U unfortunately turned out to be a flop by Nintendo’s generally high standards; Now discontinued, the console has only moved 13.56 million units worldwide. There are a lot of theories behind it – the brand was confusing to customers, the third-party support wasn’t as strong as it could have been – but ultimately Nintendo decided to wrap things up sooner than expected and to embark on a new generation with the Switch, which has already demolished the lifetime sales of Wii U.

While some Wii U owners may feel a bit cheated, the Switch has also given Nintendo the ability to re-release some of the failing console’s best titles, delivering them to a much larger audience. Looking at the best-selling Wii U games, there are plenty of fantastic titles available for the system – in many ways, it’s a shame it never took off like Nintendo might have hoped.

Have you bought a Wii U? Do you still have it to this day, or did you regret choosing one? Please feel free to share your Wii U memories with us in the comments.