Posted August 23, 2012 Given that the Wii has been out for quite some time now, we've all experiences its ups and downs. Right now, let's focus on the downs! Which games did you find totally underwhelming? Perhaps even bad. There are three which came to my mind straight away. The Conduit Could be a love/hate game. There's nothing truly wrong with it, but there's nothing really right with it either. I found it very bland and quite emotionless. Controls are great, but there's no style to the actual game, or no interesting art, should we say. It's quite cold. Not a "bad" game as such, but nowhere near what High Voltage were pumping it to be. Mario Kart Wii Again, not really "bad", but quite "meh" in places. I think this was the point where I fell out of love with the series and lost the majority of my interest in it. Mario Kart DS was fantastic and arguably could be the pinnacle of the franchise, offering somewhat meaty single-player options whilst also having online multiplayer for the first time. Wii just didn't have that same feeling as the others. At times, too random. Too much of a focus on weapons and the underlying nature of it being a karting game was undermined by this. All too often could you be screwed out of a first place position in the last corner, despite leading all race. Too unfair. Sonic and the Secret Rings I'm going off memory for this one, as I haven't played it for a long time. The original premise seemed great, it seemed unique and looked fun. Somewhere along the line, it seemed to go wrong. I didn't find it very fun to play, found it quite fiddly and it seemed to lose its charm fairly quickly. I may play it again to see how I feel about it now, but the first impression was that it was not a very good game. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) Super Mario Galaxy 2 Galaxy 1 is in my Top 5 Wii games, however the sequel was my biggest dissapointment on the Wii. The views and opinions were so positive on here, the reviews loved it... and yet I was totally, totally underwhelmed... so much so that I just ended up getting to the end of the main game as quickly as I could and getting the hell out of there! The levels to me just felt like rejects from Galaxy 1, less refinded or interesting. The bosses I felt like I'd seen them all before. The camera was worse, the controls didn't feel as tight, the clunky 2D intro was a horrible start, and Yoshi felt somewhat dissapointing again. MadWorld OK so whilst I wouldn't say I was expecting the game to be incredible, I was certainly expecting it to be very good and enjoyable given some positive build up and the unique visual style. However it was one of the worst games I've ever played (although I am quite selective about the games I buy). It became quite repetitive and boring pretty early on into the game, and I thought the visuals were a bit of a mess tbh, with the style making it difficult to actually distinguish and make things out properly. I ended up gaving up after a few bosses. Twilight Princess An underwhelming Zelda IMO. The controls were pretty fun, running around swinging the sword, but I didn't enjoy the Wolf gameplay all that much (it already annoyed me a bit that this had seemingly come from Okami), Midna I found annoying, and overall I just didn't really enjoy the Story in this one or this Hyrule which felt pretty empty and lifeless. The overall colour palett was also very drab for a Zelda game and the excessive bloom (although part of the overall theme and style) wasn't really to my liking. It was also starting to feel all that bit too familiar in terms of locations, temples, and what to expect as you progressed in terms of structure and story. Edited August 23, 2012 by Retro_Link Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) Animal Crossing With the Wii being online I had high hopes for this game, sadly I was let down. It didn't do much different from the DS version and it just felt like some very lazy port. I hated that I couldn't visit peoples houses unless the gate was open. I mean, if you have their Wii friend code and the game friend code surely you should be able to wander in and out as you please. Twilight Princess An underwhelming Zelda IMO. The controls were pretty fun, running around swinging the sword, but I didn't enjoy the Wolf gameplay all that much (it already annoyed me a bit that this had seemingly come from Okami), Midna I found annoying, and overall I just didn't really enjoy the Story in this one or this Hyrule which felt pretty empty and lifeless. The overall colour palett was also very drab for a Zelda game and the excessive bloom (although part of the overall theme and style) wasn't really to my liking. It was also starting to feel all that bit to familiar in terms of locations, temples, and what to expect as you progressed in terms of structure and story. This. Edited August 23, 2012 by Hero-of-Time Automerged Doublepost Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 I'll reply to this post in a more meaningful way when I've had a think about all the games I've played on the Wii. However I disagree about a lot of the games people have listed - especially Mario Kart Wii and Mario Galaxy 2, both of which I felt were amazing. In fact I preferred Galaxy 2 over the original and Mario Kart Wii was, in my opinion, the best Mario Kart Nintendo has ever done! But the one title I do agree on is Madworld. Whilst I loved the art style, the game play left me wanting more. The basic goons just stood around laughing and waiting for you to kill them - zero challenge. It just amounted to me dragging half dead goons around by their legs looking for something else to impale them on. I would have much preferred the game play to be more active and challenging. Then when it came to the bosses they were hard and it seemed jarring as the difficulty came out of nowhere. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) MadWorld It's pretty much impossible to disagree with the opinions already expressed in this thread I've only played through a few stages but every time I go back to try and resume my game, there always seems to be very little incentive to actually get on with it.. Red Steel 2 It could have been great but the structure of the game and the unsatisfactory shooting meant that it always felt disappointing. I did begin to enjoy it more towards the end but it could have been so much more! Grand Slam Tennis The Wii and, in particular, Motion Plus seemed tailor made for an amazing tennis game but the truth is that Wii Sports: Tennis is still the best tennis game on Wii If Nintendo has released a new Super Tennis on Wii with the controls from Wii Sports Resort: Table Tennis it could have been the most incredible tennis game ever created. Sadly, one of the 'better' efforts to recreate the sport with Motion Plus came from EA with Grand Slam Tennis and, to me at least, feels pretty terrible and unsatisfying. I never did buy it.. Edited August 23, 2012 by nekunando Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Skyward Sword The controls were perfection, everything was great... but the hype man... the reviews... all of the pre-release buzz was just insane and when it turned out to be what it was, I couldn't help but be underwhelmed. I only really became underwhelmed by Twilight Princess on my second play through, but I got bored of Skyward Sword midway through. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Oh I completely forgot (which says it all, because it was so early on and I sold it soon afterwards)... Super Smash Bros Brawl Having already had probably 100% of the unlockables already revealed to me before the game launched because of the Smash Bros Dojo (I won't be doing that again!!), there was next to nothing left to surprise and get excited about as I progressed with the game. But the gameplay itself left a lot to be desired from my point of view. It's predecessor SSBM on the Gamecube is quite possibly my favourite game from that console, and yet the sequel left me totally undewhelmed. Combat was slower and overall not as enjoyable, the new characters weren't that great, and the majority of the games levels all felt to have a very similar stage layout and didn't feel as imaginative as in Melee; other than a couple of unlockables like the Wind Waker stage. I also preffered the more colourful and perhaps more cartoony look to Melee, where as I thought Brawl took itself a bit too seriously. The storymodes cutscenes were at least enjoyable and looked great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Super Smash Bros Brawl Having already had probably 100% of the unlockables already revealed to me before the game launched because of the Smash Bros Dojo (I won't be doing that again!!), there was next to nothing left to surprise and get excited about as I progressed with the game. I have no idea why people were jizzing all over that site, it was basically nothing but spoilers! : o Yes, I looked at some of the characters too, but that was about it... Anyway, some games of my own: Galaxy 1&2. Just didn't spark with me, too linear and disjointed. Super Paper Mario. The graphical style was a bit boring and simplistic to my taste. Less charming than the previous RPG games... Animal Crossing. Hmm, the same game released for the 3rd time, wonder why I didn't like it that much...Still, after having played the DS version before, I think I prefer the series on a handheld console, it just works better. Smackdown vs. Raw 2011. Goddamn what a crapfest. After 2010, I was of course expecting some improvements to the Wii version, and...nope. Still no online. Still no training mode. Still no share a wrestler. Audio and speak animations horribly out of sync. Even the custom story mode was much less entertaining than the last year's one. Like wtf...The HD versions were having an improvement in the physics department, i.e. how the chairs bent, tables break etc, and the Wii/PS2 versions would not have that. So basically they had a full year to improve the most basics things, like getting the online sorted, but nope. They didn't really do anything at all, lazy as fuck. After this, I just cannot recommend the Wii versions anymore...THQ obviously doesn't care about improving them at all, they just put out the same game with a few new moves and changed storylines to grab more cash. 5/10 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Super Paper Mario. The graphical style was a bit boring and simplistic to my taste. Less charming than the previous RPG games.../QUOTE] I agree with that. Far from a bad game but not as good as I was expecting. I really did like the 2D/3D shifting, but the story was not that funny and a chore to read through. I'd nominate PES 2008. There was a lot of hype regarding the new Wii controls, and they worked quite well to be fair.... when attacking. Unfortunately not much consideration was put into defending and the games options and content overall felt stripped down from previous PES games. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Every Wii game I played was roughly, or better than, what I was expecting (Twilight Princess is a GC game, as far as I'm concerned, otherwise, it would fit this thread like a glove) Though there is an exception: Super Smash Bros. Brawl There's so much to like about it, from the new characters, Subspace Emissary, handful of fun stages, sheer content... And yet, I can't help but be disappointed by certain design choices after Melee nailed everything so perfectly. Tripping is the obvious one, and the floatier, slower engine is another well known opinion-divider. But what about things like...having self-KOs count properly? Everytime someone suicides, the KO might go to someone who last touched them 5 minutes ago. Or getting to re-choose your random pick immediately? I'm sure I haven't been the only one to restart a match because the chosen pick was something I really didn't want. And am I the only one who misses the bonuses like "Butterfingers" or "All Aerial"? Stages like 75m and New Pork City seriously need to be rethought. Even stages like Warioware and Flat Zone 2 need better execution than what we saw. And I'm still sad to see Jigglypuff, Capt. Falcon and Ganondorf all being nerfed for different reasons. Just...a slew of odd decisions that make me want to go back to Melee. I am glad Sakurai has already admitted the Brawl engine is what needs work, which leaves me hopeful. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 I quite enjoyed Madworld. It's particularly fun while drunk. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Super paper mario seems reviews were favourable, most loved it, yet i found it so teedous and bland i just couldn't stand it. In the end i gave it away Twilight Princess Pretty much with @Retro_Link on this Red Steel oh man it felt like i was playing a real z list shooter from the n64 days how could people like it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 The only one that immediately springs to mind for me is Super Paper Mario. Not sure what it was exactly, but I recall not enjoying it anywhere near as much as other Paper Mario games. I quite enjoyed Madworld. It's particularly fun while drunk. Same here. I played it again recently for the first time in ages! Holding an enemy against the side of a moving train is still one of the funniest moves in a video game ever I reckon. I do get why a lot of people were disappointed with it though, it's definitely missing something... I think another problem is it was waaay overhyped at the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 It was overhyped but if you expected anything more than a flashy game with lots of violence and John Di Maggio making sarcastic comments then that's your fault Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Epic Mickey It was a great idea, and it started off well, but I never bothered finishing it. It reminded me of Banjo-Tooie, but not for the good parts: the levels were too large and bland, somehow on a much, much bigger scale than Tooie. With more condensed levels, it could have been great but it takes way too long to just walk to the next bit. Goldeneye It was a decent game with some good ideas and some bad ideas. The Frigate level was good and reminded me of the original (as you optionally sneak round each section pretty well). The epic Trevelyan speech about the cold war, orphans, betrayal, etc being tuned to "waah! the bankers got their bonus!" was stupid. It was still enjoyable. For me, the worst part was the utterly moronic decision to blur the screen when you reload. It wasn't even a "good" blur like some depth-of-field effect, it just seemed to lower the quality of everything on the screen and it looked pixelated. To be honest, it look like a massive graphical bug. As someone who reloads as every possible moment in a game, it was really, really annoying. Super Mario Galaxy This is an amazing game, and it's many, many leagues over Sunshine. However something was...missing. It's hard to explain, but there's this "thing" that Super Mario 64 had which made the game extra special. I'm not sure if it was the simple charm of the environments, how many moves there were yet how simple it all was (and even the pointless ones, like crawling), the various hats or the cheerful music; or if it was simply that it was the first 3D game I had plated. Whatever it was, Super Mario 64 had it and Galaxy didn't and I was just left wanting a new Super Mario 64. Twilight Princess Perhaps it was just hype, but I loved Twilight Princess when it came out. When I tried again it was just so....bland, and probably not helped by the fairly unimaginative graphics. There was also very little I remembered about the game. There was "GOAT IN", some annoying twilight world orb collecting, a western attacking bit that felt out-of-place, the "execution" scene* and the swordfight at the end. But the actual level design and non-main characters...nothing. It's just not that interesting *The execution scene I thought was done really well, participially how they linked it to Ocarina of Time's "Link & Zelda manage to prove Gannondorf's evil intent and get him arrested" timeline without needing to mention it in any way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 23, 2012 Metroid Prime 3 I hated metroid prime hunters on the ds and this started with some of those awful bounty hunter characters and loads of land space marines. Bored before the game even started really. Little Kings Story Odd game. I loved it when I was playing it and even restarted playing a few imes but kept coming to points where the difficulty was too high or I did not really know where to go next and stopped playing it. Fluidity (that watery one) Should have been brilliant as the concept is excellent but I could just never force myself to play it. Not really sure why. Virtual console When the wii came out I thought this wold take up most of my time - and with the Hannibi festival it even surpassed my expectations for some releases but I could never be bothered to load the wii to play them. Better suited to a handheld console perhaps. Already played most of the 3ds SNES games more than those I bought in the wii. Notable exceptions are mystical ninja, kid icarus and punch out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 (edited) Quite a few of my picks have already been taken, but what the hell! I'll post my thoughts anyway (gotta counterbalance my positivity from the Wii sequel thread!) 1: Madworld A great tech/game concept demo that goes absolutely nowhere. Much like Gravity Rush on Vita, this game is a fine example of style over substance. You have one really fun core mechanic (beating up enemies to stagger them and then using the environment to kill them) that ends up being reused endlessly. Each level, outside of a few choice boss fights (the motorbike one springs to mind), is pretty much exactly the same with most environmental mechanics being repeated across levels. A damn shame. Easily Clover/Platinum Games' weakest game. 2: Animal Crossing Wild World City Folk I don't really need to go over the reason why I was disappointed by this game. We all know why. It was a great port of Wild World, but it wasn't a new game 3: Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz This was the end of the Monkey Ball series. All my hopes of a true sequel to SMB 1 & 2 (The DS game didn't really count, even if it wasn't completely terrible in all respects) were dashed by this travesty. The most ironic thing of all about this game is that the one thing that you would've thought that SEGA might fuck up (the motion controls) actually turned out to be really good! The problem was everything else... Horrific level design (Barriers everywhere, non-existent difficulty, boring levels that were devoid of any interesting gimmicks or personality, levels that went on far too long - 120 seconds!?, a broken jumping system that broke the way that levels worked etc) A Busted level progression system (gone was the normal arcade mode, replaced with a standard level select system that gave you infinite continues - the change to having 10 bananas giving you a life instead of 100 didn't help either! - Instead you were given the "pleasure" of being tasked to collect every single banana in the most tedious of manners possible in place of actual challenging and interesting stages!) Sanity testing "boss battles" (terribly designed monstrosities that knocked you around for 3 minutes and bored you senseless) Amazingly crafted minigames given the boot in favour of outsourced shovelware garbage that wouldn't even sell on iOS! Oh and that's before we even mention the iconic presentation of the GCN/Arcade games being jettisoned in favour of that monstrosity they call an "art style" and a "music". Utterly disgusting. Gimme back MY AiAi! Edited August 24, 2012 by Dcubed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 All of you guys choosing Twilight Princess are insane. I'm watching Ine play through it a second time and it is filled to the brim with cut-scenes and cinematic moments. After playing Skyward Sword, I was so disappointed at the lack of these types of moments. In fact, the Skyward Sword "story" (or the terrible excuse for it) is so poor in comparable to TP. Also, I love the style of TP, like with the architecture at times. Think of the Great Bridge of Hyrule, it looks like an impossible design, suspended over Lake Hylia. There's many moments like that in the game. Finally, excellent shout on Monkey Ball Banana Blitz...it really is quite poor. Multiplayer is atrocious and single player is ruined by boss fights. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 All of you guys choosing Twilight Princess are insane. I'm watching Ine play through it a second time and it is filled to the brim with cut-scenes and cinematic moments. After playing Skyward Sword, I was so disappointed at the lack of these types of moments. In fact, the Skyward Sword "story" (or the terrible excuse for it) is so poor in comparable to TP. Also, I love the style of TP, like with the architecture at times. Think of the Great Bridge of Hyrule, it looks like an impossible design, suspended over Lake Hylia. There's many moments like that in the game. Finally, excellent shout on Monkey Ball Banana Blitz...it really is quite poor. Multiplayer is atrocious and single player is ruined by boss fights. There's no sense of awe from The Great Bridge of Hyrule though, you can't see it from anywhere else in the games world to appreciate it, it's not even that attractive architecturally. Plus everythings is just so large and empty. The long large bridge is set in a huge empty valley, with a huge empty space beneath it and a huge empty Lake Hylia. They ruined Lake Hylia in this game; where are the lovely views and picturesque vista's? It feels oppressive more than anything, surrounded on all sides, with a bridge hanging over you. But opinions are always going to differ, and that's fine! Most of the time watching the cutscenes in Skyward Sword I had a huge smile across my face; they were absolutely beautiful, larger than life and full of colour. They might have been shorter, but they were momentous! I'd watch any single one of them over the darkness of Twilight Princess. Also Skyloft > Castle Town. :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 Or maybe both Twilight Princess AND Skyward Sword are amazing? Just a thought... (Something, something, Zelda Cycle ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 There's no sense of awe from The Great Bridge of Hyrule though, you can't see it from anywhere else in the games world to appreciate it, it's not even that attractive architecturally. Plus everythings is just so large and empty. The long large bridge is set in a huge empty valley, with a huge empty space beneath it and a huge empty Lake Hylia. They ruined Lake Hylia in this game; where are the lovely views and picturesque vista's? It feels oppressive more than anything, surrounded on all sides, with a bridge hanging over you. But opinions are always going to differ, and that's fine! Most of the time watching the cutscenes in Skyward Sword I had a huge smile across my face; they were absolutely beautiful, larger than life and full of colour. They might have been shorter, but they were momentous! I'd watch any single one of them over the darkness of Twilight Princess. Also Skyloft > Castle Town. :p Twilight Princess is a much more moody game. So, the colour palette had to be darker otherwise it would have looked a joke. Also, the entirety of Lake Hylia is picturesque. The music is gorgeous and I feel a sense of wonder whenevver I'm in it. The one thing that Skyward Sword has over TP is Skyloft. But, in this instance, everything else > Skyward Sword's locations, which are poor. People mention that there's not a lot to do in TP, there's even less to see in Skyward Sword...there's no connection between places. There are 3 random locations (fire, desert, forest) that are placed on a map with no link between each one. Also, lol, cutscenes in Skyward Sword. Yeah, they are both better games than the majority of what else is out there. I'll never understand the hate TP gets. Just as I'll never understand the love Mario Kart Wii gets. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 Banana Blitz and Mario Kart Wii don't get mentions for me here because they weren't underwhelming, they were downright terrible. My mention of Twilight Princess isn't that it was a bad game, it's just how thinking back I can barely remember anything compared to Ocarina, Majora and Wind Waker. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 Banana Blitz and Mario Kart Wii don't get mentions for me here because they weren't underwhelming, they were downright terrible. My mention of Twilight Princess isn't that it was a bad game, it's just how thinking back I can barely remember anything compared to Ocarina, Majora and Wind Waker. Play TP again, it's worth it. Trustttt meeee. Banana Blitz really is poor. I remember getting it on launch. "controls are good, this is quite fun." "Hmm, boss fight...doesn't really work, but ok." "This is ok, level design is a bit bleh, though..." "yay...boss fight..." "lets check out multiplayer...ahhh...nothing worth playing. Ok, singleplayer it is." "BOSS FIGHT:shakehead" Those are the two things I remember from the game: Shitty multiplayer. BOSS FIGHT. All SEGA had to do was remake the first game with Wii controls, add a few multiplayer modes/tighten them/rework them. Then, release it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 24, 2012 Twilight Princess is a much more moody game. So, the colour palette had to be darker otherwise it would have looked a joke. Also, the entirety of Lake Hylia is picturesque. The music is gorgeous and I feel a sense of wonder whenevver I'm in it. The one thing that Skyward Sword has over TP is Skyloft. But, in this instance, everything else > Skyward Sword's locations, which are poor. People mention that there's not a lot to do in TP, there's even less to see in Skyward Sword...there's no connection between places. There are 3 random locations (fire, desert, forest) that are placed on a map with no link between each one. Also, lol, cutscenes in Skyward Sword. Yeah, they are both better games than the majority of what else is out there. I'll never understand the hate TP gets. Just as I'll never understand the love Mario Kart Wii gets. Oh yeah of course Twilight Princess' visuals had to match the atmosphere of the game; I'm just saying it's not one I really enjoyed. I thought there was absolutely loads to do in Skyward Sword tbh! I was never short of something to do, always running sidequests in Skyloft, and some that took you out a little further into the world. I can understand why some people didn't like the structure of the world, but to be it worked, and surprisingly (even to me) places still felt very linked to one another despite the fact you couldn't run between them (though you could still see the mountains etc...) I'm not necessarily looking for a sense of cinema from my cutscenes (for the same reason those in MGS Twin Snakes were so boring), so things like... The Thunder Dragon, Everything involving Levias, Pretty much Everyscene in the first part of the game, The scenes with Zelda and Impa etc... I don't know I just enjoyed everything more. Overall I think it was just the dark atmosphere I didn't enjoy in Twilight Princess. Everything was just a tad depressing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
