There's been a lot of discussion on the state of third-parties and the Wii (as you can tell by my blog), but I'm starting to see things develop, and they appear to mirror the exact same thing Japanese third-parties did with the DS. You know: Misunderstand for the first year or two, and then finally it clicks and they started getting the ball rolling.

We've already seen No More Heroes (in my opinion, the best game on Wii, period) this year, but we've also seen a surprise hit in Boom Blox. Last year we got announcement that Monster Hunter 3 was going to be exclusively on Wii; and from the same company did we receive the cult hit Zack & Wiki. Not to mention Vanillaware announcing the exciting-looking Oboro Muramasa Youtouden.

But aside from routine dickslaps to the face from Ubisoft, Wii seems to be getting a lot more love lately. Namely, in the form of very interesting and appealing exclusives.

Rune Factory Frontier was just announced for Wii, and it looks absolutely beautiful--what a Rune Factory game should look like. I didn't get the DS game, but I sure as hell am keeping a close eye on this one.

Next we have Fatal Frame IV, which is a collaboration from a holy trinity of Nintendo, Capcom, and Grasshopper Manufactures (aka, Suda51). Universally regarded as the scariest video games out there, Goichi Suda no doubt will further turn the games into a huge mind-fuck--not to mention the game could be argued to look better than Silent Hill 5 (from what we've seen of both games, anyway).

Then there's Tenchu IV, which is, from all evidence, appearing to be designed as the definitive and greatest Tenchu game yet. Of course, we haven't a finished product by which to judge, but this is another game that is going beyond lazy PS2-era graphics and looks to definitely dig into the Wii to improve the visuals (arguably, so far its visuals look on-par with Tenchu Z, a 360 game).

We also have The Conduit, which to most HD gamers looks unremarkable, but to many others seems to give out serious vibes of Half-Life 2 and Perfect Dark (not the shitty 360 one--the one on N64 that's superior to GoldenEye. Yeah, I said it). The game may very well be a significant test of the proverbial waters, because when IGN first unveiled the game publishers didn't want a thing to do with it, claiming no market for such a game existed for Wii. As usual, the publishers had their heads up their asses, because IGN's page for The Conduit ended up being one of the most commented articles in IGN history, and just about all the comments were excited and positive. If The Conduit is a success financially and artistically, we may see the door really open for Wii's mature, "core" game support.

And then finally we have the all but confirmed Castlevania Wii as another exclusive. Not much is known other than the fact it exists.

What do y'all think? Do you agree this could very will be the turning point in Wii's (Japanese) third-party support? It's obvious the Western developers for the most part will shun the Wii since many Westerners hold graphics first and foremost, so I'm not expecting much to change on that front. But I honestly think we may truly be hitting the point in Wii's life reminiscent of where the DS stopped being quick ports and cash-ins and started getting upmarket support. Dare I say Dragon Quest X on Wii?