Now that the Wii’s life cycle is coming to an end - and the next generation of Nintendo home consoles is right around the corner - we’ve been taking some time to recall the long and colorful journey of Nintendo’s little, white system. Join us as we celebrate the Wii’s last few months by continuing to look back at all the things that helped define how gamers, and the world at large, will come to remember the Wii generation.
Today we’re taking a look at a few of the Wii’s greatest success stories, and also at some of its biggest letdowns…
While many people associate the name “Wii” with massive amounts of shovelware, the truth is the system actually has some incredible software to its name - especially from the Big N itself. Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were both exceptional 3D platformers, bringing the Mario 64 magic into space and adding some impressive gravity-based physics to the mix. Other great Wii titles we got out of the Mushroom Kingdom include New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Super Paper Mario, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and Wario Land: Shake It! Not too shabby, considering this is just one of Nintendo’s beloved properties.
On the Hyrule side of things, the system launched with the Wii version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which was originally developed for GameCube. While that game was amazing, more impressive was the Hylian adventure that was built from the ground-up for the system. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword proved a sweeping and epic addition to the franchise, one that ranks among the best of the best in the land of Hyrule. With a touching story, expert execution of motion controls, and gorgeous, painterly graphics, Skyward Sword represented the realization of everything the Wii was capable of - and a beautiful realization it was.
Nintendo’s first party offering didn’t stop at their flagship franchises, either. We also got Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Metroid Prime 3 (as well as Metroid Prime Trilogy, which added motion controls to the first two titles), Donkey Kong Country Returns, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Punch-Out!!, and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land. Altogether it’s a pretty impressive library, especially for a system that often gets too little credit in that regard.
To most gamers, the Wii brutally failed to live up to the rocking code name we were initially teased with. But in hindsight, the system really was nothing short of a “Revolution” - just maybe not in the way we were expecting. Wii helped expand the medium from a niche hobby to a worldwide phenomenon, shattering traditional expectations of gamer demographics and bridging the generations like no gaming system had ever done before.
Grandparents, parents, kids, adults - everyone you can imagine showed up for the Wii party, from hardcore gamers to people who had never touched a D-pad in their lives. They all invested in Nintendo’s tiny box, if only to have a few rounds of golf in Wii Sports or watch their weight with Wii Fit. Wii helped people who had never played video games transition from these casual focused experiences to more gamer-oriented titles like New Super Mario Bros. Wii. While most gamers begrudge the Wii’s more casual reputation, you can’t take away from Nintendo that it’s truly impressive what the Wii accomplished, and how important its success has proven to the industry as a whole.
Most of us take the Virtual Console for granted - but that doesn’t take away from how incredible it really is. A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, the original Final Fantasy, Mega Man 2, Super Mario 64 - all these titles and many more can now be played without digging through the attic for your old collection or tracking down a used copy online or in a vintage game store.
The Virtual Console - giving some of gaming's best another chance to shine.
Allowing Wii owners access to a couple decades worth of games was not only great for longtime fans of those classics, it also allowed newer generations of gamers to experience some of the best games of all time for the very first time. For those who were born long after the NES, SNES, and N64 days, this was a huge service. Keeping the legacy of these gaming gems alive is easily one of the greatest contributions of the Wii generation.
Say what you will about motion controls, but you can’t knock the Wii’s slick interface and motion-based menus. Everything was so streamlined and easy-to-navigate, and using the Wii remote to flip through the different pages was great. The addition of Miis also brought a whole new level of personalization to Nintendo’s systems, one that has now become something of a staple.
The best part of Wii’s interface, however, was how straightforward it was. There were no ads trying to sell you something, no notifications popping up in your face around every corner. As with all Nintendo systems, the experience was more about the games than anything else. The moment you turned the system on, all of your content was right there in front of you, you only had to flip through the pages to locate which game from Nintendo’s past or present you wanted to sample. The company seems to be continuing this tradition of a slick, easy-to-navigate menu system with its latest handheld, the 3DS - with customizable rows and columns and the minimally invasive approach of its online features. It’s a format that is important to the success of modern day Nintendo, and it all started with the Wii.
One of the biggest (and most justified) complaints against the Wii generation was its relative lack of third party support. Not to say there weren’t any, mind you - Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story were two incredible RPGs that just recently made their way from Japan to North America. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Red Steel 2, Okami, Little King’s Story and more round out the third party roster. When the third party games came, they were great…
But they didn’t come - at least not with the frequency impassioned gamers would hope for. Sadly, the Wii saw far too few Xenoblades and TvC’s in its time. Worst of all was that when they did arrive, they rarely sold well - only further sending the message to third party developers that the Wii was not a profitable system to develop for. Perhaps the system’s market penetration rate was better than you could hope for, and perhaps the company’s first party software set record sales, but the truth is third party games just never really found much of a home on the system.
It’s hard walking down the Wii aisle only to drown in the stinking cesspool of shovelware you’ll find there. Even if you stick to the numerous and amazing titles mentioned earlier, the fact remains that the Wii is widely known amongst the jaded masses for its shocking amount of shovelware… and it's hard to blame them. For every Mario Galaxy it seemed there were a hundred cheap mini-game collections. For every Skyward Sword, there was inevitably a Super Fashion Babies 3: Babies in the City. Throw in the long droughts Wii owners frequently experienced - where we’d go months or even years without a substantial new release - and you have the red-handed culprit behind the Wii’s tarnished legacy.
This is actual box art for an actual Wii game. SIGH.
Considering all the things mentioned earlier - all the great games and cool innovations the system brought and its impact on the industry - it’s a shame so much shovelware brought the experience down. To be fair, no system is without these cheap, throwaway titles. But games like this were just so prevalent and hard to escape when it came to Wii that it seriously distracted from the system’s truly excellent software lineup.
The hardest things to swallow now that the Wii’s days are coming to an end are not the things the system flubbed, but rather the things it didn’t do at all - all those missed gaming opportunities we’ll now likely never see realized. The fact that there was never a truly amazing light saber game using the Wii’s motion controls was a huge shame. As was the fact that we never saw the system realize its potential as a perfect home for real time strategy games - using the controller to maneuver units and plan attacks would have been incredible. And again, it’s surprising that so many genre mainstays like the RPG were so scarce, especially considering the rich legacy of Nintendo’s other systems (just think of how many examples you could name for the SNES or DS alone).
The system’s tech was also severely underused. First party games like Skyward Sword showed how the Wii Remote and Motion Plus technology could be used to simulate wielding a sword with amazing precision, but few third party developers ever took the time to figure things like that out. Even first party titles often resorted to the dreaded waggle mechanic, having players simply shake the remote rather than actually using it to interact with the game world. When the Wii tech was used, and used correctly, it could result in an incredible and immersive experience. It’s a real shame much of the Wii’s catalogue didn’t achieve this.
We’re not going to get into the Wii’s lack of online profiles or things of a similar nature - that’s another discussion for another day. And, in truth, Nintendo has always walked its own path, and it’s unlikely the company will ever try to shoehorn itself into the online/multiplayer-focused communities dominated by services like PSN and XBLA. But even that aside, there were a few things Wii’s online presentation simply never got right, and we’re still scratching our heads trying to figure out why.
Friend Codes, for instance. We understand that Nintendo, with its kid-friendly tendencies and focus on privacy, wanted to control how people connected online. It wanted to avoid, as much as possible, having a situation where an 8-year-old kid is crying because some 40-year-old stranger is using inappropriate and disgusting language toward them as they’re trying to have race in Mario Kart Wii. But there had to have been a better way. Friend Codes were just a pain in the butt, and made it really hard to want to coordinate online time with friends and family.
The system’s online store also left much to be desired. As mentioned earlier, the Virtual Console was a dream come true, and even WiiWare offered some great games in its time. But the store was riddled with problems and unintuitive to navigate - and, in truth, amazing WiiWare games were few and far between. While we respect Nintendo’s decision to blaze its own path in terms of online connectivity and e-commerce, it’s still fair to expect quality in terms of online presentation, and this is something the Wii simply never delivered on.
All things said and done, all pros and cons considered, the Wii still earns its place among Nintendo's beloved line of home consoles. It had some amazing highs, but also some embarrassing lows. These are just a few of the ones that come to mind, but did we miss any? Sound off in the comments below and share your favorite Wii features and memories, as well as the ones that still get you angry to this day.
Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her wild adventures on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!
Source : ign[dot]com
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