Wii Discussion Thread

[ElectroYoshi]

Tomorrow marks the 7th anniversary of the Wii's launch here in North America, not to mention that it's slowly starting to get discontinued around the world now that the Wii U is on the market. So I figured, "What the heck" and decided to dedicate a thread to discussing the original Wii as kind of a throwback.

So yeah, this is a general discussion thread about the Wii. What'd you like about it, what didn't you like about it, favorite games for it, etc. etc.

[Phantomboy]

I felt that the original Wii certainly met the sort of demands, and in some cases created the demands from the seventh. It kind of set the stage and sent both Microsoft and Sony to create some sort of motion controlled device. It also did quite well integrating a browser into a console and showed how a motion pointing device felt to navigate webpages (result = fine to navigate, chore to type.) The Wii also hit the family and children market quite well.

My main complaint was that it introduced the idea of motion control, ushering in dozens of gimmicky hacked-together titles simply to exploit the new technology. In fact, some of the best games on the console, or best parts of games on the console are those that almost entirely ignore the motion controls. For instance, Super Mario Galaxy is a really good game in my opinion - but then it remembers that it is a Wii title and must throw in mini-games or mechanics that force the console down your throat. I know this is a fairly minor complaint, but that is actually a good thing - overall I quite enjoy my Wii

[ElectroYoshi]

My main complaint was that it introduced the idea of motion control, ushering in dozens of gimmicky hacked-together titles simply to exploit the new technology. In fact, some of the best games on the console, or best parts of games on the console are those that almost entirely ignore the motion controls. For instance, Super Mario Galaxy is a really good game in my opinion - but then it remembers that it is a Wii title and must throw in mini-games or mechanics that force the console down your throat. I know this is a fairly minor complaint, but that is actually a good thing - overall I quite enjoy my Wii

Yeah, I get what you mean. Personally, I think its best games are the ones that can find a good balance between button controls and motion controls, I wasn't big on the ones that were completely motion-oriented. Obviously, there are some exceptions, like Wii Sports Resort (which I played the living daylights out of when it first came out), but overuse of it never sat well with me.

Also, personally, I've always found the Wii Remote's design to be it's best feature. It's a very small (On its own it only has 5 input methods that can actually be used in-game, and the nunchuck only ups that to 8) and intuitive controller, and that's what I've always found most appealing about it.

While I'm thinking about it, just the other day I put together a list of my favorite Wii games using one of those "Top 10" templates.

[Sebastian Lawe]

I loved hacking my Wii. I never have to *ahem* buy a Wii title again.

[SirWrek]

Twilight Princess, SMG2, and Brawl are definitely my top three in no specific order. After that, there are a ton of games tied for fourth haha.

[Newah]

The Wii is trash talked way too much. It's a really good console! It may have been under powered, but its games certainly were not.

[SirWrek]

The Wii is trash talked way too much. It's a really good console! It may have been under powered, but its games certainly were not.

And it also had a large variety of games available as well, to compete with other consoles. It had the happy go lucky party games of course, but then it also had darker, more mature titles as well for the "more adult" persons out there. And then there were all the Wii versions of Call of Duty and other "big" titles. Gahck. >_>

But aside from that...

All was and is swell. For the most part.

[ElectroYoshi]

It may have been under powered, but its games certainly were not.

This is exactly why I don't get why people make such a big deal about its hardware. Nintendo's primary selling point for its hardware has always been the software, so if they can deliver that, why does it matter whether if the hardware is immensely powerful or not?

[SirWrek]

This is exactly why I don't get why people make such a big deal about its hardware. Nintendo's primary selling point for its hardware has always been the software, so if they can deliver that, why does it matter whether if the hardware is immensely powerful or not?

Amen.

[ElectroYoshi]

Amen.

To be honest, I think the Wii has a lot of games that wouldn't have worked well on the Xbox 360 or PS3. I've been playing Nintendo's games since I was 3, and part of why I'm still loyal to them 13 years later is because whereas other companies are wasting a crap load of money on graphics, whereas Nintendo still remain very minimalist on that front. Even on the Wii U, which is an HD console, the HD is mostly there for the sake of detail, not realism. Games like Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. Brawl, Skyward Sword, New Super Mario Bros. Wii (among many others), would've lost a lot of that charm if they had been on one of the other 7th gen consoles.

[Sebastian Lawe]

To be honest, I think the Wii has a lot of games that wouldn't have worked well on the Xbox 360 or PS3. I've been playing Nintendo's games since I was 3, and part of why I'm still loyal to them 13 years later is because whereas other companies are wasting a crap load of money on graphics, whereas Nintendo still remain very minimalist on that front. Even on the Wii U, which is an HD console, the HD is mostly there for the sake of detail, not realism. Games like Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. Brawl, Skyward Sword, New Super Mario Bros. Wii (among many others), would've lost a lot of that charm if they had been on one of the other 7th gen consoles.

I disagree. The art style wouldn't have to change.

What would be great, is if the Nintendo could be up to par in terms of graphical power to the other consoles. I would love to have a console with Mario and Zelda games as well as the other major titles. Nothing would be forcing Nintendo to make their own titiles look "Realistic".

[Newah]

I disagree. The art style wouldn't have to change.

What would be great, is if the Nintendo could be up to par in terms of graphical power to the other consoles. I would love to have a console with Mario and Zelda games as well as the other major titles. Nothing would be forcing Nintendo to make their own titiles look "Realistic".

You took the words out of my mouth. I think EY, you confuse graphical power with artistic style. The artistic style of such games would not have to change given better hardware, in fact in reality it would only get better. Anti aliasing, higher polygon counts, better tessellation, better draw distance, more objects per scene, fluid animation and more.

Also HD is not related directly to the graphics of a game. HD simply means that the game is rendered out to a better width and height, essentially making it better looking on a bigger screen. e.g. Wii games are actually being stretched on an HD TV.

[ElectroYoshi]

You took the words out of my mouth. I think EY, you confuse graphical power with artistic style. The artistic style of such games would not have to change given better hardware, in fact in reality it would only get better. Anti aliasing, higher polygon counts, better tessellation, better draw distance, more objects per scene, fluid animation and more.

Also HD is not related directly to the graphics of a game. HD simply means that the game is rendered out to a better width and height, essentially making it better looking on a bigger screen. e.g. Wii games are actually being stretched on an HD TV.

Eh, I'll give you that.