The Wii U First Birthday Vote Thread

Today the Wii U celebrates its first birthday in Europe and Australia. What a year it's been - or, if you know the narrative that is being pushed in certain quarters of the Internet, not a year it's been. The machine has been starved of games, particularly system sellers, and the whole thing means Nintendo is doomed.
 
We know better.
 
The vote is now open and will remain open until midday on Saturday 14th December. PM me with a vote of up to ten Wii U games. Your tenth vote will get 1 point, the ninth game will get 2 points and so on, with ten points for your top-rated game. Feel free to add comments about the games you're voting for; as ever, the best ones will get used in results posts. After the fortnight of voting, we count down to the official GNamer Forum endorsed Best Wii U game of its first year!
 
You can also make Dishonourable Mentions (this is optional): talk about Wii U games that really stank or wound you up, or both, or worse.
 
Rules
 
1) No Virtual Console games. Of any description.
2) All other Wii U eShop games are allowed (e.g. Little Inferno, Trine 2, Cloudberry Kingdom etc).
3) All boxed Wii U releases are eligible, provided they were released in the Wii U's first year in your territory.
4) You can vote for a multi-platform release that you exclusively played on another system if you want. Please indicate in your comment on the game which machine you played it on the most! If the game ends up in the top ten, I will note how many people played it on another system.

What about eShop games, are they allowed?

Ouch a top 10, I'm not sure I've played 10 Wii U games yet. I'll give it my best though!

Axis1500 wrote:

What about eShop games, are they allowed?

Yes! I will edit the first post to confirm this. My apologies for not having done so earlier!

Urk, I was really hoping that we could vote for EB. Maybe it could be an exception to the VC rule, seeing as it's its first release in the UK and all? Of course, I defer to the OP's judgement...

I'd include both NSLU (on boxed copy grounds) and ports, regardless of playtime. If you can say something about the game and something about the Wii U version, that's good enough for me!

I'll sticky this come the start of November.

Using my time machine, natch.

Alternatively, you can all be clever people and make a guess at which month I actually meant. Don't worry, I believe in you.

Balladeer wrote:

Alternatively, you can all be clever people and make a guess at which month I actually meant.  Don't worry, I believe in you.

November 2014, so we can retrospectively look at our rankings come the Wii U's second birthday?

Sorry, ZJ, the people have spoken!  

Another question. Will the recently released 3D World count or is it "Too Soon"?

I'll be voting just for games I've played on Wii U anyway although see no reason a game can't be included if you've played it on another console and I'd say Luigi U should be included.

Axis1500 wrote:

Another question. Will the recently released 3D World count or is it "Too Soon"?

I'd include it if I've played a substantial amount of it by the time voting opens.

Jolly Smurf wrote:

I'll be voting just for games I've played on Wii U anyway although see no reason a game can't be included if you've played it on another console and I'd say Luigi U should be included.

You mean there are other consoles? *faints*

I have a top 5 marked down so far & I have to say the games are top notch for a console that's only coming up to being a year old.

Balladeer wrote:

Urk, I was really hoping that we could vote for EB.  Maybe it could be an exception to the VC rule, seeing as it's its first release in the UK and all?  Of course, I defer to the OP's judgement...

I will put EarthBound in the game eligibility discussion, but my personal opinion would be to leave it out of the running. I'd feel bad for the Wii U if one of its top ten games turned out to be a release of an 18-year-old SNES game.

Axis1500 wrote:

Another question. Will the recently released 3D World count or is it "Too Soon"?

As the voting opens on 30th November, 3D World will have been out for a day, so it will count and you can vote for it. As Dusty says, feel free to include it if you've played a good chunk of it (as the voting window is a fortnight, the time could be used to play the game to see if it's any good  ). Anything released after 30 November 2013 will not be eligible.

Regarding the query about ports and what system you played them on in reality... who cares? We're not the bloody NSA or anything; we don't know what system you've played things on. Unless you know that the WiiU version is significantly more different from the other version you did play, then you can vote for it if you want.

Sorry, I don't know why that touched a nerve

ZeroJones wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Urk, I was really hoping that we could vote for EB.  Maybe it could be an exception to the VC rule, seeing as it's its first release in the UK and all?  Of course, I defer to the OP's judgement...

I will put EarthBound in the game eligibility discussion, but my personal opinion would be to leave it out of the running. I'd feel bad for the Wii U if one of its top ten games turned out to be a release of an 18-year-old SNES game.

Understandable. Honestly, I just want to take part, and I haven't played much on the Wii U. I missed out on Pikmin 3 and won't have SM3DW until December. So while I would press for EB to be included for the reason I gave, there are selfish reasons behind it too!

I understand that Earthbound is a new experience for many of the users of this forum and that it was one they enjoyed very much, but Super Castlevania IV and Super Metroid were exactly the same for myself, and they belong nowhere near this thread. Would it become a SNES top ten if we let Virtual Console games in? There's a chance.

As an owner of both, I think NSMBU and Luigi U are different enough to be separated.

Agreeing with Jimbob about the matter of ports, but it'd be a bit mince if someone was to pipe in and, say, include Mass Effect 3 as it "was great on PlayStation 3 when I played it in 2011".

I think there's scope for Dishonourable Mentions too.

I think ported games should be allowed given they are part of the Wii U's game library after all in the here and now.

Wouldn't say Earthbound should, though, since that's distinctly a SNES game (it's being emulated by the Wii U itself after all), as much as I understand the logic for including it.

I'm looking forward to voting, it'll be strangely refreshing looking back especially at Wii U's launch lineup at a time when two new consoles are launching.

I would allow earth bound,

No were not saying if ports should be in or not Fronk but someone like me played Mass Effect 3 on 360 for 30+hrs and it's one of the best games ever. I've played on Wii U for about 1hr and it's pretty much the same, so in my opinion it's arguably one of the best games on the Wii U.

But I've barely played it on Wii U and not really a reason why I own a Wii U, I own a Wii U for Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101 etc.

I kinda want two votes so someone who's only ever owned a Wii and not a PS360, I'd be telling them to get Mass Effect 3, Batman Arkham City but for someone who's has/had a PS360, I'd be telling them to get Pikmin 3, LEGO City.

Also I don't think Mario 3D World's should be in there, okay it comes out on it's birthday but to me were all going to be playing it year 2 of Wii U not year one.

Also what about Wind Waker HD, is it

Don't over-complicate or overthink it.

Boxed Wii U games released before or on 30th November 2013 - aye
eShop downloadables released before or on 30th November 2013 - aye
Virtual Console games - nut

And let's not even get on the topic of apps like Wii Street U. Doesn't need discussed.

Done.

Okay looking I've got 12 at the moment with only Mario 3D World to more likely going in, I've got no eShop game's. Got a few dishonorable mentions though.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Don't over-complicate or overthink it.

Boxed Wii U games released before or on 30th November 2013 - aye
eShop downloadables released before or on 30th November 2013 - aye
Virtual Console games - nut

And let's not even get on the topic of apps like Wii Street U. Doesn't need discussed.

Done.

But Wii Street U is my favourite

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I understand that Earthbound is a new experience for many of the users of this forum and that it was one they enjoyed very much, but Super Castlevania IV and Super Metroid were exactly the same for myself, and they belong nowhere near this thread. Would it become a SNES top ten if we let Virtual Console games in? There's a chance.

I think there's a big difference between "first time I've played something" and "first time a UK version of something has been available", though. Nor do I think there's any chance of it turning into a SNES top ten if only one SNES game is allowed. Are there any other Wii U VC games that fit this criterion?

I understand that there are good arguments for keeping EB out (simplicity for one), but I don't agree with this one.

I don't own a Wii U, so I won't be able to participate. I would like to chime in on the Earthbound debate though. I don't think it should be included in a vote like this - we didn't allow Virtual Console releases to be voted for in the Wii thread, so why should that be any different here? The original Sin and Punishment was released for the first time through Virtual Console, but we disregarded it because it was an N64 game. Earthbound is a SNES game, not a Wii U game.