9 Upcoming Wii U Games That Will Redeem It In 2016

3. SteamWorld Heist

Nintendo isn't particularly synonymous with indie development. While indie games have been around in Nintendo's eShop ever since the days of the Wii, they just haven't been promoted as a key selling-point of their consoles until now (we probably have Sony's success in courting the indies to thank for that). So it's easy to overlook the fact that some now-famous indie games actually started life on Nintendo, such as the excellent SteamWorld series on 3DS, which went in a successful new direction with the turn-based side-scrolling shooter, SteamWorld Heist, in December. This beautifully-presented game involving garbling steampunky robots gunning it out in a pretty rust-bucket world is deceptively tactical. It's all about positioning, combining you and your allies' skills to maximum effect, and managing your inventory as you explore Heist's weird and wonderful dungeons. If you lose allies in battle, you'll receive XP penalties, making their safety that bit more important and skirmishes that bit more suspenseful. The accessibility of the game means that you'll get to grips with it quickly, ensuring that you feel like all your successes and failures in battle are completely in your hands. Heist is one of the best indie games of last year, and an example of Nintendo's growing interest in playing host to great indie developers. Too late to save the Wii U, maybe, but a promising sign for the NX.