(2018) Wii U (2012): Review and Retrospective

 NOTE: This review was originally posted to Tumblr on September 8, 2018, and has been reposted here for archival purposes. It may not reflect recent events or my current opinions.

Well guys, after all these years, I finally have the latest Nintendo system. That’s right, the Wii U, Nintendo’s next-gen and first HD console, and I’m excited to start-

Wait, what’s that?

Nintendo’s released a new console called the Nintendo Switch?

Well, I’m sure Nintendo will still support the Wii U, right?

What’s that again?

It got discontinued over a year ago?

They’re no longer making games for it other than Just Dance?

Motherfu-

I’ll start this review by saying that the Wii U was pretty much the first console I remember following actively. It was first announced around the time I was really starting to become a gamer and was pretty much exclusively a fan of Nintendo’s games and systems (at least aside for ROBLOX, Minecraft and Sonic the Hedgehog) and I remember stumbling across the announcement trailer not too long after it was announced at E3 and thought “hey that’s pretty cool.” And about a year later I began hearing about the system again as they were releasing New Super Mario Bros U and I pretty much followed it up to it’s release date and watched as games came out for it. Of course, it had a fairly slow start and sales weren’t looking too good for it, but hey, the 3DS took a while to gain traction, but once Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 came out for it it began taking off. I was sure that once a new Mario game came out, the Wii U would sell like hotcakes just like the Wii did.

And so, E3 2013 came and they announced Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Wind Waker HD, Smash 4 among other games, and then Super Mario 3D World came out. And sales were… still slow, but hey, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros were still not out, so I’m sure those would send Wii Us flying off the shelves.

And then Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros came out, and sales were… still not getting anywhere. But hey, there was still Splatoon and Mario Maker- aw screw it. At this point, pretty much everyone started to realize there was something wrong. The Wii U was still not doing well and was pretty much being destroyed by the PlayStation 4, a system that came out a year later, and even the Xbox One, which not only also came out a year later, but was announced with a reveal that pretty much only talked about the system’s cable box/DVR-esque capabilities and was pretty much universally viewed negatively by the gaming community at one point due to its anti-consumer always online DRM before Microsoft took that out and also to this day has no real exclusives worth buying that aren’t on PC- *ahem* sorry i’m going way too off topic here. Once 2015 rolled around, it was pretty clear that the Wii U was a failure, seeing as how Nintendo at that point was discussing their “NX” console. In 2016, the Wii U more or less got its last major exclusive, that being Star Fox Zero (which unfortunately didn’t turn out to be too good) before it was announced that the major Zelda game that I’m sure a lot of Zelda fans bought a Wii U for would come out simultaneously on the “NX” and before the NX was announced as the Nintendo Switch in October 2016.

And I will say that it was kind of sad for me to see the Wii U fail. Like I said, I had been following the Wii U since the beginning and had always wanted one yet didn’t get one until recently because I live in a working class family that can’t buy me the latest game systems. Even when the PS4 and Xbox One were released and were taking off I still was far more interested in the Wii U since it had the kind of games I wanted. At one point, I considered saving up for a Wii U because of all the games coming out for it, but didn’t end up doing so because my brother had spare PC parts that we ended up using to build my own PC, leaving me to more or less forget about wanting a Wii U. However, I recently picked up a Wii U for reasons I will say later in this review, and figured I would review it to see what I like about the system, what I dislike, discuss why it failed and if I would recommend buying a Wii U in 2018 now that the Switch has already taken off.

I guess I could start off this review by looking at the Wii U’s hardware and graphical capabilities. This isn’t really something I thought about too much until this video shed some light on the Wii U’s hardware. With the Wii U, Nintendo decided to continue utilizing the PowerPC architecture used in the Gamecube and Wii, and tying into the codename of “Project Cafe,” uses the “Espresso” CPU in combination with the “Latte” graphics chip. While it was far more powerful than the regular Wii, Nintendo ended up proving their “generation lag” at the time with the Espresso chip, which turned out to be a pretty outdated processor with rougly the power of a 1997 PowerMac G3 and was outperformed by the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 let alone the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Wii U also only has 2GB of DDR3 RAM (with one being used for the system’s OS), which while more than the 360 and PS3, is still less than the Xbox One and PS4 and is about the amount that my mom has in netbook. The system’s biggest perk, however, is it’s “Latte” graphics chip containing the GX1 by ATI for Wii backwards compatibility and the chip’s main source of power, the GX2 with an AMD Radeon GPU supposedly based on the HD 4000 series. It’s pretty clear that the Nintendo Wii U is not a powerful system when compared to it’s 8th gen counterparts that came out just a year later, and it doesn’t help that the system launched with two options, a measly 8GB and a bit less measly 32GB, which either of those are basically nothing considering the PS3 and 360 came with at least 250GB of hard drive space around that time. But I will say this, despite the Wii U’s overall lack of power, when it gets utilized, it definitely gets utilized. The Wii U is obviously Nintendo’s first HD console and it definitely takes a massive step up from the original Wii. Granted, that’s not really saying much, but there are a lot of beautiful looking games on the Wii U that run fairly well too. Mario Kart 8 is one example, between the lighting, shadows, effects, models, everything about it just looks impressive for both a Wii U game and a kart racing game. Breath of the Wild is probably a game I’d say pushes the Wii U to it’s limits, and while at first it had some framerate issues and even after an update plays at 30FPS, it is still a pretty nice looking game overall. I mean, just the grass effects. But while Nintendo is great at optimizing their first party games, it’s pretty clear that the Wii U’s hardware did nothing to attract third party developers that Nintendo was struggling with since the N64.

But moving onto the Wii U’s main gimmick and selling point, the Gamepad, which of course serves as the Wii U’s main controller and is basically what you get when you cross over an iPad with a Wii Classic Controller. Of course, the Gamepad is often attributed as being a huge part of the Wii U’s failure which I’ll get to later in this review but has been pretty polarizing even outside of that. I know a lot of people who found it sort of clunky, and I remember when the system first launched one of my friends joked about the Wii U essentially being a “PS3 and PS Vita Combo by Nintendo” but from what I have used of it I do like the Gamepad overall. I personally find it comfortable enough to hold despite how big it is, and I do like the whole concept behind the “tablet controller” thing they had going on. I also definitely appreciate being able to playmy Wii U games even while my parents are using the TV. Admittedly though, I also recognize that it was mostly a gimmick and a really confusing one at that, and unfortunately not a lot of games that I can think of outside of Super Mario Maker really utilized it’s main function. It is safe to bet that although the Gamepad wasn’t really a good idea and ended up being one of the causes of the Wii U’s failure, it pretty much served as the “beta” for what would go into the Nintendo Switch, and that the overall idea and concept of the Gamepad would go into Switch’s development. But that’s another story. And if you really didn’t like using the Wii U Gamepad, Nintendo as they always do gave users thousands of different controllers and accessories to use with the Wii U. Of them were the Wii U Pro Controller, which acted as more of a standard controller for the Wii U similar to the Xbox 360 controller although the second analog stick is at the top for whatever reason. You could also use the WiiMote and the thousands of accessories you could use with that I think, and you could also use the freaking Gamecube controller with an adapter, which makes me wonder why they didn’t do Gamecube backwards compatibility considering the Wii U has been proven to be capable… then again that’s probably for the same reason why you the Wii Family Edition and Wii Mini don’t have Gamecube backwards compatibility.

And since this is the 21st century and every console now has to double as some sort of entertainment device, the Wii U did have a set of features, although most of them weren’t really taken advantage of due to the Wii U’s short and rough lifespan. I remember seeing Youtube videos for the Nintendo TVii service (not really understanding at all what it was) and after that I didn’t really hear much about it. From what I read it seemed like some sort of service that created a unified system that allowed users to watch TV from their cable box, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Video accounts and get information about the show they’re watching on their Gamepad. I’m assuming not a lot of people used or cared about this service since it ended up being cancelled in Europe and Oceania and was discontinued in North America in 2015 although is still alive in Japan for whatever reason. I didn’t even know it was discontinued until I got my recent interest in the Wii U and looked it up so yeah. There was also Wii U Chat which was basically Skype for the Wii U… which got discontinued in November 2017. But the biggest butt of everyone’s jokes regarding the Wii U was obviously the Miiverse, a social networking service for the Wii U and 3DS where you could share messages, drawings and screenshots of games that you were playing with some games offering stamps and in-game items that you could share with friends through Miiverse. Of course, like Wii U Chat, this was also discontinued in November 2017, so rip. Guess I’m kind of sad that I missed out on this (then again I had a 2DS so whatever) but maybe it’s a good thing I missed out on all the cancer.

Like this post that, uh… really didn’t age well

Of course, the Wii U brought over some features from the regular Wii, including the the ability to create Miis as well as Virtual Console, now integrated with the Wii U’s own eShop, and while it didn’t have the variety of systems that the Wii had, I still can’t help myself but to buy Super Mario World on the 10th system I own it on and check out other games that I didn’t find myself getting on the regular Wii’s virtual console. Heck, Earthbound was re-released through the Wii U virtual console for the first time in decades since the game was first released, which is definitely a plus. There’s also the typical Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Video that’s pretty much required on every major system now (not on the Switch though). You could also use the Wii U as a TV remote, which is… neat I guess? Not really a feature I would use if I have a regular TV remote, but that’s something.

However, the most important part of any game system is always going to be the games themselves. As a PC gamer, when I buy a console, I typically look to see what console has the exclusives that interest me to really sell me on the system. And from the beginning, the exclusives were basically what made me more interested in buying a Wii U over a PS4 or Xbox One. While I’m a PC gamer and all, I can’t deny that Nintendo is what got me interested in gaming (mostly with Super Mario World on the GBA among other games) so their games tend to appeal to me the most. Of course, the Wii U had a pretty underwhelming launch. Most of the games that came out were out on the 360 and PS3, some of which had been out for a while at that point, and the Wii U’s launch pretty much narrowed down to 3 major exclusives. Nintendo Land was one of them, and was the one that was bundled with the Deluxe version at launch, and pretty much acted as the “Wii Sports” of the Wii U, a game intended to show off the main gimmick of the system, more or less a tech demo of sorts. And for what it is, it is a pretty decent game overall. The game takes place at a fictional theme park called, obviously, “Nintendo Land” and contains twelve different minigames based off existing Nintendo franchises. The game does a good job showing off the gamepad and it’s features with the touchpad and motion sensing. Not something I would put a lot of time into, but a decent timewaster and a nice way to show off the Gamepad’s capabilities. Unfortunately, it didn’t have anywhere near the impact Wii Sports had and it didn’t really manage to sell the Wii U at launch. New Super Mario Bros U was another one at launch, and while I haven’t really played much of it, it is a pretty enjoyable Mario title for what it is that at least adds… some new stuff to the New Super Mario Bros formula, but really nothing to write home about. The game’s kind of a mixed bag with a lot of people, and while I have enjoyed what I have played I can’t really blame them. New Super Mario Bros U doesn’t really bring much new to the table as far as 2D Mario games go, even in comparison to the NSMB on the DS, and considering it was the fourth “New Super Mario Bros” release in the span of 6 years, it felt more of the same. And it really wasn’t a good title to launch with the Wii U intending to show the hardware of the system considering it’s basically just an upgraded version of New Super Mario Bros Wii. I’ll probably pick it up sometime and do a full review on it, but that’s just sort of my take on it as a whole. Then there’s ZombiU which I haven’t played or really cared much for at launch and since it’s launched I’ve heard pretty mixed things about the game overall, and either way it ended up getting ported to the PC, PS4 and Xbox One 3 years later so whatever. Maybe I’ll pick the Wii U version up some day, but again, nothing really to write home about. So, the launch was a bit barebones, but to be fair that’s how console launches (especially in recent times) typically are, and 2013 was where the real meat of the Wii U’s library started. I got my Wii U with 4 games, one of them being Nintendo Land which ended up being preinstalled on my system (despite getting my Wii U used), but since I already talked about it, I might as well move on. Super Mario 3D World was another game, which was also preinstalled on my Wii U… if only I realized that before I ended up getting a physical copy along with the system. But otherwise, I remember being pretty excited for Super Mario 3D World when it was announced because… y’know, I was a Mario fan, and after playing through most of the game, it pretty much matched my expectations. It’s not Mario Odyssey or even Galaxy by any means, but it is a fun Mario title. Obviously it acts as a sequel to Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS, but it definitely feels far more fleshed out and interesting overall. The option to choose your character comes back from Super Mario Bros 2 (the US version not the crappy japanese version) which I feel adds some replay value to the game, the world map is refined in a pretty interesting way, allowing you to move freely across the map and the levels are all fun to play and at least have some elements of exploration with the Green Stars and Stamps (which are unfortunately useless now because rip miiverse). Also, the main power up of the game is a bell that turns you into a cat, so this definitely makes a great Mario game for furries like me. I probably wouldn’t say it’s in the leagues of 64, Sunshine, the Galaxy titles and Odyssey, but the gameplay is fun and I do consider it an overall solid, fun 3D Mario title and it’ll probably be one that I do a more in-depth review on in the future. One of the other games I got was Sonic Lost World, which came out with fairly mixed reception, but is still a game I find myself enjoying. Sure, it takes a completely different take on the Sonic formula compared to what Unleashed, Colors and Generations brought, but overall I do consider it a fun, solid 3D Sonic game, and I do wish Sega would take another jab at this sort of gameplay style again albeit more refined. At the very least, it’s a lot better than that one other 3D Sonic game on the same system.

Then there’s Mario Kart 8, which is probably my favorite out of the games I got with the system. The Mario Kart series has always been a great series for mindless fun for me, but Mario Kart 8 introduces a lot of new mechanics and definitely stands out, which is only added to with it’s great presentation overall. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had with a Mario Kart since Double Dash and DS, and I would definitely consider it my favorite in the series if it weren’t for the game’s not so good Battle mode (which thankfully they improved in the Deluxe version of the game). But overall, it is definitely a great title and if you haven’t played on the Wii U or the Switch yet, it’s definitely worth it.

Of course, there are a lot more Wii U titles than what I bought, and while it’s not what I would consider Nintendo’s best lineup, there’s still a lot of greats. Wind Waker was always my favorite 3D Zelda game, and of course that was remade for the Wii U. Wind Waker on it’s own was always a really good looking game, and honestly it’s remake on the Wii U makes it look better than ever. 2014 brought a lot of the system’s greats, the most prominent example being Super Smash Bros for Wii U. While it’s value in the competitive scene has long been debated, I would probably consider it my favorite Smash game assuming that it’s pretty much the same as the 3DS version just with a higher resolution and better graphics. I’ve heard that Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze was one that was fairly overlooked in it’s time because “it wasn’t Metroid” but other than that made for a worthy sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii with enhanced graphics, better level design, and a good soundtrack. Hyrule Warriors was an interesting side game while people waited for an actual Zelda game on the Wii U, and there were other greats like Bayonetta 2, Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker, and the aforementioned Mario Kart 8. Of course, there was also that other 3D Sonic game and freaking Meme Run, but aside from that 2014 was a pretty good year for Wii U games. 2015 was where things started to kind of slow down for the Wii U, coming off 2014 which, while great for exclusives themselves, ended up being one of Nintendo’s largest financial losses in moden history, and 2015 saw the first announcement of the “NX.” Still, there was some great stuff this year, including two of the Wii U’s most popular and inventive titles. Splatoon came out in May 2015, and gave Nintendo a shooter of their own that definitely stood out among a time where shooters are basically everywhere. Super Mario Maker was another one, allowing users to create their own Mario levels in the style of Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros U. I remember watching this game be announced during E3 2014, and as someone who thought it was going to be a fairly shallow digital-only game, boy I was pleasantly surprised  that the final product turned out to be more ambitious and better than I expected. The online features of the game were actually executed fairly well, and the editor itself had tons of features and was pretty much open for whatever you wanted to do while still being easy to use and intuitive, leading to tons of great levels made by a fairly big online community. It actually does make me wonder why Nintendo didn’t push these titles more and shut down LPers of their games seeing as how games like these would have probably sold the system at least a little bit more. Other titles from this year included Yoshi’s Woolly World, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, all of which were generally well received.

There was also a lot of indie games that were on the Wii U, which is definitely a plus as someone who’s a lot of favorite games from the 8th gen are indie games. Some of the most notable ones being Shovel Knight, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures and one of my favorite indie games out there Freedom Planet. While most if not all of the Wii U’s indie games originated on PC, just having them on a console with a big TV is a plus.

Unfortunately, not every major Wii U title was a hit, and there’s two released late in the Wii U’s lifespan that come to mind as being rather disappointing and mediocre. One of them was Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival.

Enough said.

And the other was Star Fox Zero released in 2016. I was actually pretty hyped about this game, seeing as how I’ve always been a casual fan of Star Fox who’s mostly just played the originals on the SNES and N64 but has intended on buying Adventures, Assault and Command for a while, and I was happy seeing this game finally get a new release for the first time in almost a decade at that point. I had pretty high expectations for the game, but although I didn’t have a Wii U yet and never had the chance to play this game, I can tell that I was disappointed when the reviews of the game came out. Not only was the game pretty much just a remake of Star Fox 64 which we already got one of on the 3DS (not to mention Star Fox 64 on it’s own being a remake of the original SNES game) but it was a remake of Star Fox 64… with awkward forced motion controls. I was kind of hoping that Nintendo would stop relying on motion controls after the Wii era, but unfortunately this game ended up bringing them back and made the game pretty awkward to play unless you really got used to them. I mean, maybe I’ll buy it since it’s at a heavily discounted price when buying it used, but that still doesn’t change the fact that it was a disappointment.

And I have to say, 2016 was kind of a depressing year for me, well, overall but especially as a Nintendo fan. It was kind of at the point where Nintendo was ready to announce the “NX” which obviously turned out to be the Switch, and it kind of showed. The only other major Wii U games I remember being released this year were Twilight Princess HD which while a good remake of a game that really needed a graphical overall, was still just that, a remake of a game released a decade before, as well as Paper Mario Color Splash, which I’ve heard reception was better than expected but still pretty mixed and polarizing in that some people did think it was a solid title and was an improvement over Sticker Star but others just wanted to go back to the traditional Paper Mario formula seen in Paper Mario 64 and The Thousand Year Door. Aside from that, there was… Mario & Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympics but I’m not sure how many people actually play and enjoy those games.

By 2016, I really started to lose my interest in the Wii U. By that time, I built my own computer and had basically moved on to PC gaming after initially debating on whether to do that or save up for a Wii U the previous year, and while I still felt like I was missing out on games like Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Wind Waker HD, Super Mario Maker, Splatoon and so on, I was playing games like Undertale, Terraria, the Doom games, the Half-Life games, Cave Story, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Sonic Generations, Freedom Planet, Super Meat Boy, Portal 1 and 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Fallout: New Vegas, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Paladins and one of my most recent favorites Overwatch to tide me over. While a lot of those games are technically older titles from at least the 7th gen and before, they were still games I was being introduced to that I probably wouldn’t have experienced with the Wii U.

But of course, the Wii U had one more breath. Of the Wild. Which I recently found at Best Buy and gladly paid the full price for a brand new copy.

While The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild did get ported to the Switch on day one leaving the Wii U without its own exclusive Zelda game, it was still nothing short of successful and became one of the most critically acclaimed games in recent history.

Admittedly, I’ve just started Breath of the Wild recently, but from what I have played, it is definitely a really good game. In an era full of open world games that feel generic and are just 500 miles in diameter with tons of empty space, Breath of the Wild manages to stand out with actually having a lot to explore and look at. And while I’m not necessarily a big fan of open world myself, I still had fun with what I played of Breath of the Wild and eventually plan on finishing it at least once I get done with Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and some other games. It may even get me to try out the other Zelda games that I own yet haven’t really played much of for whatever reason, and was definitely a high note for the Wii U to end on. Even if it ended up being ported on the Switch.

So, this leaves me with the question - Do I recommend the Wii U if you don’t already own one, and why did I buy a Wii U when I just said I lost interest in the system a couple years ago when moving to PC gaming and also when the Wii U’s been dead for a year and a half while the Switch has been out for a little less than that? Well, here’s the thing.

This year, I started my first job - a paid internship for the IT department at my mom’s job. And once we were getting that sorted out for the summer, I thought about jumping on the Switch train like most people I knew were doing. The Switch definitely has a lot of good games both already on the system and coming out for it, and is obviously Nintendo’s newest and most supported system right now, so it seems like it would be an obvious buy for me.

But then, this image was brought to my attention.

And sure, the point of this image has been debated, it was what got me thinking about the Wii U again and led me to looking at the prices of the Wii U since it’s death a year ago. I found that, well, the Wii U and it’s games were surprisingly cheap. The Wii U itself was almost half the cost of the Switch for the 32GB model, and the games were also far cheaper. I’ll just put it this way, for what I would be paying for a Switch on it’s own, I could buy a Wii U and have a good handful of games. And while I still plan on buying a Switch within the next year or two, I could still build a library of Wii U games for a cheaper price and faster rate. Just as one example, I could buy Mario Kart 8 used for about $25-$30 and buy the DLC for $12, and overall would be paying roughly 2/3rds of the price for the game than what I would be paying for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch (even if paying the extra $20 might be worth it for the improved Battle Mode, added characters and portability). Another more recent example I can think of is Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, a game I could buy for the Wii U for $20 instead of $60 on the Switch and just be really missing out on the easy mode, Funky Kong as a playable character and portability.

That said, do I recommend doing the same? Well, that’s a very big… maybe. If you’re a Nintendo collector or is on a tight budget and can’t afford the Switch, then this is definitely the best time to buy a Wii U. People are letting go of their Wii U systems left and right in favor of the shiny new Switch, and you can easily buy the system itself as well as most of it’s games at a decent price. And for what you’re paying, you’re still getting a pretty good 8th gen experience even if it doesn’t have the same kind of third party support that the Switch does. Of course, if you already own a Switch and you’re not a collector, it does seem like a bit pointless unless you’re waiting for games like Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker and the HD remakes of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess (or Star Fox Zero i guess if you like that game) to come to the Switch. I personally don’t regret buying a Wii U, and if you can’t afford a Switch and want a good modern experience on a budget, the Wii U is definitely worth checking out.

So, what are my overall feelings about the Wii U now that I’ve had it for about a month? Well, to be honest, it’s probably the most fun I’ve had with a console in a long time. While I do love my SNES and the rest of my retro consoles, I’ve never really had the opportunity to really have lots of fun with them since buying games for them is kind of hard due to supply and demand of long discontinued games. The Wii U on the other hand has a lot of great and modern stuff while being really affordable. I was personally a fan of the original Wii and considered it probably my second favorite console aside from the SNES (which is a heavily unpopular opinion), and I’m happy to say that the Wii U just feels like it’s improved from there. The Gamepad was overall a pretty interesting concept even if it was never really utilized, and I can definitely buy a good selection of games with how cheap they’re going for. While I’m still a PC gamer at heart and in retrospect am glad I switch to PC gaming for the most part, I still can’t help myself but to get sucked into games like Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild.

That said, that doesn’t make me unable to recognize why the Wii U failed. I mean, there’s literally hundreds of videos on the subject that are all totally original and haven’t been done before, but it really just boils down to a few things. The marketing for the system was poor, just down to even the name itself and people not being able to differentiate the Wii U as it’s own console and not just some overpriced gaming tablet accessory for the Wii. And while I like the Gamepad overall, I can’t really deny that it was kind of a confusing gimmick that caused the Wii U’s price to be more than what it should have been. I remember at one point the Wii U was considered a system that Nintendo fans loved yet Nintendo themselves didn’t, and… I can definitely see why people would think of it that way.

I think that wraps up my overall review and retrospective of the Wii U. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to read up on the news. Barack Obama was re-elected recently, and I’m sure he’s going to continue doing a great job as preside-

What’s that?

Barack Obama isn’t the president anymore?

He already finished his two terms?

Who’s the president then?

…

wait

Who’d you just say was the president?