this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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I used the Sunshine game streaming software and the WiiU homebrew port of Moonlight to get game streaming working on a WiiU gamepad. It's sort of like a bootleg Steam Deck, and it works surprisingly well, but it mostly just made me want a Steam Deck.

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[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 71 points 4 months ago (4 children)

The WiiU was ahead of its time.

Great little console.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 51 points 4 months ago

The WiiU crawled so the Switch could walk so the Deck could run

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 33 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Looking back, it almost feels like a Switch prototype. It's a goofy little thing, but I love it. That said, I also love the Nintendo Virtual Boy, so my judgement might be questionable.

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 months ago

Yeah, it did so many things wrong and had so many little annoyances regarding the gamepad.

Still, great games and a wonderful charm to it.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The virtual boy was ahead of its time, too. Teleroboxer is still my favorite game that no one played.

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's one of my favorites, too! Almost like a Punch Out!! spinoff. VB Wario Land is worthy of the praise it receives, but I also really like the Virtual Boy's StarFox-like, Red Alarm.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Red Alarm is definitely my Number 2 on VB, Followed by Wario. I need to search my basement and see if I still have them...

Teleroboxer reminds me of a cross between Punch Out & Metal Combat for the Super Scope, another underrated gem.

At least that one got a sequel!

[–] hunterirving@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Super deep cut (this might be my most obscure bit of Nintendo trivia as I couldn't find any images of it online), but have you ever seen the hidden wireframe models in Red Alarm? If you shoot very specific places in game, you can reveal low-poly 3D models of a Virtual Boy, Game Boy, and even a girl in a bikini... for some reason. I wonder if Nintendo's top brass were aware of that one when it shipped :-)

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 2 points 4 months ago

Ha!

I was about to mention those in my last comment! I remember it was like weird bits of terrain you had to shoot so many times in certain levels to get the Easter egg. Pretty sure I saw the locations in Nintendo Power...

A low poly wireframe bikini girl had to be hidden back in the day, and now there's porn games on the Switch Store!

[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

At the time, Microsoft and Sony were playing this "more graphics = more better" game and Nintendo decided it couldn't compete on that front. You can see a bit of the "compete on anything but graphics" mentality in the Wii and Wii U, then they took what worked and refined it into the Switch and Switch 2.

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I agree. I think the problem with it is that it was just too complicated. With most Nintendo system what you see is what you get - with the Wii, those people having a good time swinging around their little Toblerones really are playing a game; the Switch really is a home console grade portable handheld thing; the WiiU manages to look like both those things without being either.

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The forced gamepad integration didn’t help, like why tf do I need the gamepad to connect to WiFi.

[–] afaix@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It doesn’t need wifi though, PlayStation portal does. But yeah, the second screen was a questionable idea - too hard to implement in an interesting way, makes all local multiplayer games asymmetrical, makes porting difficult… Even Nintendo gave up

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 months ago

I mean connecting the console itself to WiFi, you are required to use the gamepad for most settings.

There’s no controller/wiimote fallback option.

[–] jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 months ago

actually the gampad does need WiFi*, it's just that the Wii U is the access point to its slightly non compliant WiFi ac network.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 3 points 4 months ago

I'm a bit confused why it never really caught on. It had so much potential. I loved playing a game while having the map on the little screen for example. Or the inventory or whatever.