Wii Still Love The We... Wait, Reverse That
I have a confession to make. I scored a Wii on release date because I camped out at the EB Games a few weeks prior to secure a preorder. I argued with people at work about how Wii was the only system I needed and I would never buy a PS3 or 360. Fast forward a couple of years and my Wii is collecting dust while my PS3 and 360 enjoy countless marathon gaming sessions. In fact, the last time I turned on my Wii was back in July at a family party, and that was just to play Boom Blox with my brother and his girlfriend. Since then the console has remained dormant; sometimes I hear it crying in the middle of the night.
So what is a Wii owner to do? If I was in a pessimistic mood I would have written a nice article about the downfall of Nintendo and how it will lead to the collapse of Western civilization, but I'm going to keep my glass half filled with Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper and instead give you seven games that are being released this year (unless they're delayed) that are reason enough to turn your Wii back on.
So follow the jump to some much needed Wii love
De Blob
Paint the town red, or blue, or yellow, or fuchsia. The world has gone monochromatic and it's up to you to bring color back to Chroma City while fighting the evil I.N.K.T. Corporation. Just once I'd like to see a game where the establishment isn't the bad guy. I probably shouldn't share those thoughts with people though. De Blob looks to be one of those "only on Wii" experiences on the same level as Boom Blox, but without a famous director producing.
Wario Land: Shake It
A 2D sidescroller in the age of Unreal engines and polygon pushing hardware; what is Nintendo thinking? You hold the wiimote like a classic controller and then I'm assuming shake it to perform Wario's actions. See the title matches what you do in the game, clever! I may not be a huge fan of Mario's evil doppelganger but this exclusive title might be worth checking out.
Samba De Amigo
I am well aware this came out on the Dreamcast but nobody bought a Dreamcast and everyone and their great grandfather has a Wii. Shake shake shake the wiimote like a maraca and hope that your friends want to play along. Again with the shaking! Why no maraca controller though?
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn New World
No secret I love a good old fashioned RPG. This game picks up where the original Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube left off. For some reason I didn't actually own the original game but I'm sure the story had something to do with spunky young people an all powerful evil. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Animal Crossing: City Folk
While it may still look like a Nintendo64 game, that never stopped Animal Crossing from conquering both the Gamecube and DS. Anyone who enjoyed the other games will find all their favorite friends back and ready to help you build a virtual life to escape your own. If you have friends you can visit their towns as well. Is anyone really getting this for online though?
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel
I don't know how to type the lightsaber sounds, maybe vwwwshh or something like that. Anyways, fighting with all your favorite characters from Lucas' *ahem* masterpiece looks to be a blast and this may be the lightsaber game we've been waiting for since they announced the Wii those many years ago. Bonus points to Lucasarts if they include Cade Skywalker or Jacen Solo. I swear I'm not into Star Wars!
Castlevania: Judgment
Another fighting game?! This had lame written all over it when it was announced but the involvement of producer Koji Igarashi and the chance to once again play as Alucard is enough to soften the stone heart of any cynical Castlevania fan. Plus I know I'm in the minority but I actually kind of dug the Nintendo64 games and really want to see the series go somewhere beyond handheld Symphony of the Night rip-offs.
TheDoctor
Posted to Video Games on 3 September 2008
· Comments (25)
Other stuff like this: games, nintendo, wii
Lego Batman!
Force Unleashed!
just cause it isn't exclusive doesn't mean it's not fun to play on the wii
Oh thank you thank you Mister Journalist your infinite words of wisdom will bring my Wii back from the edge of disparity.
Funny, cos like so many people I play it almost everyday.
Please can we see some journalism without the personal opinions? I do wish someone would take the responsibility and report the facts!
One mans trash is another mans treasure.
And what the hell you talking about Symphony of The Night rip-offs? The GBA/DS games are awesome.
Is Halo 3 a rip-off of Halo 2 which is in turn a rip-off of Halo??? Pathetic piece of "journalism".
I have to agree that my wii is rarely turned on. I got SSBB but there are so many other games to play. However I am trying to decide which (for games) i use the least, my ps3 or my wii. I mostly play pc and 360. Can we get a list of ps3 games also?
You forgot completely about Dokopon Kingdom!
Hey, any that I forgot please let me know! I'm always looking for great games and can't keep track of them all
@SuperSaiyanSamueru
Don't get me wrong, I love my Wii, I just don't find that many reasons to play it every day. Hence why I wrote this up so other people who are experiencing the same feeling know that there are a ton of great games coming out in the next few months.
Thinking about picking up a newly dirt-cheap 360, but I spent a couple hours playing the Wii just tonight. I don't think it's the best console ever, but it's been more than enough for me. Plus, I still have a lot of PS2 games to get through.
I completely agree with you Doctor, my Wii had been collecting dust for ages...until Super Mario RPG came out :-)
@jonostarsmore
I'm ashamed to say I haven't downloaded it yet. I'm swamped with games but it is on my list. So many fond memories of playing it way back when. Now if only Square will let some other games find their way to the Virtual Console .
PS, love the name, Chamber was a favorite back in the Gen X days
I downloaded Super Mario RPG as soon as it became available! And I remember where all the secrets are! I'm such a dork.
Count me as one of those who plays the Wii much more regularly than any other console. I own a 360 but basically don't touch it except when my boyfriend wants to play together (Lego Indy Jones and Marvel Ultimate Alliance). If it's just me--I go for the Wii. To each his own!
The 60+ hours spent on Twilight Princess and another 25+ on Mario Galaxy more than justify my Wii purchase. It's true you need a playsation on the side to fill in the time between A-grade Wii games though.
How about "Disaster"? It`s going to be released THIS year in Europe! (confirmed, this time for sure)
Those 7 games are the best you can do? Meh, the Wii was dead a long time ago. Can we finally let go of the notion that the Wii is, in some way, a "games console"?
Those last 3 are pushing it... I'll rent the others. Samba is the only buy for me... My Wii gets no love :(
@thedoctor
I don't think we've officially met, but we work together :-)
I'm in the same boat. I bought the Wii for Smash Bros. Brawl and for the backwards compatibility, since I never owned a Gamecube. I also basically assumed Nintendo would come out with some great games for it aside from Brawl, but... as far as I'm concerned, that hasn't happened yet. Maybe I should have just bought a Gamecube. Oh wait, I did! (ooohhh yeah I went there)
I'm with the Doctor - I'd love to play my Wii more often, but there simply aren't many games I want to play. Jamison's right about the non-exclusives, but so far I've yet to find one that I enjoy playing more on the Wii than I do on another console.
Further complicating the issue are games like No More Heroes and Madworld, which promise a lot but don't quite follow through as far as my experience is concerned.
I don't argue against the fact that The Doctor and others have to blow off dust from their Wii console, but its the negative presence of your post.
I believe you have to remain neutral and allow your readers to decide what is and what isn't great.
It seems that the responses are almost split halfway down. So therefore your article could possibly alienate half your readers.
Just because you may not like the console doesn't mean you should write biased articles.
CitizenGeek - that is your opinion mate.. so jog on.
The Wii is interesting, marketing wise it's an absolute dream, it's cheap, efficient, it's by the beloved Nintendo, the instantly recognisable brand in gaming, it has all the party games under the sun, breaking the stereotype of the indoorsy loner with a copy of the anarchists cookbook they'll never, ever use and really bad acne.
YOU CAN PLAY WITH YOUR FAMILY.. for christs sake. You can't play your grandad on Gears of War.
The problem with the Wii lies with exactly what makes it such a marketers dream, and a lot of it's gaming success is down to the effective marketing of the console, it's mainstream games are good enough to be busted out for 20 minutes twice a month after a few beers, but not a lot beyond that.
The first party games are essentially rehashed versions of games already done, which in Nintendos case is no bad thing as Mario is a rising success in 3D, unlike Sonic, Mario Kart is a party game, and Smash bros, while in my opinion piss poor, that's just because I hate it, but it pushed a lot of the right buttons for people.
But regular use as a hardcore machine bar the occasional bust out is just little to none existent, especially among the more hardcore gamers just isn't seeming to be happening, it gets cast aside in favour of other machines at the drop of a hat, I know 12 people with Wiis, and only one of them played it in the past 2 weeks, and that was with me, and that was Guitar Hero after drinking quarter of Everclear.
Personally speaking, I don't see much evidence of the Wii been used as a full gaming machine, it's a party console that's been marketed as exactly what it is, and it's selling truckloads.
Wish I could market something as brilliantly.
@SuperSaiyanSamueru: This article IS The Doctor's opinion. He is writing about HIS experience with the Wii and then goes on to say that there are games that he really likes. This is a positive piece and why you are trying to make it otherwise is beyond me. This is a blog, not Time Magazine and as writers we are entitled to our opinion just as you are entitled to yours. Just because it doesn't align with yours doesn't mean you need to personally attack him. Chill my friend. There are far greater things on this earth to get upset about.
I try and play my Wii just as much as my 360 and PS3 but it only really gets fired up for the games I've downloaded from the VC. (I won't lie, the whole reason I bought one in the first place was the VC.) Most of the exclusive titles really don't appeal to me at all. I could not get into Twilight Princess to save the life of me. Super Mario Galaxy just felt like I was playing Mario64 all over again, which I wasn't a big fan of in the first place. And I can't stand the button-mashing/no technique fighting style of Smash Bros. Brawl, but gave it a chance none the less.
But this is all just my opinion...
Veering off topic, but I can't help myself: To those who think Brawl is about button mashing, try turning off items and playing on a mundane stage like Battlefield and you'll find a deep, heavily strategic fighting game hiding beneath the gaudy surface (dodging and shielding figure critically into the game, so don't ignore them!).
"To those who think Brawl is about button mashing, try turning off all those things that make it Super Mash Buttons Brawl."
I do wish to apologise for my rather aggresive attack, but at the same time I still stand by beliefs. I still wish to challenge your occasional negative approaches to article writing. In this case, I do understand that it was supposed to be a positive spin but its part of an image that writers seem to be creating for the Wii in particular.
I think a lot of the arguement stems from is the elitists out there and their views on "casual" and "hardcore" games. Being as the Wii is seen as a "casual" console it is frowned upon by the elitists.
I have been a gamer for 24 years now, I play several hours everyday and consider myself fairly "hardcore". But just because that time is spent playing Mario Galaxy or No More Heroes or even Mario Party doesn't mean I should be frowned upon by others whom play Gears Of War and Halo 3. It is all a matter of taste.
I ask for more neautral commentary as it would help to stop alienating gamers at whatever level they may be and on whatever platform they may be playing on.
I love this site because, as I am a gay gamer, I can be who/what I am without fear of being judged in terms of my sexuality... but when it comes to gaming, the main reason I'm here, sometimes such articles make me feel like a second rate gamer.
WHINEY BITCH MODE *OFF*
LIFE GET!!!