Does the Wii hit or miss with gamers?

After months of keeping an eye out for a Nintendo Wii, I finally stumbled into my local retailer right after they had put 4 on the shelves, perfect timing. I grabbed one instantly, ran home to hook it up, and quickly put in Wii sports to give it a go. I wanted to finally see for myself if it was all hype or well worth the $250.00 purchase.
Anyone who had the last two Nintendo systems (64 and GC) came to the same conclusions on both. They are fun systems but lack just about everything you want in a video game system to take it to the next level. The last two systems were plagued with very few worthy games, lack of third party support and no online support whatsoever. My big question, and I believe everyone else’s too, is will the Wii suffer the same outcome as the last two consoles from Nintendo? Or has Nintendo actually created the next generation in video games?

I got the Wii home and my four year old son was even more excited to play with it than I was. The first thing that got me was that the system did not come with high end cables at all, I’m not asking for HD, but not even S-video cables to maximize picture quality right out of the box? Come on! I wasn’t too concerned about the cables at that point, I just wanted to play. Even though Ive heard from multiple sources the component cables make a huge difference, I just wanted to play the thing after months of waiting. Finally got everything hooked up and downloaded all the updates waiting for my new system and got to checking out the menu options. My first gripe was when I was downloading the virtual console game Mario 64, there was no background downloading. You have to watch Mario run across the screen and hit blocks for coins until the download is done. It wasn’t that long of a wait, but I hope this is something they fix in future updates. Second was the set up of online with the Wii codes. In order to connect with your friends over the internet, you need to put in a sixteen digit code and give them yours to do the same. With Xbox Live setting the bar for an online community, and Nintendo having seen how it’s done, it’s hard to believe that they would pick such a long and confusing way to do it. Nintendo said in a statement about the Wii codes, that they wanted to keep their customers safe, especially young players, from predators and basically out of harms way when online. I commend Nintendo for taking the time and thinking of young gamers safety online. But, even with these long codes that both players have to enter, the same thing can happen. Little Johnny is going to post his code all over message boards to all his friends no matter how you serve it up to them, sixteen digit code or four character alias. It was a nice try Nintendo, but in the long run it will only hinder their online system, and make it harder for you to enjoy it. Once again I think this could be an easy fix in a future update (not that Nintendo will do it).
After everything was hooked up, all things downloaded, I slapped in Wii sports to try it out. My son and I went through the various games on the disc and were having a great time, and eventually settled into bowling, which is now my favorite out of the package. All of the games are pretty fun, but lack the depth of a real sports game. Boxing is a series of wild punches, Golf gives you four clubs and a direction to choose and Baseball comes down to pitching, and swinging, nothing more. No strategy, no setting up plays, no interaction beyond throwing and swinging. The rest of the games suffer from the same problems in depth of play, but this isn’t a bad thing in the scheme of things. Wii sports is not supposed to be a real sports game. It was put in the box to show you how the Wii is supposed to be played, and what it truly offers gamers if done right. Bowling is about the only complete game on the disc. It is still dumbed down a little for fun, but it is the closest to the real thing as far as setting up your throw and actually taking into account normal things you might do if really bowling. Knowing how much fun bowling is on the Wii sports disc, makes me really want a true bowling game for it. One with realistic physics, deep gameplay, online and maybe a career mode. The thought of how kick ass that will be is awesome.
The one game I bought for the Wii so far was of course Zelda, who wouldn’t. Zelda as always, is an incredible game, and the use of the Wii-mote is great. But this is a Nintendo title, who didn’t see that one coming. I’m more interested in seeing how developers take advantage of the system and it’s capabilities. We have already seen a poor addition from the allstar developer Ubisoft, with Redsteel. This is what I’m afraid of with third party once again. Third party games tha dont deliver anything beyond basic gameplay to gamers in comparison. With the Wii being underpowered compared to it’s rivals, it’s hard to see how a person would pick up a third party cross system game even with crazy controls.

Can you imagine playing COD3 like the picture above for three or four hours straight. I know you don’t have to do this for real, but the thought of using a control scheme like this for an FPS doesn’t sit well with me. Add to the fact that the Wii version of anything brought to all three systems, will be underpowered and have less than half the resolution of the PS3 and 360 versions. I have no idea why anyone would pick it over the other two when given the choice. From my perspective any developer would have to do something really crazy and so far out in left field for me to even consider buying this type of game over the 360/PS3 version. The graphics alone will stop most of my purchases on the Wii, and the fact that I love achievements on the 360, I have no use for a wild control scheme on the Wii. The great things that come out for the Wii will be stuff you wont see on the other systems. I just hope developers come out of the wood work to do such games.
Where the Wii really shines is in family fun, interaction and bringing new gamers to the table, just as Nintendo said it wanted to do. The Wii is not the powerhouse any hard core gamer would want from their beloved manufacturer, but it is a lot of fun. I had my parents come and they wanted to check it out. Especially after seeing countless stories on the news and other various TV shows raving about it. Three hours later my parents wanted to get one. I couldn’t believe it. My mom hasn’t played video games in, well forever, and she loved it. Couldn’t wait to come over again and get back to bowling.
Overall the Wii is not the next gen system I was hoping for, but it was never sold as “Next Gen”. The system is very fun, and I believe will be even more fun than the last two without question. But it still lacks the same things as the previous consoles did. Some of these may change over time, like online play and connectivity. But the game situation in my mind, will unfortunately will be the same as the last two systems. When given a choice between Wii/PS3/360, you will most likely never pick the Wii. but it may not get the third party support from big games like we all want. The possibilities though, of very creative and inventive games coming to the Wii from third party developers is limitless. Let’s just see if they do what’s needed for the system to really shine. The Wii will bring new gamers to the table and create a new generation of gamers, but it may leave something desired for hard core audiences. The Wii is well worth the $250 price, even with the lack of third party games, it still has a solid stable of games like Mario, Zelda and Metroid that could easily justify any Nintendo purchase.

Jeff Standley // LordStandley