Console Debate #30 Wii

[fox | 1,668]

There are some great games among the shovelware, but I would rather play them on any other system that wasn’t the Wii.

Having a non-HD console in the HD era, ment a lot of the big games of the day didn’t come to the Wii, or got a very half hearted port.  Combine that with the anemic online with friend codes and laggy servers, and the user experience was rather poor.

But the real buzzkill was forced waggle in every freaking game.  Seemed like it never worked 100% and your motions just wouldn’t be read correctly.  This one gimmick hamstrung nearly every title on the system.  Also wasn’t a big fan of the controllers, or the fact they ate up batteries, and even if you wanted to use a classic controller it had to be tethered to a limp Wii mote just hanging there like a tumor.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

I gave it a 4.  There are a couple decent games, but on the whole, let's just say I've had it since shortly after launch and I've played it less times than I have fingers.  If it wasn't for Punch Out I likely would've gone lower.

[croagunk | 798]

7/10 for me. Lots of amazing games on it. The motion controls are okay, I just wish more games allowed you to use a regular controller.

[Tanooki | 4,943]

17 hours ago, Estil said:

I don't yet have a Switch though.  Which is a good thing because it looks like my hunch about a Switch Pro coming up will turn out to be right...but I'm nowhere near ready to commit $400+ for it though  

$400?  Amazon Mexico leaked the Switch Pro existence, E3 should give the date and MSRP if that wasn't leaked too as I didn't catch it.

Given the condition my system is in, I'll sell it cheap, and just get the Pro instead of replacing the thing which is totally fine by me.

 

glazball did make one good point I forgot -- Wii brought back the fun of a light gun shooter to a modern TV which is great, shame none took it up after, including the Switch.

[Inzoreno | 102]

21 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I guess it's pretty telling that the Wii (and Wii U) are the ONLY Nintendo consoles I never owned and don't currently have a collection for.

I'm sure I could piecemeal together a 50 game Wii collection if I really wanted to.  Except half of those games are probably now available for Switch.

Do you mean Wii U? Not a whole lot of games from the Wii have been ported to the Switch. Galaxy, Xenoblade and Skyward Sword are the three that come to mind. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by Inzoreno

[Reed Rothchild | 9,561]

23 minutes ago, Inzoreno said:

Do you mean Wii U? Not a whole lot of games from the Wii have been ported to the Switch. Galaxy, Xenoblade and Skyward Sword are the three that come to mind. 

That is true, but I had some others (including some of the better multiplat games) in mind too.  Okami, all of the Resident Evils, both No More Heroes, then you have Monster Hunter Generations making 3 pretty obsolete, de Blob, Phantom Brave, and possibly others.

I could still see myself building a small collection of Muramasa, Mad World, Lost Story, Fire Emblem, and a dozen others.  But for a console of the Wii's size and success, that's pathetic.

[Link | 2,715]

I didn’t have a problem with the motion controls. Not great in some games, sure. But you can say that about button controls too, if less severely. 

I don’t remember having trouble with batteries, either. Do you guys get generics? 

I don’t play online so I didn’t deal with that mess. 

I like the controller concept, with two separate parts. Very well done, imo. The dimensions of the main wiimote are all wrong for sideways mode, but I think they went with the best choice. Addressing this would make pointer mode worse than vice versa.

The size and shape of the console are nice. HD would look better. Typical Nintendo compromise to bring the price down. I’m not mad about it. The component output was nice. The setup for the pointing solution is a little cumbersome, but the most elegant way to do it. They finally made the Power Glove system work gud, lol.

GC compatibility is a plus, and for the time so was Netflix.

I give it a 7.

I was ultimately disappointed with Skyward Sword,  not for the controls though. But I really liked a lot of other games. 
Twilight Princess with motion control - Zelda is always my “killer app”
Excite Truck and Bots
DKCR (and the Jungle Beat port)
Rayman Origins (surprisingly similar to DK)
Okami
NSMB (though the engine is now tired, and I wish Nintendo would move on for subsequent 2D games)
both Wario games
and of course Wii Sports/Resort
And I’ll echo Muramasa, Punch-Out, A Boy & His Blob, and Super Paper Mario.

There’s more, but offhand those are what I remember or liked the most. And others that I want to play and haven’t yet.

[Estil | 1,265]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

$400?  Amazon Mexico leaked the Switch Pro existence, E3 should give the date and MSRP if that wasn't leaked too as I didn't catch it.

That's counting also the Pro Controller and your first game.  And that's if they only sell the Switch Pro itself for $300...IF we're lucky.

[Tanooki | 4,943]

They should sell it for $300, Nintendo knows how pricepoints can backfire on them.  They'll terminate the original model entirely weeding out old stock, then keep the LITE out as the budget option at $200 or slightly lower it a bit as more bait.  That would fit their racket with past handhelds as they can't afford to shoot high then backpedal like the 3DS launch.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

On 5/28/2021 at 8:42 PM, docile tapeworm said:

any respectable dive bar has wii bowling. thats all.

Fact. Wii Sports alone gets it a 7/10. Punch Out was a great game too.

[Brickman | 4,000]

I went with a 6. It has some solid games like Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, some good RPGs but most of it is shovelware. Nintendo went way too casual with this system and forgot about their core audience a bit. 

[peg | 372]

It was the worst console of all time until the wii u came out.

1/10

Edited May 30, 2021 by peg

[AverageOliver98 | 719]

The Wii was pretty much my first game console. We did have an NES, but I didn't play it that much before the Wii. Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl were my favorite games, with me sinking nearly 500 hours into both games combined(the only game since to out do those numbers is Breath of the Wild(nearly 1000)), plus I found great enjoyment out of games like Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Super Paper Mario, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. And then there's the Virtual Console. That was my first time experiencing Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dreamland 3, Super Metroid, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Kirby 64, and Paper Mario. I don't think I'd have an interest in retro games or my game collection if it wasn't for the Wii's Virtual Console. There is a point to be made about too much shovelware, but my time with the console was an extremely enjoyable one.

[WhyNotZoidberg | 586]

8/10! I really love it and I own about 200 titles (and counting), most of which are highly playable affairs and which cover a wide variety of genres. The library could have held more point and click adventures or heavily menu-based games since the pointer replaces a mouse quite effectively, but I can't fault developpers for not tapping into these dead genres.

20 hours ago, Shmup said:

I went with a 6. It has some solid games like Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, some good RPGs but most of it is shovelware. Nintendo went way too casual with this system and forgot about their core audience a bit. 

Mario All-Stars 25th
New Super Mario Bros Wii
Mario Galaxy 1&2
ZeldaTwilight Princess
Zelda Skyward Sword
Metroid Other M
Metroid Prime 3
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Kirby's Return to Dreamland
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Dream Collection
Super Smash Bros.
Animal Crossing City Folk
Mario Party 8&9
Punch-Out Wii
Wii Sports
Wii Sports Resort
Wii Party
Fortune Street
All the Mario&Sonic Olympics
Wario Ware
Wario Land Shake It
Super Paper Mario
Mario Kart Wii
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Pokepark 1&2
Fire Emblem
Mario Strikers Charged
Mario Tennis
Mario Super Sluggers
Mario Sports Mix
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
Batallion Wars II 
Pikmin 1&2

I'm forgetting a bunch, and of course some aren't worth mentionning. And the Virtual Consoles means one could play almost any classic from older generations.

I would say Nintendo DID cater to their core demo here. Or maybe we don't share the definition of what constitutes Nintendo's core audience.

Edited May 31, 2021 by WhyNotZoidberg
added info

[LastCat | 246]

The Wii is also a power house emulation machine once it's soft modded plus the ability to play Gamecube game is also a big plus. Also the component cables for a WIi don't cost an arm and leg either. 

[peg | 372]

Any game that requires you to play with a wand and wave your hands around like a spastic wizard it is an immediate 0/10.

[LastCat | 246]

Can't tell if serious or not but ok.

 

[WhyNotZoidberg | 586]

49 minutes ago, peg said:

Any game that requires you to play with a wand and wave your hands around like a spastic wizard it is an immediate 0/10.

That's what she said

 

[Makar | 1,946]

I gave it a 7/10. Some solid games for sure but overwhelmingly most games are shovelware. 

I think Mario’s strikers charged, geometry wars galaxies, Wii sports, and Wii play should all be added to that first image for good Wii games. Mario strikers charged is my favorite for the system and probably in my top 25 games of all time. 

[Robot_Ninjutsu | 122]

The Wii is a difficult system to accurately rate.

The motion controls, and Wii Sports games, meant I could finally enjoy playing games with the non-gamers in my family.  But the motion tracking could have been way better.

I will shout my undying love for "Muramasa" into cool night air, but the system, and a majority of its games, are merely okay.

The Wii was a system for everyone else first, and a gamer like me second.

 

[G-type | 2,486]

Really innovative console. Got a lot of mom's and grandparents to try it out. Wii Bowling, MarioKart with the plastic steering wheel, Wii fit with the balance board, Mario Galaxy... lots of really fun stuff here.

[LastCat | 246]

 

I change my mind guys, the PS Triple is better than that trash Nintendo puts out.
I hate using wands as controllers and all the games are just shovel ware, absolutely 0 good games on the Wii.

[DefaultGen | 5,415]

5 for me

Wii motion controls suck and not in a "motion controls suck" kind of way, in a Wii motion controls suck kind of way. They're just laggy, imprecise, and the worst. Playstation Move was amazing, it just had no games.

It basically got left out of an entire era of RPGs and action games because it was underpowered. There is no Elder Scrolls, Far Cry, GTA, Uncharted, or Mass Effect equivalents on a Wii. Lots of developers decided shitty 3D was a better option than 2D. Ctrl+F Muramasa in this thread for proof enough of that. If there were more 2D games or games with timeless art styles, a wider variety of non-Nintendo games would get represented looking back on it.

It should've been "Nintendo's PS2" in terms of third party variety and quality, after all PS2 was underpowered and extremely popular. But it wasn't. It was a dumping ground with a number of diamonds in the rough.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

I gave it a 6/10. I fuck with the Wii. I ever really hated the waggle controls and I thought the pointing the remote at the screen was intuitive, although the set up to make with work was a little over kill. 

I think there's about 50 games that are just plays and for me that's about par for the course for a console. 

I love Wii Sports, Punch Out, Mario Galaxy 1&2, NSMB Wii, even the GameCube remakes. Overall, I think there is a solid line up  if you can get past the waggle controls, which understandably some people can't. 

I think the rule of thumb was the less waggle controls dictated the outcome of performance in the game, the more enjoyable the gameplay ended up. 

[Robot_Ninjutsu | 122]

I wanted to like "New Super Mario Brothers" but something was just....missing.  I've never had a 2D Mario game that I just lose interest and stop playing.

 

8 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

It should've been "Nintendo's PS2" in terms of third party variety and quality, after all PS2 was underpowered and extremely popular. But it wasn't. It was a dumping ground with a number of diamonds in the rough.

I have never been able to shake the feeling that the Wii was Nintendo's "admitting defeat" console.  They knew they couldn't compete with MS, Sony, and their 3rd party support, so they made this system for "everyone else". When that group got over the novelty of the Wii, they didn't come back for the WiiU, and Nintendo got burned.