Taking Screenshots on the Wii U

Who knew that working out how to get a screenshot on a Wii U would take so much effort?!

There’s no quick “snap” button or combination of buttons, to my knowledge, and there were no helpful hints on how to do so that were immediately apparent, anyway.

So it took me a few minutes of googling to see what the hell I was supposed to do.

Sure, when the Wii U came out, it wasn’t exactly at a time where screenshots and game capture were a standard feature that is expected.  However, with it’s dual-screens, MiiVerse and being online.  It seemed like a feature that was bound to exist! It does.  It’s just a little arduous to go through the process in the middle of a heated race or battle!

How do you do it?

Ok, well, the good new is that it isn’t hard.  It’s just a long way around and it interrupts your gameplay.

1. Decide what you want to capture;
2. Press the “home” button;
3. Go to “MiiVerse”
4. Wait for it to connect, whilst it shows you the time and the time around the world……;
5. In the screen that’s then presented to you, select the screen(s) that you wish to capture (nice feature being able to snap both the main screen, and the Wii U tablet screen!);
6. Return to game;
7. Wait for the game to catch-up with itself, and back into the fray you go!

Getting your pictures

So you’ve snapped away and got some nice shots.  Where do you get them from now?

All of your captures go to your own personal photo album on the MiiVerse website.

Simply login, go to your “Screenshot Album” which is one of the options you have under your profile, and there they are!  Everything is even organised by game, which is a really nice touch.

Click on your image, then right-click and “save image as….”, then you can save it to wherever you wish.

 

 

All in all

It’s a little clunky, but it works, and the option to get a shot of the gamepad screen at the same time, is a touch of genius.

It isn’t as quick and as straight forward as capturing the screen on the Xbox One or PS4, or even the Switch.  It isn’t as obvious or demonstrated to the console owner/user, at all, but it is there!

To be fair, as the Wii U userbase likely starts to die out, it’s going to be less and less of an issue.  In fact, perhaps people aren’t bothered now? I mean, the console came out in 2012, and we’re in the back half of 2017 now, so it’s not likely to be a hot-topic anymore.

It definitely isn’t going to be changed, so it’s the best we have.

Time to get snapping, instead of taking photos on my phone, of crucial in-game moments from Breath of the Wild!  If only I knew how to do it before now…..