Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts released on Wii U simultaneously with other platforms in November 2013 and became the last major mainline entry in the series to reach a Nintendo console. The campaign tells of a fallen superpower, the USA, after a devastating missile barrage, and follows a small squad called Ghosts fighting a former ally, with the game offering, for the first time in the series, control of a dog as a playable character during parts of the missions, letting the player move through tight spaces and attack enemies from behind. The campaign is also set in unconventional locations, including a space station and flooded ruins, meant to give the series visual variety.

The Wii U version again relied on the GamePad for displaying the map, managing loadout, and quickly switching weapons without the player needing to open the game menu on the main screen. Graphical performance remained below the level of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, which released around the same time as the new console generation, so the Wii U edition was technically closer to the older PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation of hardware. The multiplayer offered an extensive range of modes and unlockable gear including a loadout system, though the Wii U player population was noticeably smaller compared to other platforms even from release.

Reception of Ghosts was mixed among both critics and players across all platforms, as the series, according to many reviews, was starting to lose steam, and the Wii U version additionally added technical limitations imposed by weaker hardware. For Wii U's history, though, it remains the last major attempt to keep a current Call of Duty entry on the console before the publisher fully abandoned support for the platform, and further entries never targeted Nintendo consoles again, making the title a symbolic end of an era for the platform, after which the attention of major publishers shifted almost exclusively to the new eighth-generation consoles, and Wii U never reached another entry in the series.

Why play it: As the last major Call of Duty entry on Wii U, it mainly has historical value for collectors, while players looking for the series' peak entertainment will likely be disappointed.