10 Wii U games to buy before Nintendo shuts down the eShop

Nintendo has something of a troubled history with game preservation, and buying older games from the Big N is about to become even more difficult. In March 2023, Nintendo will shut down the 3DS and Wii U eShops, making it impossible to buy digital games for those two consoles. You’ll still be able to redownload content you already own, and you can always buy physical copies. But if you want to build your digital collection, your window of opportunity to do so is rapidly closing.

Unlike the 3DS, the Wii U doesn’t have that many killer exclusive titles. Some of its best games, such as Bayonetta 2 and Hyrule Warriors, made their way to the Switch, and we expect that some more ports may follow over the next few years. Still, if you have a Wii U, you should consider grabbing these titles while you still can. They’re not all world-class games, but some of them, you simply can’t find anywhere else.

Game & Wario

Game & Wario is another one of those “hedge your bets” titles. It’s not the best game in the WarioWare series, but it will probably never get a re-release on another system. That’s because each one of the 16 minigames requires the idiosyncratic Wii U GamePad to run properly. The game was initially supposed to be a preinstalled tech demo, but Nintendo reworked it into a full release instead, which probably explains a lot about the title’s strengths and weaknesses. If nothing else, it’s a great way to showcase what makes the Wii U unique, which will be a great conversation starter a few years down the line. — Marshall Honorof