I have two kids. The youngest is my son, who is now almost four. Not long after his second birthday, he was growing aware enough to see that everyone else in the house was playing video games, and he wanted in on that action. My PC was strictly out of bounds, the PS4 and Xbox One were too complicated for his little hands, Android’s tablet interface wasn’t compatible with stubby fingers and my daughter’s 2DS was very much hers and nobody else’s.
Wanting to play games and unable to do so on most of the house’s main platforms, he started wandering out to the TV in the family room to play what he still to this day calls “The Big Nintendo” (the honour of “The Little Nintendo” going to what’s now a shared 2DS).
I was more than happy to let him play on it because a) I am cool with my kids playing video games, and b) it’s not like I was ever using the Wii U. And if anyone else wanted to use the TV it was plugged into, he could just use the controller’s screen. From my perspective, it was a pairing made of convenience, a blip on my parental radar.
When I want to play a game with 3 friends that takes no skill or experience or effort even if we’ve been drinking, I fire up the Wii U. If I want to level up, gain skills and focus for a few hours, I play on the Xbox. The Wii is great for families. I love the Wii and the Wii U. I’m afraid the switch is too single-player but we’ll see when I pick one up this Fall.
I agree that the Wii had a bad reputation because people who recommend video games for a living never recommended the Wii. Why would they. The Frame Rate, Resolution and Open World wars took place on Consoles and PCs.