Despite my many protestations to the contrary, I bought a Wii U (together with Mario Kart 8) bundle on 20 May 2014. And despite all the pre-release hype surrounding the latest iteration of Nintendo's kart racing franchise, I remained hesitant in making the necessary investment. After all, this was the latest Big Brother console by a company that had only sought to disappoint since its halcyon days of the 16 bit Super Nintendo era. Gone were the days when I would happily wait for a new hardware announcement only to be met by unabashed disappointment as the once great Nintendo faltered under the weight of its own pioneering legacy. Indeed, I don't think I've ever really enjoyed a Nintendo produced console (to an unequivocal degree) since the under-performing N64 - which brought with it such classics as F-Zero X, Mario 64, Zelda: OoT and Goldeneye.
Whilst it's true that every Nintendo console has played host to a constant stream of classic titles, every console hardware product since the much venerated SNES has only failed to live up to market expectations, with each subsequent console further alienating the mainstream player-base, and allowing competitors (Sony and Microsoft) to prize away valuable market-share. It's no coincid...