Thu 19 Apr 2007
10:12 pm
I don’t understand.
I just don’t understand!
Pray tell, someone please explain to me why on earth the Nintendo Wii continues to sell out across the world.
What are people actually playing? And who are these people in the first place?
I own a Wii. I have played over a dozen games for it. Most of them completely stink, with the exception of Zelda, of course. Wii Sports is fun for a half an hour or so as a party game, but that’s about it. The only time I turn it on these days is for a review, since my 360 and PS3 are backlogged with tremendous games.
Other than children, I can’t possibly imagine where this is all coming from. There is not a single game that’s out for the system that has been designed exclusively for it that is remotely entertaining for more than an hour or two, and the vast majority of titles for it are PS2 and PSP ports. The best games - Zelda and Paper Mario - are built for the Gamecube, for crying out loud.
I am, and will continue to be, confused. For a long time.
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April 20th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Well, let’s see-
Zelda
Trauma Center
Excite Truck
Paper Mario
Kororinpa
Elebits
Tiger Woods
It’s one of the best system launches I’ve ever seen.
April 20th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Clearly I am in the minority then - which is fine. I am not anti-Nintendo in any way.
Personally, I agree that two of your listings are good (Zelda and Paper Mario), although they are both Gamecube games.
April 20th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Paper Mario is a Wii game. You can tell because that’s the only system it’s available for.
The problem is that you say certain games are only good “for an hour or two” but then don’t say what kind of game you’re looking for. Excite Truck, for example, is a great racer if you like racing games. If not, then yeah, no more than an hour or two. Elebits is a charming take on FPS (horrid voice acting aside) but it isn’t going to do anything for the Gears of War crowd. Tiger Woods is the best golf game I’ve played that isn’t Links 2004.
Most of my gaming is still done on the PS2. Raiden III, The Red Star (next week), Rogue Galaxy, Chulip, GTA: Vice City Stories, and the upcoming Odin Sphere and Dawn of Mana all spring to mind. My 360 has had, this year, Guitar Hero II, Crackdown, and Earth Defense Force. The problem isn’t so much that of one particular system as it is the speed at which the switch to next-gen happens. Check out the PSP, and how long that took to go from waste of space into the cool little system it is today.
April 20th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Point(s) taken. I haven’t played Tiger Woods, so I will take your word for it (and I also love Links 2004, so I realize you know your golf games!).
Speaking of the PSP, I am completely smitten by it these days. I play mine almost every day. Between MLB The Show, Vice City Stories, and Virtua Tennis 3, it’s simply kicking 17 kinds of ass these days. That doesn’t even count the sublime Winning Eleven game for it, which is another stunner.
These days, I split my time evenly between the 360 and the PS2 on the console side, with the PSP getting the rest of my time.
Nothing has grabbed me on the Wii yet, and my only point - badly made, the more I think about it - is not that it’s a bad system (that would be stupid) but that I just don’t understand what’s driving the hypercharged demand for the system.
April 21st, 2007 at 2:02 am
Now that’s something I understand! You just can’t underestimate the power behind Family Oriented Active Gaming. It drove DDR, it helped Guitar Hero, and it’s the entire concept behind the Wii. Like a lot of people, I didn’t realize the Wii was going to be a big deal until I took it down to my sister’s on Thanksgiving. Playing Wii Sports Tennis all afternoon, and watching my mom not only play bowling but want to play more later drove home that, yes, this was going to be huge. That’s what’s pushing the Wii, and is the major reason you can’t find it in stores.
When Nintendo said they were going after a new market, the regular gaming crowd thought they’d gone nuts. Turns out they were just looking at the numbers and doing basic math. I seriously hope they were as surprised as the rest of us at demand, though, because if they think keeping the market hungry like this is good business then their current good fortune is just a momentary blip.
Xbox 360, Wii, PS3. We’ll find out how they’re all really doing come next January, once we’ve got some Christmas numbers. Everything that’s happening right now is still preamble to this fall’s big show.