Wii U

Wii U Release dates North America November 18, 2012 Japan December 8, 2012 Europe November 30, 2012 Australia November 30, 2012 Details Manufacturer Nintendo Media Wii U optical disc, Wii optical disc, SD Card Predecessor Wii Successor Nintendo Switch

The Wii U is an eighth generation console from Nintendo, acting as the successor to the Wii. It was released worldwide in 2012.

Although no new F-Zero games were released, the franchise was referenced in several games available for the console. Several of the older games were also given Virtual Console releases.

History

The Wii U was released prior to its competitors from Sony and Microsoft, the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One, respectively, as to get a jumpstart in the eighth generation of gaming. To this end, the Wii U was designed to address several criticisms levied against the Wii; motion controls, for instance, were pared back in favour of the GamePad, which featured its own screen and limited motion controls as to continue to try and foster creativity from gaming studios. Furthermore, the Wii U was designed to be more powerful than its predecessor, and it had technical specifications more similar to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Despite Nintendo's efforts, the Wii U struggled to sell well worldwide, selling only 13.5 million units worldwide by the time it was discontinued in 2016. Reasons for the console's failure were attributed to Nintendo's continued difficulty in courting third-parties due to the GamePad's unclear purpose and the console's poor technical specifications compared to its later competitors. Marketing was also partially blamed, as the console struggled to find an identity that made it a unique console compared to the Wii.

F-Zero games

No new F-Zero games were released for the Wii U; the Virtual Console service, however, did allow for several previous games to be purchased for play on the Wii U. F-Zero Maximum Velocity and F-Zero: GP Legend were both available worldwide, while F-Zero Climax was only released for Japanese markets; F-Zero and F-Zero X were also available, as part of the Wii U's backward compatibility with the Wii's Virtual Console.

The series was referenced in Nintendo Land, and a number of courses and music from the F-Zero series was referenced in Mario Kart 8, specifically in the DLC themed around The Legend of Zelda + Animal Crossing. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was also released for the console, once again featuring Captain Falcon as a playable character and several other references to the series.

External links

• Wii U on NintendoWiki, a wiki dedicated to consoles and other general info on Nintendo
• Wii U on Wikipedia

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