With Nintendo's all-conquering console on its last legs, we look back at what made the Wii such a huge success.
Some people wouldn't be caught dead playing on a Wii. For this Wii-shunning "hardcore", the mere notion of motion-control waggle is enough to induce fits of violent rage. Their loathing manifests as a poisonous bile that flows through the great sea of the internet and seeps into the waters of Xbox Live, where they scream their battle cry of "LOL GAY" while facehumping a corpse into oblivion.
But for all their juvenile posturing, the Wii deniers are dead inside. They have never experienced the unrelenting joy of grasping that last coin in Mario Galaxy, or saving the universe in Xenoblade Chronicles, or trying to bowl in Wii Sports after inhaling twelve vodka Red Bulls. No, these are pleasures reserved for the rest of us, the many who bought into Nintendo's promise of a console for everyone and discovered a heaving bosom of gaming brilliance, ripe for the suckling.
Sure, it has a daft name. And sure, it has the graphical prowess of a drunken monkey daubing faeces on a brick wall. But for all of its lack of technological wizardry, the Wii succeeded, and spectacularly so. Its influence is far broader than that of its contemporaries, bringing gaming to the fickle family audience by enlisting movie stars, pop stars, and footballers to shamelessly shill for it on television. That's not to mention the fact it made waggly motion controls standard issue for the industry--for better or worse.
Mums were using Wii Fit to keep in shape. Dads were vengefully lobbing Blue Shells at their offspring in Mario Kart. Wii Sports tennis battles were fought in retirement homes across the nation. But, like those very geriatrics who embraced it, the Wii is in its twilight years. And while it might be a little early to strap a catheter to it and wait for the inheritance money to pour in, a bunch of half-assed ports of EA Sports franchises and Wipeout: The Game 3 aren't much to look forward to. Especially not with the release of its replacement, the even more unfortunately titled Wii U, looming large on the horizon.
Rather than dwell on the Wii's gradual descent into irrelevance, though, we're here to celebrate what made it so great: the games. What better way to do so than by remembering some of the greatest and most influential games that got us swinging, waggling, and smacking people in the face in the name of 21st century family entertainment.
Writer, riff maker, purveyor of fine foods. Mark currently spends his days trying to overcome his small (large) obsession with high-top trainers and mobile games. He's known to respond well to Long Island Iced Tea, falafels, and karaoke, but not necessarily in that order.
Monster Hunter Tri? It might be a great game but you really need a good narrative and a good reason to play that kind of game. Xenoblade Chronicles is a preferable choice. You won't need to worry about what weapons, armour and likelyhood of a story that makes you want to play on end. RPG's on the Wii might be the exception to the rule if done right. I'm sure gamers favourite is not purely one note.
1 Like No Monster Hunter Tri?! For shame, its far and away the best game ever released on the Wii IMO, AND you weren't forced to play with motion controls unless you wanted to.
1 Like I don't mind Skyward Sword being apart of the top list but because of the formula getting stale, troubled motionplus controls and padding, it's hard to recommend compare to Twilight Princess. Honestly, on Twilight, if you don't like the fairy cursor and the need to hold the button, go to the options and switch those two and it would work like the Gamecube. Lastly, imagine what the console war be like if Nintendo decided "Let's ditch what we do best and focus on being button laiden, overpowering and third party madness to win over hardcore gamers". Other words? Ditch motion controls for more traditional button/analog design and a powerful console to be like Sony and Microsoft? I'm sure in the end, gamers will get tired of the same trend that's already been done before. Also ditching motion controls means we'll never see Kinect and Move ever happen and you'll just see people sitting on their couches playing games like that all day. Imagine that.
I agree with rushiosan that Skyward Sword should take Twilight Princess' place. Gamespot is just about the only reviewer who didn't appreciate what it did to motion control.
2 Like I like all the trash talk about the graphics powers of the Wii when all the ps3 and 360 owners graphics compared to the PC are about the same difference. They are both weak sauce. I own a ps3, Wii, and 360 and have not used any of them for anything but netflix in over a year.
'Legacy of the Wii--14 games which arguably could have been considered something other than a waste of money and an embarrassment to Nintendo.'
1 Like Indeed, if you knew where to look and actually did research, any Wii owner would have a multitude of great games to enjoy and, oh, shocker, not all were made by Nintendo.Deadly Creatures immediately springs to mind as one that didn't make it on this list, perhaps the most overlooked gem on the system.If you have to ask, yes, it did even make use of well done motion control.
Zelda Skyward Sword redefined the way you play motion-controlled games, but Gamespot (specially Tom McShea) is just too dumb to comprehend its greatness at full potential. Twilight Princess is just a mere port, a Game Cube re-release as a launch title for the Wii. It's a way better game if played on a Game Cube with a regular controller, because a fairy pointer and a swing-swing sword doesn't add much to the original experience.
2 Like I like the Wii, it may be an underpowered console, but a few of it's games were fun. I love Harvest Moon: Tree Of Tranquility and I'll be trying Muramasa: The Demon Blade very soon, which looks and sounds like it might be fun.
While the COD/Halo kiddies hated it for not having an overabundance of male lead only shooters, like the 360 has suffered from for so long, it was a good console with some fun games to play.
The motion control was a tad hit and miss, it required a good amount of room to make the most of it and not everyone has some giant living room with that kind of space.
It had a few games that were a lot more refreshing than the usual shooter rehash nonsense that is churned out all the time, games like Mario Kart Wii, Mario Galaxy and Tree Of Tranquility were a lot more enjoyable than some run and gun army game.
Hopefully Nintendo will have learned from the mistakes of the Wii with the Wii-U - like all that shovel ware, the awkward motion control that needed a lot of room to make the most of, the short battery life span for the remote and it's public image of stereotypes behaving to some marketing analysts wet dream and misguided ideal of gamers.
And maybe they should consider a better name that doesn't sound like a body waste management name.
1 Like Had the Wii been as powerful as the Xbox 360 and PS3, it would've been a lot more respected than what it has right now. The Wii had some good games and uses, but the lack of powerful hardware was opportunity lost.
1 Like I dont understand what you mean by "opportunity lost." You do know how successful the console was right? Im sure it was greatly respected by the millions of casual gamers out there who never even played an xbox 360 or ps3.
@Mifflinite45 Opportunity to appeal to the traditional gamers. I'm very well aware that it is the most sold console, but I also believe it is the one that is collecting the most dust.
1 Like @sdcazares1980 Tell that to all the Smash Bros. fans who still play the game religiously to this day.
either way this article is dumb for the rpg generalizations and general lack of knowledge mark portrays
4 Like I'm not one to complain about the Wii because I own all the systems. Out of all the systems I play the 360 the least. I first bought the 360, played it a lot, but once I got my PS3, it pretty much took over the 360. As for the Wii, l still play it to this day! It has some great games people overlook simply because it's not HD.
1 Like In all honesty, despite its major weaknesses, there are games worth enjoying. There is Goldeneye with the multiple controls, Disaster Day of Crisis which uses a lot of motion control minigames, Mario and Sonic Olympic series that allows you to enjoy the worlds clashing together, The Conduit and the sequel that shows high quality graphics and sharp controls, Red Steel and the sequel which uses unusual graphics that helped compliment the shooting games, Excite Truck and Endless Ocean, the only games that use the mp3 playback via SD card and Sakura Wars So Long My Love that allows multiple dialogue choices and battling robots which is fun.
9 Like Having read through the comments on here I must admit to being rather ashamed to a gamer, how can there be so much derision for the leading console, in sales terms, of its generation? Of course it is sadly easy to understand the barely disguised contempt for the Wii from some quarters because it based a large chunk of its market model in opening gaming up to new market sectors which provoked a dog in the manger style response from the so called "True Gamers". How dare Nintendo attempt to break gaming free of its stereotypical audience they demand feverously and the simple riposte has to be grow up you have no divine mandate over the medium and it is wonderful to see the gaming medium mature into almost mainstream recognition.
Of course this gradual expansion of the demographic is not simply isolated to the Wii, games are no longer nerdy, to use a terrible cliche, nor are they niche anymore the very fact we have so called triple A games is testament to this and one day in the distant future people will wake up to this. Of course it would be a gross exaggeration to place this evolution solely at the feet of the Wii when we can add in many factors such as the natural aging of the demographic as well as the industry gradually growing up as a whole but the Wii was indeed a significant part of this process and throughout its lifecycle it has been a joy to see industry commentators scratch their heads as they try and explain its phenomenal success and we are eventually seeing a begrudging backpedalling from these so called experts finally.
Yes the Wii had a lot of rubbish games but then so does any system, maybe the Wii had a higher percentage of these though that is arguable compared with say the PC market but what cannot be denied is the monumental success the console has found and that?s the Wii's legacy regardless of how many people try and deny it.
Will the Wii U live up to the success of the Wii? Who knows but credit where it is due to Nintendo.
@UndertheArchway It's nice to see a post filled with rationality and intelligence like this on an article where you know the replies are going to be so bereft of it.
2 Like Am I the only one who finds it funny that the Wii is the only console to be called a bad console with a lot of shovelware and yet, no one got on NES, SNES, PS1 or PS2 for that.
Seriously, how does a lot of shovelware make such a s*** system when there can be enough good games (which I have found) to out match them easy?
This article just makes me wish Nintendo would die. And I've always felt fondly toward Nintendo :(
I understand his choices, even though I might not agree with them. Resident Evil 4 (Wii Edition) was a port from a gamecube game, but it did create whole new mechanics for the wii, which paved the way for other shooters on the platform, as rare as they may be. I don' t really get how Okami and Sin and Punishment were so influential though. I don't understand how games like Red Steel, which was one of the first to really push the motion controls (to the point where they didn't work, but at least they tried), and Zelda Skyward Sword, the game that best utilizes that kind of control, were left out of the list, but I do get why New Super Mario Bros. Wii, DK Country Returns, Punch-Out and others didn't make it. As amazing as they may be, they weren't so innovative or influential to be considered part of the Wii legacy. Lastly, never say Super Mario Sunshine was disappointing, it is one of the best Mario games ever made.
Maybe if he stopped jizzing over his thesaurus and started playing games he would be able to write good articles
@BloodMist lol what truth? I just find this guys Articles and reviews so painful to read or watch.
"unfortunately titled Wii U" not unfortunate.
The 3ds has a silimar name to ds and its 1 in the world. This site sinks lower and lower
@Stealth_Knight_ Actually I have to agree that wii U is an awful name. Aside from the fact that its just an awful name generally, whats up with "wii 2"? can you imagine the confusion it'll cause on the market? 3DS is selling well but it took quite a while for it to sink into peoples minds that the 3DS is actually a new console and not just a DS with a 3D screen. Infact some people still dont get it.
The Wii U will be the same except at least with the 3DS people knew what its name was getting at. What the hell does Wii U even mean? :s Its awful.
@Gazz64 That isnt really true at all, there are no "contracts" devs buy the kits and thats it
Sony sold the PS3 on name, if the PS2 didn't do so well Sony wouldn't have been able to get contracts signed for PS3 devs.
"Mark currently spends his days trying to overcome his small (large) obsession with mobile games"
Alright, this makes sense why your article is so terrible and so poorly full of generalizations and nonsense
Jrpgs are just about the only genre that does innovate anymore, read kotakus article on that
Of course I wouldnt expect gamespot to get rpgs.
@Stealth_Knight_ Yeah well give me one tiny example of a JRPG doing anything dramatically different with game mechanics that wasn't borrowed from action RPG's or MMO's in oh, 20 years.Just one.
2 Like Funny GS and internet. You spend the last few years bashing the Wii and how it "ruined gaming" by making games for audiences other than 15-35 year old males but now suddenly it's "influencial?" Talk about 20/20 hindsight.
I'm surprised Kirby's Return To Dreamland and Punch-Out!! aren't on here, especially Punch-Out!!, but the list isn't so bad.
1 Like @amaan4ever They really should have Brawl on there since it is one of the most popular games. Considering the number of people that bought a Wii to play it and many also only own Brawl for Wii.
1 Like @killa32130 Sunshine was good, but isn't as great as Galaxy to me. I liked it more than 64, but i know that most didn't.
3 Like @killa32130 I personally loved sunshine and it still stands bright (heh heh) as one of the best in the series
