The Wii U was a Nintendo console, so most people remember it for bright colours and plumbers. Horror had a harder time there. The shelf was short, and a lot of the big scary games of the day skipped the system entirely. What it did get had a trick nobody else could copy: a second screen in your hands, which is a great place to put a map, an inventory or a camera while something nasty walks toward you on the TV.
Nintendo itself paid for one of the creepiest games on the list, and Capcom brought a Resident Evil over in HD. The eShop filled in the rest with smaller games, some of them very good. Here are the 7 best Wii U horror games.
7. Slender: The Arrival (2013)
Slender: The Arrival is based on the Slender Man, a creepypasta character created by Eric Knudsen, and it is a sequel to Slender: The Eight Pages, which was released as freeware in August 2012. The creators of Marble Hornets wrote the script. You are equipped only with a flashlight, and you explore abandoned locations and complete objectives while avoiding the Slender Man and his proxies. It came out on Windows and OS X in March 2013 before the console ports followed.
Critics liked its atmosphere and its jump scares, and they also found it short and repetitive. Players who own it have a simpler review. In the words of one fan, this is the game to play "If you want to scream so loud your neighbors think you're a mouse caught in a trap".
6. How to Survive (2013)
How to Survive is a zombie game made by French studio Eko Software and published by 505 Games, and it reached the Wii U's eShop in June 2014. You are shipwrecked on one of four zombie-infested islands, seen from a top-down view, and the job is to gather materials, craft weapons and get off the island alive. Your guide is Kovac, a mysterious man in full armor who is writing his own zombie survival guide and is happy to play mentor.
It is the lightest game here, closer to an action game with crafting than to anything that keeps you up at night. Story and challenge modes can both be played with up to two players, which makes it the easy pick for a couch night with a friend. It sits this low because fewer players bring it up than anything above it.
5. Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut (2012)
Lone Survivor is a survival horror game by Superflat Games that started life as a Flash game for Windows and OS X in 2012. Curve Studios put out the Director's Cut, and in October 2014 it was also made available for the Wii U. You play a man in a surgical mask, the isolated survivor of an infection that has turned his city into shambling mutants. The 2D pixel art looks cute until you realize the hero is following directions from his own hallucinations.
Everything is a resource here. The flashlight drains batteries, and sleeping prevents madness and is also required to save the game. Pills keep you awake, but they hurt your mind even more. Players who dig through the eShop's smaller games keep putting it on their lists of must-plays.
4. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (2013)
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct came out for the PlayStation 3, Wii U, Windows and Xbox 360 in March 2013, and it is built on the AMC show. You play the crossbow-wielding survivor Daryl Dixon from a first-person perspective, brought to life by TV series star Norman Reedus, with Michael Rooker as his brother Merle. You can fight the walkers or sneak past them, and sneaking is usually the smarter call.
Critics were not kind. The game received generally negative reviews from critics, mostly for its graphics and its controls. Players are harsher still, and plenty of them tell new Wii U owners to steer clear. It still made the list on the strength of the fans who enjoy it anyway. If you love the show and can forgive a rough game, Daryl's crossbow is right here.
3. Resident Evil: Revelations (2012)
Revelations started on the 3DS, and a high-definition version came to the Wii U and the other home consoles in 2013. Capcom built it around a cruise ship, picked for its claustrophobic corridors and its isolation in the middle of the ocean, and it brings back Jill and Chris for a story told as a series of episodes. Critics praised its spooky setting and its sound direction, and the HD version sold more than two million copies across all platforms.
It was made to bring the series back to survival horror after the survival action of Resident Evil 5, and the slow, dark ship does exactly that. Players rate it as one of the best Resident Evil games of its time, and it is still the safest pick on this list for anyone raised on the classics.
2. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (2014)
Maiden of Black Water is the fifth main entry in the Fatal Frame series, published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It was released in Japan in September 2014 and worldwide in October 2015. As in the older games, you fight hostile ghosts by taking photographs with the Camera Obscura, which is directly controlled using the Wii U gamepad. Water is the new twist. You need to keep dry, a mechanic initially inspired by the sweating mechanic from Dead or Alive 5, of all places.
The team watched a lot of scary online videos while making it, and it shows. In the West it was a download only, and fans who wanted a box on the shelf still grumble about that. Critics loved its use of the gamepad and its dark atmosphere, and it is the purest ghost story on this list.
1. ZombiU (2012)
ZombiU was a Wii U launch title in November 2012, and it exists because Ubisoft was approached by Nintendo to develop a mature game for the Wii U. It began as Killer Freaks from Outer Space, a fast shooter with small, agile monsters, and was rebuilt as a slow zombie game once the team saw that the GamePad suited a slower pace. It is set in London during an outbreak, and when you die, you stay dead. You wake up as a different survivor, and you can track down your old, infected character to recover their equipment.
Critics praised its emphasis on survival horror and its permadeath system, though they did not love the glitches and load times. Players remember the GamePad most. You look down to dig through your bag while the room keeps moving on the TV, and that small panic is why fans call it the console's best use of the controller.
Which one to play
There you have it, the whole list of the best Wii U horror games. It is a short shelf, but the top of it holds up against horror on any console of its day.
If you are not sure where to start, play ZombiU. Nobody else had a GamePad, and this game is built around it. Fans of the classic Resident Evils should go to Revelations next, and anyone who loves ghosts more than zombies wants Fatal Frame. If you like your horror small and strange, Lone Survivor is the hidden pick. For two players on one couch, How to Survive is the one.
