Well, I finally bought a Wii U, but it took quite a few things to make it even remotely interesting.
1- I got it for 130$ (open box white 8gb model...very nice)
2- I had an AC-powered 500gb hard drive lying around
3- I bought the nintendo extra large battery (~40$, effectively doubles the gamepad's battery life)
Skip this part if you feel like, I just like rambling:
My main gripe with the system is that you can buy a ps3 for 200$ now (500gb model, I don't include the xbox because I've owned one since 2007 and it's clearly an inferior device - not in the gaming sense, but in that it has no blu-ray player and you need to have Gold just to get access to Netflix, not to mention that the 360's media streaming is so much worse), which has a far greater library of games that you can play NOW, and not in 2014-2016.
This same criticism, however, applies also to the ps4 and xb1 which really only will seem like graphical upgrades for the current stock of games. Try not to roll your eyes, but I own a pretty good computer (modestly overclocked i5-3570k and gtx 670) that I have hooked via a 25' HDMI cable into my TV, and merely making a game prettier is not worth a 500$ console purchase. What I mean to say is that games like GTA V took year and hundreds of millions of dollars to make, and just because it's a new console won't magically make the same investment turn into a more compelling gameplay experience (map size, AI, player agency, etc.), nor make the publisher's making them more efficient.
There's no killer app/game for the Wii U, and though I can't tell you which game I'd like to see (although I'm a sucker for the usual suspects Metroid and Zelda), the real issue is that any game that can demonstrate an awesome application for the tablet gamepad will be the real decider. A good parallel would be the Oculus Rift, which I find to be the only TRUE "next-gen" gaming peripheral, as it's the only device that will open new worlds for gaming. The ps4/xb1 are just an iphone 5s to an iphone 4s.
My point:
At this point it would be almost impossible to make the Wii U a success beyond a modest one...its design paradigm is shaky to begin with (although it is criminally underrated, it's a lovely device with decent hardware and off TV-play is wonderful in a crowded house). It relies on jarring you out of your gaming experience on the screen to glance at a smaller one in your hands, tiring your eyes out faster and dulling your sense of immersion (human beings like focusing on one thing at a time). It's priced too highly to not offer anything compelling over a 360 or ps3.
Zombie U is a rocky starting point but I'd like to see them come up with even more ideas on how to use the gamepad (by design, it must be INTEGRAL to the experience to make the Wii U compelling over any other system, including the Wii). Maybe even a Myst-like game where you can use your gamepad as an interactive note-taking book (just shooting out ideas here), or a metroid game where your gamepad can be used to cycle in real time to your ship (that you can remote control) or in COD games you can view your drones to survey the area (controlling with you stylus, so that you're still free to move around).
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