Forum Round Table: Wii 10 Year Anniversary - The Good, The Bad, The Uglii

[Ashley]

On December 8th the Wii celebrates its 10 year anniversary and is amazingly still being supported.

 

We're going to do a staff and forum member round table to celebrate so I want you to look back at the Wii's life and its impact on Nintendo and the industry.

 

I'm using the broad term 'The Good, The Bad and the Uglii' because puns. Feel free to fit it within that if you wish or go for something else if you'd prefer.

 

I can't guarantee everything will be used, but we'll certainly be taking quotes and opinions from here.

[drahkon]

Got a blowjob once while playing Super Mario Galaxy.

 

BEST CONSOLE EVER.

I might also write something that can be used on the main site.

[Rummy]

Personally too old and burnt out to remember all of it well enough to make a comprehensive post - though the best thing the Wii ever did for me was make me join the forums here so I don't think I'll ever forget it for that

 

I'd certainly be interested in hearing from some of our more recent regulars who weren't as around back in the Wii days. Any thoughts @Glen\-i? @GenericAperson? @Nuntendo @The Cape if you're still around? @ProbablyAFairFewIForget - not sure who else we've maybe acquired since you guys last did a big forum round table!

Edited November 24, 2016 by Rummy

[Ashley]

Got a blowjob once while playing Super Mario Galaxy.

 

BEST CONSOLE EVER.

I might also write something that can be used on the main site.

 

Definitely going in the 'Uglii' section.

[sumo73]

The Wii alongside my 3DS are the two systems which I still use a lot. The Wii now is being used to stream YouTube videos on my TV and to play some COD games and GoldenEye 007 which are still playable online.

 

It was a decent system with some amazing games. When motion control was used well it really added to the game play rather than being just slapped on.

 

The amount of rubbish shovel-ware did affect the system however. (Ninjabread Man and many others...)

 

It was good to see third party support really take off with the Wii and see companies like EA have their own separate Wii division making games rather than port overs from other systems.

 

Personally I would have liked to see a slightly faster system CPU and more memory available, especially the limited onboard memory storage was a mistake.

 

There's so much I want to say about this system but to avoid a long post I'll say-

 

GOOD - Great seller for Nintendo, decent third party support with some amazing games for the system. More online stuff too. Bigger disc storage size.

BAD - Shovel-wave did affect people's view of the system. Limited onboard storage.

UGLY - Nintendo's slow decline of the system and failure to learn anything really from it in regards to the Wii U and how that system could have been successful too. Some strange third party peripherals for the system at times.

Edited November 24, 2016 by sumo73

[Rummy]

Definitely going in the 'Uglii' section.

 

Damn, I was very tempted to make the same joke!

[drahkon]

Well, she was hot, so either I'm the ugliii one or the game...And we all know the answer to that.

[S.C.G]

The Good - Motion Controls, Virtual Console, Sold Well.

The Bad - Shovelware, Underpowered, Limited Online.

The Uglii - Controller Shells, Fickle Market, Lasting Stigma

 

There is more I could say but wanted to keep it short for now.

[Shorty]

The Wii did something that I've only seen once since, and that was with Pokemon Go. It became a topic of discussion among groups I never imagined would be talking about video games at all. I heard people chatting about it in lectures at uni, doors were left open in halls of residence by those who had one to play, and anyone could jump in. Parents and grandparents would pick up a wii-mote and try bowling. With that one launch title alone, it achieved the "we" goal of expanding gaming together... tenfold. Beyond that it may have suffered a little from a saturated market of waggle mini-games, but it's impossible to forget the incredible ripple effect it had throughout the industry.

[Londragon]

After the Gamecube era, I moved to Taiwan. I sold everything I ever had, everything. All my possessions went, every single console and game, from the NES to Gamecube, and the handhelds in between. It could have been the end of my gaming life, and I thought it was. Then in late 2007, I chanced a quick go of the Wii. I was teaching at a Sesame Street English Cram School, and the boss was giving Japanese Wii consoles away for a few lucky students. So, he hooked one up in the hallway, and all the kids got to play Wii Sports, a sensation, and after trying it, I was sold. That weekend and a trip to a local game store, I was in possession of a Japanese Wii, Wii Sports, and Twilight Princess. The Wii rekindled my love of gaming through the power of motion.

[Clownferret]

Great thread.

 

The Wii was the first and only Nintendo console I didn't buy day 1. I had just had my first child and only played games sporadically at that time. I played Wii sports round a friends house a few months after launch and like so many people was instantly hooked. I then endured agonizing weeks of trying to get hold of one as they were rarer than rocking horse shit.

 

The Good = Motion Controls. Nintendo's first proper online console, Mario Kart online is how I found this place and special shout to EA for the brilliant Tiger Woods and Grand Slam Tennis games.

 

The Bad = The fact that Nintendo didn't really follow up with Motion Controls the way EA did. Wii Sports was basically a tech demo and was crying out for a follow up with online etc.

 

The Uglii = The fact that my Homebrew stopped working and now I can't play it anymore.

[Grazza]

Got a blowjob once while playing Super Mario Galaxy.

 

BEST CONSOLE EVER.

 

Perhaps she heard you could use an extra Wiimote to collect stars!

[Aperson]

Remember the Wii being one of the only times I've ever tried to get a console at it's launch. Got caught up in the hype somewhat back then and was at the height of my gaming acquisitions. Obviously since they were so popular I never got one on launch and had to wait until after then, but the Wii still served some great memories. Playing Super Mario Galaxy (and its sequel), Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Okami, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Skyward Sword and of course, Super Smash Bros. Brawl which proved to be the go to multiplayer game with friends, those were some of the highlights. However, the introduction of Virtual Console also let me experience some of the older games that I'd never played, in partiuclar the first two Donkey Kong Country games and Super Metroid were ones that it allowed me to play and perhaps paved the way for the reduced physical game collections I have on modern consoles while also having a large digital library. Backwards compatibility with the Gamecube was a huge bonus although it lead to the Wii being on its side rather than stood up as it was originally displayed so that there was an easy place to put the Gamecube controllers in.

 

The controller really appealed to me and I really believed Nintendo's marketing spin that it would really create innovative gameplay, it's a shame that because the intial design was so limited it meant that developers couldn't quite do what they wanted with it and the idea of motion controls wasn't something that every gamer adopted. Now though, I can see I was being a bit silly in that regard but I think Nintendo realised that motion has it's place in games but should not be the main focus.

[The Cape]

As an overall, for me the Wii was a good step forwards, even though it tried too hard a few times to use its uniqueness. Motion controls were fun when they were properly used, especially after the Wii motion plus, but I'd have rather used the gamecube controller (or the pro controller) for more games. It was also great to see Nintendo doing so well with the general public.

 

The Good: online. Yes, I know. But for me it was good enough. Mario Kart Wii is the Mario Kart I've played the most by far, and it was thanks to the online mode. The Wii remote was also great for shooters (like Sin and Punishment, Goldeneye or RE4 and Umbrella Chronicles -playing two players on my own, holding one Wiimote in each hand was awesome-), and I loved the controls of Skyward Sword thanks to the Wii motion plus. Also, we had some really great games in that generation. Looking back now I'm amazed at how many.

 

The Bad: the first thing that comes to mind is battery life of the controller. Even for the pro controllers, which had to be connected to the Wii remote. Yes, I like cables. I actually plug my Wii remotes to a socket now, thanks to a small board my brother did. I still think that should be an option. Also for the Switch.

 

The Uglii: I know it's not the consoles' fault, but I was disappointed by some of the 'classic' Nintendo titles, like SSBB or Other M. Especially in Other M, among many other issues, controlling it by just holding the Wii remote sideways just didn't work for me. That's the game's fault though, I'm of the opinion that Super Paper Mario was brilliant.

[weeble182]

The Wii is a strange one for me as it was both the height and the end of my Nintendo fan boy days.

 

It came out when I had just turned 16 and actually had some disposable income from my weekend job. Gone were the days of having to save up my pocket money for months and months at a time to buy a console, instead I strolled into Blockbusters the day it was announced and put down a deposit. The idea of the Wii was fascinating to me after having seen just what brilliant innovations Nintendo and other 3rd parties had been doing with the DS (potential I'd say it never actually lived up to) so I waited in the cold that midnight in December to pick up my pre-order.

 

As another user mentioned, all that talk of 'what a silly name' evaporated as soon as everyone got to play it and I could barely visit a friends house that year without them asking me to bring it along. Long evenings and nights were spent drinking warm beer we'd pinched out of the shed and competing in Wii Bowling tournaments. It was the only time I can remember being a Nintendo fan and not constantly feeling like the joke console. It was selling well, had loads of games and most importantly, wasn't purple!!

 

The downside I have with the Wii is that it came at a time when I was suddenly very very busy. Between A-levels revision, my part time job, my group of friends, partying each weekend and a girlfriend, gaming suddenly seemed a lot less important. There are so many titles that were released in the later part of the Wii's lifespan that I never actually got round to and before I knew it, university beckoned and I ended up selling everything I had in order to fund my very lazy and booze soaked lifestyle.

 

While I didn't put 1/4 the amount of hours into playing my Wii as I did my DS or Cube, that first year of release was something really special. Sure it didn't have as solid a catalogue of games as previous generations did and maybe it diluted Nintendo's core audience a little more than I'd have liked, but the Wii was something special.

[Fused King]

The Wii to me was the machine after the GameCube that cemented my love for Nintendo and had me experience many of its franchises retroactively and had me enjoy many new experiences as well.

Through the virtual console I was able to experience Zelda, Metroid, Mario and many other classics and owing to its backwards compatability I was able to fall in love with series like F-Zero.

The New Play Control games had me discovering the wonderful worlds of the Pikmin franchise, and the simple on-line capabilities ensured I had a blast with Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Strikers Charged, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and yes, we know we all enjoyed The Conduit online with that marvel of a Wii-Speak in all its echoing glory.

It might not have been considered a 'serious' gaming console in my immediate surroundings, I still feel the very concept of the Wii did something for the gaming industry which was previously never a focus: getting people of all walks of life together to appreciate a video game. Though Nintendo might have failed in transforming people uninterested in video games to enthusiasts of it, I am sure there are anecdotal stories out there that have people start out their gaming journey with their parents buying them games like Wii Play, Boom Blox, The Blob, Super Paper Mario, and Mario Party 8 and ending up with an interest in Nintendo's history and the gaming industry as a whole. Who knows they might've even bought a PlayStation along the way.

This is what a Sony executive meant when he said that 'When Nintendo does well in the industry, the industry grows, which is good for the industry in general.'

 

There were times when I was dissapointed I couldn't play some interesting third party games or other indie games on it because of it's lack of power or what not and the whole vibe surrounding the Wii sometimes got a bit embarrasing with the infamous 2008 press conference. 3rd party games that did end up making it to the Wii were either shovelware, very interesting experimental games or B-tier games that threw around interesting stories and gameplay ideas. I'm thinking about games like Zack&Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, Opoona, Eledees, House of the Dead Overkill, Umbrella and Darkside Chronicles, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and many others that are on my gem backlog list.

The term 'hidden gem' has probably never been more appropriate than for the Wii's vast library of games and it is a damn shame people dismissed the Wii as a mere 'waggle-box' or what have you. The Wii probably did more for interesting gameplay, with an emphasis on play here, than the legacy of Sony and Microsoft's 1st party offerings during this generation.

 

All in all, I love my Wii and I still have it under my TV for when I do inevitably go gem hunting or when I want to play some GameCube games. Nintendo's bold move shaped the industry from 2006 onward and it is a testiment to their commitment to get more people involved in playing, whatever form this may take.

The Wii was divisive in one way and brought people together in another. For that feat I shall dub it the Nintendo Paradox.

 

...what's that you say? I forgot to mention the greatest game objectively of all time which is, in fact, a Wii exclusive?

Not only did I not forget, I waited specifically for the end of my post to honour it in all its glory with the boxart:

 

 

Little King's Story is the Wii's greatest achievement in my eyes. A game perfect in every sense of the word, blending genres and delivering a kind of satisfaction not even felt in my final words below.

 

 

Got a blowjob once while playing Super Mario Galaxy.

 

BEST CONSOLE EVER.

I might also write something that can be used on the main site.

 

Holy-moly, when I read this I thought you were me, but then I remembered my story is possibly even better even though people might not believe it:

 

I struggled a lot with getting the final star in SMG2, I believe the 240th one, and after hundreds of attempts I still couldn't get it. Then, one day, my girlfriend at the time gave me a blowjob as well while I was trying to get the last star again and, honest to god, the moment of ecstacy was the moment I grabbed that final star. I have always been left wondering if a moment that perfect could happen again:bouncy:

 

[drahkon]

I struggled a lot with getting the final star in SMG2, I believe the 240th one, and after hundreds of attempts I still couldn't get it. Then, one day, my girlfriend at the time gave me a blowjob as well while I was trying to get the last star again and, honest to god, the moment of ecstacy was the moment I grabbed that final star. I have always been left wondering if a moment that perfect could happen again:bouncy:

 

We need a new Forum Roundtable: Wiideo Gaming Porn.

[Grazza]

(The Bad...)

For me, the transition from GameCube to Wii represents Nintendo falling from its total zenith to its absolute nadir. I'd never anticipated a console so much, and yet never been so disappointed with one either. It can't be overstated how surprising it was that Nintendo was going release a next generation machine whilst keeping a level of technology very similar to the previous one. As Sony, Microsoft and almost all publishers and developers were preparing for a new level of hardware, middleware and graphics engines, Nintendo was effectively repackaging the GameCube in a new case and adding motion controls - a technology that felt more like something that had caught their fancy rather than a heartfelt improvement in gaming.

 

Gamers were desperate to understand this move. I've never seen so many wild rumours and such hopeful speculation as to how Nintendo would make up for the Wii's technical shortcomings. Perhaps its "Hollywood" GPU would be so astounding, it would make up for the lack of grunt? Or perhaps that slot on the front would fire projections at the wall? It was naïve, but understandable.

 

By the time the Wii was released, I'd begun to feel like a total outsider. As every pub and bar had the console set up with Wii Sports, I couldn't understand how I, who had trawled through Wind Waker's Great Sea taking Pictographs, or had tracked down all the Missile Expansions and Energy Tanks in Metroid Prime, could be less interested in new Nintendo hardware than the average person in the street.

 

Nonetheless, I eventually bought a Wii U with Metroid Prime 3, but took a while to get to grips with the console. At first I blamed the accelerator-based motion controls. This would be rectified, I told myself, when the gyroscope-focused MotionPlus was released. And sure, I was impressed with Wii Sports Resort at first, and similarly with the controls in Skyward Sword. The protagonist actually mimicked how I held the remote in real life - this actually was quite amazing. Eventually, however, I realised these new controls, as impressive as they were, did not have anything to do with the reasons I had enjoyed console games in the past, and at least in their pure form, were unlikely to be conducive to the successful progression of video games in general.

 

(The Uglii...)

The Wii's software line-up was neither great nor terrible. Although nothing matched the classic Wind Waker/Metroid Prime/Mario Sunshine trio, a certain level of ambition was on display that at least suggested Nintendo's software developers wanted to carry on broadly as they were. Metroid Prime 3 was a good start. I missed the dual-analogue controls of its GC predessors, but at least Nintendo was still making these games back then. Other M, on the other hand, was almost the opposite - less polished but more fun. Mario Galaxy was almost as good as the hype, even though I found the planetoid gimmick annoying (nonetheless I thought it was worth a try). Mario Galaxy 2 was better, although I never collected Star 242. Unfortunately, my relaxation techniques were lacking.

 

The common theme throughout all of these was that I really missed the GC pad with its R-trigger, analogue triggers and C-stick.

 

Everything about the Wii seemed extremely cumbersome. Even if it had been the best console in the world, it would still have been hampered by some of its bizarre control solutions. The way the Wii Remotes took AA batteries, for instance, or how they could not be recharged directly. Or how the Classic Controller needed to be plugged into the Wii Remote, and couldn't just be plugged directly into the GC ports.

 

(The Good...)

To end on a positive note, the Wii era introduced some very good (and enduring) software ideas. Whilst not many people would like to see Miis replace Link or Samus, they are actually a great form of avatar - the perfect balance between detailed and simple. I loved seeing my Mii land a plane in Pilotwings Resort on the 3DS.

 

Just as great, if not better, was the Virtual Console. This was carried out with real ambition and relish - not only could you download several 1st- and 3rd-party games for Nintendo systems, Nintendo also bothered to get Sega and SNK on board, not to mention my favourite of all - the Virtual Console Arcade. I cannot explain how much of a pleasure it is to have the genuine Golden Axe coin-op in my hands.

[Sméagol]

Wow, I clearly didn't play enough Super Mario Galaxy.

[nekunando]

If you could only own one console, the Wii is difficult to look past

 

 

The Good

 

The Wii Remote & Nunchuk is a killer combination with great versatility thanks to their independence, motion control and pointer functionality.

 

There is an impressively diverse selection of quality games, from the outstanding platforming perction of the Super Mario Galaxy titles, Donkey Kong Country Returns, New Super Mario Bros Wii and Kirby's Epic Yarn to the sporting brilliance of Wii Sports and Motion Plus-enabled sequel Resort, Mario Strikers: Charged Football and Pro Evolution Soccer as well as incredible niche titles that include Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Skies, No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure and Xenoblade Chronicles.

 

There was much more, though, thanks to the backwards compatibility with Gamecube games and the unbeatable Virtual Console that emulated some of the best titles of all time across NES, SNES, N64 and Sega Mega Drive amongst others. Outstanding.

 

The 'channels' interface was also a breath of fresh air with the ability to customise the locations of your favorite games and diversions. Seeing the logos of superb games flashing up in different areas of the screen really lured you into dropping in for a quick taste of a forgotten classic or sinking your teeth into a gem that you never got to experience the first time around.

 

 

The Bad

 

The gaming community

 

The amount of people who turned their nose up to motion controls and boiled the experiences down to needless waggle still frustrates me. The Wii Remote added so much to gaming but all of that greatness has been disregarded by a large selection of gamers who have no time for anything that deviates from 'tradition'.

 

If there is a criticism of the console, though, it is a lack of additional face buttons on the Wii Remote which required a Classic Controller to be created to play certain titles or it meant that actions in some games had to be programmed to a shake of the nunchuk, such as shooting in Pro Evolution Soccer, which wasn't always ideal.

 

 

The Uglii

 

Standard definition!

 

For me, this wasn't a problem back in 2006 when HDTVs were just about to really take off but the Wii can look horrific on modern TVs unless you have a decent component connection.

 

If Nintendo had created a Wii HD before the excitement around the brand had faded going into the current decade instead of focusing on Wii U, perhaps Nintendo's fortunes would have been very different right now. A high definition version of the Wii that matched the power of the XBOX 360/PS3 that carried over your entire catalogue from the original Wii may have been better received, if released at the right time, and given third parties a reason to provide more quality support.

[Nicktendo]

The Good

Walking into Game in Leeds a week before launch and finally seeing this thing in action. I didn’t play it, but causally observed from a distance. This is when I knew Wii Sports was going to set the world on fire. At midnight on the 8th December 2006, I went to my local indy games store (don’t see many of them any more) and picked up my pre-order. I’d known Rob, the owner, for a couple of years and he was as excited as me for the release. I picked up the console with Wii Sports, Wii Play, Red Steel and Zelda along with a pair of component cables and two classic controllers. I think I parted with about £300 that day, but Rob knocked some money off as I was a loyal customer. I spent the next week playing Zelda and Red Steel (which I adored) until the early hours of the morning, weekends around Christmas were taken up with “Wii parties” and copious amounts of pizza and alcohol being consumed. It really was the most incredible launch of a games console that I can remember.

 

About a year after launch, I sold my Wii, and bought a US NTSC console. Games were cheap from playasia.com and I managed to pick up Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl way before they hit the shelves in the UK. I’d cut myself out of the second hand market, but it was worth it to experience the REAL Virtual Console. The VC was undoubtedly the best thing about the Wii. I spent hours re-playing old games as well as going through a huge collection of fantastic Mega Drive games I’d never played as a kid, shout out here to Ristar, now one of my favourite 16-bit games of all time. WiiWare was great too, with both LostWinds games being a personal highlight.

 

Despite the lack of big hitters, the Wii had a solid line up of first and third party games, often offering something completely new or innovative in terms of gameplay. The Galaxy games were superb, Mario Kart Wii was a decent entry which finally gave us decent, competitive online, Animal Crossing was engaging and fresh enough to be a step up from Wild World and Wii Speak provided a number of laughs with some members of this forum. I lost 3 stone with the help of Wii Fit. Wii Sports and it’s sequel were a revolution in gaming which harked back to that classic NES formula of easy to pick-up, tough to master, Excitetruck and Punch Out also followed this formula with great success.

 

While third parties didn’t push the boat out because of the consoles limitations, there were still some fantastic games, which really took advantage of the hardware. Particularly De Blob, Boom Blox, Zack and Wiki, House of the Dead: Overkill and Little King’s Story – All fantastic Wii games. Nintendo fans also got enhanced ports of previous gen games which really added to the immersion, Resident Evil 4, Bully and The Godfather were my personal highlights. The console’s life finally came to an end after a short burst (Xenoblade, Last Story etc.) with Skyward Sword (A game which showed how far the technology had come since the waggle-fest which was Twilight Princess), but by this point it seemed nobody cared.

 

The Bad

Despite the Wii’s more than solid line-up of games, gamers were left wanting more, and thus was born the casual / hardcore split. As someone who has been a Nintendo gamer since the age of 4, the Wii alone was not enough to keep me gaming and will always be remembered by me as the console that led me to buy an Xbox. All my “hardcore” gaming friends had one, online gaming had exploded and the technology was genuinely pushing the medium forward. Nintendo seemed stuck in the past. If you wanted a decent racing game, sports game or online shooter, Nintendo Wii was not the place to be.

 

Though Nintendo seemingly dropped the “blue ocean strategy” with the Wii U, their output on the Wii cetrainly suffered because of it. While they were still innovating, in a different direction from that of their competitors, games because smaller, cheaper and more linear. Side-scrolling platformers made a welcome return, but then were exhausted to the point of frustration. While the Galaxy games were a joy to behold in their own right, they failed to live up to the magic and freedom of 64 and Sunshine, relying a little too much on nostalgia. Brawl, while choc-full of features and surprises, failed to live up to the might of Melee. New Super Mario Bros., despite being a commercial success, was another failed attempt at luring people in with nostalgia as opposed to doing something new.

 

The Uglii

The Virtual Console. Yes, I know I already mentioned it in the Good, but the PAL virtual console was a mess. In 2006 and beyond, Nintendo were still offering us sub-standard games when the technology was available to offer us the original. Could they have given us a choice? Too confusing (probably). Could they have just offered us the original? Might not have worked on your Granny’s 20-year-old 50hz TV. I’m sure there were reasons why they went down this road, but it just felt like a big fuck you to European gamers. I’m also willing to bet that 95% of those gamers who downloaded VC games had the means of playing them in 60hz, but these arguments are long in the past now.

 

Nintendo’s decision to not go HD, while nice on the consumer’s wallet (and Nintendo’s, incidentally) made their games look like ass on modern TV sets, at least without a set of component cables. I forked out for a decent CRT TV, just so my games wouldn’t look like a jaggy mess, and while it was a massive step up from my relatively cheap LCD, especially VC games, the decision is still one which annoys me to this day. While the other systems pushed the boundaries is display quality, Nintendo didn’t care, and it showed, big time.

 

 

I don’t want this to end on a negative note, because I genuinely loved the Wii, but at times it seems this was despite Nintendo and not because of them. I will always remember the Wii parties as being some of my favourite gaming memories, in a world where online has become the standard. Nintendo’s last effort to capture the living room, while valiant, ultimately failed.

[nekunando]

I forgot to mention Miis.. which are AWESOME

[Ashley]

Don't forget the anniversary is just two days away so make sure you buy a present!

 

(and contribute)

[Josh64]

For one reason or another I didn’t attend much of my final year of school but on December 8th 2006 I went skipping in with glee… why? Because my best friend was set to get a Wii at 3pm that day and he’d invited me to go back to his place and try it.

 

The anticipation from both of us was astounding, and unlike past Nintendo releases it wasn’t just us frothing at the mouth at the thought of pounding some balls that evening as the whole world was desperate for this hot new device.

 

We somehow managed to make it through the day without freezing ourselves South Park style and made it back to his house to rip open the box and grab hold of those thick magic sticks. We skipped Mii making and all the other jargon and went right into Wii Tennis, gleefully jumping and arm flailing across the room for hours like all the trailers said we should.

 

It’s crazy to think now of the hours we’d spend on Wii Tennis as it’s such a simple game yet that’s something that proves you’re onto a classic. Just like Super Mario Bros or the Game&Watch, Wii Tennis was simple but it worked, was incredibly unique and felt like the future.

 

As time went on, it felt like the Wii grew with my changing tastes and age. I’d been growing ever more uninterested in ‘normal’ games to the point where, after years of being desperate to try Twilight Princess, by the time I got my hands on it I could barely be bothered to get past the first dungeon.

 

Yes, as the rest of the gaming world stared on in horror at the changing face of Nintendo, with titles like Just Dance, Wii Fit and WarioWare storming the charts, leaving classic adventure type games behind, I was lapping up this new form of gaming as I started to see games as a social thing to enjoy with friends as oppose to my early teenage life of being locked away trawling through dungeons.

 

Thanks to a mix of incredibly unique titles, Nintendo’s changing demographic that grew with me and the time in my life where I was free to enjoy gaming with college friends in ways I never had before, the Wii is by far my favourite console of all time and holds plenty of genuinely misty eyed memories.

 

I’m sad that we’ll never quite get that Nintendo back with how the gaming landscape has changed, their re-focus on classic type gaming and with a different leadership post Iwata, but I’m happy that we got to experience the biggest shake up in gaming and a healthy new lease of life from a Nintendo that looked as though they were heading the same way as SEGA.

 

Whenever I mention how great the Wii was I prepare to be covered in hot tea spewed out of the recipients mouth, but the likes of Let’s Tap, NiGHTS, Mario Galaxy, Just Dance, Smooth Moves, Excite Truck and many more we’re unlike anything I could have imagined and a true product of their time that we likely won’t see again. Here’s to a unique, wildly misunderstood but fantastic console.

 

EDIT: I don't share the same Galaxy luck as you guys but my first gay experience was after playing an evening of High School Musical Sing It on Wii with my friend. It was a shock to me at the time but consiering the game I should have seen it coming.

 

EDIT 2: As for blunders, a lot come to mind, e3 2009 for example, but for some reason I always remember this comment:

https://www.engadget.com/2008/06/11/nintendo-says-only-geeks-and-otaku-want-a-harddrive/

Edited December 6, 2016 by Josh64
Automerged Doublepost

[Dufniall]

The Good

 

The Wii has brought plenty o' good! Great games like Monster Hunter Tri and Super Mario Galaxy to name just 2. But still I am looking for some gems which I still want to play like Pandora's Tower and Endless Ocean. The backlog on it is great.

 

Motion controls are obviously good (when implemented right). Some games tried a little too hard to work with it like first launch title Red Steel, but many games used it great. It even led Sony and Xbox to change their strategy to a motion controlled attempt.

 

But for me most the Wii was a people magnet. I bought one while I was still in college living in a student dorm with 5 more people. Three girls, three guys, two hardcore gamers. But everyone would come in and join in the fun from time to time. There were so many types of games to play. The casuals would join in on Wii Sports or Wii Play, while the hardcore gang was playing Super Smash Bros Brawl, and we tried to get high scores in House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Returns with the Wii Zapper. But it brought people together which to me is the best thing about the console. I really hope the Switch can pull it off in the same way.

 

The Bad

 

All good things lead to bad things, which was also the case with the Wii. Motion controls led to shitty games, terrible quality "party" games, shovelware, and much more horribleness. And the bad thing was these things sold. Online was rather terrible, and much more could have been done with the different Channels.

 

But the fact that it was a family console led to goshdarnawful TV commercials with perfect families smiling and waving at their television sets. I always hoped the mother would accidentally hit the husband in his perfectly white teeth with the Wiimote...

 

 

The Uglii

 

The graphics on some games. Yes, a game like Mario Galaxy looked great. But for example Xenoblade Chronicles was for me almost unplayable in the first year. I didn't have a big TV, and it wasn't until switching to a bigger screen and from SCART to component cable that I could read the menus and subtitles. It looked grainy, which really lowered the experience of an otherwise amazing game.