Dear Notch: You’re dead wrong about Wii U

Dear Notch,

You are dead wrong about the Wii U.

Signed,

Someone who spends a lot of time with Nintendo’s latest.

Minecraft is huge, and there is no point denying it. Many rumors about whether or not famed developer Notch (Markus Persson) would bring his epic title to Wii U and 3DS have popped up over time, including a few hints dropped by Nintendo themselves. I think that today, as things stand, it is safe to say that we will never see it.

Here is what Notch tweeted out yesterday:

Something is flashing in my room, desperately begging me to charge it. Turns out it was my Wii U pad, so I put a pillow on top of it.

— Markus Persson (@notch) August 14, 2014

Don’t worry Nintendo fans, I love both games for the Wii U, and I’m really looking forward to the third one in 2015!

— Markus Persson (@notch) August 14, 2014

Two games. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest he is referring to Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8. Yes, those are two games, two fantastic games – but Notch can’t really think that’s all that’s worth playing on the console. There are a dozen top quality AAA titles available at retail and dozens more in the e-shop.

The Wii U is a struggling system – despite a recent resurgence – and the butt of everybody’s joke, but one has to wonder: what happens if the Wii U does eventually ‘blow up.’ Unlikely, sure, but there were developers who said the PS3 was dead in the water only a few years ago, and look what happened there. The Wii U isn’t at optimal health, but to get to a point where the current, perhaps future, version of Minecraft would make money may not be that far off. I seriously doubt, however, that Nintendo blindly makes that plunge, especially now.

But lets get back to the tweet. Two games. There are few very one dimensional gamers out there that stick to one, and only one, genre of games. Based on his comments and going with my assumption of what games he actually enjoyed, the Wii U has to have more than just two games that he would enjoy.

For fun, I looked up the Metacritic score for some of Nintendo’s key Wii U titles. I’ve listed them below:

Mario Kart 8 – Critical Score: 88 User Score – 9.1

Shovel Knight – Critical Score: 88 User Score – 9.0

Pikmin 3 – Critical Score: 87 User Score – 8.6

Super Mario 3D World – Critical Score – 93 User Score – 9.0

Rayman Legends – Critical Score – 9.2 (Slightly higher than version on other consoles) User Score – 8.6 

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – Critic Score – 83 User Score – 8.9

Lego City Undercover – Critical Score – 80 User Score – 8.3

These scores are averages of most major media outlets and any user who wishes to put in their two cents. Even though someone may not enjoy all these games, making a statement that the Wii U only has two games is ridiculous. I’d be embarrassed if I were Notch. It was a low joke, and one that’ll only appeal to people already certain, excited even, for Nintendo’s demise. And if that’s how you get your kicks, maybe you shouldn’t call yourself a gamer.