How will the Wii be remembered?

[Strange | 1,700]

I liked the Wii. I still do. It was a huge financial success for Nintendo. But it is no doubt the point where Nintendo took a massive hit in the collective cultural mindshare. I was in middle school and high school when the Wii was a thing. I was a Nintendo kid. Prior to the Wii, so were a lot of other people. But as someone else mentioned here, if you’re a teenager/young adult, which would you rather play? Outside of Nintendo’s sweet first party stuff, you had what, Boom Blox? Then on the other side there was Red Dead, Dark Souls, Halo, God of War, Call of Duty (proper), Skyrim, BioShock, Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, etc.? These games were gaming at the time. Not Nintendo. As a high schooler I thought the Wii was fun but it was a hard sell against playing the aforementioned games with all of my friends. I spent a large portion of that era defending Nintendo against people who said they were “garbage now.” (And then the Wii U came out and I’ve been a bit more sour on Nintendo since, but that’s a discussion for a different thread).

Whether us old people want to admit it or not, Nintendo isn’t as popular with the younger generations as they were when we were kids. No I’m not saying they’re shit now and that everyone hates them, but they’re not king in peoples’ minds like they used to be. And I really believe we have this era to blame for that downfall.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Strange

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

15 minutes ago, Strange said:

Whether us old people want to admit it or not, Nintendo isn’t as popular with the younger generations as they were when we were kids.

Comin' for ya, PS2

[Strange | 1,700]

12 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Comin' for ya, PS2

I hear you, and I enjoy my Switch (less so than my Steam Deck these days but I digress) but I think there’s something to be said about it being the cheapest, the portable system, the Pokémon machine, and the one that parents get for their kids because they know the brand. I don’t think those things count for even half the numbers here but they are factors. Idk I just run into way too many Gen Z people who say they “don’t do that Nintendo shit.” I think PC/Xbox/PS share the crown now. My buddy teaches high school music and his class didn’t know what Metroid was when he was gushing to them about the Prime remaster (which breaks my heart).

In the end it doesn’t matter, I still love Nintendo. That’s just the overall feeling I get from interacting with others.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

Well,the problem there is no one knows what Metroid is.

Nintendo released lifetime sales for it's 1st and 2nd party Switch games, and Dread and Prime Remastered were buried depressingly low.

[Strange | 1,700]

That’s depressingly true. People know the term Metroidvania better than they actually know Metroid or Castlevania these days. 

[360collector | 289]

The Wii will always be a very important console, it really brought gaming to places you didnt see it before. It was a revolution and the sales numbers reflect that. I did not go hard at the wii but I have almost all the games I want for it, and there is a lot of good titles on it. Since im not searching for any Wii stuff I dont know how the prices are doing. But I remember some games being harder to find even back then here like Shadows tale,  Sakura Wars, Ju On, Metroid Prime trilogy. With such a vast library there are many hidden gems, I expect them to go up in value and popularity( might already have happened)

[360collector | 289]

1 hour ago, Strange said:

I liked the Wii. I still do. It was a huge financial success for Nintendo. But it is no doubt the point where Nintendo took a massive hit in the collective cultural mindshare. I was in middle school and high school when the Wii was a thing. I was a Nintendo kid. Prior to the Wii, so were a lot of other people. But as someone else mentioned here, if you’re a teenager/young adult, which would you rather play? Outside of Nintendo’s sweet first party stuff, you had what, Boom Blox? Then on the other side there was Red Dead, Dark Souls, Halo, God of War, Call of Duty (proper), Skyrim, BioShock, Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, etc.? These games were gaming at the time. Not Nintendo. As a high schooler I thought the Wii was fun but it was a hard sell against playing the aforementioned games with all of my friends. I spent a large portion of that era defending Nintendo against people who said they were “garbage now.” (And then the Wii U came out and I’ve been a bit more sour on Nintendo since, but that’s a discussion for a different thread).

Whether us old people want to admit it or not, Nintendo isn’t as popular with the younger generations as they were when we were kids. No I’m not saying they’re shit now and that everyone hates them, but they’re not king in peoples’ minds like they used to be. And I really believe we have this era to blame for that downfall.

This is true. I didnt know anyone who bought a wii before 360/ps3

[doner24 | 1,196]

I think it will mostly be remembered as a gimmick, mainly for Wiisports. That’s all I played on it the first decade it was out. I went back and played through both Super Mario Galaxy’s a decade plus later and they were great, but the motion part of it/controllers did nothing to add to the experience. 

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

1 hour ago, doner24 said:

I went back and played through both Super Mario Galaxy’s a decade plus later and they were great, but the motion part of it/controllers did nothing to add to the experience.

I thought collecting the star pieces while flying down world to world was relaxing and almost a mini game. Giving the Wii remote a shake during a jump to get a little extra air time was super satisfying too.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Always felt super casual to me. 
 

Like Nintendo regressing in its casualness. I def have a complete console in storage, but I keep it and my wii games hidden away-because, outside of the known monetary/collector value, I dont care for it at all

[docile tapeworm | 4,202]

A buddy of mine got one when they first come out. I said “oh you got a wii?!” He said “you mean the waa”

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

13 hours ago, doner24 said:

I think it will mostly be remembered as a gimmick, mainly for Wiisports. That’s all I played on it the first decade it was out. I went back and played through both Super Mario Galaxy’s a decade plus later and they were great, but the motion part of it/controllers did nothing to add to the experience. 

I really enjoyed the Punch Out!! remake, but that and both Wii Sports games were all that I ever owned for it. I tried Wii Fit, but it called me obese so I boxed it back up and returned it. 

[Estil | 1,265]

14 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Well,the problem there is no one knows what Metroid is.

I originally thought the game was pronounced Mee-te-yor-roid!  

[TDIRunner | 2,742]

The Wii got me back into Nintendo and it was my first Nintendo console since the SNES.  I remember how difficult they were to find for a while.  My girlfriend at the time (now wife) had one with a travel case, because she was the only person in our friend circle that had one and she took it with her where ever she went because everyone always wanted to play it.  By today's standards, the motion controls can sometimes feel old, especially when they were unnecessarily forced on many games, but for some games they worked perfectly.  I still find bowling on Wii Sports to be extremely fun.  And many games were still playable without motion controls or at least very minor motion controls.  Among my favorites, Mario Kart Wii could be played entirely without motion controls, and Super Paper Mario could be played with only the slightest amount of motion control.  

[twiztor | 851]

16 hours ago, Strange said:

People know the term Metroidvania better than they actually know Metroid or Castlevania these days. 

this might be the most depressing thing i've read on here, ever.

[JamesRobot | 5,805]

The Wii was the wife's machine.  I had a 360.  Natch.

[doner24 | 1,196]

42 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

The Wii was the wife's machine.  I had a 360.  Natch.

360 was the biz. 

[Strange | 1,700]

The Wii was where Sin & Punishment died and now I’m sad all over again

[Estil | 1,265]

4 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

The Wii was the wife's machine.  I had a 360.  Natch.

Nintendo DS was my old lady's machine!  We even each got one of our own...those in our opposite colors!  See I wanted the SMB 25th anniversary version, which is her favorite colors (red/black) and she opted for a blue one (UK's color!).  I actually use hers now because it has that Nerf cover thingie on it plus it gives me fond memories of when I'd be at the hospital or some other place with her and me playing Wheel of Fortune on it or something.

[Tanooki | 4,934]

I guess the three groups kind of work, at least one of them is just a default that's off to the side -- collectors.  They could be just collecting old dead bugs pinned to the board and they'll want them all of some type.

That leaves gamers and casuals.

Both them will overlap because they'll look back and remember the good times they had with a few games, few in both.  The few on a casual would be those who just got wii sports/resorts, something mario, something mario party or other party, maybe trivia even and got with family and friends.

From there the casuals drop off, and you have gamers.  They'll largely rightly dunk on waggle, it went a bit too far, but some will also point out how the thing simulated a mouse pretty well so FPS games were a bit of a joy, point and click games (even the port of Indy Fate of Atlantis) worked really great as did the unique ones like Zack and Wiki.  Then it'll get into the weeds of the gem games that did drop here and there like Fragile and a few others, but again, focusing on FEW, because much of the library was CRAP, shovelware crap, cash in crap, franchise spinoffs ranging from good(DQS and Dead Space) to garbage fires.  They'll point out the few greats, and much will overlap, and then slam the rest.  That's what it'll get remember for, passing fun for all, a few core solid games for the gamer types, but the stigma of a mountain of crap will ever be present.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

On 8/21/2023 at 1:16 PM, MegaMan52 said:

The 3DS got Donkey Kong Country Returns with more levels. It also got Kirby's Epic Yarn.

I remember getting roasted a decade ago on NA and Reddit when I suggested that the 3DS releases of these games were going to be the ones people would prefer in the future. The 3DS ended up being the winner of the generation content wise, that's for sure. 

[Quaze | 342]

On 8/21/2023 at 10:48 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

As the system Zoomers and/or your grandmother loved, where the best games were all (eventually, hopefully) ported to the 3DS/Switch/Switch 2 because no one wants to collect a system that's 97% shovelware and had a bunch of wires and sensors and waggling and shit.

This is essentially my answer. sucked in tons of new gamers with the same gimmicks that turned "hardcore" gamers off. Plenty of solid titles, but 20X more garbage titles. Slowly but surely seeing all the best games ported to platforms that people will play more (and still crossing my fingers for a Super Paper Mario rerelease sometime in the future).

[G-type | 2,482]

It will be remembered as the reason Cartman accidentally froze himself 500 years, because he was too impatient to wait 3 weeks for its release

 

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

For me personally it's a weird one because I got in to it a little late in late 2009 and pretty much only played Goldeneye online for 2 years but that's when I started getting into to gaming again after university and spawned my online gaming interest. Overall, I still see it as the Wii Sports machine for seniors/kids and definitely had a 'fad' component to it for casuals. It's one of my least favourite consoles for 1st party stuff... Mario Galaxy 1/2 and DKC Returns are the only ones that I really liked and even DKC was a little annoying with the shake roll.

I think I liked the Wii more after the fact. Tons of awesome light gun games and super easily modded with a GC player.

[goldenpp72 | 1,234]

Somewhere between a memorable novelty and a good B tier system I would think. It has a ton of hidden gems that are a good unique time, just almost none of them rank in the upper echelon of the industry either. Even Nintendo's own output was largely less stellar than normal on it, so you end up with hundreds of good to great games, but not dozens of astonishing games as is usual with them.

Still an important system overall.