Simon’s Top Ten Worst Wii U Games

After four years the Wii U has attained a mixed library of many wonderful gems but also a wide variety of average or outright terrible games. After exploring the brighter side of the Wii U collection on multiple occasions, I felt it was time to dig though over one hundred different games on the Wii U to determine which games are the worst on the system. It needs to be noted that this list is made up of games that I have personally played and I have spent many hours digging through my personal library to find the games that are the worst in my eyes.

  1. Assassin’s Creed 3Assassin's Creed 3 second image

 

I have a mixed history with the Assassin’s Creed franchise, while I love a lot of the later games I don’t find that same appeal in the franchises earlier adventures. But for all that Ubisoft managed to do with the franchise up to this point in 2012, they somehow managed to seriously step down their game quality. Outside of a few rare moments which are pretty well executed such as the battle of Bunker Hill, Assassin’s Creed 3 fails to offer a meaningful game.

The narrative and characters all feel lifeless, whether you are playing as Haytham, Conner, or even Desmond there is no life or fun to any of these characters, and the narrative is simply tiresome. But much more notably was the poor world and mission design, in this game you never feel like an assassin, there is no improvisation or chance to even go off the main path. You decide to go off the set path and you are instantly desynchronised and this is not how you create a fun Assassin’s Creed game, and besides this the world was also pretty bland and is not somewhere that I ever want to come back to.

It is such a shame because the American Revolution does offer so much potential but this was unfulfilled. Come on Ubisoft you did so well with the era of pirates, Industrial Revolution, and sure even the Italian Renascence, what made you go so wrong here. I know you were sticking close to a lot of the historical points but this does not excuse the poor design choices.

  1. Disney Infinity 2.0

Disney infinity 2.02

Avalanche Studios, how on earth do you mess up the second game in the Disney Infinity franchise, and yet create a wonderful first and third installment. This makes no sense, but ultimately seems worse when you consider that this was supposed to be a game about Marvel’s greatest heroes. Yet when you step into this game you are met with a dull story campaign that had potential, a lifeless world, and far too much combat repetition.

In the first game you managed to create a wonderful adventure for the Incredibles, and yet with Marvel there just seemed to be no effort. In addition the toybox which was the main draw of the first game was made increasingly frustrating, it seemed far less user friendly then before and it really managed to ruin the longevity of this game.

  1. Avengers: Battle For Earth

Marvel Avengers Battle For Earth

I remember being excited to play this game, as fast as Avenger’s Battle for Earth arrived on the Wii U I picked up a copy excited for some fun with this particular Marvel action game. However after an hour with this game it was hard not to be disappointed, rather than offering players a fun and varied action game Ubisoft offered players a lifeless experience which clearly had the characters available but not quite the essence.

With only a handful of possible attacks and your character being restricted to only walking a small circle around the opponent Avengers: Battle for Earth failed to make for a fun experience.

  1. Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric

Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric

Sonic has had a rough run across the past fifteen years, and where some of the game typically deemed as “bad” can be fun, Sonic Boom is not. I picked up this game thinking that it surely could not be as bad as many people said, there was always a chance and yet once I played it I could see what people were talking about. Curiosity can be the worst thing when it comes to wanting to play a game, and Sonic Boom is something that needs to be steered away from.

In combination with Supergirl levels of cheesy dialogue and not in the enjoyable way, and some broken game design this game seriously made me question why I bothered to play video games. Yet this is not the worst game on the system, there is at least one good point but that does not redeem a whole game.

  1. Mario Tennis Ultra Smash

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash 1

Mario Tennis is a beloved franchise from the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy era and surely Nintendo had hoped to try to get people’s attention with a new installment. Unfortunately people just don’t care for the gimmicks of these games any longer, and its worse when Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was already pretty gimmicky.

This game relied on its new Mega Battle mode to grab attention and yet this mode felt unbalanced. In another instance this also felt like a less then basic Mario Tennis experience as it was just trying to get people’s attention with little of the magic that was so appealing to older fans.

  1. Rabbids Land

Rabbids Land

I have a soft spot for the Rabbids, there crazy antics from some of their minigame compilations have offered some decent fun. Yet this doesn’t change the fact that Rabbids Land is not exactly a thrilling experience.

This particular Rabbids game took inspiration from the Mario Party franchise but with a Rabbids twist. Players had to wander around a circular board trying to collect all the trophies to achieve victory, meanwhile they would have to play some less then fun minigames. I can’t even say victory was satisfying in this game, the Rabbids lacked their signature charm and this particular board game is just not a great party game.

  1. Sports Connection/ ESPN Sports Connection

Sports Connection gameplay

We all remember Wii Sports right? Sure you do and Sports Connection is no Wii Sports. There is no fun to these sports and there is definitely no long lasting appeal. The developer’s choice to use the gamepad as a crucial part of the game took most of the fun out of playing these sports. If you are looking for a good sports game on the Wii U get Wii Sports Club and stay well away from this game.

  1. Game Party Champions

Game Party Champions

I had a lot of love for Game Party 3 on the Wii, I failed to care for the actual minigames but fell for the trivia section. Game Party Champions does not include this but that is not why this game is bad, this is a series of activities that are better played in person then on the gamepad. Table Hockey is simply annoying but is also the shining example of the best game here. Everything about this game feels like a quick cash grab with bland minigames that simply try to force the gamepads touch screen to be used too little effect. There is no long time value here.

On this system there are far better minigame compilations available, such as Nintendo Land or many different offerings sown throughout the Nintendo eShop.

  1. Stone Shire

Stone Shire

There was once a time where Minecraft was not on the Wii U and during this dark time many developers would bring their clones to the system. While some of them are actually pretty fun, Stone Shire is truly awful. This game fails to understand the appeal of the Minecraft formula with its bland world design, pitiful world sizes, and inability to actually create a world.

Worse still is that the game breaks after around twenty minutes of play. If you have failed to save your progress you lose it and have to start again which is really annoying. This game is bad because the developers have not seemed to have taken the care to build a quality game, and instead this feels like a quick cash grab that people can easily fall for through simple morbid curiosity.

  1. Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival

Animal Crossing amiibo Festival 2

There is no nice way to put this, Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is just terrible. Nintendo’s quick cash grab to try and sell amiibo figures offers players a bland version of Mario Party that features a nice world but with no other good quality. The board game aspect is lifeless as you are forced to spend around thirty turns traveling around a board to get the most happy points.

This could have been alright but they failed to even offer what makes Mario Party fun, proper competition, truly random elements, and minigames. I literally fall asleep everytime I have to play this it is that boring, come on Nintendo this could have been fun but there was a clear focus on amiibo money over a fun game.

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