The Wii, what now?

Emlyn_Dewar · 25 Apr 2007 at 01:03

This thread is not intended as anything against the Wii, nor is it a pro 360/PS3 thread. Bickering has no place here!

It's worth noting for this thread that I have also not played a Wii, merely watched, therefore I am wrong.

I've been looking at what's coming out on Wii and what is already out for it and I have really been left unimpressed. The way this console is selling I really thought it would offer something special, instead I see ports from PSP/PS2 and not much else... Super Mario Galaxies and Super Paper Mario look fun but that's pretty much it. Zelda looked great, however, should I feel the need it will be Gamecube all the way.
I noticed Resi Evil 4 is getting released AGAIN and the Wii's controls make aiming a lot better and whatnot, still, it's not a new game.

What exactly is it that the Wii is doing that makes it so popular? I expect multiplayer to be the answer but, for me, I just can't see it. 4 player Halo or PGR2 is what I see as fun, again, that is just my opinion. How long can a basic bowling/golf or boxing game last?
I know that it appeals to the people who wouldn't usually own a console but surely they will eventually grow tired of a cooking game, or the Wii Play/Sports release titles?

Are there a lot of brilliant titles coming to the Wii that I have not seen or is the near future really as boring as it looks?

thor · 25 Apr 2007 at 01:15

I've been intending on picking up a Wii pretty much since it came out but the lack of titles available at the moment keeps putting me off. In fact, I'm drawn more to the Virtual Console releases rather than the fully fledged Wii releases.
But to answer your question about brilliant titles coming out, from what's been announced (and that I know of), I would say the following are the real highlights (and all exclusives with exception to RE4):

Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Nights: Journey Of Dreams
Super Smash Brothers: Brawl
Mario Party 8
Battalion Wars 2
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

Emlyn_Dewar · 25 Apr 2007 at 01:33

I completely forgot about Nights, remember reading a post a while back saying something about it...
That's something to look forward to definately.

Zefan · 25 Apr 2007 at 01:35

Definitely turning out to be the flash in the pan deal I thought it was going to be.

Will still buy one at some point for the exclusives + novelty

meths · 25 Apr 2007 at 02:08

I sold mine.

Don't miss it one bit.

Kamakazie! · 25 Apr 2007 at 02:17

Zefan said:
Definitely turning out to be the flash in the pan deal I thought it was going to be.

Will still buy one at some point for the exclusives + novelty

Yes because after 5 months, the future of the console is exceptionally clear... :rolleyes:

Other titles:
Mario Strikers: Charged
No More Heroes (really anticipating this one...)
Sadness
Dewi's Adventure
Treasure Island: Project Z
Dragon Quest: Swords
Disaster: Day of Crisis

To name a few. People seem to be going on about the Wii and it's lack of games (which definitely is a problem). But it seems to get over emphasised because of it's unbelievable success. The 360 struggled for titles for a while after launch and the PS3 is going through the same problems.
I am waiting till the end of the summer to get mine. Hopefully a few more of the big names will be out then.

The one thing I am hugely disappointed about is the handling of online play. The wait is not an issue, it is that after all this time they have still totally ****** it up by going with stupid stupid game specific friends codes. I don't mind FCs so long as it is ONE PER SYSTEM!!!!!

thedoc46 · 25 Apr 2007 at 02:59

I had a wii on launch day Nov 21st, I took it out of the box, waved around the controller for a little while, fired up Zelda, pondered on the 480i images being sent to my screen and soon after boxed the thing up and flogged it on eBay...

i'm afraid that its going to be a success in all honesty..

If it is, then we as gamers will all suffer... I'm all about new technology, not last gen with a new controller. If the wii is an outstanding success, what does this hold for future consoles, they'll look at the wii and say hey lets not spend 10billion on R&D and load up our new beast with the lastest and greatest, lets give them 5yr old technology spiced up with a new controller and they'll all love it and it'll save us all the bother.

barnettgs · 25 Apr 2007 at 04:54

More than 6 millions Wiis have been sold in just under 5 months and because of this, many developers have shifted more time to develop games for it. Wii's userbase cannot be ignored because it is growing rapidly at the rate of at least 1+ millions per month and very good games to hardware sale ratio which is much better than PS3 so there's more money to make.

Again, like any console that is just launched, lack of games is to be expected but I have noticed increasing numbers of new games (mostly untitled) announced for Wii lately.

Kreeeee · 25 Apr 2007 at 08:20

Zefan said:
Definitely turning out to be the flash in the pan deal I thought it was going to be.

Will still buy one at some point for the exclusives + novelty

That's your chance to come over and play it out the window

. There are plenty of great games for it (especially compared to the PS3) out now and coming out soon. It's a fantastic console and it's definitely here to stay as it's making Nintendo a huge amount of money.

thedoc46 said:
If it is, then we as gamers will all suffer... I'm all about new technology, not last gen with a new controller. If the wii is an outstanding success, what does this hold for future consoles, they'll look at the wii and say hey lets not spend 10billion on R&D and load up our new beast with the lastest and greatest, lets give them 5yr old technology spiced up with a new controller and they'll all love it and it'll save us all the bother.

The 360 and PS3 offer a much more last gen experience in comparison. New generations are about offering something new, something which The 360 and PS3 does not offer.

Tunney · 25 Apr 2007 at 11:50

I'm happy with my Wii purchase, but I would be disappointed if it was my only console. It's great for multiplayer but there aren't enough quality single player/online games. Luckily I've got my Xbox 360 for that.

Some of the upcoming games look interesting, but the number of games being announced (especially for Europe) is very sparse. More worrying is the number of games being developed for the PS2, PSP and Wii in tandem. It looks like games for this generation will largely fall into two camps - multi-format releases for the 360/PS3/PC and multi-format releases for the PS2/PSP/Wii.

Hopefully the console's success in terms of hardware sales will be sustained and we'll begin to see a flood of unique and engrossing titles.

New generations are about offering something new, something which The 360 and PS3 does not offer.

Games like Home, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Rising and Test Drive Unlimited don't offer anything new? Interesting theory.

GarethDW · 25 Apr 2007 at 13:43

thedoc46 said:
i'm afraid that its going to be a success in all honesty..

If it is, then we as gamers will all suffer... I'm all about new technology, not last gen with a new controller. If the wii is an outstanding success, what does this hold for future consoles, they'll look at the wii and say hey lets not spend 10billion on R&D and load up our new beast with the lastest and greatest, lets give them 5yr old technology spiced up with a new controller and they'll all love it and it'll save us all the bother.

I'm really struggling to see your point here... the Wii isn't and never has been primarily targetted at your "traditional" gamer, it's targetted at those who aren't interested in buying a 360 or a PS3, at "casual gamers" (for want of a better term) who don't want or can't justify spending several hundreds of pounds on just the console.

The funny thing is, however, that the traditional gamer is buying the Wii as well, to complement their other consoles. Whether this was intentional upon Nintendo's part is anyone's guess.

Nintendo are opening up the gaming market to a whole new demographic - people who previously were not simply interested in gaming at all. In Wii owners' households, you'll find that there are wives, sisters, parents, grandparents, etc... who are prepared to "have a go" with Wii Sports because it looks familiar as opposed to being a button bashing contest. Then they'll have a go at Wario Ware because anyone can balance a controller in their hand, or Tiger Woods because swinging a golf club is easier than learning button combos, etc...

Whilst this is good from Nintendo's perspective, because each console and game sold on the Wii is increasing their profits, it's also good for other manufacturers and games developers in general, because these people are now more likely to consider one of the more technically more advanced consoles.

Console manufacturers such as MS and Sony are not suddenly going to stop pushing the technical boundries as far as they can... that's what they do with each new console they release. Neither the PS3 nor the 360 offer much more than the earlier consoles, if it's not improved graphics and faster gameplay. If you take these out of the equation, no one would want to upgrade to the XBox720 or the PS4. Nintendo took a risk by not trying to compete on the techie aspects, and instead concentrated on having fun through gameplay (with a wacky controller) instead of dazzling us with bling. It's been done now, though, so the other manufacturers aren't going to be bringing anything new to the table by releasing a next-gen console that doesn't improve the graphical aspect... why would you bother getting one of these consoles, when the Wii already offers it and is massively successful?

As for developers saying "hey lets not spend 10billion on R&D and load up our new beast with the lastest and greatest, lets give them 5yr old technology spiced up with a new controller and they'll all love it and it'll save us all the bother" then provided the gameplay is there, I don't see the problem in this. Often, that "10billion on R&D" that they've spent only goes to improve the graphical look of the games, and improving gameplay isn't given any consideration. I'm from the old skool of computer gaming where gameplay was everything... I grew up playing games on my Spectrum where you needed to have a good imagination to believe the graphics were representative of something (remember the Ferrari in Out Run...?) but that was not important because the developers made up for the graphical and aural shortcomings by conentrating on gameplay.

Some of the most immersive and fun games I've ever played had naff graphics... I have cumatively spent entire weeks - probably months - playing games like Tetris on my original Gameboy, or Doom on my 386, or Kick Off on my STe, Counter Strike 1.6 on my PC, etc... simply because they've got (or had) fantastic gameplay.

Kreeeee · 25 Apr 2007 at 13:45

GarethDW said:
I'm really struggling to see your point here...

He's a self confessed rabid nintendo hater, he doesn't need a point

XPE · 25 Apr 2007 at 13:49

I would also like to add that I think the Wii version of Zelda is superior to the Gamecube one, so if you had the choice I would get it for the Wii

scorza · 25 Apr 2007 at 13:55

Tunney said:
Games like Home, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Rising and Test Drive Unlimited don't offer anything new? Interesting theory.

Please explain. I've not played any of those besides Dead Rising (which I will accept as "something new" as far as I know), but from what I can tell:

Home - basically second life for PS3 owners?
LittleBigPlanet - How is this going to be substantially different to any another platform game?
Test Drive Unlimited - Need for speed?

Why are any of the above new? As far as I can see, the level of innovation going into PS3/360 games is pitifully small - all the money is spent on getting the best graphics for all your old PS2 and Xbox games.

GarethDW · 25 Apr 2007 at 14:41

scorza said:
Please explain. I've not played any of those besides Dead Rising (which I will accept as "something new" as far as I know), but from what I can tell:

Home - basically second life for PS3 owners?
LittleBigPlanet - How is this going to be substantially different to any another platform game?
Test Drive Unlimited - Need for speed?

Why are any of the above new? As far as I can see, the level of innovation going into PS3/360 games is pitifully small - all the money is spent on getting the best graphics for all your old PS2 and Xbox games.

LBP offers you the chance to build your own platformer... kinda reminds me of the Shootemup Construction Kit from Sensible Software, but for platformers. I can't think of anything else that offers this.

I agree with the comment about money just being spent on getting the best graphics possible.

Bonjour · 25 Apr 2007 at 15:01

Zefan said:
Definitely turning out to be the flash in the pan deal I thought it was going to be.

Will still buy one at some point for the exclusives + novelty

Exactly. All of my local stores have tons of stock as people have simply stopped buying them..

Tunney · 25 Apr 2007 at 15:04

All of the games I've mentioned offer either an expansive free-roaming experience or a community-based gaming approach (or both!) that simply haven't been possible on previous consoles.

Both Sony and Microsoft are innovating heavily with online play. Games like Test Drive Unlimited and Home show how games in the future could take place in connected and persistent worlds.

Watch the videos for LittleBigPlanet if you want to see how innovative it is. It's a real work of art.

scorza · 25 Apr 2007 at 15:15

Tunney said:
All of the games I've mentioned offer either an expansive free-roaming experience or a community-based gaming approach (or both!) that simply haven't been possible on previous consoles.

Both Sony and Microsoft are innovating heavily with online play. Games like Test Drive Unlimited and Home show how games in the future could take place in connected and persistent worlds.

Maybe its just me, but I don't call copying what you've been able to do on PCs for the past few years as "innovation"

Tunney said:
Watch the videos for LittleBigPlanet if you want to see how innovative it is. It's a real work of art.

Looks good, I'll reserve judgment until its out though. I notice its done by people who used to work for the king of hype-and-failing-to-deliver, Peter Molyneaux

bluntslide · 25 Apr 2007 at 22:43

you know the strange thing for me, even stranger than playing a wii through my hidef tv (what a waste!), is that i find myself playing the virtual console games or browsing the internet on the sofa. i think they are the two main selling points, apart from having a few beers and then playing tennis or bowling! its a shame the 360 doesnt have a web browser (yet?), not sure if the ps3 has but i think thats the only way they will come slightly close to a pc replacement.