EP40 - The Untold Story of the Wii U Launch *10 Year Anniversary* - Kit & Krysta Podcast

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Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the Kit & Krysta Podcast! Today we're looking back at the launch of Wii U on its 10 year anniversary. We can't believe it's already been 10 years and we have some complicated feelings about this system since we were working so closely on the launch and the Wii U era was such an interesting/hard time to work at Nintendo. We also talk about games we are playing and we're both super excited to dive into God of War and talk to you about it. We have a beefy news section covering the TGA nominations and of course, we answer questions from our fabulous Patreon subscribers. This is a special one so let's get going!

0:00 - Happy 10 year anniversary Wii U!
11:50 - The untold story of the Wii U
1:02:37 - Games we are playing
1:21:39 - News news news (TGA nominations, Nintendo financials, more Twitter nonsense)
1:37:21 - Questions from our Patreon subscribers

Thank you to our Patreon Super Stars: Aaron Hash, Ben Eichhorn, MaruMayhem, Eigenverse, Jordan Collett, KissMyFlapjack, Mike Chin, Mr. Rogers, Paul Gale Network, RainTech, Roy Eschke, Simon Barrera, Switchingitup_, Sephazon, TheSharkAmongMen, vgmlife, Link The Hero of Winds, Angela Bycroft, and TurboChargeNerd!

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-Kit & Krysta

#podcast #nintendo #wiiu

[kitandkrysta]

We hope you enjoyed hearing our early Wii U stories! What is your strongest memory of the Wii U launch?

[FortWorthRaised]

I remember my wife went to Walmart to get an OG Wii in late 2010, and a lady said, “I think they have them on sale because they’re getting ready to release a new system. I think it’s called the Wii Wii?” Her coworker was so embarrassed.

[CuzziP]

Wii U was my first console I bought with my own money and my first HD console, so I’ll always love it forever. I know in my heart that they EASILY would’ve doubled it’s lifetime sales if they just simply named it something else like the Wii 2 (Wii Too perhaps?) It has such an amazing library!! BotW, MK8, Smash 4, Mario Maker, 3D World, Splatoon, Tropical Freeze, Xenoblade X, Bayonetta 2, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD on top of the fantastic Virtual Console offerings (DS GAMES!!) and back-compat with the ENTIRE Wii library! Despite it’s failures and shortcomings, I’ll always defend the Wii U for as long as I live

[zurcasi]

i remember practically begging my parents for a wii u. when Iwata, RIP, made the decision to cut the price for the black wii u, my parents got it for me for my birthday. i played nintendo land with my family a lot, got super mario 3d world for a school award, smash bros for christmas, and splatoon for graduation. thankfully my close friends also had a wii u so i never felt alone for owning one, and it and splatoon have made an impact on my life

[Chris.Batchelor]

What you said around 8:40 about the things happening in your life affecting your memories really resonated with me. I got the Wii U around Christmas of 2013, and April of 2014 my mother passed away. I was 13 at the time, and vividly remember the day after it happened I sat in bed all day playing some roller coaster game with a little dog that came by out of the blue. My entire day was spent with the Wii U taking my mind off of what had happened, and ever since then it’s always had a special place in my heart.

It also really introduced me to the die hard Nintendo community, and I got so into checking Twitter or Reddit for all the new games, watching every Nintendo Direct, and keeping up with all the news even if I didn’t care about the games. Made me who I am today and despite all its flaws, the console started a huge boom in gaming interest in me and I can’t thank it enough.

[tdotran]

I remember going to the store to pick up the Wii U on launch day and my best friend said “Nintendo released a new console?” As a proud owner of the Wii U, those years were ROUGH.

[UltDolRev]

Happy 10th Anniversary Wii U!

The Wii U is our favorite console, and we're still making content for till the very end out of passion. It's such a unique oddity that we find fascinating. The console gave us our start as game developers.

Great podcast as usual, we love hearing your guys stories and insights!

[takenoprisoner]

I’m excited for this podcast. I love getting the tea from actual nintendo employees

[dannyboots]

The Wii U is my favorite console to this day. Massively underrated, drastically overlooked.

[Iivaitte]

I think one of the biggest failures of the WiiU was the marketing. I didnt know it wasnt an accessory for the wii for almost a year.

[Vuldari]

The WiiU was like the Dreamcast. Quirky, Short Lived, but home to a Handfull of UNFORGETTABLE Games.

Xenoblade X, Bayonetta 2, Mario 3D World/Captain Toad, Breath of the Wild (and 2 Great Gamecube Zelda Ports), Mario Maker 1, Splatoon 1, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3 ... and More I've surely forgotten.

[baseyrface]

You guys made the wii u and 3ds era of Nintendo so much more enjoyable for me to experience while NM was running

[friendlynightmares]

The more I watch your videos the more I realize I have a lot in common with Krysta, especially when she mentioned her distaste for Ed Sheeran lol

[cactusloaf]

I remember when Reggie brought the Wii U on the Tonight Show and had to clarify to Jimmy that it's a new console, because Jimmy (who himself is into videogames) even thought it was an accessory for the Wii. Rough.

[RedSoxKal]

Our family plays the WiiU daily. It’s such a fun family experience with the wiimotes and nunchucks. Mic and cameras. And especially games that show different screen on the game pad vs the TV. I thought the Switch would up that experience, but they cut so many features. I hope the next console would return all those features back.

[mattcy]

Quickly being able to switch from playing on TV to playing on gamepad was amazing in a household with 1 tv. Also I got quite a bit of use out of the TV remote feature

[migilly]

I was there early in the morning at k-mart for my Wii U and I remember taking it home and hooking it up. It was an amazing time. Wii U was great.

[stevehintze]

Bought the Wii U (Windwaker edition) as a gift for myself when I moved the NYC. I was 27 at the time and the system, along with the 3DS helped revitalized my love for Nintendo and video games in general. I love the Wii U for that. I have since accumulated the full NA physical library.

[ryanschrafel]

I got my Wii U on Christmas day in 2012. Thankfully, none of the new games I got crashed like Kit’s copy of Nintendo Land. I transferred my Wii Virtual Console and WiiWare games to the Wii U with no problems that I can recall. I mainly use it as a Virtual Console machine now.

[THE_PLAGUEtte_]

We need a Saudi Arabian and Egyptian
/middle East pokemon region
I think that would be a lot of fun