The Wii: best console ever or big-time failure?

[Tetsuya the Azure Blade]

Nintendo seem to be rolling in money these days but why? The answer is the Wii. But the Wii SUCKS and nintey look like they don't give a rat's @#$. And WHAT does the Wii have? retarded looking graphics, Those STUPID Miis that DON'T DO ANYTHING, most of the only "games" that I'd EVEN CONSIDER playing have a fat Italian plumber with a red hat or a dumb blue hedgehog who doesn't look like he's watching where he's going and I'll only play those 'cause I like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. And the Wii is FORCING you to exersice with all that "motion sensitive" crap, I exersice WHEN I'M GOOD AND READY DAMMIT!. Also, has ANYONE noticed that Wii Sports is only fun when you're DRUNK?. Now some games on the Wii I'd buy are: Redsteel, Sonic\Mario games but NOT the "party games", The Conduit and that Metroid game.Y'see I'm mainly an FPS/RPG/Beat 'em up and somtimes platformer player and there doesn't seem to be many games I'd buy for that console (most Wii games look too kiddy) that's why I had (untlil my lil bro wrecked it) A PS3 and my XMAS pressie from my mom is an XBOX 360 (yay!)
Oh, and sorry to those who have and like the Wii. It's just that playing on the Wii looks like too much hard work and you might accidentally let go of the Wiimote and hit your best friend in the eye with it!
But I like most other Nintendo consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GC, GB/C, GBA and DS)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to play DOOM1 now *shoots a zombie in the head and runs for his life*

[Kain]

Well, judging by the past couple of topics made by you, you are not a happy person.

Now, granted.  I am here to partially defend the Wii, but keep in mind that I am NOT a one sided gamer.  I love all the systems and I feel that people are just being ridiculous over choosing one system since they didn't LIKE a certain game or something from one system.

Obviously you don't like the Wii.  Every person I've met who claims to hate the Wii has either A.  Never played it or B. Played one game that sucked and decided every single game for the system was just like it and gave up.

I don't know about you nor do I care.  But do you honestly want to know how many people I've met who claim they hate the Wii?  I can count them on my hands.  The number of people who have HONESTLY played many of the games and made their decision?  I've met four.

The Wii is not restricted to the Mii characters which you can use in most of the games like Mario Kart or the Wii Sports.  Now I don't know WHY you said you have to be drunk to enjoy Wii sports.  Lots of sober people, young, middle aged and older respectively, have all played this system and enjoyed themselves.  Granted...the game gets old fast when that's all anyone wants to play, but it's still a good starter game and it's free.

Now you see, I have no sense of taste for vision.  Graphics mean **** to me.  I can clearly see the difference between the 360, PS3 and Wii graphics on games like Guitar Hero 5.  But I still don't care.  I buy a game for fun, not for it's looks and graphics.  To me, those are a bonus.

Now why does everyone assume that the Mario games, Metroid and Sonic are the ONLY thing to play?  Maybe it's stereotype because it's Nintendo.  But if you want my honest opinion?  Red Steel was alright for multiplayer but the story was disapointing and the gameplay was hard to work with at times.

Mario Party lost it's magic after 3.  One was fun, two was alright and three was pushing it, but still pretty good.  After that it got crazy.  The only game I like on Mario Party 8 is Shake It Up where you have to shake the Wii mote in a dirty fashion to get a can of pop to spray up farther than the others.

Now that the dirty mental images are passed, I'll continue.

What about Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles?  It's a remake of the old Resident Evil, but instead of the standard hold down R1 and shoot, it takes you into a first person view where you can manually aim where to shoot.

Nipon Ichi released a game on the Wii.  I don't recall the name, but it's like Disgaea.  There are also Naruto games where the Wii motes movements cause you to do various techniques, power up certain ones you're using or make new move sets.  Other games such as FF CC Echoes of Time or New Super Mario Bros.  don't require much use of the wii motes nun chuck, whereas games like LoZ Twilight Princess DOES require movement, but you know what?  WHERE in the manual does it say you HAVE to move around?

I just sit down and the only time I ever move the nun chuck is to slash with Link's sword or to aim with the bow or hook shot.  Or when I'm playing DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 to use attacks like Kamehameha, and even then with these games it's a simple wrist flick.

Also, there's a STRAP on the remote so you DON'T accidentally send it flying across the room if you let go of it.

Also on the Wii is usage of internet and the ability to download old titles such as Mario bros or Super Mario RPG, Legend of Zelda Link to the past, Majora's Mask, Ogre Battle, Dig Dug and Donkey Kong...heck even Sonic The Hedgehog 1-3 and Megaman are available for download.  I know because I bought them.

I'm a lazy person, a VERY lazy person. I can personally tell you right now that playing the game is NOT a lot of work.  Maybe setting it up, especially when you've got annoying company that likes the game and you're constantly moving it room to room is a pain, but it's not too bad to deal with.  Especially once you've found a game for it that you honestly like.

[Ninja Steve]

I dislike the absoluteness of the topic title: being less than number one doesn't mean instant failure.

As to answer the question, I'll say I approve of the Wii. I don't own any of the next current-gen consoles, but I have a friend with a Wii. I spend large amounts of time at his house playing Brawl and Metroid Prime 3, occasionally taking a break to play one of the various Virtual Console games he has (or play D&D... yeah...).

[Charon]

You have been exceptionally agressive and vulgar lately, MegaDark, please try to tone it down or there will be circumstances.

Anyhow, the time I had with the Wii was limited by both time and the lack of good games and the nunchuck (thanks for the ripoff, brother). I liked the system for what small taste I had with it, but probably because of the frustrations induced by my brother`s lack of forethought, I never had a real chance to enjoy it. I bet if I played titles like Metroid Prime 3, No More Heroes and Madworld, and if I had a nunchuck, I would have been able to enjoy the system more.

Of course, the fact that many publishers view the Wii as a system for the casual and young demographic, hardcore gamers are really missing out. It`s really not the system`s fault for being labeled in this way.

[Tetsuya the Azure Blade]

Oh sorry it's just that my life totally sucks right now an' I'm really ****** off about it. But the one thing that seems to make all the crazy stuff unimportant is GAMES so when they suck, I'm BOUND to go BOOM!!!!! But the WHOLE reason I started this thead is 'cause I actually pity the Wii 'cause of its GAMER TRAP label that Nintendo kinda slapped it with. Videogames SHOULDN'T be "family friendly" 'cause if you make your consoles and games like that then your whole comapny is labeled THEY MAKE KIDDY GAMES STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING THEY MAKE I REPEAT STAY AWAY!!!! by gamers worldwide. Because if games are important to you then your life is ruined. By your baby(3 year old) bro\sis\cousin\niece\nephew being able to play their damn Dora the Exporer game on YOUR console. WHENEVERTHEY WANT BECAUSE THEY ARE LITTLE KIDS THAT CAN GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING THEY PUT THEIR MINDS TO!

Now if THAT doesn't suck to you then I don't know what does suck.

[Charon]

Nintendo, for the most part, isn`t producing those games - who you want to blame are the developers that are producing those "kiddy" games. Nintendo simply created the system on which they run :/

[Zach]

The Wii is alright. Only has a few good-great games. IMO, X360 is the best outta the 3, then PS3, then the Wii

[Rolina]

Wii started out strong, but now it's starting to crash.  It is proof that while it IS important to reach out to the untapped market of casual gamers, it's the hardcore gamers that keep coming back for more.  Casual gamers are just that - casual gamers.  They'll buy one, maybe two games, and play them every now and them.  They like the gimmicky nature of it and don't care for things that are deep or demand too much time.  But they also don't need a ton of games, just a few will keep them satisfied for a long time.

Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, are the ones that keep coming back.  They're interested in the next big story, title, or features.  They do NOT like gimmicky games, but rather prefer ones that focus more on being enjoyable.  They're the ones that hunt down the bad guys and blow them to smithereens, the ones who lead grand armies into campaigns to conquer or protect the land, the ones who journey on epic quests to save the world.  They do NOT want to save the world with a children's card game, but instead will opt for their trusty Sword, Spell, or Gun.  Or, hell, even the sports doods!  They come back year after year, yet get upset when the same kind of gimmicky crap that casual gamers crave pops up into their games.

The Wii had its boom because the casual market was UNTAPPED.  But now it's been tapped, and they're getting satisfied.  And Nintendo's going all: OSHI--, only in overly polite japanese.  Or something.  They are the Hare, up against the Tortoises known as the PS3 and the 360.  The hare's energy has been spent, and the Tortoises are starting to bypass it - in particular the PS3, which found a nice little skateboard to coast along the track on.

So, in my opinion...

PS3 - stable, now affordable, and with a steadily growing selection of good games
360 - unstable, affordable, and with a decent selection of games - many of which, however, are better for the PC.
WII - stable, most affordable, but good games are few and far between.

PS3 > 360 > WII

Of course, if you throw the PC in there, then it comes out like this:

PCH > PS3 > 360 > WII > PCL

Where PCH is a high end, up to date PC, while PCL is an outdated PC.

[Aile~♥]

I happen to quite like the Wii. The best games for the Wii that I've found are - *le gasp* - the Lego games, and of course Smash and Mario Kart. Smash only uses the Wii for its graphics and sheer processing power, while Mario Kart has some nifty features, all gimmicks, of course, but still fun. The Lego games, on the other hand, use the Wii Remote for what it's best at: A targeting cursor, as well as a few other things, but using the motion sensor is almost entirely optional, with the exception of the aforementioned targeting cursor.

My main problem is finding a good game among all the Barbie and Dora the Explorer crap out there. That problem also applies to the DS. But there are good games out there, if you know where to look. Specifically the Tales series is good from what I've seen and heard. Zelda can be good, Kirby is almost guaranteed awesome, but Metroid and Mario aren't my style. Sonic is crap and has been crap for a long time from what I've heard.

Xbox 360 and PS3 get a lot of crap too, usually in the form of Simpsons and sports games, and they are also affected by Sonic the Failhog.

[Rolina]

Heh, those games you said were good on the Wii?  Yeah, that's pretty much the thing - those ARE (for the most part) all the good games on the wii.  Everything else is directed towards preschool brats or the casual crowd...  HOPEFULLY the drop in sales will change that.  Auntie needs a reason to buy a wii!  GC games alone aren't gonna cut it!

[Kain]

Great games for the Wii?

Trauma Center Second Opinion

Trauma Center New Blood

They took away your DS stylus and gave you a wii mote in it's stead, along with not only more missions on Second Opinion, but a difficulty level.  Then on New Blood, you not only get a choice of which doctor to play as (No change in story, other than what's said during operations.) but now you have the option of two player co-op.  Now you get to murder patients with a friend! :D

Me and my bro were almost unstoppable on that game.  Brain surgery, open heart surgery, surgery in the dark, defusing bombs.  Easy.  A football player breaks his elbow and is reacting to a new numbing medication by twitching now and then?  We just can't do it!

Wii play is kinda crappy with billiards being the only real fun game on there, and even that's fixed where you HAVE to hit the ball they tell you to hit, otherwise you lose your turn, add in the fact you only get to hit eight balls, it loses something.

Wii sports is fun.  It's free and bowling is awesome, especially the "Knock down as many pins as you can" game where they add another row of pins on each turn until you finally have one shot to knock down 100 bowling pins at once.

Wii Music...eh.  I'll be honest, it's not what I was expecting.  Sure, there are hundreds of instruments to play with LOTS (???) of different songs to play, including Mario and Legend of Zelda theme songs, but unlike modern GH and RB games, this game doesn't care if you go off beat or mess up or whatever.

Heck, if you wanted to take maraca's, rapper calls, a harp, a toy piano, a dog barking and a man clapping his hands and stomping his feet to Mario, then you can do just that.  Don't want to stay in beat and just cause an unholy racket with background music?  You can do that too.

And hey, just for good measure, let's keep playback videos of that and spam it on youtube.

Haven't played Wii Resort.  Kinda wanted it for the kendo part, but that'd be about it from what I've seen on the box.

Wii fit...ask someone else.

Animal Crossing.  Ah yes, you're the only human in a town full of animals who can talk, wear clothes, have funky sounds playing when you talk to them in their animal sound, they have catchphrases and apparently have nothing better to do than keep track of you.

Peanut (A pink squirrel):  "258 weeks.  What's so special about 258 weeks?  Oh, nothing much, other than the LAST TIME YOU SPOKE TO ME! Kupo!"

Yes, she kept track of how long it's been since I last played.  The Kupo thing I added myself since you can change their catchphrases later on when they ask you to.  I actually have a penguin on there that says "Dood!" after everything he says.  Yes, I get bored easy.  No, I did not purchase this game.  Despite the fact it's repetitive, somewhat lacking in things to do and when people tell you "Come back tomorrow." they really mean, TOMORROW IRL, it was fun for a few days and it gave you a goal to work towards.  Pay back your piece of garbage house that he somehow manages to build into a nice, modern day building with large rooms, two stories and a basement.

Of course, I have yet to play City Folk, the wii version which lets you actually play online with others, but I doubt I'd want to.  Even spamming all capped swear words for the animal catchphrases, changing the town song to some game song, hitting people with axes and nets and naming my town Hell for s**** and giggles only goes so far.

Ghostbusters.  Ah yes, everyone should recall them.  Hopefully everyone knows about the upcoming movie or the video game that came out.  See, the wii version is totally different from the 360 and PS3 versions I'm told, but I don't know since I only have the PS3 version.  Despite what most would think, this game is immensely fun, not only do you get to battle ghosts as the new rookie member of the team who was hired specifically to test out new gadgets Egon had come out with, you also get to battle against familiar faces like Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man or The Grey Lady.

From Proton Packs to Slimer Streams, this game was better than I thought it would be.

Naruto Clash of Ninja revolution.  A 3D fighting game.  Pretty fun with friends if you can unlock all the characters since it's the only Naruto game to date that has four players.

FF Crystal Bearers.  I don't know anything about this one.  But I've heard it's pretty good.  I wouldn't recommend Echoes of Time though.  Save it for the DS since the game was made for it and still operates like it on the wii.

Mario Kart Wii:  This game was awesome.  No argument about it.  It featured new levels, new racers, new karts, you could use your Mii to race and depending on how you made him/her, depends on their weight class and vehicle choices.  They also show up on statues, advertisements and as crowd members.

Did I forget something?  Oh yes.  Remember most of the tracks from Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart Double Dash?  Well the programmers did, and they included some of them in the game.  From Mario Circuit and Ghost Track to Bowsers Castle and DK Mountain, this game lets you race on some of the old tracks in a modernized style of racing.  (The secret jump across half the level on Ghost Track from SMK is still there too.)

Add in you can race online against people around the world, it gets better.

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn.  Great game as it's a continuation of Path of Radiance, only a few years later.  Sadly, you start out as the Dawn (ie: Fail) Brigade and all the old characters have to be re-recruited as the game progresses and you switch between Micaia's army and Ike's army.  Along with new characters, classes and weapons, you also get to bring back EVERY character from the first, except Largo.  If you have save data from your Path of Radiance game, (It can't be Easy mode save data.) you can give your old recruits a boost from their old stats into their new current classes.

That's all for now.  It's late, I'm tired and I gotta be up early so I should have been in bed long ago anyways.

[Charon]

Heh, those games you said were good on the Wii?  Yeah, that's pretty much the thing - those ARE (for the most part) all the good games on the wii.  Everything else is directed towards preschool brats or the casual crowd...  HOPEFULLY the drop in sales will change that.  Auntie needs a reason to buy a wii!  GC games alone aren't gonna cut it!

Why not yell at the developers for not producing games for the hard core crowd?

[Rolina]

Are you kidding?  That happens enough as is.  They KNOW that hardcore gamers don't like the Wii.  That they've more or less shunned it for it's overly huge embrace of casual gaming.  We've spoken with our dollars, whined in our blogs, and many people have sent emails.  And now they're starting to feel the effects, as sales have dropped drastically over the last several months.  Sony, which used to be #3, is up to #1.  Thad no reason to listen until now.

Sadly, the DSi suffers because of this... It actually has many good games.  But a lot of hardcore gamers want a VC.  Nintendo's response?  They told me that if I want to play older games, to go get a GBA SP or something.  I'm not kidding.

I'll just get a PSP and put the VBA on it.  That should work for my VC until I can get a legit one.  But until Sony starts to seriously threaten Nintendo in the handheld market, they won't really care to listen to us core gamers, so long as the money flows in.

This is why competition is a good thing, guys.  This is why having multiple consoles is a good thing, guys.  When you're number 1, you don't listen to what people want so long as money is flowing is easily and nobody is threatening your status as #1.  Bad business practice, sure, but it's all too common.  When someone threatens your position, you have to start dishing out more quality.  More quality means better games.

Now that the casual market has been tapped, it's no longer a viable source for loads of cash.  Nintendo's seeing that, and if they don't act on it, then the wii is going to crash and burn.  And unless handheld gaming gets something that can compete well against the DSi, we'll get more 'business as usual'.

[Kain]

Nintendo is going to face some dark times soon.  With the 360 developing the Natal, pretty soon the Wii will become obsolete and even its basic games will suffer.  Natal is pretty much a giant, freaking motion sensor web cam that puts you in the game.  The previews they had were some kind of soccer game where a ton of balls are sent flying at you and you have to move around and block as many as you can.

Another game featured playing as a giant monster and you have to wave your arms and roar to breath fire and smash buildings.  Now for the one that creeped me out a tad bit.  Milo.  Some virtual boy who talks to you and recognizes you by the face scan from the camera.  He shows various emotions and can understand everything you say to him. (From what I've seen.)

Anything you draw, you can put up to the camera, the camera will recognize it, and then Milo will reach up, and take the paper or the item if that's all you wanted scanned was on the paper, and he'll have a hold of it.

Or the new pet game.  You can draw a car on a piece of paper.  The camera will recognize the car, put it in the game, and the monkey they showed will drive it and apparently crash it.  You can even pet him and pick him up.  Personally, I can't wait to see how that little guy reacts to a fist.

Even at the press conference, the director had stated that the Wii was a simple game and all you really had to do was wiggle a controller with your wrist.

I believe I made a somewhat similar statement earlier that you don't HAVE to be active for the Wii.

Now onto Sony.  They have their own hand held, the PSP and for some reason, their genius idea to make the PSP Go, which from what I've heard about it, it fails more epically than the ET Game on Atari.

No area for a PSP Game disk, no USB port, no TV connector like the original PSP.  How do you get games?  Simple...you gotta purchase them online then download them.  FAIL.  There are only a few good games for the PSP on the PSN and that's NOT including the classics which are duel compatible.  For the disks for the regular PSP, there aren't that many good games again.

Crisis Core, Dissidia, Silent Hill Shattered Memories, Soul Calibur Chains of Fate (???), God of War Fate of Olympus (???), Monster Hunter, Patapon and Prinny Can I Really Be the Hero? to name a few from the store I've seen near me.  Granted, I've seen some good looking games out at Gamestop, but I don't normally go looking for hand held games when I shop.  So far, I own four times as many DS games than I do PSP games and I still own more GBA games than my DS count probably.

The even sadder part is while the DS is reverse compatible to the GBA games, GBC has to be taken onto the GBA or I have to dust off my GBC.  I think now that it's a good thing I didn't buy that device that lets you play your hand held games on the big TV because I don't even use my Gamecube anymore and the Wii doesn't seem to have that hook up on it.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that Role is right.  Unless Sony steps it up with their hand held games, Nintendo will remain on top with that.  However, pretty soon their main system will be their downfall.

[Zach]

Nintendo is going to face some dark times soon.  With the 360 developing the Natal, pretty soon the Wii will become obsolete and even its basic games will suffer.  Natal is pretty much a giant, freaking motion sensor web cam that puts you in the game.  The previews they had were some kind of soccer game where a ton of balls are sent flying at you and you have to move around and block as many as you can.

Wasn't something similar to that created a few years ago?

[Atrius (He/They)]

They've had simple webcam games that detect motion for a while now, but nothing quite like Project Natal.  Natal is way more sophisticated, it actually tracks your body movements, and can tell where your arms and legs are at.  Those other games just detect any motion at all, they can't tell the difference between you waving your arm, or the wind blowing the curtains in the background.

[Zach]

Oh I see. Thanks for clearing that up

[Rolina]

Yeah, Natal seems really ambitious... but because of that, I'm really suspicious.  Knowing how real life tends to work, it seems like there's no way it's going to be able to live up to the hype.  It'll still be the most advanced thing out there, but the sad thing is that people will see it as disappointing simply because they had unrealistic hopes for it.

If it wasn't for a system with an epic fail fail rate (55% of 360 consoles are defective and have to be replaced, according to a few recent surveys), I'd actually be pretty interested.  But, to continue with my tortoise vs hare analogy from earlier, if the PS3 is the Tortoise that discovered the wheel, then the 360 is the Tortoise with a gimp leg.  Plus, most of the good games on the 360 are BETTER on the PC, as I've stated before.  PSN and XBL are nice and all, but nothing compares to the ability to have free user created content that PC delivers.  For example:  I could buy Oblivion for the PS3 or 360.  But why?  I can get it for my PC, and get graphical upgrades, user made item packs, totally new user-made adventures, and all sorts of goodies.  For the low low price of free.  The best I can do on a console?  Buy the expansion packs.  WHICH I WOULD BE DOING ANYWAYS FOR THE PC.

...Wow, I go off on tangents alot.  Anywho, back to Natal.  It looks really promising, but as with the Wii, I want to try it before I buy it.  One thing's for certain, though.  I will never.  EVER.  Play a racing game without motion sensing controls.  I always hated racing games, but I played on on the Wii--where you actually STEER to control--and it just fit.  I mean, come on.  How many times have you turned your controller in a vain effort to help the joystick do its job, only to have the person next to you laugh and say that you can't turn the car by turning the controller?  Well, on the Wii, you COULD do that.  I imagine you should be able to do it with the current SixAxis technology, as well as the Gem and Natal things.  So these motion sensing things are a good idea for SOME GAMES.  They're not a replacement for buttons, though, which is what Natal seems to want to be.  NOTHING can replace the classic controller.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that Role is right.  Unless Sony steps it up with their hand held games, Nintendo will remain on top with that.  However, pretty soon their main system will be their downfall.

Actually, I must disagree... The console WON'T be their downfall, they'll just pull a Sega.  Sort of.  You see, while they are starting to feel the pain in the console market, they DOMINATE the handheld market.  NOTHING comes close.  As such, they'll stay in business.  Even if there's no sequel to the Wii, there WILL be one for the DSi.  Hell, the DSi is simply the Gameboy Color to the old Pocket version.  Same thing, slightly more powerful.  Just you wait.  It's gonna go all DSA on us.

[Atrius (He/They)]

You mean after the DSiXL, right?

[Rolina]

That's just the DSi, but for old or blind people... or whiny people who complain about 'small screens'.  But it's basically the same thing, just big enough so that people stop whining about the tiny screen.  If they had better resolution, THEN I'd agree with you there, but there's no difference other than size from what I've seen.