Updated February 18, 2021, by Chris Birsner: There is no question that the Nintendo Switch has been a massive success for the beloved company. Since the console’s release in March of 2017, there has been an estimate of 79.87 million units sold worldwide. The system was a nice bounce-back for Nintendo after the utter failure of the Wii U.
The Switch has topped a lot of what the Wii U was able to offer, but what about the system before? The Wii was also widely successful and made an innovative splash in a growing industry. With 101.63 consoles sold worldwide during its lifetime, the Wii is the perfect comparison for the Switch. They are both excellent because they each have features that could top the other.
12 Wii: Longer-Lasting Controllers
The Nintendo Switch has had one major problem since it arrived 3 and a half years ago. Its main controllers, the Joy-Cons, suffer from a glitch in which a Joy-Con eventually starts to register an input even when the player isn’t touching anything. This is one of the main reasons the Wii Remote is a better controller. Putting that aside, though, the Wii Remote is still a better controller because of its size and comfortability. Replacing the batteries and needing attachable accessories are not fun, but the remotes had a longer lifespan than the Joy-Cons.
11 Switch: The Choice Between Handheld & Television
Nintendo will always have some sort of gimmick attached to their products. These can be very hit or miss for the company, which has a history of both success and failure. The Nintendo Switch may be their best gimmick to date. Being able to play the Switch on-the-go, then putting it in a dock to play it on TV gives players so much flexibility in how they play games. In addition, attaching and detaching the Joy-Cons to the Switch is satisfying, especially with the iconic clicking noise Nintendo has embraced in Switch marketing.
10 Wii: A Lot More Toys To Play With
While it may have been frustrating to deal with all the different Wii accessories, that doesn’t mean there weren’t some that were fun to use. A great example of this is the Wii Wheel that came with Mario Kart Wii. This was the franchise’s first dip into motion controls, so releasing a wheel actually made the transition a lot smoother and more comfortable.
The Wii Zapper was a little bit more of a hassle to set-up, but playing first-person shooters with it became a lot more immersive. Thus far, there just haven’t been any major Switch accessories that have reached this level of intrigue.
9 Switch: A Slight Upgrade For Online
Nintendo has had an unfortunate time offering online services that can remain stable for long periods of time. Ever since online gameplay was offered by the company in the mid-2000s, they have faced criticism for laggy gameplay and times where connections would just randomly drop. That said, Nintendo Switch Online still functions better than Nintendo Wi-Fi on the Wii did. Yes, there is a price tag on it, but being able to play multiplayer, as well as having cloud saves and a library of old school games, is a sweetened-enough deal to take.
8 Wii: An Emphasis On Miis
Avatars are important for people, and the Wii introduced a fun feature to personalize many of its games: the Mii. These virtual humans could be created in the Wii’s Mii channel. Players were able to create a completely customized look that they could use in various Nintendo and third-party games. The Wii U continued embracing the Mii, but the Switch has put the feature on the backburner. Sure, players can still go to the Switch settings and create a Mii, but the fact they aren’t as prominent in new games anymore is a real bummer.
7 Switch: More Moments To Capture
One prominent feature of the Nintendo Switch is its Capture Button. In almost all games on the console, players are able to take screenshots of moments in their game with a simple click of the button. If players hold down the button, they can capture a 30-second clip of the gameplay that happened prior to the button being held. This is far more innovative than the Wii, who had only a few games where capture was available and no set button to smoothly capture a moment.
6 Wii: The Brilliance Of Wii Sports
Those who bought a Wii at the launch were given a treat in a package: an excellent game free-of-charge. Wii Sports is meant to be an introduction to the Wii’s motion controls, putting players in the shoes of their Miis as they played a variety of sports. From bowling and baseball to tennis and boxing, each sport had a unique technique to show what the Wii could offer. The Switch has an introductory game in 1-2-Switch, but the game didn’t come with the console. Instead, it cost $60 to get and felt more like a prototype rather than a full-blown game.
5 Switch: A Robust Library
Both the Wii and the Switch have solid libraries. But by sheer volume, the Switch is far superior. In the 3 and a half years since the console has come out, the Switch has released or is expecting to release over 3,000 games. This nearly doubles what was released on the Wii, with 1,546 games released for the system, not counting Virtual Console and WiiWare. On top of that, the quality of the games is arguably better on the Switch, with the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
4 Wii: A Lovable Main Menu
The main user interface is the first thing most people see when they turn on their system, so it’s important to get it right. Turning on the Wii and seeing the various “channels” to click on with the Wii Remote gave players the feeling of channel surfing.
There were plenty of fun channels on that main menu too, from the Check Mii Out Channel to the Everyone Votes Channel. There was something nice about seeing all the different places to go, rather than having everything in a straight line.
3 Switch: Superior Graphics
Graphics are the most obvious upgrade from the Wii to the Switch. With the ability to use an HDMI output, the Switch makes it easier to have a smoother visual experience than the Wii. On top of that, the intricate details in some of the games that have come out are impressive. Some Wii visuals, such as the widescreen, don’t look as good as many may remember. There were some beautiful games at the time, but all of them can’t match what the Switch offers nowadays.
2 Wii: Backwards Compatibility For All Generations
By and large, the Wii surpasses the Switch when it comes to backwards compatibility. First of all, the Wii is able to play any GameCube game players may have, the last Nintendo system to do so. Considering how solid the GameCube first-party library is, that’s a huge plus. Then, there was the Wii’s Virtual Console, which had a plethora of games available for players to purchase from the old SNES and N64 days. The Switch does not have any backwards compatibility. Some games from the NES and SNES are available on the system, but only for Nintendo Online members.
1 Switch: Digital Downloads For Nearly Everything
A lot of the reasons people will argue the Switch is better than the Wii is because of the era in which they have come out. The biggest example of this is digital downloads. The Switch allows players to purchase and download any game from the Switch catalog, no longer requiring players to purchase any game physically like the old days. The Wii had versions of this, from the Virtual Console and WiiWare, but its lack of offering major titles for download is just a sign of where Nintendo was at the time compared to now.
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