Wii U Game Upgrades: Which Two Huge Nintendo Games Are Getting Upgrades?

It seems the Wii and Wii U platform has been changing rapidly lately, and Wii U games are no exception to this rule, either. With downloadable content becoming such a popular form of upgrading and adding to game features, it’s no big surprise that the Wii U is offering changes to two of its most recognizable games, Super Mario Maker and Splatoon. Tom Phillips of Euro Gamer highlighted some of the cool new stuff we can expect to see in Wii U’s Super Mario Maker games starting today.

“Mario Maker gains a half dozen new items, including screen-filling Skewers (shake a Thwomp to make one appear) and Keys, allowing you to create more complicated levels (shake a P-Switch to place a Key instead).”

It may seem as if the entire Super Mario saga has been done to death, with countless spin-offs and sequels being made, but Super Mario Maker is something entirely unique from the creators of the Wii. The game allows players to create their own levels, as well as playing those created by fellow gamers. The fact that Maker is not focused on competition will also solve the complaints of many new gamers who dislike being at a huge disadvantage against more experienced players.

Wii U’s game Splatoon is also getting some sweet upgrades. As Gamasutra noted, Splatoon has so far been updated with new features including a total of 74 usable weapons and 16 playable maps, and the free Wii U updates are likely to keep coming. The 3rd-Person Action Shooter came out for Wii U in May of last year, and has been changing quickly ever since. Super Mario Maker hit store shelves this past September, and has since been honored with the Game Award for Best Family Game.

Maker alone seems to be fertile ground for an almost unlimited number of updates and new features given that it is all about encouraging players to be creative. With such a wide-open world to play and create in, it’s hard to imagine Nintendo and the Wii U running out of possibilities in the near future. However, The Inquisitr reported that the release of Nintendo’s new NX gaming console could cannibalize sales of the Wii U and Nintendo DS, so it may be that Nintendo will want to focus more on the NX versions of their games over the Wii U.

Nintendo and the Wii U have not embraced the changing game market as easily as it may seem; it took the company several years after the rise of smartphones to release their first mobile game, entitled Miitomo, and it’s fairly clear the company has a habit of redoing old tricks in a new way. Their Pokèmon and Super Mario franchises are still going strong some 20 odd years later, with new versions and twists being invented for the Wii U and Gameboy Advance, respectively.

The Wii U also hosts other reinvented games such as Mario Cart 8 (pronounced “Infinity”), Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and Mario Party 10. These Wii U games have gotten overhauls over the years as well, taking their cues from classic N64 games and adding in things such as new characters, stages, and enemies to make them feel new for the Wii U. Of course, the graphics have also gotten better over the years, and the Wii U now offers better graphics and a more “realistic” feel to its games.

The Wii U’s new improvements also tap into the popularity of online play. The Splatoon update for Wii U offers a new mode called Team Matchmaking, which according to Nintendo’s website offers players the chances to compete in ranked team battles online. There are also sub-options of this mode, including a mode that offers private battles with friends, and another where one must capture a unit called “The Rainmaker” that explodes ink all over the enemy’s base.

[Image Via BagoGames, Flickr.com, CC BY 2.0]