The President of videogame developer Epic Games has compared Nintendo's Wii console to a “virus”, despite having caught bought one himself.
Mike Capps recently told gaming website IGN that the Wii is like a virus: you catch the bug, have it for a couple of weeks then you get over it. After that, you're immune to its charms.
In …
Who cares? Its apples to oranges. I have wii and about 15 games, but havnt played it for 3 months. I still look out for games though, and its great when people are around.
Nintendo have cornered the market of people who dont play games, and that in itself is an incredible feat, especially since they make a profit doing it. Most wii owners wont have a ps3 or a 360, because they are a different breed of gamer - one that doesnt play games.
Comparisons between Wii and PS3 or xbox360 are irrelevant. Yes I know that people like to make them but they are aimed at different market segments. Nintendo have always understood this, which is why their consoles have always been aimed at kiddie gamers who aren't turned off by the billionth incarnation of super freakin' mario. Say, 5-to-9 year olds. Beyond that there's a segment that is well served by PS2/xbox and PC - think all those sims games, flight simulator and PC adventures. For older teens, the comparison is between serious console hardware: PS3 vs Xbox 360.
I have a Wii. My kids adore it. I think I used it for a week. That's no ill reflection on the Wii - it's not aimed at me.
I have a PC. My older kids likes it. Lovely. But no good for fast action late night shooters. Great. She shouldn't be playing those games at her age anyway.
I have a PS2. Kids are indifferent. I love it. It'll be replaced by a PS3 or xbox 360 Real Soon Now.
So, if you go into Best Buy with a clear understanding of who you are buying for and what kind of gameplay they expect, you will not be disappointed. Kind of like any other significant purchase, really. Not hard.
We see a group of shiny, happy people in a nice room, perhaps they are a family, or a group of friends. They look as though they probably smell quite nice. They are all enjoying themselves immensely, laughing and joking. Communicating. They are having nice healthy social interactions with real physical people. We wish that we were like them. Hell, we _are_ like them! We have friends! You'll see, if we buy it, they will come!
Xbox/etc :
We do not see the gamer, he is not represented in the advert, he does not exist, his entire ego is projected into his avatar. It is possible that he is playing a sport or driving a vehicle, but more likely that he is, in fact, stalking some kind of homicidal prey through a post apocalyptic landscape of some description. We are quite glad that we do not see the gamer, we are instinctively uncomfortable with the idea of some lone, mildly psychotic, high disposable income male spending his spare hours sneaking around a virtual landscape and occasionally killing things with a high powered rifle or large stabbing weapon. We are concerned that he might smell faintly alarming, and slightly comforted by our strict gun control legislation.
Girls like it, especially when drinking. It's an ideal platform for active drinking games. Play Wii Sports bowling: Take a drink for an open frame, give a drink for a strike.
If socialization with females is important to you, then the Wii will justify it's existence. Don't expect it to displace your 360 or PS3 for lonely solo game time, it was never intended to.
Oh yeah, and kids like it too. Sure beats couch potato time for the offspring which will inevitably result from the drunken Wii gaming.
The Wii is the only console I've ever bought. Why? because it's very social. I've never seen a party of mixed sex 30-somethings gather round the TV to play a Megadrive/SNES/PS/XBox game (cept maybe Buzz, but that's the exception that proves the rule I guess).
I've always found console games to be pretty much antisocial toys till the Wii came along.
"El dueño promedio de Wii compra solamente 3.7 juegos al año, comparado con 4.7 para los dueños de Xbox 360 y 4.6 para los de PlayStation 3" (Translation: Wii gamers buy 3.7 games/year, Xbox360 buy 4.7, PS3 owners 4.6)
Where does this "7 games a year" for the Xbox come from? Note: Of course the article is itself translated from English, but I was too lazy to find the original New York Times article.
That said, I doubt the PS3 or the 360 will ever appeal to the casual gaming crowd the Wii was able to fit itself into. Even if I root for the PS3, I have to admit I prefer the dynamic Wiimote control movements for fighting games than the archaic Street Fighter-based and KOF-based controls that made the entire fighting game genre something reserved only for those who know all the arcane moves for "special attacks" ... UGH!
Wasn't another Epic man recently out decrying Intel for "killing PC games" by daring to offer a cheaper video chipset and/or acknowledge that some people buy computers for productivity?
Here's hoping that Epic and iD and all the others like them are relegated to the realms of middleware provision as soon as possible.
It makes a change to see this much response to a subject, but not that suprising, every fan boy comes out of the woodwork for a subject like this.
I own a Wii for one reason. It's fun to play and you can have a laugh with your mates. This is the sole reason that I do not own a ps3 or Xbox. Anyone can pick up a wii controller and get to grips with it quickly. I still have mates that pick up a ps3/xbox controller and turn it whilst trying to go around a corner.
If i want a nice FPS, i will play it on PC, the way it was designed to be played. If i want to play an RTS, i will play it on PC as it was designed to be played, ON PC!
The wii is great for a laugh with your mates, Zelda kept me amused for ages and i have no clue why people are ranting on about the control system? Mario kart is fantastic and the online play is a nice touch.
What im getting at is that FPS and RTS are much better played on a PC, generally everything is much better on a PC, racing games NEED a steering wheel, flight games NEED a joystick but they are more customisable and generally better on PC.
What we need is less crappy console ports, less waiting for a PC release and more decent games for PC.
The wii is perfect at what it does, its small, its cheap it gets everyone playing and not just your average gamer and it takes gameplay to a new level. Who cares about graphics, when the gameplay is that involving you dont notice!
The thing that some people have not noticed is what the Wii is intended to do, and is blatant in all the advertising I've seen: Be a party system.
People are complaining it doesn't have RPGs or good FPS games- but the question is, what makes a better party game, the latest Final Fantasy game or something like Rayman's Raving Rabbids?
There are exceptions to the rule, in terms of games released- Mario Galaxy, for example. But in general, the system's primary goal is to be the system that everyone will play and have a bit of fun with when you have a handful of people over. There are also stumbling blocks to this for a lot of people- the system is cheap, but getting four Wii-motes with the Nunchuk's adds up in a hurry. Last I looked, you're looking at about $50 USD for a full Wii-mote/Nunchuk combo. The system comes with one, but if you want a full rig, you're looking at the system price plus another $150 USD, plus any games you get, yeah, I can start seeing why people don't buy as many games for a system they're primarily going to use only when they have a few guests over.
The Wii is the first console I have bought in years and I've got to agree with all the people who used it constantly for the first few weeks but then barely play it.
Everyone has their own reasons, but mine is probably that the games are so god damn tiring! Its easy to sit playing on a 360 or PS for hours because the only part of your body that's moving is your hands.
After a day at work, I just haven't got the energy to Wii!
Wii is the active gamer's choice, unfortunately, I'm rarely an active gamer!
@Ash - Got to agree about FarCry on the Wii, terrible idea. Love FarCry on PC, LOVE Crysis on PC, FarCry on Wii = impossible!
Mine's the one with the Crysis logo and the roll ups in the pocket...
I do not understand people who bought a Wii and then complained about the graphics... don't you people read this website? Anyone who did even a little bit of research knew that the Wii could not compete with the xBox or the PS3 in terms of graphics. Even someone who walked off the street to try one in the shop could see this.
I didn't buy my Wii for the graphics, I bought it for the control system it used. And the games I have were bought *specifically* because they required me to get off the couch and move about (OK, Guitar-Hero III doesn't quite count, but I enjoyed the first two on the PS2). And I still enjoy it, even down to dusting off Wii Sport every once in a while and see how "old" I am. ^_^
hmmm i think the bigger thing to notice is that the 360 has been out much longer than the Wii. Since the 360 launched in 2005, does that mean it's owner have only purchased 7 games since then? That's a bit over 2 games per year... hardly worth batting an eye at. The Wii was released in the US on Nov 11 2006 and was difficult to find until lately.. yet still outselling xbox. This means customers have had less than 2 years to buy games, and at 3.5 per system, this means a run rate of more than 2 games a year.
Zelda, WarioWare, Cooking Mama, Mario Galaxy, Brawl.
Personally, I'd be at 6 and above the average if my Wii didn't mysteriously not come with Wii Sports. I'll probably also pick up the next DDR game if it doesn't have 7,000 rejected R&B songs like the past few mixes have.
Let's not forget that there's more to enjoying the Wii than the disc channel. I regularly use it to watch Youtube videos in the living room when friends are over. Now if only it'd work with Hulu videos, too!
The real fad is someone who thinks you can build a system with top notch graphics as it's main selling point that people will still give a rat's ass about at the end of a five year generation.
Does nobody remember the N64 getting it's ass beat by the PSX? The PS2 0wning everyone despite not having basic things like antialiasing? Even the N64 from five years before it had anti-aliasing.
Every time there's a new generation all the nerds argue about the system's specs like they think it matters. Then reality comes along and the one with the lowest specs beats the shit-skittles out of EVERYONE.
Again and again.
Comparing portables (PSP) to home consoles isn't really fair. Portables always outsell home consoles. Did you know that Nintendo has a portable?
Yup, it's called the DS. It has a novel input system too. It has weaker graphics than it's competitor. The PSP has tons of 3rd party software.
And guess what, after all these years it's still outsold the PSP by a wiiiiiide margin.
When the kids misbehave I ban them from the Wii. I can do that because they love it (two boys, 8 and 6). I know when they are teenagers they will want a hardcore gaming console, but for the next 5 years or so I'm sure they will continue to enjoy the Wii (bought for Christmas 2006).
We have about half a dozen Gamecube games that they really like - Mario Kart Doubledash (sadly, soon to be displaced by Mario Kart Wii), Luigi's Mansion, Windwaker, Monopoly and Mario Dance Craze (with a dance mat, and surprisingly good fun).
They love the virtual console games (I wonder if they are included in the games-per-console figures?), especially Paper Mario and Mario 64. In fact, I played through Paper Mario (25 hours accumulated play time omg), and both my sons have played that through twice themselves. That's a hell of a lot of value out of a £4 game.
As for actual Wii games, Wii sports is of course great, we have Ravin Rabbids (apparently Ravin Rabbids 2 is even better), Super Paper Mario (massive let-down after Paper Mario), Fifa 2008 (can't stand it myself but my eldest loves it), Galaxy (astonishingly good), Twilight Princess (put in about 20 hours but got stuck), Star Trek Conquest (utter rubbish), and Mario Strikers Charged (got supplanted by Fifa 2008). I also have Resident Evil but I don't let the kids play that one. The Wii is perfect for that sort of game and I'll probably buy House of the Dead too.
I just bought Mario Kart Wii for them, as I said, so it looks like we'll be playing that solidly for the next month or two. I'm hoping the Network play will be good as the Wii is crying out for this.
Finally, we will of course getting the balance board when it comes out - really looking forward to that.
..about Wii games is that if you dont like them they have a good resale value on Amazon. I tried a few of my favourites from my PS2 days (Tony hawks etc) on the Wii and they are virtually unplayable from a control point of view. On the other hand, cooking mamma which by rights should be the worst game ever invented has turned out to be a family favourite in our house. Thats also part of the point, the ability to play as a family and have a laugh. Now if only the kids could get over the embarrasment of having their mates look at me as if I'm mad when I'm jumping around, hammering out dragonforce power chords on Guitar Hero..............
That for every fanboy rubbishing anything that portrays the Wii in a bad light there's at least two people who have bought it and don't play it anymore and another two who never considered it in the first place.
I just can't stop playing MarioKart. I don't know why - the graphics are rubbish (it almost looks the same as it does on the DS) the physics totally unrealistic, and i look like a complete tool holding a disembodied steering wheel in my front room.
But I just can't stop. I keep wanting another go. I cheer when I win - sometimes just crossing the line seconds after blowing up the other players, or eating one of the trippy power ups - I shout 'weeee' when I do a trick on one of the jumps. I get a sinking feeling when the alarm sounds on the tinny wii-mote knowing that some nasty bomb day glow graphics power-up thing has been thrown at me.
the Wii is new, new games because of a new controller. So the things coming in for it might be similar to previous games but the controlling interface is new, nothing is the same as the game cube or the N64.
PS3 and Xbox have been around for donkeys years so just churn out newer versions of the same old tat that the PC does better anyway. (Extra content for GOW on the PC, or FF7)
Wow halo 3 is out and is the same as halo1 was back in the day, PS3 has that game, the one with the... erm... gun... (I can't think of any sony games other than final fantasy 7 which I think sony flogged till it was at 13???) Oh I remember now, silent hill 1... then there was 2 and 3 then four...
Also what it means is xbox and Ps3 are lacking imagination for new games... which is easy to see with their offerings.
"Ohh it's pretty" but it is still running round shooting people with a gun on the same crappy joypad they had five years ago... (Gears of war2... I rest my case)
the Wii is new, new games because of a new controller
@ Alistair Millington
How can you dismiss the the PS3/360 as churning out the same rubbish over and over, yet suddenly the Wii isnt??
With the odd exception every game on the wii is the same old stuff we've seen year in year out from nintendo. Most games would map onto a normal controller with no effort at all (with very odd exceptions like the genius that is Wii Sports)
Everyone raves about Mario Kart, but that would map exactly onto a sixaxis controller, then you could have flashy controls, with HD, and a usable online system. Rather than a average looking racing game, with gimped online.
Paris, because she knows a gimmick when she sees one.
Give it a few years, and people who today are of console-gaming age will be of MEP age. Then the law which already forbids console manufacturers' current anti-competitive practices (blocking third-party game development is illegal, but they all do it) will actually be enforced.
That will give the console industry the kick it needs, alright.
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The President of videogame developer Epic Games has compared Nintendo's Wii console to a “virus”, despite having caught bought one himself. Mike Capps recently told gaming website IGN that the Wii is like a virus: you catch the bug, have it for a couple of weeks then you get over it. After that, you're immune to its charms. In …
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Bo(a)rd?
Not so long ago there was a bit in the Reg about skiing games and the balance board - some of us are itching to get wobbling about.
Pointless argument
Who cares? Its apples to oranges. I have wii and about 15 games, but havnt played it for 3 months. I still look out for games though, and its great when people are around.
Nintendo have cornered the market of people who dont play games, and that in itself is an incredible feat, especially since they make a profit doing it. Most wii owners wont have a ps3 or a 360, because they are a different breed of gamer - one that doesnt play games.
... also ...
Is he saying its a bad thing if a company can create and market something that everyone wants?
For fad read power rangers, pokemon, democracy, sub-prime mortgage lending ...
If you can get people to want something after seeing their mate has one, good on them. Its just a slightly more expensive fad than teletubbies.
Can you say that about epic games? No.
Apples compared to...wingnuts
Comparisons between Wii and PS3 or xbox360 are irrelevant. Yes I know that people like to make them but they are aimed at different market segments. Nintendo have always understood this, which is why their consoles have always been aimed at kiddie gamers who aren't turned off by the billionth incarnation of super freakin' mario. Say, 5-to-9 year olds. Beyond that there's a segment that is well served by PS2/xbox and PC - think all those sims games, flight simulator and PC adventures. For older teens, the comparison is between serious console hardware: PS3 vs Xbox 360.
I have a Wii. My kids adore it. I think I used it for a week. That's no ill reflection on the Wii - it's not aimed at me.
I have a PC. My older kids likes it. Lovely. But no good for fast action late night shooters. Great. She shouldn't be playing those games at her age anyway.
I have a PS2. Kids are indifferent. I love it. It'll be replaced by a PS3 or xbox 360 Real Soon Now.
So, if you go into Best Buy with a clear understanding of who you are buying for and what kind of gameplay they expect, you will not be disappointed. Kind of like any other significant purchase, really. Not hard.
"at least 5 games for it"
Is that as in the desperate eBay items claiming they come with 5 games?
(i.e. tennis, bowling, golf, boxing and baseball)
Market Segmentation
Wii :
We see a group of shiny, happy people in a nice room, perhaps they are a family, or a group of friends. They look as though they probably smell quite nice. They are all enjoying themselves immensely, laughing and joking. Communicating. They are having nice healthy social interactions with real physical people. We wish that we were like them. Hell, we _are_ like them! We have friends! You'll see, if we buy it, they will come!
Xbox/etc :
We do not see the gamer, he is not represented in the advert, he does not exist, his entire ego is projected into his avatar. It is possible that he is playing a sport or driving a vehicle, but more likely that he is, in fact, stalking some kind of homicidal prey through a post apocalyptic landscape of some description. We are quite glad that we do not see the gamer, we are instinctively uncomfortable with the idea of some lone, mildly psychotic, high disposable income male spending his spare hours sneaking around a virtual landscape and occasionally killing things with a high powered rifle or large stabbing weapon. We are concerned that he might smell faintly alarming, and slightly comforted by our strict gun control legislation.
what can I say........
The machine aint the best technological feat on the planet, excluding of course the amzing wiimote.
Have been disappointed that games companies couldnt get their fingers out of their .*expletives*. and release decent titles.
BOTH bowling titles from Brunswick and AMF are abysmal.
Me and the wife regularly challenge ourselves on wii sports, its just great multiplayer.
GH3 has been a huge success, and after having the console for almost 18 months, its still in regular use.
so I only sold Brunswick pro bowling, but no-one would argue with me for that!!!
so the gaming companies can stop whining and produce decent games, before they get slapped by homebrew on wiiware!!! :)
The main Wii advantage...
Girls like it, especially when drinking. It's an ideal platform for active drinking games. Play Wii Sports bowling: Take a drink for an open frame, give a drink for a strike.
If socialization with females is important to you, then the Wii will justify it's existence. Don't expect it to displace your 360 or PS3 for lonely solo game time, it was never intended to.
Oh yeah, and kids like it too. Sure beats couch potato time for the offspring which will inevitably result from the drunken Wii gaming.
Wii = The console for people with a life?
The Wii is the only console I've ever bought. Why? because it's very social. I've never seen a party of mixed sex 30-somethings gather round the TV to play a Megadrive/SNES/PS/XBox game (cept maybe Buzz, but that's the exception that proves the rule I guess).
I've always found console games to be pretty much antisocial toys till the Wii came along.
Attachment rates?
I just read this about an hour before:
"El dueño promedio de Wii compra solamente 3.7 juegos al año, comparado con 4.7 para los dueños de Xbox 360 y 4.6 para los de PlayStation 3" (Translation: Wii gamers buy 3.7 games/year, Xbox360 buy 4.7, PS3 owners 4.6)
Where does this "7 games a year" for the Xbox come from? Note: Of course the article is itself translated from English, but I was too lazy to find the original New York Times article.
That said, I doubt the PS3 or the 360 will ever appeal to the casual gaming crowd the Wii was able to fit itself into. Even if I root for the PS3, I have to admit I prefer the dynamic Wiimote control movements for fighting games than the archaic Street Fighter-based and KOF-based controls that made the entire fighting game genre something reserved only for those who know all the arcane moves for "special attacks" ... UGH!
Times must be tough at Epic
Wasn't another Epic man recently out decrying Intel for "killing PC games" by daring to offer a cheaper video chipset and/or acknowledge that some people buy computers for productivity?
Here's hoping that Epic and iD and all the others like them are relegated to the realms of middleware provision as soon as possible.
my 2 pence
It makes a change to see this much response to a subject, but not that suprising, every fan boy comes out of the woodwork for a subject like this.
I own a Wii for one reason. It's fun to play and you can have a laugh with your mates. This is the sole reason that I do not own a ps3 or Xbox. Anyone can pick up a wii controller and get to grips with it quickly. I still have mates that pick up a ps3/xbox controller and turn it whilst trying to go around a corner.
If i want a nice FPS, i will play it on PC, the way it was designed to be played. If i want to play an RTS, i will play it on PC as it was designed to be played, ON PC!
The wii is great for a laugh with your mates, Zelda kept me amused for ages and i have no clue why people are ranting on about the control system? Mario kart is fantastic and the online play is a nice touch.
What im getting at is that FPS and RTS are much better played on a PC, generally everything is much better on a PC, racing games NEED a steering wheel, flight games NEED a joystick but they are more customisable and generally better on PC.
What we need is less crappy console ports, less waiting for a PC release and more decent games for PC.
The wii is perfect at what it does, its small, its cheap it gets everyone playing and not just your average gamer and it takes gameplay to a new level. Who cares about graphics, when the gameplay is that involving you dont notice!
Wii Purpose
The thing that some people have not noticed is what the Wii is intended to do, and is blatant in all the advertising I've seen: Be a party system.
People are complaining it doesn't have RPGs or good FPS games- but the question is, what makes a better party game, the latest Final Fantasy game or something like Rayman's Raving Rabbids?
There are exceptions to the rule, in terms of games released- Mario Galaxy, for example. But in general, the system's primary goal is to be the system that everyone will play and have a bit of fun with when you have a handful of people over. There are also stumbling blocks to this for a lot of people- the system is cheap, but getting four Wii-motes with the Nunchuk's adds up in a hurry. Last I looked, you're looking at about $50 USD for a full Wii-mote/Nunchuk combo. The system comes with one, but if you want a full rig, you're looking at the system price plus another $150 USD, plus any games you get, yeah, I can start seeing why people don't buy as many games for a system they're primarily going to use only when they have a few guests over.
Wii is not for lazy people.
The Wii is the first console I have bought in years and I've got to agree with all the people who used it constantly for the first few weeks but then barely play it.
Everyone has their own reasons, but mine is probably that the games are so god damn tiring! Its easy to sit playing on a 360 or PS for hours because the only part of your body that's moving is your hands.
After a day at work, I just haven't got the energy to Wii!
Wii is the active gamer's choice, unfortunately, I'm rarely an active gamer!
@Ash - Got to agree about FarCry on the Wii, terrible idea. Love FarCry on PC, LOVE Crysis on PC, FarCry on Wii = impossible!
Mine's the one with the Crysis logo and the roll ups in the pocket...
Wrong reasons
I do not understand people who bought a Wii and then complained about the graphics... don't you people read this website? Anyone who did even a little bit of research knew that the Wii could not compete with the xBox or the PS3 in terms of graphics. Even someone who walked off the street to try one in the shop could see this.
I didn't buy my Wii for the graphics, I bought it for the control system it used. And the games I have were bought *specifically* because they required me to get off the couch and move about (OK, Guitar-Hero III doesn't quite count, but I enjoyed the first two on the PS2). And I still enjoy it, even down to dusting off Wii Sport every once in a while and see how "old" I am. ^_^
reality sets in
hmmm i think the bigger thing to notice is that the 360 has been out much longer than the Wii. Since the 360 launched in 2005, does that mean it's owner have only purchased 7 games since then? That's a bit over 2 games per year... hardly worth batting an eye at. The Wii was released in the US on Nov 11 2006 and was difficult to find until lately.. yet still outselling xbox. This means customers have had less than 2 years to buy games, and at 3.5 per system, this means a run rate of more than 2 games a year.
6 games here, above the average
Zelda, WarioWare, Cooking Mama, Mario Galaxy, Brawl.
Personally, I'd be at 6 and above the average if my Wii didn't mysteriously not come with Wii Sports. I'll probably also pick up the next DDR game if it doesn't have 7,000 rejected R&B songs like the past few mixes have.
Let's not forget that there's more to enjoying the Wii than the disc channel. I regularly use it to watch Youtube videos in the living room when friends are over. Now if only it'd work with Hulu videos, too!
This reminds me
The real fad is someone who thinks you can build a system with top notch graphics as it's main selling point that people will still give a rat's ass about at the end of a five year generation.
Does nobody remember the N64 getting it's ass beat by the PSX? The PS2 0wning everyone despite not having basic things like antialiasing? Even the N64 from five years before it had anti-aliasing.
Every time there's a new generation all the nerds argue about the system's specs like they think it matters. Then reality comes along and the one with the lowest specs beats the shit-skittles out of EVERYONE.
Again and again.
Comparing portables (PSP) to home consoles isn't really fair. Portables always outsell home consoles. Did you know that Nintendo has a portable?
Yup, it's called the DS. It has a novel input system too. It has weaker graphics than it's competitor. The PSP has tons of 3rd party software.
And guess what, after all these years it's still outsold the PSP by a wiiiiiide margin.
My kids use theirs too much
When the kids misbehave I ban them from the Wii. I can do that because they love it (two boys, 8 and 6). I know when they are teenagers they will want a hardcore gaming console, but for the next 5 years or so I'm sure they will continue to enjoy the Wii (bought for Christmas 2006).
We have about half a dozen Gamecube games that they really like - Mario Kart Doubledash (sadly, soon to be displaced by Mario Kart Wii), Luigi's Mansion, Windwaker, Monopoly and Mario Dance Craze (with a dance mat, and surprisingly good fun).
They love the virtual console games (I wonder if they are included in the games-per-console figures?), especially Paper Mario and Mario 64. In fact, I played through Paper Mario (25 hours accumulated play time omg), and both my sons have played that through twice themselves. That's a hell of a lot of value out of a £4 game.
As for actual Wii games, Wii sports is of course great, we have Ravin Rabbids (apparently Ravin Rabbids 2 is even better), Super Paper Mario (massive let-down after Paper Mario), Fifa 2008 (can't stand it myself but my eldest loves it), Galaxy (astonishingly good), Twilight Princess (put in about 20 hours but got stuck), Star Trek Conquest (utter rubbish), and Mario Strikers Charged (got supplanted by Fifa 2008). I also have Resident Evil but I don't let the kids play that one. The Wii is perfect for that sort of game and I'll probably buy House of the Dead too.
I just bought Mario Kart Wii for them, as I said, so it looks like we'll be playing that solidly for the next month or two. I'm hoping the Network play will be good as the Wii is crying out for this.
Finally, we will of course getting the balance board when it comes out - really looking forward to that.
The good thing...
..about Wii games is that if you dont like them they have a good resale value on Amazon. I tried a few of my favourites from my PS2 days (Tony hawks etc) on the Wii and they are virtually unplayable from a control point of view. On the other hand, cooking mamma which by rights should be the worst game ever invented has turned out to be a family favourite in our house. Thats also part of the point, the ability to play as a family and have a laugh. Now if only the kids could get over the embarrasment of having their mates look at me as if I'm mad when I'm jumping around, hammering out dragonforce power chords on Guitar Hero..............
Anecdotal Evidence suggests
That for every fanboy rubbishing anything that portrays the Wii in a bad light there's at least two people who have bought it and don't play it anymore and another two who never considered it in the first place.
Help
I just can't stop playing MarioKart. I don't know why - the graphics are rubbish (it almost looks the same as it does on the DS) the physics totally unrealistic, and i look like a complete tool holding a disembodied steering wheel in my front room.
But I just can't stop. I keep wanting another go. I cheer when I win - sometimes just crossing the line seconds after blowing up the other players, or eating one of the trippy power ups - I shout 'weeee' when I do a trick on one of the jumps. I get a sinking feeling when the alarm sounds on the tinny wii-mote knowing that some nasty bomb day glow graphics power-up thing has been thrown at me.
great exclusives
Wii Sports
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario Kart Wii
Wii Fit
Links Crossbow Training
(Smash Bros Brawl & The Force Unleashed on Preorder)
Warioware
are all must have titles from a gaming or social aspect
thats without even considering titles you can get for other platforms
which of the other consoles has such compelling 'must have' exclusive titles.
remember people
the Wii is new, new games because of a new controller. So the things coming in for it might be similar to previous games but the controlling interface is new, nothing is the same as the game cube or the N64.
PS3 and Xbox have been around for donkeys years so just churn out newer versions of the same old tat that the PC does better anyway. (Extra content for GOW on the PC, or FF7)
Wow halo 3 is out and is the same as halo1 was back in the day, PS3 has that game, the one with the... erm... gun... (I can't think of any sony games other than final fantasy 7 which I think sony flogged till it was at 13???) Oh I remember now, silent hill 1... then there was 2 and 3 then four...
Also what it means is xbox and Ps3 are lacking imagination for new games... which is easy to see with their offerings.
"Ohh it's pretty" but it is still running round shooting people with a gun on the same crappy joypad they had five years ago... (Gears of war2... I rest my case)
You get my point...
the Wii is new, new games because of a new controller
@ Alistair Millington
How can you dismiss the the PS3/360 as churning out the same rubbish over and over, yet suddenly the Wii isnt??
With the odd exception every game on the wii is the same old stuff we've seen year in year out from nintendo. Most games would map onto a normal controller with no effort at all (with very odd exceptions like the genius that is Wii Sports)
Everyone raves about Mario Kart, but that would map exactly onto a sixaxis controller, then you could have flashy controls, with HD, and a usable online system. Rather than a average looking racing game, with gimped online.
Paris, because she knows a gimmick when she sees one.
Beh
Give it a few years, and people who today are of console-gaming age will be of MEP age. Then the law which already forbids console manufacturers' current anti-competitive practices (blocking third-party game development is illegal, but they all do it) will actually be enforced.
That will give the console industry the kick it needs, alright.
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