The Rarest & Most Valuable Nintendo Wii U Games
Even though many gems of the short-lived Wii U have been migrated over to the Nintendo Switch, many retro-minded collectors are starting to accumulate quality Wii U games when they can find them. Â Not that long ago, we covered some of the very affordable games that are on the Wii U, but here we will be digging into the early front-runners of the holy grail race for the console.
While there are indeed some short-print wonders in here, you may also notice that this list has a strong preference for games that haven’t made their way to the Nintendo Switch just yet. Â It will be interesting to see how this list evolves over the next few years.
In stark contrast to the Cheapest Games series, this Rare & Valuable series takes a look at the most in-demand and expensive games for a console. Below you will see two prices beside each title. The first is the average daily selling price, which is typically the going rate for either a loose disc or a game in a case but without a manual. The second price is the highest price in the past three months which is usually the price for a gem mint copy (sealed values are then listed separately). The list is ordered by the balance of the two primary prices.
Prices Current as of August 2022
Treasured Standard North American Releases
Devil’s Third: $280-$515 ($550-$750 Sealed)
This ambitious hack-and-slash shooter is the first project from Tomonobu Itagaki (of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fame) after leaving Temco. His new studio, Valhalla Game Studios, was formed alongside some of his former Team Ninja colleagues in 2009.
Devil’s Third was a departure from Itagaki’s past work and the title went through both a lengthy development process and quite of bit of corporate bureaucracy before its eventual 2015 release. The game was originally slated to be an Xbox 360 exclusive (and then later was discussed as being a PS3 release as well). However, with the publisher, THQ’s closure in 2013, Nintendo picked up the publishing rights.
With the game struggling in development and in early game reviews, Nintendo of America actually wavered in even releasing in North America. It was eventually released in the region nearly half a year after its release in other regions.
As part of an easing into the market, Gamestop only received 420 copies of the game for its entire online US sales. However, there was soon a restock of the game on Amazon to feed some of the demand. It has been reported that only 3,000 copies of the game sold in its first month. Nintendo paced supply as a result of both the game’s lackluster reviews (ranking as the worst game of 2015 on multiple sites) and the Wii U’s slow traction in the States. They eventually even shut down the online servers for the game just 16 months after the game’s release.
Even though the game had a small release, not very many people have obtained it to actually play, but are hoping to score a good return on resale. As a result, they are often many copies on eBay, at any given point — many of them still sealed.
Devil’s Third was selling for about $85 a copy back in early 2016, but settled into a $40-$60 range through 2019. Once the 2020s collecting boom kicked in, it started climbing gradually to its current level ($175 average range in 2020, $275 range in 2021).
Check for Devil’s Third on eBay
Check for Devil’s Third on Amazon
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2: $180-$310 ($350-$510 Sealed)
The second in the series of comedic point-and-click adventure games by a German developer, King Art Games. The series received critical acclaim for honoring the classic point-and-click genre in this modern age and having great production values and a wonderful personality.
The original game was only published on personal computer platforms, but this indie developer successfully implemented a Kickstarter campaign to help in the development and bring this to a broader console audience.
It was released on two generations of Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo platforms — with a physical edition on the Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and Wii U.
At the time of its 2015 release, the game sold for a “budget” price of $20 for most platforms (with the exception of $30 for the digital 360 version). To this day, you can score most of the physical versions for under $20 (and some for less than $10). Even the PAL Wii U version can be found for less than $50 complete. However, this North American version of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is harder to find in the wild, so it’s got quite the premium.
However, at this point, there are still quite a lot of copies on eBay — including in sealed condition. So at this point, it’s very much a bit of speculation with supply and demand for those that want to build complete Wii U collections. The copies didn’t really start spiking in value until late 2021. Prior to that, it had a gradual rise to the $70 range.
Check for The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 on eBay
Check for The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 on Amazon
Turbo: Super Stunt Squad: $85-$400 ($600 Sealed)
This one is your typical movie license game of the era but has a bit of a Tony Hawk-style gameplay. It was also released on all the major platforms at the time — including two Nintendo consoles (Wii and Wii U) plus two Nintendo portable (DS and 3DS) that had more of a racing theme.
And, much like some others, the Wii U version is the hardest to track down. All the other versions are quite cheap — you could find most of them for $10 or less. The PAL Wii U version can be found for around $30, but this North American version is, again, quite at a premium.
In 2017, this game started to get noticed by collectors and rose to the $40 to $50 range before the 2020s collecting boom. It saw its largest increase in 2021, however before starting to climb to current levels.
Check for Turbo: Super Stunt Squad on eBay
Check for Turbo: Super Stunt Squad on Amazon
Game & Wario: $85-$180 ($235-$405 Sealed)
Despite the different naming convention (inspired by Nintendo’s Game & Watch), Game & Mario is a party game in the WarioWare series. It also remains as one of the most interesting Wii U games that haven’t seen a port to the Nintendo Switch.
Despite being a multiplayer game, Game & Wario is played exclusively with the Wii U Gamepad with no additional Pro controllers used.
For a first-party Nintendo release, Game & Mario was rather under-the-radar for quite a while. It even stayed around the $30 range for resale up until 2020 when it began its gradual increase to current levels.
Check for Game & Wario on eBay
Check for Game & Wario on Amazon
Cabela’s Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts: $60-$135
The Cabela series of hunting simulation games has proven to be successful in reaching a niche audience. This particular installment was indeed multiplatform, but like many of the others mentioned here, the Wii U version is much hard to come by.
The Wii U version hovered in the $20 to $40 range until it really got a boost in early 2021.
There are a healthy amount of units showing up on eBay, but, at the time of this writing, not quite as many as some other titles mentioned above – especially in complete condition. It seems that this game gets held onto and/or actually played with more than the likes of Devil’s Third or Turbo: Super Stunt Squad. As a result, there are more loose discs or incomplete packaging in units for sale.
Check for Cabela’s Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts on eBay
Check for Cabela’s Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts on Amazon
Wii Sports Club: $65-$106 ($120 Sealed)
For those that had the original Wii during its original retail run (or even afterward), the original Wii Sports was not only a defining game pack in the library, but it actually was a cultural phenomenon that literally helped sell a tremendous number of systems for Nintendo (may causal gamers only stuck with the Wii Sports pack-in and didn’t buy any or many additional games).
The Wii U hardware (especially the Gamepad) gave Nintendo’s team a lot more possibilities with which to adapt different sporting events, resulting in Wii Sports Club. Unfortunately, the additional purchase price of Wii Sports Club alongside the needed hardware was more than what most gamers were willing to pay for a new installment. Despite the great brand equity in the Wii Sports name, Wii Sports Club didn’t even crack the top 20 best-selling Wii U games.
Check for Wii Sports Club on eBay
Check for Wii Sports Club on Amazon
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD: $60-$100 ($100-$150 Sealed)
Even though Nintendo has received a reputation of pulling more money out of fans for reissued games, Zelda fans were treated to some great HD remakes over the last decade.
Twilight Princess was the Legend of Zelda installment that was released originally on both the Gamecube and the Wii, but this Wii U port brings the game into full HD resolution, some graphical upgrades and some gameplay changes. It also downplays the Wii remote functionality and uses the Wii U Gamepad for better map utilization.
This was the second of the Zelda HD remasters on the Wii U (after Wind Waker) and was released in 2016, a year before the Nintendo Switch was release, so it understandably didn’t get a big of a print run as Wind Waker — therefore leading to a higher resale value in the aftermarket.
The game held its value pretty solidly (in a $30 to $40 range) after its release and use started a gradual increase in value in the last few years, but nothing too crazy. It’s also worth noting, Twilight Princess is the best-selling game on this list at 1.15 million copies worldwide.
Check for Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on eBay
Check for Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on Amazon
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: $55-$105
This crossover series marks the first time Mario and Sonic were paired up in the same game and originated on the Wii before continuing on every Nintendo console and handheld since.
This Wii U installment just happens to be the least plentiful, and therefore, the most valuable game in the series so far.
There’s always been pretty solid demand for the game in fans collections and, on average, the values have been rather steady on average. It kinda dipped down to $30-$40 ranges in 2019 (a great time to pick up Wii games, in general) and has slowly increased back up to where it was in 2017.
Check for Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on eBay
Check for Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Amazon
Additional North American Games of Value
- The Croods: Prehistoric Party: $26-$125 (eBay)
- Xenoblade Chronicles X: $48-$95 (eBay)
- Shantae Half-Genie Hero: $45-$96 (eBay)
- SteamWorld Collection: $ 34-$105 (eBay)
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2: $31-$100 (eBay)
- Shakedown Hawaii: $55-$70 (eBay)
- Wii Party U: $48-$73 (eBay)
- Paper Mario Color Splash: $42-$75 (eBay)
- Jeopardy [Nordic Games]: $51-$65 (eBay)
- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse: $44-$70 (eBay)
- Just Dance 2019: $43-$70 (eBay)
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut: $26-$85 (eBay)
- Planes: Fire & Rescue: $20-$89 (eBay)
- Funky Barn: $23-$80 (eBay)
- Rapala Pro Bass Fishing: $24-$79 (eBay)
- Tank! Tank! Tank!: $36-$65 (eBay)
- Amazing Spiderman : $29-$70 (eBay)
- Ben 10: Omniverse 2: $16-$82 (eBay)
- Hello Kitty Kruisers: $30-$65 (eBay)
Valuable Special Editions
- Hyrule Warriors [Limited Edition]: $1,100-$1,200 (eBay)
- Mario Kart 8 [Limited Edition]: $950-$1,200 (eBay)
- Zelda Wind Waker HD [Limited Edition]: $100-$200 (eBay)
- Xenoblade Chronicles X [Special Edition]: $140-$170 (eBay)
- Zelda Twilight Princess HD [amiibo Bundle]: $125-$150 (eBay)
- Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games [Controller Bundle]: $115-$145 (eBay)
- Skylanders Imaginators [Dark Edition]: $110-$135 (eBay)
- Super Smash Bros. [Controller Bundle]: $55-$115 (eBay)
- Skylanders Swap Force [Dark Edition]: $85-$105 (eBay)
- Axiom Verge Multiverse Edition: $135- $180 (eBay)
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Loving these articles on the recently retro hardware. Keep up the great work!
Thank you! There’s a certain thrill to breaking new ground 🙂
Thankfully I have the games I want from this list already. The only one that I didn’t have that surprised me was Wii Sports Club. If I’m remembering correctly, the game is kinda bad, right?
Quick glance at Metacritic shows lackluster scores, but also seems partly due to just an enhancement of Wii Sports in general without a lot of new stuff. Some maybe not bad — just was hard to justify the price — especially if you’re content with “old school” Wii Sports.
Seems Like Nintendo Switch Sports is doing slightly better
https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/nintendo-switch-sports
But I think there’s always some value in bringing it to a newer console — especially for those that don’t want to have to deal with the old hardware.
Yeah, I’ve heard better things about Switch Sports too. Fortunately, it won’t be a rare release, so I can def take my time in picking that one up.
Wii Sports Club is a lazy product, but it does give us an update to my favourite – bowling. Slightly different feel but very intuitive, well worth playing if you enjoyed the original. Switch Sports bowling is atrocious. I don’t know how they managed to screw up bowling so bad. So far, the only thing good about Switch Sports is the tennis, and even that could have been executed much better.
Thank for the info! I might just see if Switch Sports ever becomes a cheap used item, but sounds like we’ll avoid it otherwise.
FYI when it comes to Japan, there aren’t many valuable games but here are some of the best examples I could find (prices are based on what they cost in Japan).
Monster Hunter Frontier G Variants $10-100
Devils Third $60
Zelda Wind Waker $50
Zelda Twilight Princess $40
Dragon Quest X All in One Package $100+
Silver Star Shogi $50+
Cool — thank you for sharing!
It seems like those prices are much more reasonable/understandable.
Considering how many copies of the most valuable North American ones I see on eBay, I’m kinda curious how long these high prices stand… or if collectors are just self-prophesying. But eventually demand has to outstrip supply to keep it up. Time will tell.
I think there is a typo. In the Game & Wario section, it refers to the game as Game & Mario in the first and third paragraphs.
got at least 2 of these, thanks! 🙂
I think the WII U to some degree will be what the Sega Saturn or Dreamcast was to Sega for collecting purposes. I have a good amount of those listed and got them cheap before they blew up in price, especially Devil’s Third. I told a couple of my friends that it would be the Wii U’s Panzer Dragoon Saga in terms of rarity and price one day (low print run and word of mouth), and sure enough that’s the direction its headed. I doubt that game will ever get a Switch port at all, and I would be surprised if it did.
It would be interesting to see the value of some of the JPN Wii U games that were released and the value of some of those games in the coming years, once the system gets into the collecting spotlight more. For example, did you know that Yakuza 1 & 2 HD was physically released in JPN for the Wii U? Wonder if that or other games will rise in price, just like Ikaruga or Radiant Silver gun did for the Dreamcast or Saturn?
Again, another great article here on Racketboy. Keep them coming!
That’s an interesting perspective.
Probably the biggest challenge is that the Switch brought so many of the games over so quickly.
I should explore the Japanese Wii U exclusives — but I’m guessing the Saturn and Dreamcast might have the edge there.
Great list! I had no idea some of these games were so valuable. I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for them while thrifting! Special shoutout to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD—it’s such a masterpiece. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! I actually own a sealed copy of Game & Wario for Wii U! These Wii U games will increase in price in the next few years.