The virtual boy was a failure by any measure, 64DD, the Wii U sucked, and the 3DS wasn’t very popular compared to the DS, and wouldn’t have had any success if it didn’t have backwards compatibility.
It was a very fun console. It is unfortunate that asymmetrical game play wasn't explored more.
It really was the first step towards what the Switch is now. Being able to remotely play games anywhere in my house, or have someone else watch TV while I played on the Wii U, was super cool.
And $ for $ I had more fun with my Wii U than my Xbox One.
Nintendo's Wii U games were full of joy and happiness. They are all an absolute delight to play.
It's up there with Pac Man Vs. for that sort of thing.
There are moments where it feels like a bit of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with the towns, or roadside scenes, or everyone receiving individual letters from home.
I get that they weren't large hits in the general market, I get that they were not financial successes.
But for dedicated folks, these consoles represented some of the very best design and product packages that Nintendo had ever offered. (A good chunk of which was lost in the transition to the Switch, like proper Virtual Console support, or Nintendo Mii's getting heavy usage, or StreetPass).
Yes, they also offered backwards compatibility, but that's not "why" they had success -- they were successful as products entirely in their own right.
Really? The Wii U lineup is like a perfect Dreamcast-like example of a "good failure". It was so good, that half of the best selling Switch games from it's first two years, were just past Wii U exclusive games (or 3DS games), ported up to the switch.
Zelda: BotW, Mario Kart 8, Lego City Undercover, Pokken Tournament, Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Hyrule Warriors, Super Mario Brothers U, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World, Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water, Super Mario Maker, and Xenoblade Chronicles (1).
All of those are either Wii U / 3DS exclusives ported forward, or planned to be exclusives and got last-minute ports near the end of development cycle (like Zelda BotW).
Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World are IMO the two best 3D Mario games made, 3DS has a trio of fantastic Fire Emblem games (granted one is a remake but for English audiences not really), excellent JRPGs in stuff like Bravely Default, SMTIV, Pokémon X&Y, Mario Kart 7 and Smash were as good as always and LoZ: A Link Between Worlds is really good. Yes, there was plenty of ports and remakes but they were ports and remakes of great games made portable like Ocarina of Time 3D, DQ7 and DQ8, etc.
Wii U had great exclusives like Mario Maker, Bayonetta 2, the aforementioned Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Warriors, Splatoon, Pikmin 3, Xenoblade Chronicles X, etc.
My bet is you have more fondness for the Dreamcast because you spent more time with it. Wii U was a fantastic system and still is.
The 783 game list also doesn't include any of the virtual console games and there's some really good stuff there that getting a hold of on the original system is pricey like Metroid Fusion and Ogre Battle 64.
Wii U games have the benefit of still being good today. Most DC games you need to add the caveat "for the time". There's also plenty of trash on DC too. I'm sure if you actually picked any random game it would more likely be trash than good. Wii U also has that problem but all consoles do.
Seems like continuity hurts rather than helps Nintendo.