The Wii U is often seen by many people as Nintendo's console failure. For whatever reason, the sales for this console did not live up to the explosion of the initial Wii system (which to be fair was a tough act to follow). I find that pretty unfortunate. The Wii U is one of my favorite consoles, and I was very excited for its release. Typically, Nintendo is seen as a console for kids, and that's sad as well, because they release great games that are fun to play. What's so great about it though?
First, Nintendo excels in something that a lot of games have left behind in recent years, and that is local play. I guess you could try to tell me that I'm stuck in the past, but local play is just better. You can also argue that the PS4 and Xbox have online play, and that you can play with people from all over the world in one place, but it's not the same. While those consoles obviously have the capabilities to support local multi-player it seems the majority of the titles do not. Most of the time, it seems when I'm playing a Playstation game it's alone. (There are of course notable exceptions like Little Big Planet.)
Second, what everyone loves about the Switch was already partially there on the Wii U. While it wasn't 100% mobile yet you could walk around playing games on your game pad which I thought was awesome, and one of the original features that attracted me to the console. This feature would allow you to relinquish control of the TV to somebody else in the house or just move someplace quieter to play without unhooking anything. Though for me I enjoyed the screen much more as an add on.
It was great to be able to have my item screens or my mini map on the handheld. This little feature went a long way in de-cluttering your main screen. While we did technically have to use two WiiUs to play Monster Hunter 3 locally, we used only one TV thanks to the abilities of controller.
Initially, I was a little worried that it would be difficult to play with such a large controller, but to my surprise the game pad was quite comfortable to use, and now I would even prefer it to a normal controller thanks to its added features. The battery life was also surprisingly good for something of its kind.
As for the catalogue, there was never a shortage of games I wanted to play. While the Wii U itself had around 750 titles it was also backwards compatible with games from the previous Wii system, giving players access to an additional 1500+ games. Playstation 4 notoriously lacked this, which really rubbed me the wrong way upon its release.
Instead, they "remastered" or basically ported the old games to digital versions, expecting you to just buy them again. While the Nintendo store did feature older games you could purchase, a lot of them were cartridge games that would not be possible to make compatible with the system through other means.
While I typically don't like purchasing digital games I did buy one for the Wii U. I bought Harvest Moon, originally for the Super Nintendo. Even though we do have a Super Nintendo in our house it would cost me $150-$200 to purchase an original copy of this title! Instead, I bought it for $10 or so digital which I was happy with seeing as I never owned this game in the series, and it gave me an opportunity to play it for a price that didn't break the bank.
Had the original been cheaper I would most likely have not purchased the digital version, but that's just my preference for collectibles. (You can of course download emulators as well to accomplish the same thing if you're a naughty pirate.)
The gamepad besides being its own screen that could be used as a partially mobile console or for your maps also had a few other tricks. Many games also featured touch control objectives or gyro based activities similar to the original Wii's function.
This allowed for some similar actions, but it was much more sparsely implemented. I was actually thankful that they chose to go with a more traditional control system this time around. The pad had in addition to gyro functions, a stylus that you used for some games such as Mario Maker, where it was used to build levels and move things around. (My partner enjoyed this title a lot!)
In addition to being a Nintendo fan, I'm also a PC gamer. Which is one of the reason the PS4 did not appeal to me as much. Most of the games I wanted to play could also be gotten on Steam, typically for a cheaper price. Nintendo on the other hand does not distribute most of their titles for the PC, and I couldn't go without some of them! So, you can say what you want about the Wii U, but I still love it, and I'm glad they made it.