I wrote a blog a while ago called 'disillusionment with the Wii' which basically described how I traded my Wii in for and Xbox-360 because I was sick of the low quality of games available for the console and the patronising attitude that Nintendo seemed to adopt with it's customers.
Boy; Did I dodge a bullet there eh? Collette mentioned in a post about how about 30% of Wii games are not even reviewed- probably because they are a bunch of shovelware crap and I can honestly say that I saw this one coming. The only thing that kept me with the Wii for so long was (a) because I have always been a Nintendoid and (b) because of the Virtual Console. It all got too much for me when I saw the upcoming games schedule for Wii and XBox 360 and saw "Streetfighter 4" "Resident Evil 5" and "FIFA 10" coming out on the '360 and some cheap Dead Rising port coming out for Nintendo's white box.
It now seems that the XBLA has overtaken even the virtual console in terms of quality games. At one time I would have a giggle at Topher Cantlers XBLA reviews on RF Go, but more recently (before the short break anyway) he had nothing but good things to say, and with games like Braid, Castle Crashers, Shadow Complex, Castlevania SOTN, Zombie Apocalypse, Trials HD, Battlefield 1945, Monkey Island, Worms 2 and 'Splosion man (to name a few) I cannot but agree. Virtual console is now second best.
I would be interested to see what the opinions are of people that have stuck with the Wii until now. What is keeping you attached to the little white box, or do you also have a PS3 or Xbox 360 to slake your gaming thirst? Do you agree with me that the only 'big name' titles that the Wii gets is crappy ports created by the software houses 'b' team (probably the same bunch that does the DS port)? Do you think that decent Wii games like Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 and Wii Sports resort justify you actually owning a Wii?
|
Gawii UK's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
1) This is much moreso a forum topic than appropriate for a blog.
2) You shouldn't post multiple articles closely together on the blogs. It's a rule to ensure that the page doesn't get spammed. I could go into more detail why it's a bad thing, but just trust me on this.
Plus I disagree with your 'forum topic' comment- a blog is a blog dude- I just happen to invite other people's thoughts at the end of it.
I don't think you "dodged a bullet" by selling your Wii -- Just because you owned the console didn't mean you were being forced to buy shovelware at knifepoint. I own a Wii, and I have more games for it than I have for my PS3 and 360 (when I had one). Not one of them is a supposed "shovelware" title, and they all make up a healthy split of 1st- and 3rd-party games. You need to know how to find the good games, not just assume a console is bad because it has shovelware titles. All of them have that.
The PS2 has been getting most of the same recent cash-in games the Wii has been getting. Does that mean it's also a shitty console that no one should bother with?
I had the console from launch to this January gone (2009), and before that I exclusivley owned Nintendo consoles back to the NES- I remember when any game that came out on a Nintendo was the flagship of it's kind, but I don't think that this is the case any more with the Wii. I think my love affair started to end when I saw some fairly decent games, with a huge depth of features and on-line capabilities coming out on the rival consoles and all I was getting was a dumbed down version of the same thing, but with less features and unneccesary 'waggle' controls thrown in (FIFA 09 sealed it for me- it was utter crap and quite literally broken on-line.)
I can't really comment on the PS2 because I've never owned a Playstation in my life, but it is a 'last gen' console that is only still on the shelves because a huge number of people own one.
I've held onto it this long, and around this time of year I mull over selling/trade-in since I think the motion controls on PS3/360 will out-do those on the Wii. (I, like a few others, suspect the pack-in for PS3/360 motion controls will out-do Wii Sports at least.) All I really want from motion control is a boxing game that I don't have to hang onto a controller, or, at least not have to have a wrist strap attached. If I want to use hand weights instead of controller, I think that would be best.
Overall, I'm most disappointed in the lack of online gaming for the Wii. I also wish I would have gotten in on the homebrew back when it was somewhat easier. I won't mod it regardless if I keep it unless/until it is no longer current gen.
I think anyone that has fun with the Wii should really enjoy it. I know local multiplayer is a blast, just don't have close friends living nearby anymore.
I would note that your reasoning behind an upward trend is a bit fabricated: Note that most of your games noted are part of Microsoft's "Summer of Arcade" initiative. They stack the high interest/high quality games around one time of the year. Topher has most certainly handed out an ample helping of bees over the rest of the year.
Also, you're comparing Virtual Console to XBLA. VC is primarily old classics, and by now, most of the excellent games have in fact come out. Unfortunate, but not unreasonable, I think.
Feel how you feel. That's cool. But it looks like you're buying the marketing instead of realizing the actual positives.
To answer what seems like an honest question:
I've had a bunch of fun experiences on the Wii, as a single player gamer, that have definitely "justified owning" the system. While lists in a Wii post are a little cliched, hey, I've got one:
-Prime 3 was a great wiimote first person experience, as well as a good ending to the Prime Trilogy
-Galaxy was hella fun
-Brawl, man, Brawl!
-I'm not a huge golf fan, but playing Tiger Woods is an awesome time with Motion Plus
-Wii Sports Resort is worth it for sword play and table tennis, if not a good demonstration of a bunch of Motion Plus concepts.
(First party stuff, right? Check this out...)
-Deadly Creatures, while short, was an enjoyable little tale with solid "waggle"
-Madworld was very hip. Probably one of the more humorous games I've played through this year
-No More Heroes!?! That series is a masterpiece in its own category. Brawler sensibilities, with a heaping spoonful of personality and palettable motion controle
-Muramasa. Gorgeous. Fun.
-Zack and Wiki. I haven't finished it, but it makes great use of the motion controller
-Red Steel wasn't as bad as all that (Considering the burden of being THE sword game on the Wii), and actually has some interesting art direction and level design.
-Rune Factory, arguably the Wii's only epicly long gaming experience. Haven't finished it, but its a solid goto if I get a lull in my backlog
There's even WiiWare. The Bit Trip Series is amazing, Mega Man 9 was special (something about a sideways wiimote made it feel right, for me), Swords and Soldiers was surprisingly solid, the Alien Crush remake was great, and Lost Winds was incredibly refreshing. World of Goo, though a PC port, made alot of sense as an IR pointer game.
Looking ahead, I'm excited about Red Steel 2, No More Heroes 2, A Boy and His Blob (next week!), both of the mario games, the inevitable Zelda game, Lost Winds 2, Super Meat Boy, Cave Story (never played the PC version), and whatever their thinking about doing with a Vitality Sensor. I dig new tech, and I'm very curious about how that's going to pan out in a gaming context (if any).
So, you could say there's a few things that I'm satisfied with on the Wii. I play alot of games, on all three consoles, and find myself doing alot of not gaming on both the 360 and PS3, between Netflix and the PS3 Internet Browser. If we're keeping score, I'm pretty much just gaming when I turn on my Wii. But whatever. Silly point is silly.
While its disappointing the the best thing you found was homebrew, with all these cool things happening on the Wii, everybody finds their own highpoints.
@ Tubatic- you make some pretty good points my friend, but a sizeable number of games you quoted are first person, and you don't mention the timing of the games either. There's like one excellent game comes along once every six months and the rest is tripe.
The 'summer of arcade' is over and we're still geting decent games on XBLA like Zombie Apocalypse, South Park and Lucidity. The Virtual Console was amazing at it's best weeks but that too is few and far between.
The games I found exciting were just not coming out on the Wii and the ones that did were really crappy ports of the PS3 or XBox version. I'm not just talking graphically here, but content too.
Nintendo certainly have something magical about them, but I couldn't just sit around waiting for the next 'Galaxy' when my mates were all on Street Fighter 4.
If I'm reading right, a good game, in this argument, is invalidated because its made by Nintendo (or a was a first party property?)? And thusly, all the other games I mentioned, didn't interest you at all, so there must not be a good reason in general?
You asked for a reason why someone would still have a Wii, and that's what you got. If you're just looking for a manner of invalidating an answer, then it sounds like this blog was pointless, right?
As I noted, it sounds like you made the right choice for you. Especially if you're going to have just one system.
I'm not invalidating anything- it's just a bit of debate. You gave a point and then I responded with a counter-point. You said that there are loads of good Wii titles and I'm basically disagreeing, as that is one of the reasons I gave up on the Wii in the first place.
...
ok, man. I cam to inform, not to debate. :D
I would assume the original writer.
Or maybe you don't like those sorts of games.
I've been gaming since I was about 5 years old- so that's 22 years of quite varied gaming that I have experienced. I have never ever felt the need to turn my back on any of the Nintendo consoles before- even the N64 and I didn't touch the Playstation when it first came out.
I just think something has changed with the Wii. It smacks of huge profit generation with the cheapest outlay for Nintendo under the guise of "anyone can play." However, this is not the reason why I traded my xbox in for a Wii- I traded my Wii in because I was a little tired of waiting for the next decent title to come out that appealed to me. The next 'decent title' was usually a first person Ninendo game in my eyes and the rest just didn't reach out to me at all.
Some, like the FIFA series were just plain laughable when it came to the depth of the game. They came across as patronising. I guess it is all down to the games, and my preferences. I'll always have a fondness for Nintendo, and had I got the cash I would have kept the Wii (just as I still have my SNES, Gamecube and N64)but I didn't and I traded it in.