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yep, it’s like having a console as a bookend. i like Super Mario Wii but it is absolutely a blown-up version of the DS game. we have a handful of games for the Wii which are mostly the outstanding titles the article mentions. we use our PS3 far more often now for games, dvds & Netflix.
I can see why they are struggling (from what I’ve read). I mean everyone that wanted a wii has one. And for the most part they hit a demographic that was completely underfed (casual gamers) which is good. But the problem with casual gamers like myself, once you’re done with the party games and the novelty wears off….what’s going to get you to go back to the machine? Wii Fit was good, but it’s going to take a lot more than one big thing every couple of years to sustain themselves.
Also, households with kids under 10 were a similarly underfed demographic but the fact is that like my household when the kids get older they are going to not want to play wii any more and are going to want a more hardcore gaming system.
It struck me as odd that the Mario game, which sells itself as a chaotic experience, would feature two player avatars that look almost exactly the same. You know how’d you sometimes play Contra and forget which faceless Rambo dude you were playing? Yeah, that was never fun. I doubt we’d be nitpicking this if Nintendo was whipping up production on more interesting stuff, but owning a Gamecube taught me that I can expect a single game that might catch my fancy once a year before the holidays. And even then, the games in question are almost always iterations of stuff we’ve already seen. Mark my words: nothing remotely interesting will come down the pipe until Mario Galaxy 2 lumbers out next Christmas.
My Wii’s sat there like a useless brick since I bought an Xbox last summer, and it’s disappointing to think I dropped the money on it. There’s been more Xbox games released in the last 4 months that have interested me than within the entire Wii library to date.
If I had a kid, it would make for a good babysitter… and there’s certainly very little that’s suitable for small kids on the Xbox… but I’ve never fully bought into the idea that the Wii is fun for all people. Most of my friends have no interest in videogames and even a round of Wii Sports leads to lots of confusion, hand-holding, and grudging explanations that the tennis is nothing like actual tennis… you need to learn to, like, flick your wrist mildly in a very awkwardly specific way at the exact right nanosecond.
I think my nostalgia for Nintendo has stopped breeding goodwill for their future.
The Wii needs a new, break-through franchise. The sequels, though incredibly fun, don’t impress that much.
Super Mario Bros. Wii is hysterical multiplayer fun, but it definitely feels recycled.
I’d agree with that wholeheartedly, Paris. The sole output of Nintendo tends to be their traditional flagship franchises and instances when the characters from those franchises decide to put aside their animosity to ride bikes.
Each console generation, Nintendo unveils a single new franchise. That’s it. With N64, we got Smash Bros. With Gamecube, we got Pikmin. And some franchises get lazily dropped by the wayside as we move along. No SNES Kid Icarus. No N64 Metroid. There probably won’t be a Wii Pikmin.
Sadly, I think the flagship franchise of this generation is the Wii Something-Somethings. Legless orbs with rictus grins rigidly jerking back and forth on the most banal, suburban looking sports arenas imaginable.
Justin said:You know how’d you sometimes play Contra and forget which faceless Rambo dude you were playing? Yeah, that was never fun.
Kinda OT, but it came up in conversation the other night how ridiculous(ly awesome?) it would be if they came out with an updated first person shooter Contra game. It would have to come with a barf bag as the screen would flip several times every time you had to jump.
If it had the option to kill the other players by moving your point of view away from them, like that waterfall level, I’d buy 30 copies.