My relationship with the Wii U has been complicated from the start. When it was first announced, I was confused. When it was first released, I was curious. When its commercials saturated my vision, I was frustrated. When its games trickled out, I was bored, except when it came to Super Mario 3D World, and then I was happy. When I finally got one, I was overjoyed. When I realized it had been sitting on the shelf unused for months, I was upset. And as I am a realist, in the recent past I seriously considered that my days with the Wii U were over.

Granted, there have been some great titles released for the Wii U since it became a reality (and frankly, Nintendo’s e-Shop rivals PSN and Xbox Lives in many ways), but my attention towards games has become fragmented. Keeping up with the latest and greatest in new releases just isn’t a priority these days. So when The Wonderful 101 came and went, I was curious but not that curious. When Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze hit big, I passed it so many times in the store, but eventually just passed. When Splatoon went anything but splat, I laughed at the videos, but that was about it.

As my Steam, Xbox One, and PS4 libraries grew, the Wii U library remained unbuilt. I was pleased enough with my Wii U-driven experiences with a couple Mario games and the Bayonetta games, but I simply wasn’t as compelled to by Wii U games as I was others.  Sure, Nintendo and I had great times in the past, but things change. People change. Tastes and preferences, likes and dislikes change. That’s just how things are.  Maybe I had simply grown up and out of Nintendo?

Or, maybe, I was just in a rut. Because ever since seeing lists of upcoming Wii U releases for Fall 2015, my mood has brightened considerably.

Right around the corner we have the release of Super Mario Maker (September 11). Though I’m not much of a maker, I’m rather excited to see what people do with this game.  I love the idea of puzzling around in the Mario universe, putting together its various shapes and pieces to form something completely new. Honestly though, this game pulls right at my nostalgic heartstrings. There’s something about having the history of Mario graphics at my fingertips that makes me infinitely happy. It could be that cuter than cute pixels. It could be the ubiquitous beeps and boops. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s going to make me get this game.

While I’m sure that Mario making will eat up many, many, many hours of good gaming time, eventually we’ll all need a break from placing pipes that spurt out a multi-dozen of mooing goombas. So it’s awesome to know that break will come a month later in October with the release of Yoshi’s Woolly World (October 16). And I thought I was excited about Cat Mario! Well, those jumps of joys can hardly complete with my love of all things yarn, which, when combined with all things Mario, creates an internal explosion of charming delights! I don’t know that I even care if the game plays well (though I’m sure it will) as much as I hope it will make my eyes light up with unicorns and glitter.

Letting go of Mario and his pals, in December we have what may very well be the biggest and baddest game in the Wii U’s short history: Xenoblade Chronicles X (December 4). My only hope is that I’ll be done with Xenoblade Chronicles by then…haha…ha. No seriously. I need to be done with this game soon. But as much as the thought of playing another Xenoblade game makes my head hurt, it also makes my inner RPG fan shout to the high heavens.  The thought of exploring a brand new Xenoblade universe is almost too much for my brain to compute. As with most games that I really want to play, I’ve been avoiding just about everything I can about it in order to go into the game sight unseen. It’s been no easy task. Knowing its release date now doesn’t make it any easier.

It looks like there’s hope yet for me and the Wii U!  That’s not a bad crop of games, and there are others that look promising, like Rodea: The Sky Soldier (November 10) and Star Fox Zero (November 20). So the system gets a pass through at least 2015. And if we get a new Zelda game next year, maybe it’ll survive 2016 too.

Hey Wii U fans! What upcoming/potential Wii U releases have got your attention?