12 Best Wii U Ports

Image & Form released SteamWorld Dig on the 3DS on 7 August 2013, and the Wii U version followed on 28 August 2014. You play Rusty, a miner with a pickaxe. You dig into the mines under Tumbleton, an old Western town, and the tunnels are different on every playthrough. Dying costs you a repair fee, but your loot stays where you fell. If you get stuck, you can buy ladders in the shop at the surface to climb out of trouble.

Selling what you dig up buys better tools, so each trip goes a little deeper. Its successor, SteamWorld Heist, also reached the Wii U, a few months after it started on the 3DS in December 2015. Players call it a great game to explore.

Batman: Arkham City came out on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in October 2011. WB Games Montréal made the Wii U version, Armored Edition, which came out on November 18, 2012, alongside the console's launch in North America, with all the downloadable content and a new Battle Armored Tech mode. It also adds new Armored Suits for both Batman and Catwoman. The GamePad becomes the wrist-mounted Batcomputer, where you pick a gadget and track clues on the touch screen.

Every gadget was reworked for the GamePad, and the Batarang is more accurate for it. The new armored mode builds up kinetic energy as you fight, so you hit harder once you switch it on. Players say it uses the GamePad better than most games on the system.

Francisco Téllez de Meneses released Unepic on Windows on September 30, 2011, and the Wii U got it on January 16, 2014, almost two years before any other console. Unepic is a role-playing platformer with Metroidvania roots, and it has been translated into over 10 languages. One review said it looks like a prototypical NES Metroidvania right from the off. Merchants throughout the game believe you are a possessed monster.

Its hero, Daniel, is an ordinary gamer from today who wakes up in a medieval fantasy and copes about as well as you would. Challenges earn points you can spend on powerful gear such as laser guns. Players call it a great old-school action RPG.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out on August 23, 2011. The Director's Cut followed in October 2013 on the original platforms and the Wii U, with reworked boss fights and about eight hours of developer commentary. It also adds a 45 minute Making Of video and an improved visual engine.

It is the third game in the series and a prequel to the original Deus Ex. Conversation choices change how some events play out, so the story bends around what you say. You spend Praxis Kits to customize your character's abilities, and the quests play out across several city hubs. Players call the Wii U version the best one.

Over the Moon released The Fall on computers on May 30, 2014, and the Wii U version came out through the eShop on August 26, 2014. It was partly crowdfunded on Kickstarter. You play the AI of a combat suit whose pilot is unresponsive and maybe dead. You have crash landed on an unknown planet and need help for your pilot.

It borrows from Metroid and the Monkey Island games, with Limbo as its visual inspiration. Most of the play is object-matching puzzles in the style of classic adventure games, broken up by jumping puzzles and combat. Giant Bomb gave it the Best Story in its 2014 Game of the Year awards. Players praise the story and wish there were more of it.

Criterion's Need for Speed: Most Wanted came out on PC in October 2012, and Most Wanted U reached the Wii U in March 2013. Its Co-Driver mode lets one player drive while another uses the GamePad. That partner gets an interactive map and can distract the pursuing cops or switch night to day. Autolog 2 tracks your best race times and compares them with your friends.

It includes the Ultimate Speed Pack expansion, and the whole game can be played on the GamePad alone with the TV off. The touch screen lets you swap cars and track milestones on the fly. Players call it fun, Co-Driver mode included.

Namco Bandai released Tank! Tank! Tank! in arcades in 2009, and it came to the Wii U in 2012 as a launch game in North America. Each player's photo, taken with a camera the game calls the NamCam, marks their tank. You fight opponents and mechanical kaiju, alone or with up to three friends. It was announced as a launch title for North America on November 18, 2012, then reached Europe on November 30 and Japan on December 26.

Critics praised its concept and graphical style. Nothing says friendship like your own face on a tank. Players call it a party game, best with friends or younger siblings.

Thomas Happ released Axiom Verge on the PS4 on March 31, 2015 and composed its music himself. Happ was a Petroglyph Games engineer who had worked on NFL Street and the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series. The gameplay borrows from Metroid, Contra, Blaster Master and Bionic Commando. After a lab accident, a scientist awakens on an alien world and has to break the game itself with glitches to get through.

The Wii U version came out on September 1, 2016, and Limited Run Games sold a physical edition on March 29, 2019. Giant Bomb's reviewer gave the PS4 version a perfect score. Players who know several versions pick this one, because the map sits on the GamePad.

Ubisoft delayed Watch Dogs into 2014 and released it on May 27, 2014, set in a Chicago where one computer network connects everyone and everything. You use the city as your weapon on a personal mission to inflict your own brand of justice.

You play grey hat hacker Aiden Pearce, who uses his smartphone to control trains and traffic lights. That network, called ctOS, controls almost all of the city's technology, including key data on all of the city's residents. The Wii U version followed on November 18 in North America, six months after the others. The game has shipped over 10 million copies across every version. Players call it a good game rather than a great one.

Vigil Games released Darksiders II on Windows and the other consoles in August 2012, and it came to the Wii U as a launch game that November, with changes for the GamePad. Critics scored the Wii U version a little higher than the others. You play Death, the most feared of the Four Horsemen.

You customize him with armor sets and skill trees as you explore a vast open world full of side quests. Death is nimble and agile, capable of acrobatic feats, and the world has the unique style of artist Joe Mad. Players recommend it to anyone who likes Zelda. Death, it turns out, has good taste.

Monster Hunter Tri came out on the Wii in Japan in 2009 and reached North America on April 20, 2010. Capcom's expanded version, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, came out on the 3DS and the Wii U, and players with both can carry their character back and forth. It has over 200 quests.

Wii U players can also hunt with 3DS players over a local wireless connection. The Wii U online servers kept running until Nintendo Network shut down in 2024. Up to 4 players can venture out on new quests together, and the Wii U version has revised HD graphics. Players remember the online hunts most fondly.

PlatinumGames' Bayonetta came out on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Japan in October 2009 and in the West in January 2010. The Wii U version arrived in September 2014, and the first prints of Bayonetta 2 included it. It adds Nintendo costumes and touch controls, so you can dress her as Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Link or Samus Aran.

She is a witch who lost her memory after sleeping at the bottom of a lake for 500 years, and dodging at the last moment slows down time. She uses Wicked Weaves to summon Infernal Demons and inflicts Torture Attacks on her enemies. Players call the Wii U release the one to get, with Bayonetta 2 alongside it.