My Wii regret builds

15 July 2008 7 Comments

I made my choice to go with the Nintendo Wii because I had reached a point in my gaming “career” where I was looking for something different. I wanted more than the same old sit-and-mash games. And some games delivered on that promise and are actually fun to play - Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Olympics. Unfortunately, many of the Wii games just don’t deliver and fail in the gaming-to-value comparison.

Sure, the Wii is cheaper than the XBox and Playstation by a good $100, but time has proven that the quality (value) of gaming on the other systems if much, much higher. More bang for your buck…even if those games are less active than some Wii titles. But I stood by my decision with only a few times regretting my Wii ownership and that was mostly when it game to downloadable content for games (namely Guitar Hero). Myself and other Wii owners have been waiting for some good, solid games that don’t revolve around mini-games and the likes, but it seems the upcoming list of releases for the Wii ill only make the sour tastes in our mouths worse.

Over at Wii Fanboy is a list of upcoming titles as announced at E3. This is a four page list but less than five of the games on the list are even worth raising an eyebrow. Let’s just say a bulk of the titles on the list include the likes of “Party Babyz,” “Ten Pin Alley 2,” “Build-A-Bear Workshop,” and “Safecracker.” As one commenter put it, these are titles that sound more like Leap Frog games than Nintendo games.

Now I know Nintendo is pushing the family friendly and fun aspect of the Wii, which is great - I’m all for that - but when the shelves get saturated with complete childish crap it doesn’t really say “family” or “fun,” it just says “crap.” Women have become a big target for Nintendo but the game makers are missing the mark just a tad as I believe by “women” they want actual women, not just pre-teen girls looking for a virtual koala bear. Every console has hits and misses but the outlook here squarely puts more misses on the scale than hits.

Wii started off with a good balance of challenging games that were fun but were accessible to everyone. Most of these were Nintendo’s own games and that won’t change in the future. But it seems the Wii is becoming a compost pile for shotty “original” games and less-than-wonderful ports of other games. I know the wireless remote can act like a computer mouse, but it’s not a mouse and it’s unfortunate that the makers think games made for the PC will translate well into the Wii. The Wii remote isn’t a mouse. It’s not held like a mouse, you can’t control it like a mouse, and it doesn’t response like a mouse - so converting the click-and-play PC games into Wii games just tosses more logs on the file.

If all I have to look forward too in the next year is Guitar Hero 4, Wii Music, and the next Mario title then I officially have Wii Regret Syndrome. Thankfully our Nintendo DSes have kept us both very entertained and gets far more use than our Wii (talk about bang for your buck). The Wii has almost become nothing more than the Guitar Hero machine with occasional time outs for Mario Kart and whatever WiiWare sounds good for the week. I’m bummed, I must admit. I had a lot of hope in the Wii and it’s too bad folks don’t know how to capitalize off of it.

Thankfully the Xbox360 is getting some price cuts and thus might find it’s way into my home. I can’t buy into the PS3 and from what I’ve seen and read, the Xbox is where it’s all happening. Curse your Microsoft, curse you.

7 Comments »

Lorkin said:

I fully agree. I love the good Wii titles but more and more I see the crap that reminds me of the last days of the NES. When everyone made a game for it about every other day.

However, it seems that games that really catch my eye are all on the DS. I really think the developers there are not so obsessed with graphics (I think the DS is about on par with the N-64) so they have to focus on game play. The DS is really the Nintendo system to watch. Now if they would only release Line Rider for it……..

# 15 July 2008 at 10:51 pm

Thee said:

I love my Wii because it is just what I want in gaming machine. I don’t want a game that has 40hr’s of game play and I think most Wii owners or in my boat. In fact my only Wii game that is like that (Zelda) is my least liked game.

Everyone knew at the begining that if you wanted in-depth, complex games that the PS3 or Xbox360 was the way to go, it’s just that most people were to cheap to spend the extra $200 (which over the course of say 5 years of ownership = $0.11/day more).

What’s my point? The Wii is exactly what Nintendo said it would be, exactly what everyone was told it would be and exactly what everyone should have expected it to be. It’s a fun, cheaper, interactive, social gaming system.

# 16 July 2008 at 9:08 am

Brian said:

I don’t need 40-hour excursions either…but I want a game that is at least fun to play. The Wii is less than delivering on that front. But to Nintendo’s credit, *their* games are delivering - its just the third-party support that blows.

Lorkin makes a good call that this is already reminiscent of the NESes last few years. Bummer.

And the games that are coming out for Wii aren’t fun, are hardly interactive, and do not create any sort of social net. But they certainly are cheaper.

There’s a point where you can be *too* family friendly and Nintendo is already there. I’m not looking for a GTA4 or Halo experience. I just want some simple, fun games that keep me entertained and are fun to play with others.

And I agree with Lorkin again in regards to the DS. Because the technical limitations are pretty high, the games themselves have to be a little more creative and tightly designed, and so far that’s proven to be a great thing. Games like Contra 4, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, and Nanostray 2 are rocking my game world right now. I’m not a graphics whore and I personally like the 16-bit days the best, graphically speaking, and the DS is that style at its best.

And where the Wii tries to use the mouse controls, the DS *can* use the mouse model because the stylus gives you great control. So all the point-and-click games on the PC translate very well to DS. And the fact I can buy two DSes for less than any single TV console makes it great for two. And if sales and upcoming titles are any proof, the DS will be around for another year or so at least.

# 16 July 2008 at 9:41 am

Chris said:

The Wii has a strong core of games, but a ton of crap titles. I think that game makers should focus in on the fact that the Wii has other, more traditional remotes as well. I purchased the remote that can be used with the older games on the virtual console, and I think they could make games that could be played on that controler. Only trying to make games that work with the Wii remote is really limiting the quality and types of games available. I bought Madden ‘08 for Game Cube and a used GC remote to play on my Wii. I really like playing sports games like this, and I would rather have a traditional controller on these types of games. If they adopted this idea, the types of games that came out would be endless. The Wii couldn’t compete with the graphics of the Xbox or PS3. but the gameplay would be just as good.

# 16 July 2008 at 8:58 pm

Brian said:

Although it seems we’re not alone in thinking the Wii is getting short-changed. An article over at Kotaku gets a quote from a developer making an FPS *only* on the Wii. Far from Build-A-Bear…

I’m not a big FPS fan, per se, I had my time with them, but regardless it’s good to see someone doing something with the Wii and making it look pretty good too.

More here: http://tinyurl.com/5vsqj5

# 21 July 2008 at 5:31 pm

Obajoo said:

I have both the Wii and the 360. When I first got the Wii, I played it nonstop. Super Paper Mario, Cooking Mama, all the party games, etc. But after about a year, I found I was just getting online to see if anyone sent me any Miis. The 360 has had a solid run of fun games ever since we bought it. Not to mention all the arcade games that are cheap and super fun. In comparison to my DS though, even the XBox can’t keep up. Even now when I barely have time to do my own laundry, I will still make time for the DS, and the XBox is gathering dust…. Oh well.

# 22 July 2008 at 5:30 pm

Brian said:

An interesting thing happened this past week. I took my Wii to work to demo for the Promotions department and by doing so it got me re-excited to have a Wii. It do so because few at work had ever played with a Wii - they had just heard about it.

Everyone had so much fun playing Guitar Hero and Wii Sports. It reminded me just how fun the core set of games can be. Games that I’ve pretty much forgotten about. So if you’re finding your Wii a bit depressing lately, toss in Wii Sports and give tennis another go round, you might be surprised how out of “shape” you are.

# 26 July 2008 at 12:33 pm