Inspired by the discussion during the e-mails of the latest Bombcast. What are your top ten games for the Wii U? I like the idea Jeff presented, of buying a Wii U instead of a Switch for Zelda because there's a library of games for the former. It's tough to justify buying a new console for just one game. Still, the bomb crew couldn't get to ten. If I bought a Wii U today, what ten games should I get for it?

Well because I can't write Bayonettta and Bayonetta 2 5 times each Ill do them 10-1 in order.

10. Fast Racing Neo

9. Twilight Princess HD

8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions

7. The Wonderful 101

6. Mario 3D World

5. Wind Waker HD

4. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

3. Super Smash Bros

2. Super Mario Maker

1. Bayonetta/Bayonetta 2 combo pack

Some great games I missed include Mario Kart 8, New Mario and Luigi U, Xenoblade, Pokken TOurnament, Splatoon, Hyrule Warriors, Yoshis Wooly World, Pikmin 3, and Captain Toad

I bought it for Bayonetta 2, and then proceeded to only ever play Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros on it until last week. So, my list is as follows:

1. Bayonetta 2

2. Zelda: Breath of the Wild

3. Smash Bros

4. ???

5. ???

6. ???

7. ???

8. ???

9. ???

10. ???

Look into the WOnderful 101 if you like Bayonetta

Top 10 Wii U games:

1. Tokyo Mirage Sessions
2. Zelda: Breath of the Wild
3. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
4. Splatoon
5. Super Luigi U
6. Super Mario 3D World
7. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
8. Yoshi's Woolly World
9. Super Mario Maker
10. Wonderful 101

Honorable mentions:

• Mario Kart 8
• Bayonetta 2
• New Super Mario Bros U
• Paper Mario Color Splash
• Wind Waker HD

1.) Mario Maker

2.) Bayonetta 2

3.) Super Mario 3D World

4.) Splatoon

5.) Tokyo Mirage Sessions

6.) Captain Toad

7.) Wind Waker HD

8.) Shovel Knight

9.) Mario Kart 8

10.) Pikman 3

How bout top 3. You're just gonna see the same top 10, it's the Wii U.

If you can find a cheap Wii U, I'd say go for it. I really like mine, but if the difference between getting a Switch and a used Wii U is $100 or less, I'd say just wait until you can get a Switch because without a doubt all the must plays on the Wii U will be ported over to Switch. If you are able to get a cheap Wii U, then here is my must play list:

1 - Zelda: BotW (even though it just came out, I feel like this is the best title that they put out for Wii U)

2 - Splatoon

3 - Super Mario Maker

4 - Super Mario Kart 8

5 - Super Mario 3D World

6 - Super Smash Bros

7 - New Super Mario Bros. U

8 - Zelda: WW

9 - Pikmin 3

10 - Shovel Knight

Games That Most People Love But Aren't My Thing:

- Bayonetta 2

- Xenoblade Chronicles X

- Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

Game I Own And Want To Play Someday:

- Zelda: TP

Games For People That Have More Time Than Me Who Are Willing To Play Games That Are Good But Not Great:

- Captain Toad: Treasure Hunter

- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

- The Wonderful 101

- Yoshi's Woolly World

- Paper Mario: Color Splash

- Hyrule Warriors

- ZombiU

Plus the eShop has a bunch of indie games that are really good. The Wii U definitely didn't do so hot as a console, but it definitely has games that are worth playing. I just think that most of the must play games that came out on the Wii U will be ported to the Switch.

Bayonetta 1/2

Mario Kart 8

Smash Bros Wii U

Mario 3D World

Xenoblade X

Wind Waker HD

Wonderful 101

Hyrule Warriors

Fast Racing Neo

Star Fox Zero (I do wish it was better, but I still love Star Fox)

1. Super Mario Maker
2. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
3. New Super Mario Bros U
4. Super Mario 3D World
5. New Super Luigi U
6. Need for Speed: Most Wanted U

I expect there are better versions of Need for Speed: Most Wanted on other platforms, but this version runs smooth and it sufficiently scratches that Burnout Paradise itch for me. I also enjoyed Mario Kart 8, Yoshi's Woolly World, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Bayonetta 1+2, Pullblox/Pushmo world, the NES Remix pack, and probably a few more, but I wouldn't consider them must-haves.

Except for Need for Speed the Wii U has mostly been a family experience for me, we've played most of those Marios multiplayer, and even Mario Maker we've spent a fair amount just playing bookmarked puzzle levels and passing the controller around when one of us gets stuck.

1. Super Mario Maker
2. Bayonetta 2
3. Pikmin 3
4. Zombi U
5. Super Mario 3D World
6. Game & Wario
7. Xenoblade Chronicles X
8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions
9. Wind Waker HD
10. Splatoon

1. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
3. Splatoon
4. Super Mario 3d World
5. Bayonetta 2
6. Super Mario Maker
7. Smash
8. Mario Kart
9. New Super Mario Bros
10. probably Twilight Princess remaster

I don't really have a top 10 as I literally don't even own 10 total wii u games, but the ones I would recommend in order:

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X

2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild

3. Tokyo Mirage Sessions

4. Legend of Zelda Wind Water

5. Bayonetta 2

6. Super Mario 3D

7. Splatoon

9. Super Mario Maker

I really think Xenoblade Chronicles X is a much better visual/music/designed open (the music is amazing and really makes me wish Zelda had real music) world then Zelda BoW, but Zelda does a lot of things involving open world better such as the lack of real gating, reasons to check out random locations, etc, though the performance is garbage. The biggest drawback of Xenoblade is you need to play until you unlock mech + flying to truly experience the open world and the realization changes of scale from your previous on foot to mech I found mind blowing. Sadly this transition takes around 20-30 hours to reach (some people may have problems with this), but the xenoblade world becomes simply insane after that and also has incredible post game content (literally doubles game length) that zelda lacks.

Well, number one is Breath of the Wild, let's just get that out of the way.

Other games of note are Mario Maker, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World and... I literally can not think of anything else. There are games that are probably great that I did not play (Bayonetta, Tokyo Mirage Sessions) but overall it did not get a ton of good releases. It has been sitting in a closet for months until Zelda came out and I am fairly confident that is the last game I will ever play for it. That being said, what a fucking high note to go out on!

I don't know if I really have a top 10, but I only bought the thing last year. The previews for Breath of the Wild were what made me finally pull the trigger, though I had thought about doing so several times before and I had a list of games I wanted to play on the thing anyway. I've played the three Zelda games on it - Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and I'm playing Breath of the Wild right now. Other than those, I've also played some Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World, and quite a bit of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, though I do need to get back to that game. I also went back and played through Metroid Prime 1 and 2, even though I dislike using the Wii-Mote for anything. I should buy Xenoblade Chronicles X before that game becomes scarce.

I'm not going to say that I play it a ridiculous amount, but I have several games for it and I've put dozens of hours into a few of them. I definitely don't regret the purchase. I'm glad I decided to play Breath of the Wild on Wii U and hold off on buying the Switch and BotW on it, though I can certainly see myself getting a Switch a few years down the line. Especially if Nintendo does what everyone thinks they're going to do and put all of their development effort on one platform, along with that third party support that pretty much made the 3DS what it is.

I think now is a really good time to buy a Wii U if you've ever been interested in one but have held off because of the small library. After four years and after Nintendo put the thing away, the Wii U finally has a library worth the asking price. In a lot of ways, I wish Nintendo had just made some kind of Wii U portable and just continued to support the console they already have, instead of writing it off as another failure and moving on to something else. I really hope they step up their software game this time, they make some great games but they're still far too mired in hardware gimmicks that few people actually care about. Ideally - at least for me - they'd be a software company so they could put something like Breath of the Wild on the PC and I wouldn't have to wonder how amazing that game would be on a system with the power to actually run it properly, but that's not going to happen. Nintendo will either live on their hardware or die trying.

But then, I also wanted to see Sony finally figure out something they could do with the PS Vita - that thing could have been a glorious haven for 2D games and classic RPG's but instead they tried to sell it as a home console in your hand and the Vita just wound up being more proof that such an idea doesn't work. I still think they could revive it if they'd put some effort into doing something completely different with it and drop the price quite a bit, but again, not going to happen. I just hope Nintendo doesn't make the same mistake and they provide both "pick up and play" games and longer-form games that you'd want on a big TV.

1. Bayonetta 2
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X
3. Zelda: Breath of the Wild
4. Wonderful 101
5. Super Mario 3D World
6. Pikmin 3
7. Mario Kart 8
8. Splatoon
9. Smash Bros.
10. Devil's Third (I'm half joking, but I did have some fun with this game, more so than Star Fox Zero)

One game that doesn't get mentioned a lot is LEGO City Undercover. I had a lot of fun with it on the Wii U.

1. Super Mario Maker

2. Super Mario World 3D

3. ZombiU

4. Wind Waker HD

5. Bayonetta 2

6. Shovel Knight

7. Splatoon

8. The Fall

9. Xenoblade X

10. Mario Kart

There are at least another 10 games I really want to play on wii u.

1. Bayonetta 2 - Best character action game to date. A little too easy on it's default difficulty, but it makes up for it with...well...everything else. Also you can choose harder difficulties so that's not really a problem at all tbh.
2. Pokken Tournament - It's the game I always envisioned Pokemon Stadium should be, but much better than I could every dream.
3. Tokyo Mirage Sessions - The lack of any real memorable music in this game really irks me, but much like Bayonetta 2, any flaw it may have is carried by everything else the game does right.
4. Wind Waker HD - It's Wind Waker. In HD.
5. Xenoblade Chronicles X - This game is fucking insane. It is absurdly janky with some questionable difficulty spikes and doesn't always convey information to the player in the best way possible...and it also looks like an up-res'd PS2 game, but there's an astronomical amount of things to do, places to see, and wildlife to shamelessly murder.
6. Shante Half-Genie Hero - It came out for Wii U. That's where I played it.
7. Tropical Freeze - I suck at this game. It's reeeeally fun though.
8. NInja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge - Not as good as any iteration of NInja Gaiden 1 or 2 in my opinion, but it's much better than original NG3.

Dishonorable mentions: Hyrule Warriors - I'm a fan of the Musou series. At one point, this would have made my list despite the problems I had with it...then I played Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate and then Hyrule Warrior's shortcomings became even more apparent. WO3U is such a fantastic piece of fanservice that's not afraid to have a bit of fun. Hyrule Warriors on the other hand just seems tone deaf by comparison. "Let's throw all these beloved characters into one game, not even let them interact (what's the fucking point of the mashup then?!), throw in some shitty original waifu-bait characters that don't even fit, and make it deathly serious all the time." Yay!

Haven't played Breath of the Wild yet, but I imagine that would make my list if I had.

10. Pikmin 3

9. Yoshi's Woolly World

8. Mario Kart 8

7. Resident Evil Revlations

6. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

5. Bayonetta

4. Tokyo Mirage Sessions

3. Super Mario 3D World

2. Super Mario Maker

1. Bayonetta 2

Never played Splatoon, Pokken Tournament, or Captain Toad. Not a Smash fan at all.

Wii U library was sparse but overall really solid with only a few stinkers in the mix (Devil's Third, Color Splash)

@liquiddragon said:

Heh, you're right. These lists have largely been the same, and that's kind of the point. The bombcast couldn't come up with ten games. I'm not sure there are ten games I'd want to play if I got the console, either. So let's try it. Pulling from the lists so far, here are the games I would want to play:

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X - Played entirely through the previous game on the Wii, this would be at the top of my wishlist for a Wii U

2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Real curious to know if it runs okay on the older console

3. Bayonetta 2 - Heard great things from just about everyone. One of the very few mentions that's not a Nintendo IP.

4. Super Mario Maker - Will I have fun creating/playing levels if I don't personally know anyone to share with? I'm worried the most fun I would get out of this game would still be the videos back and forth between Giant Bomb and Patrick Klepek.

5. Super Smash Brothers - I beat the shit out of my friends on the original game for N64 in high school. Also played a fair amount of the game for the Wii.

6. Super Mario 3D World - Because those games are usually pretty good, right?

7. Mario Kart - Because those games are usually pretty good, right?

8. Tokyo Mirage Sessions - Don't know much about this at all, but again one of the few games that isn't established Nintendo IP.

9. Kirby - I guess? My wife usually enjoys Kirby games, as long as there's at least some challenge.

Shovel Knight, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, these are all great games I've played on other consoles. Is my list enough to justify a console purchase? Tough to argue, when I have several times as many games for my Playstation 4.

1. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (this game is righteous)
2. Mario Kart 8
3. Shovel Knight
4. Super Mario 3D World
5. Twilight Princess HD
6. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
7. Super Mario Maker

That about as far as I can go before hitting stuff I haven't played much of yet (BotW, Splatoon, Xenoblade, Bayonetta) or didin't care for.

Games I have played:

• Super Mario 3D World
• Super Mario Maker
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions
• Pushmo World
• Splatoon
• Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (if you can rent this one or buy it for 20 bucks or something, it's good and charming and there's a lot of craftsmanship packed into this game but for the amount of play time it offers it's just not a great value proposition at more than 20 bucks)
• Nintendo Land (I've had fun playing this with my nephew and niece, I wouldn't recommend it solely for single player though it does have a couple games that are alright in that regard, so if it's a pack in you could mess around with it for a bit)
• Earthbound (I have wanted to play this game for years, and was grateful to be able to do so on the Wii U virtual console in a way that is, shall we say, officially sanctioned, turns out the game's really cool)

Games I have yet to play, but intend to:

• Bayonetta 2
• Severed (don't know much about this one but it sounds intriguing and is only otherwise available on platforms I don't have or wouldn't prefer over the Wii U, so figured I would give it a mention here)
• Mario Kart 8
• and Zelda BotW of course

I've played other games, and will continue to play other games that are available on Wii U, but they're things like Steamworld Dig and Shovel Knight, which are also available on other platforms.

I'll add that right now I'm in the middle of a month of gamefly, as I took advantage of a half off a month type offer and decided to rent a bunch of Wii U games that have been on my to do list for a while. So I would say if you really want to save yourself some money that's probably a decent option, as you could easily pick 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 of the shorter games or ones you aren't sure about but want to try out and play them in a month.

I made it through Captain Toad, and now I have Splatoon with Mario Kart on the way. I might try to squeeze in Shovel Knight if I can. Then I'll dive into Zelda at some point.