Reddit mentions of Remote Plus, Mario - Nintendo Wii

1. All the most hyped games accept 4 players including NSMBU, Smash Bros 4, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World and all those party games. All very kid and parent friendly, some a little bit more difficult than other.
   
   
2. The base console only comes with a gamepad, controllers are a big price changer (for me at least). I suggest buying the Wii Remote Plus controllers as most of the games use them. Alternatively there is the Pro Controller, it's very praised, with a huge battery life and basically it's a gamepad without the screen.
   
   
3. It's not as unpopular as expected, it depends mostly on the country, there's a huge fan base and at least I see a great future for it. You can check some of the Black Friday deals on this sub. Also Nintendo is getting it extremely right with it's exclusives, MK8 and Smash are awesome and for some "mature" games Bayonneta 2 have been very acclaimed. Next generation console is pretty far as they have just begin to launch all the main games for it.
   
   edit: Oh and for the ps4 and xbone games that aren't available for the Wii U, Ubisoft is avoiding it and said that Watch Dogs may be the last one, you can only have a cinematic experience in Assassins Creed Unity with other consoles. We also won't have Call of Duty any more.No minecraft and something that I actually miss is the last FIFA we had is 13. So a bunch of games are available for ps4 and xbone but not for the Wii U, I would go even further and say most of these consoles games aren't on the Wii U. But hey almost all of the best games of the Wii U are exclusives too.

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for being as detailed as possible, it helps me answer your question. Also, this controller infographic might come in handy. I personally would sell the Wii and remotes, and just buy Wiimotes with Motion Plus already built in. This list shows the games that need Wiimotion plus, and as you can see there isn't many of them, yet you are right, to play Skyward Sword you need one. Since you already have a Wii built into your Wii U and know you need the Motionplus, you could always buy one of the custom new ones, such as the Mario or Luigi ones. A lot of people have bought Wiimotes with motion plus built in refurbished from Nintendo and have had good luck with that. Keep any nunchucks you have. Also, the pro controller is definitely worth it. It is light, insane battery life and your guests will appreciate playing on that over a Wiimote. Hope I answered your questions and feel free to ask more!

It depends on what games you want to play.
The old school Wii Remote and Nunchuck will work on many multiplayer games and are also necessary for playing any Wii games

However, if you want to play Wii U games, you can also choose the Wii U Pro Controller. (which can NOT be used when playing original Wii games. Only for Wii U titles)

I have found that owning one of these isnt necessary, I have been able to get by with 4 players on my Wii U using only the supplied gamepad and 4 old Wii motes (nintendo land, mario kart, mario bros can all work with the old wii motes).

It's also probably worth mentioning that this is a Wii subreddit, and your question relates to a Wii U.
I don't mind one bit...but you know what people can be like :)

the old Wii remotes were upgraded towards the end of the life of the original Wii, so if you plan on getting Wii remotes, make sure you get the Wii Remote Plus models, to ensure you can use them on everything (some games require the added "Plus" functionality to work)

At this point it kinda became something to collect. I have my Wii in another room from the Wii U, so I just pair them to their respective systems and I can at least tell myself "They all have a purpose". Personally I prefer to have controllers of different colors since it's a lot easier to distinguish between "the 3rd player light" and "the green controller".

I started with 4 white regular Wiimotes from the Wii. Through out the life I got 2 motion+ adapters (With Tiger Woods and Wii Sports Resort).

For everything EXCEPT golf I prefer the smaller controller with motion+ built in. For Golf (Tiger or Wii Sports) I find the longer length preferable, so I kept 1 original remote with motion plus and started getting new colored controllers to replace the originals. I have friends and family with Wii's so 3 of my 4 originals were gifted to new homes as I got new ones.

If you buy Nintendo Refurbs it's pretty cheap. You can get 3 separate colors (White, Black, Blue) with matching nunchucks for $65 shipped.

I also got the Zelda collectors edition so that right there is 5. (White+ Black+ Blue+ Gold+ White w/adapter)

The wife wanted Pink Motion+, so now that's 6.

and my son Likes the Mario + Luigi ones, so I got him the Luigi one from the Newegg NintendoLand deal last month ($30 shipped for both) and since I owned NintendoLand I sold it (Factory sealed) on Amazon for $20. So that's my 7 which doesn't include the Black Wiimote+ I got in Wii Party U I gifted out.

Honestly I'd love to get a Red one with a matching nunchuck myself but for the price of importing them from Japan I could buy a Wii mini and give away the system. I'm hoping they show up on the Refurb store at some point.

Now the Wife LOVES the Peach one so I'll definitely be getting that at minimum and that'll be 8 (unless she wants to gift out the original pink), but can already see a potential 9 or 10 if I get a deal on the Mario / Regular red controllers.

and now they announced a Yoshi one... Arrrrrrrrrrgh. Gonna have to think about that.