Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

‘Lego City Undercover’ highlights another problem for the Wii U

Anthony John Agnello
By
Lego City
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Nintendo Wii U, in both its $300 Basic Set and $350 Deluxe Set flavors, has always been light on memory. The Basic Set touts 8GB of internal flash memory storage on the box, but that’s before the console’s firmware is installed. Doing so leaves Wii U owners with just a measly 3GB of memory to save games on without the use of an external hard drive. That’s not even enough room to download the system’s signature title, NintendoLand. This is likely why the majority of Wii Us sold are the heftier Deluxe Set. Nintendo is running into problems with its digital distribution business even on that model, though. New games like Lego City Undercover can’t be downloaded to the console at all.

If anyone wants to buy the digital version of Lego City Undercover, they’ll need an external hard drive as well. The official website of the game actually includes a link titled “Learn how to download.”

Recommended Videos

“An external hard drive is required to download this software,” reads the message, “Visit support.nintendo.com for information about storage options.”

Related

While Nintendo has yet to comment officially on the restriction, the reason why Lego City Undercover can’t be downloaded is that game clocks in at an impressive 22GB on the game disc. The Deluxe Set Wii U only has 25GB of available memory after downloading the system firmware.

The Nintendo Wii U has been plagued by basic functionality problems since the console released in November. Downloading and installing the necessary system firmware on Nintendo Wii U after purchasing it can take hours, and consoles sold today months after release still require that installation. Even after that though, the Wii U’s operating speed is crushingly slow, a problem severe enough that company president Satoru Iwata has had to publicly apologize for.

Long loading times affect the console’s exclusive software as well. Lego City Undercover is an excellent game according to early reviews, but as noted in Digital Trends’ review, the game is plagued by mid-game loading that can last anywhere from 40 seconds to two minutes.

Nintendo introduced only slight modifications to the Wii over the past seven years, adding in asked for functionality like the ability to load Virtual Console games from an SD card. Even the new firmware expected this spring that will improve loading times, the company will need to release a new model with significantly expanded memory if it expects its digital sales initiative to be a success.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Anthony John Agnello
Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Latest Nintendo Direct ushers in an age of Wii nostalgia
The player throws a bowling ball in Nintendo Switch Sports.

If 2021 was the year of the Game Boy Advance renaissance, then 2022 is the year of the Wii. At this point, the Nintendo Switch has outsold the Wii, but it still doesn’t feel like the Switch is as ubiquitous with casual gamers as the Wii was. Meanwhile, the Wii is getting just old enough that it’s starting to feel nostalgic and retro.
If Nintendo wants to continue to grow the Switch’s userbase, these yearnful Wii fans need to be its next target. Perhaps that’s why the latest Nintendo Direct felt like a love letter to the Wii era by featuring games like Nintendo Switch Sports, Mario Strikers: Battle League, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. 
Nintendo Direct - 2.9.2022
Let’s go bowling
At this point, most hardcore gaming fans who want a Nintendo Switch likely already own one. While those 100+ million players will continue to buy new video games, Nintendo still wants to sell 23 million more units this year alone. If it’s going to accomplish that, it needs to entice people who might not usually play video games or spend hundreds of dollars on a new system. 
Nintendo was the most successful at doing this during the Wii era but moved away from this casual focus after the Wii U flopped. Focusing on its hardcore fans is what made the Nintendo Switch a runaway success right at launch, but we’re now almost five years in, and Nintendo is looking to maintain a growing audience. 
Making the Nintendo Switch even more appealing to casuals and non-gamers seems to be the company’s next goal. Nintendo Switch Sports recapturing some of that Wii magic is the spearhead of this strategy.
Its predecessor Wii Sports is one of the most successful games of all time. Even people who’ve never played a video game might remember the game from the Wii’s heyday. Nintendo wants a Switch in every nursing home, school, or daycare if it isn’t all ready, and first-party titles like Nintendo Switch Sports make that a possibility.
If the game catches on with casual gamers and Nintendo makes it a bundled Switch game, there’s a chance that this could be the Switch’s next Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Animal Crossing: New Horizons from a sales perspective.

Wii Remember
Believe it or not, the Wii is over 15 years old. Young kids who played games on the Wii with their parents are now adults and likely have nostalgia for those experiences. Some may even consider it to be a retro console at this point. As such, it’s not surprising that Nintendo and other companies would dip back into the well of Wii-era IPs. It started with the Skyward Sword remaster last year, but several Wii-related announcements were in this Nintendo Direct too, which made it a real trip for those of us that grew up with these games on Wii.
Mario Strikers’ last great outing was on the Wii, and the sports spin-off series has been dormant for just long enough to where Nintendo fans are delighted that it’s making a grand return. Even Nintendo Switch Sports will trigger nostalgia for the millions of people who enjoyed it over 15 years ago.
Third parties are even taking notice. Aspyr decided to specifically remaster the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which is an odd choice considering that a more polished version of the game existed for Xbox 360 and PS3. Still, the Switch is the only console capable of preserving that Wii experience, and Aspyr ensures that the Wii port doesn’t get lost to time. For players who enjoyed the Wii but don’t want to dig out their system, sensor bar, and some Wii Remotes, releases like this will allow them to satiate their nostalgia. While games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 indicate that Nintendo isn’t abandoning its hardcore audience, it’s clear that the casual market is the Switch’s next great frontier. Many of the games featured in the February 9 Direct capitalize on a new wave of nostalgia for the Wii. Embracing that market and those causal players with these games might be the key to the Nintendo Switch’s continued success. 

Read more
The best Wii U games of all time

The Wii U era wasn’t the most commercially successful for Nintendo, with the system shipping only 13.5 million units over the course of its life. Despite the hardware being a commercial failure, the Wii U featured some of the best games ever released on a Nintendo platform.

In this guide to the best Wii U games, we’re going to highlight our favorites. Although there are still a handful of games that you can only play on the Wii U, many of the top games from the console have been ported to Switch (read our best Nintendo Switch games roundup for more on that). Even so, if you have a Wii U gathering dust, these games will breathe new life into it.

Read more
Super Mario 3D World made it to Switch, but other Wii U games are still stranded
Wii U Composite

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury comes to Nintendo Switch this weekend giving the console another excellent first-party game. It’s the latest in a line of Wii U titles to receive a Switch port in the past few years, salvaging the best of the ill-fated two-screen system’s surprisingly strong library.

Even with games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Pikmin 3 making the jump to Switch, there’s a handful of strong Wii U games that haven’t -- and probably never will. That’s creating a generational dead zone that may leave games that dared to take advantage of the console’s bold concept forever trapped on the Wii U.

Read more