When Epic isn't busy accidentally banning modders, the videogame world darling is doing many other things. One thing Epic Games isn't doing, however, is playing the Nintendo Wii, if president Mike Capps has any say on the matter.
Comparing the console to a virus, Capps has discussed how the desire for a Wii spreads from person to person, but the desire to play it once bought rarely lingers on:
"It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, 'Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it ... So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on."
I can't deny that I grew tired of my Wii after two months, but with Super Smash Bros. on the shelves and Mario Kart Wii on the way, is the old "nobody plays the Wii" argument outdated? That said, are Smash Bros. and Mario Kart enough to justify a console, and what exactly does Nintendo have up its sleeve after its tried and tested IPs are all out of the shed?
Either way, Capps is certainly right on the virus part. Wii hype is an infectious bugger, and the epidemic is still widespread. I wonder though, how much further will it spread, and how much longer will it be before people have recovered from its symptoms? Also, how much longer can we stretch out this virus simile?
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
8:11 AM on 04.21.2008
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My copy of Baroque and Okami say he's wrong too.
The Wii is more of the Robin to my 360's Batman but it has been well worth the money and I cant say Im disappointed
My Wii is my girlfriend console. She loves it and that makes it worth the purchase. Now she can't say shit when I stay up all night playing Lost Odyssey because she does the same with Guitar Hero 3.
The whole point of own other consoles is to take turns, and whilst the large ratio of childish casual titles on the Wii is off-putting, there's still a large selection of titles; the better of which according to editorials, are much more enjoyable than the better High Def games.
Also the Wii is the only machine where I'd play an older game from time to time - especially with friends.
I do of course play UT3 and Gears on a semi-regular basis these days.
Just sayin....
awesome...
*Note: My Wii was extremely dusty so I borrowed Zack and Wiki to help scare the dust mites away.
...But you can still complain about online games.
Since it's released today, I feel the need to point out that River City Ransom >>>>> Epic.
CONSISTENCY
When they make a great game, its fucking phenomenal, no question about it, they rock..but after they make ONE great game, its like they sit back and take a 3 month breather. Living off that handheld fortune theyve accumulated.
I hate you for not buying Z&W ;)
This guy is an ass.
Complaints like this that fall along the lines of "People are too impressionable to live in a capitalist society where they have to make choices on which products to buy!" piss me off. The Wii has a lot of great games for the style of games that it has. If you don't like that style, don't fucking buy it.
These are like the people who sue McDonald's because their food made them fat. It's not Nintendo's job to make its system apply to every conceivable preference anyone has. If you want a hardcore RPG or elaborate online FPS, go buy a 360 or a PS3! This is why we have a market with competing companies!
A lot (A LOT) of people disagree with me when I say this, but... I think the Wii is ultimately going to cause more harm than good in gaming. Nintendo is being rewarded for promoting simplicity in a field that has been moving in the opposite direction (becoming more complex) since the beginning. The Wii's online system is absolutely terrible, Virtual Console has been exceptionally terrible lately. The control scheme (wiimote, or wiimote+nunchuck) is actually extremely flawed when attempting to play certain games that require you to control some type of camera and require more than three action buttons. Take Bully, for example. It's a fun game, but the motion controls for fighting can be extremely inaccurate and unresponsive sometimes. Using the wiimote D-pad to control the camera when you're using the wiimote/nunchuck is just terrible. Worst thing of all, in my opinion, is that Nintendo is being commended for what they're doing. They're being rewarded by the public, and that's why I think the Wii is bad for gaming. More people are going to try and imitate what Nintendo is doing, and it's going to take gaming in a direction that I don't particularly agree with.
Mario Galaxy and Okami are queued up on gamefly.
The Wii is going to be my pinch hitter during GTA IV's reign as my "main" game. When I get burned out on it (and I will) I'll switch to the Wii for a week or so.
I have no doubt that the Wii will get a game someday that justifies my ownership of it (like the gamecube did with RE4.)
I also own Zelda: TP and Battalion Wars 2. Both are still in their shrink wrap.
I bought and played through Okami and RE4 way back on PS2... so yeah. There go two other possible titles I'd otherwise have for Wii.
The games just don't interest me as much as the games I play on my 360. That's a personal preference, but it's true.
There are games that have simplistic controls on wii, and then there are games that are more complex. Take PES 2008, for example. Much more complex controls, and it is outstanding and innovative. You're nuts in thinking this paradigm shift is a bad thing.
I'd say PS3 shortages...but then I remember that guy from Sony saying he'd pay anyone who found one sitting for more than 10 minutes, and soon after Penny Arcade found several.
And yes, right now my Wii isn't getting that much attention (heh heh). But only because Persona 3 FES comes out this week and I'm madly trying to finish up the first version. I'll go back to the Wii shortly.
If the next next generation consoles follow Nintendo down this path I guess I'll just have to retreat further into PC gaming.
Mario Kart will change this, but not till after I get my fill of GTA4...
Games sales are independent of one another. More Carnival Games sales doesn't mean less No more heroes being made. Less No More Heroes sales means less No More Heroes being made.
Why? For Brawl (and eventually Mario Kart Wii), the friend code system is such crap. I don't have friends from which to get a code (online OR offline how pathetic is that), and when I do finally find the courage to just enter a code from one of the random lists floating about, I'll be unable to actually MAKE them my friend because of the lack of in-game communication.
The Wii would be a wonderful device with which to get people together, but only if you know such people. I frankly get more togetherness out of voice chat on a TF2 or Warhawk public server than I've ever done on the Wii.
Just play against anyone, then. Friend codes suck, but if you have no friends, you dont have anything to worry about.
Having played Brawl both online and with friends in the same room, it's still true: Same room multiplayer is tons more fun.
All that and that's before I get to my Gamecube stuff, which still gets lots of play time through the Wii and I haven't even got Brawl, No More Heroes, Zack and Wiki, Okami or Super Paper Mario yet. Then you add in the launch of Wiiware pretty soon and its hard to see where the Wii hate comes from now the machine's finding its feet and developers are learning how to use it properly.
Oh, and Wii Fit on Friday. That's going to keep it in use.
When did gaming become this elitist club that only those who beat Ninja Gaiden on hard are qualified to participate in? Wii brought videogames to people who cannot figure out, or don't want to bother figuring out, a complicated dual-analog controller. Motion controls are simply a means to an end; to simplify controls for people besides the traditional 18-35 male demographic represented on websites like this.
Wii caters to a segment of the market that has gone largely ignored. That segment is EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET. No one is going to take away your Halo or Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid 4 or Grand Theft Auto 4. Why does it anger you so much that non-traditional gamers are buying Wii and having fun? For however long they play it. For however many games they buy.