As an owner of all three of the current generation this generation has to offer, I have obviously discovered that none of them are perfect or blatantly superior to the other. This is one installment of a three-part blog entry that discusses what, in my opinion, needs to be done to improve the three consoles of this video game generation. I’m only going to be covering the ‘big three’ in this;

--Xbox 360
--Wii
--PlayStation 3

The current era of handhelds will be left out of this discussion. I once again point out that these articles are my opinions based on experience with all three systems.

Nintendo and I have been going through a rather weird relationship for the last few years. I was pretty much a die-hard Nintendo fan growing up and still claim that the SNES is the most successful gaming system of all time, and that die-hard Nintendo mentality lasted right through most of the Nintendo 64 generation. While I enjoyed all of my time with my N64 playing classics like Mario Kart, Jet Force Gemini, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, and Super Smash Bros. (the N64 version is still the best)… I was starting to feel the pull away from Nintendo, and I wanted to see what all of this fuss was about in regards to the Sony Playstation. I eventually did grow dull of the standard Nintendo lineups and constantly wanted to play some PSX games with my friends, and then one specific game came along and my die-hard love for Nintendo was pretty much over from that point on.

The Nintendo Gamecube was the second system I bought from the last generation. I bought it anticipating the release of Twilight Princess, along with knowing other games such as Metroid and Resident Evil 4 were on the way. In an ironic twist of fate I ended up buying my Nintendo Wii for… well, Twilight Princess. Thus my relationship with Nintendo can be described as unfulfilled anticipation. I eventually did get Twilight Princess and enjoyed the game (and I think its better than Mario Galaxy) but beyond that, I’ve had little to enjoy in regards to my Nintendo Wii. I don’t know if its just that I’ve grown out of the Nintendo target audience, or if their target audience shifted away from the likes of me, but I just cant comprehend why the Wii is just blowing away the likes of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. Now I will definitely admit that the Nintendo has done some good things for the video game industry, however like the other two systems it does have things that I feel need improvement.

--Software
Despite having the largest install base of the three systems, it is hard to argue against the Wii having the weakest software library of the three current era systems. Most of the successful titles on the Wii right now are first party Nintendo titles like Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy while other successful titles are ports from titles built for the Gamecube like Resident Evil 4 and Twilight Princess (sorry, but Zelda in my opinion is just a refined port like RE4). Now while we get the occasional third party hit like No More Heroes and Madworld, there are about 4 Red Steels and one could argue that the Wii has as many quality titles since its launch as the PS3/360 has in a single year. For the record I have no problem with ‘casual’ games what so ever, it’s just that a bad or mediocre game is just a bad or mediocre game regardless of its target audience. Trying to convince someone otherwise is like trying to convince someone that a donkey is a Kentucky Derby racehorse. Nintendo will eventually get backlashed even by the casual gamer world if they don’t tighten up their standards and put out higher quality games, otherwise people are simply going to realize that there are a lot of identical mini game collections with waggle and that there aren’t a lot of reasons to invest further money into the system.

Upon its introduction into the world, back when it was still called the Nintendo Revolution, a lot of people envisioned the Wii as being the ideal system for sports games and first person shooters alike, as well as having the standard Nintendo backbone titles as support. Nintendo, tighten up your quality requirements before allowing a game to come out onto your system. I speak for a lot of people when we’re sick of seeing so-so titles and half-assed ports on your system.

--Hardware
I know this really isn’t fair considering fixing this problem would require an overhaul of the system, and the Wii’s lacking in graphics was for the most part intentional, but the Wii needs to at least take a small step into the high definition age of graphics. Right now the Wii is basically an over clocked Xbox Original, and still lacks some of the functionality that system had, like a nice internal hard drive. A lot of gamers nowadays, especially ones who already own one of the other next generation systems, have high definition televisions and Wii titles simply look like ass in high-def (and since the system is basically an external DVD drive, wouldn’t DVD support be nice?).

It’s because of this lacking in hardware that I really don’t classify the Wii as a ‘next gen’ system. In my opinion a next-gen system is a system that jumps to the next plateau in regards of console technology and graphics, and the Wii isn’t really fit the bill on either of those; games utilizing motion and ‘point-click’ setups have been in arcades for a long time, and like I said the hardware isn’t much better than an original Xbox. The other way I define ‘next gen’ is by using this analogy… when you build a new computer, do you buy new parts that are only a little bit better than your old computers parts? No because regardless of what you use your computer for you’re going to want a more powerful beefy new rig.

--Online Play
WiiFi sucks, plain and simple. The Playstation 2’s online setup was arguably better than what the Wii currently has and a revamp is in order. The Friend Codes need to go and a more centralized system needs to be put in place even if it’s a stripped down version of Xbox Live or PSN’s setup. I hope I’m also not the only person who has had problems in regards to lag and such while attempting to play online with the Wii, my experiences with Smash Brothers Brawl have been abysmal at best. The one good thing WiiFi has going for it is the automatic updates that happen with the system, although I will admit the first time I saw my Wii slowing fading in and out with a blue glow scared the crap out of me, probably because I’ve naturally associated a flashing console ring with very bad things. But I honestly don’t know if I can delve into details about Wii’s online system, because in all honesty the problem is the entire system as a whole and like I said the only good things about it are its store setup and its updates. Nintendo, if you’re going to utilize online gameplay take an example from your bigger brothers.

--Peripherals
Not the ridiculous remote attachments that make your remote pretend it’s a light gun or a tennis racket… no those things are just beyond silly, I’m talking about things such as the LAN adapter, nun chucks, and the classic controllers. The Wii comes with a single nun chuck, but beyond that all there of these items are sold complete separate when in my opinion some of the ‘peripheral’ items need a little bundling and refinement. For one the LAN adapter should simply be included with the system. The Wii is marketed towards your standard every day family and while most families have internet these days not too many of them have wi-fi, let alone know how to set up a secure wireless network. The lack of an Ethernet port on the Wii made me scratch my head, the required purchase of an adapter to use Ethernet made me punch my head (and it hurt). It’s like my complaint about the 360 not having wireless support, except totally backwards.

Most games that aren’t a lightgun shooter or collection of mini games require a nun chuck for use. My complaint here is simple, nun chucks should be bundled in with Wiimotes and shouldn’t be two separate purchases. Coupled with this complaint, is that the Classic Controllers for the Wii require a standard controller in order to use them forcing you to have an annoying dongle sitting beside you as you game. The simple fix for this should be that Classic Controllers shouldn’t need wiimotes in order to be played, they should take a page from the Wavebirds and have the controller directly connect to the system. Buying four wiimotes and four classic controllers is simply too damn costly, and if Nintendo’s target audience really is the casual family then this is definitely not going to keep up for long.

In essence for me the Wii is filling the shoes that my Gamecube left behind, it’s a system that is just under utilizing itself. Out of all of the things I’ve mentioned I’d most certainly want to see the software library improve the most, I’m not a Nintendo hater but I’m just a shitty game hater and I still have faith that Nintendo can bring itself back to the glory it had during its prime eras. But if Nintendo keeps on its current path then they are eventually going to get exposed and there will be backlash for both themselves and potentially the rest of the industry.