SPOTLIGHT | Wii U - The Console that Couldn't Survive Loneliness

AS THE FINAL weeks draw near for the Wii U and 3DS eShop closure on March 27, I find myself going through my wish list of digital games I held off from purchasing in the last 10 years. But as the gaming industry is hit with recent news of the Wii U owners realising their system has bricked upon booting up, I found myself scrambling to check up on my Wii U to see if I was affected too. 

Fortunately, my Wii U is still in fine working condition. For now.

As reported from various outlets such as NintendoSoup, the cause of the issue is a NAND corruption problem that builds up over time, rendering the console unusable and even a factory reset unable to save it. The only solution is a softmod NAND backup, which is also complicated to execute. Essentially, after a long period of inactivity, booting up the Wii U now, you could be potentially welcomed by a bricked console.  

An error encountered by a user via Twitter.

This shouldn't come as a surprise though. In recent console generations, console death is not an uncommon occurrence in the industry, as newer technologies become more disposable.

Personally, the first red flag came with the original PlayStation, where we gamers had to flip the console upside down to ensure the lens was reading and loading up the game properly. 

By the seventh generation of consoles, issues like the red ring of death (RROD) on Xbox 360s and the yellow light of death (YLOD) on the original PlayStation 3 model became prevalent, making console ownership a frustrating experience. No amount of reballing the GPU or adding a bigger and stronger fan was able to remedy the issue. In contrast, older consoles like the Sega Genesis or the NES even after over three decades of use can still function with minimal issues at best, a testament to their durability. 

Unfortunately, I find it a sad disappointment for retro gamers such as myself, as we watch newer tech become increasingly disposable and short-lived. As the gaming industry evolved, so did the problems with our consoles. It felt as if with each new iteration of consoles, we are witnessing the slow and steady decline of the durability and lifespan of our beloved gaming systems. 

More recently, concerns about the PlayStation 5 overheating have surfaced, with rumours of literal metal liquid spilling out if the console is set up vertically for too long. Despite the issue turning out to be a case of lost in translation, these issues bring back bad memories of the frustrations of owning console gaming.

Despite these challenges, there is still hope as the retro gaming community continues to thrive and flourish when it comes to repairs and restoration efforts for their beloved consoles. There continues to be a market to restore old consoles and handhelds as finding replacement parts for power supplies, internal batteries, and even new controllers is still widely available with further improvements being made to the gaming experience.

Game Gears with dead capacitors can be replaced with power-efficient ones, special HD cables that enable you to play your Sega Genesis and Saturn on modern HD TV, wireless controllers for the NES are quite common now and even parts for replacing GBA SP batteries using fresh ones instead of relying on "new old" stocks.

For those whose console lenses have become irreparable, there are options to give new life to older systems. ODEs (optical drive emulators) are now available for consoles such as the Dreamcast, PlayStation 1 and 2, and Sega Saturn. And for those looking for new retro systems, the Retron 3 HD can play Sega Genesis, NES, and SNES games, though not without imperfections.

The retro gaming community shows no signs of slowing down. For example, the once-dreaded YLOD on the original PS3 can potentially be resolved by replacing the NEC/TOKIN capacitors with new ones. With continued efforts to restore and repair old systems, retro gaming remains a cherished pastime for many gamers and collectors alike.

While my three-time purchases of the Xbox 360 were enough for me to skip the few generations of the Xbox system, it hasn’t deterred me from wanting to own a Series X, a quite appealing feature of the system as it has backward compatibility with most of their older generation games.

Despite the availability of retro restorations and replacements, the Wii U's imminent demise is still a sad reality for those who have been collecting Wii U games and using the console as a Wii replacement. The prospect of getting repairs officially done by Nintendo is nonexistent as they no longer offer the service anymore and the same goes for repairs service locally. The best we can hope for is for the retrogaming community to pull through with a solution as YouTubers such as Voultar are stepping up to troubleshoot the issue.

What makes the slow death of the Wii U all the sadder is the fact that the system, despite its failure to capture the market as well as the Wii with approximately 13.5 million in lifetime sales compared to the latter’s 101 million units, is a system that is as underrated as the Gamecube. It’s like having a DS as a console sans the portability. It has backward compatibility with Wii games and offered a variety of gaming experiences from their latest game offering to GBA titles from the Virtual Console.

The Wii U is irreplaceable as a console as it offered a unique experience unlike any other, and its lonely death highlights the disposable nature of newer technologies in the gaming industry. — Geeks Republika