Why does the Wii have such a poor reputation these days?

I was born in 2002. I got the Wii as a kid and played it a lot when it was an active game console. I remember it having a bunch of good games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Sonic games, Lego games, movie/cartoon games, etc.

Plus, it had backwards compatbility with GameCube titles, so I also got to play Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Resident Evil games, Sonic games, Mortal Kombat games, Tony Hawk games, Need for Speed games, Tom Clancy games, 007 games, SpongeBob games, movie/cartoon games, etc.

So why is it that the Wii gets so much negativity whenever someone mentions it today? I think the Wii U is far more deserving of this bashing because yeah, that thing was a piece of garbage. It had like maybe 1 game come out every 3-6 months at best, the games were all inferior to the PlayStation/Xbox versions, the controller was just a gimmick that no games took real advantage of, and all of its best games are on the Nintendo Switch anyway, so what the hell's even the point with that system?

Great launch, poor support with games afterward. It was mainly the graphics which people complained about ironically looking at the switch now (it is a hybrid though).

Hmm, it was no DS but I liked the Wii namely because it had the Mario Galaxy games that stood-up to all the early HD platform software line-up/ top rated games of the time.

Games like Crysis, Bioshock, and Gears of War are not globally looked back as fondly as the two Mario Galaxy games. Which are usually dubbed two of the best games Nintendo have ever published/ developed.

And would state that's a testament to the Wii.

Now put them on Switch DAM IT!

The Wii was a good console, but suffered from weaker graphics and tons of shovel-ware so to speak. Sometimes the Motion controls where bad in certain games as well.

I still have my Wii hooked up in my living room. We'll still play Mario Kart or Party every now and again. People complain now because it's always easy to see what could have been done better after the fact.

Because every game you just listed is about all that is good on the Wii!

Just kidding.....there's a few more than that.

But the Wii gets a bad rap because of the immense amount of shovel ware. For every 1 good game there's like 20 bad ones. (Yes I'm exaggerating but you get the point)

Plus it didn't get any major 3rd party releases, and what it did get was usually a watered down port.

And a lot of the games didn't age well, especially games with heavy motion control use. The tech was great back then, but compared to modern motion controls in the Switch and VR headsets..........it makes it hard to go back and play some wii games.

Two words:

1. Waggle

2. Shovleware

Its reputation wasn't that great even at the time. It was a glorified gamecube with a bad controller, terrible online, terrible third party support and a handful of really good first party games.

The tech was new and it took a while for developers to figure out how to use it effectively. By the time they got the hang of it, most gamers had already stopped paying attention.

Also, people don't like change.

The Wii had a handful of good games in spite of its motion controls and a whole lot of shovelware aimed at casuals who'd bought the console

It's alive though, it sold more just dance 2020 copies than PS4 or XBoxOne.

The Wii is a console for Non Gamers. The Blue Ocean which went very well for Nintendo 101 million sold worldwide. However motion controls didn't really catch on. Plus the Wii had a "Kill a Ton" of throw away shovelware games. Out of a library of over 2000 disc based games. Only 85 or so are must play games that are excellent. Some of the biggest sellers that are on the Wii console is stuff like Wii Fit and Wii fit Plus and the Just Dance series. Plus it was mainly a Netflix machine for people.

So the Wii is Nintendo's worst but best selling console. Not quite the Revolution in gaming since Playstation Move and Xbox kinect 1 and 2 along with the Wii U also failed and died out.

@Megavideogamer: Difference between Wii and PSMove/ Kinnect is two main factors-

Wii is a console designed around motion controls and the other two are optional accessories. If you buy Nintendo? motion controls is something everyone has to deal with. Every owner from new to old is on the same page. Buy a 360 and PS3 and you can just play Call of Duty and ignore the gimmick, thus being for one market and the 'casual' crowd is less appealed.

Move and Kinnect also had next to no game to satisfy the hardcore market (Galaxy, Prime, Zelda, XenoBlade, Resi, NMH, and MH Tri). While Wii didn't exactly continue to deliver content for the market it came out launching content for them. Thus satisfying both crowds.

I think it comes down to this... it's a console that tried to appeal to non-gamers more than Ninty's loyal fan base. And it worked I guess. And looking back, it was a pretty gimmicky console.

But to be honest, I look back on the Wii pretty fondly. It had some epic games (Mario Galaxy 1/2, Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, Super Paper Mario etc).

Twilight Princess was better on Gamecube. Free camera control being the biggest difference in versions, usable items set to B for Wii wasn't helping that port either.

I agree overall though. Wii has its merits. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess isn't one of them.

I agree it was better on GC, but still, it was available (and most popular) on Wii.

Resident Evil 4 was most popular on PlayStation 2. But anyone with a Gamecube knew which was the better version to play.

I think it was mostly bashed at the time too.

It’s not a secret as to why...they rereleased the GameCube against next gen systems, they didn’t support it that well, and lacked most serious third party development which had moved on to the next gen systems, and the “motion” controls were mostly terrible.

It had a number of great games, even some great third party stuff, but it’s hard not to be disappointed by it, both the hardware and the slow game releases.

Wii U was 7 years late, but at least finally gave us Nintendo hardware more or less matching an Xbox 360, and they deemphasized gimmicks and got back to gameplay. In retrospect I think everything I wanted except pikmin 3 and the Zelda games has been ported to switch, 3ds, and even Xbox one/ps4, so I’m not sure I’d buy it again, though o do really love pikmin.

@RSM-HQ: yeah, I hated twilight princess on Wii. I heard back then that the GameCube version was actually good, but it was no longer available by the time I learned that.

I finally got to play it done right on Wii U...with good controls and 1080p and better textures (and I think even some redone polygon models?) it’s vastly better than the Wii game, and I actually really like it now.

I’m a huge fan of beyond good and evil (far from a GameCube exclusive though) and starfox adventures , which imo is better than wind waker (which is saying something) and rare’s best game to date.

I love the wii, but it had awful 3rd party support, and this is when nintendo became cheap and underpowerd their consoles next to the competition, it should have specs that are close or on par with the ps3/xbox 360.

It seems to me is a had a worse rep back in the day, a lot of that down to elitism due to the fact it was cheaper, weaker and designed to appeal to anyone and everyone.

@uninspiredcup: I agree with @uninspiredcup.

I think the Wii has a better reputation these days.

It's not the worst porting job around, but still turns a great game into a barely acceptable one.

If one only played it on Wii? they did Twilight Princess a huge disservice. It's easily one of the best 3D Zelda games, personally consider it my second favorite.

Clearly designed for Gamecube, delayed on its main system and slapped onto Wii as soon as possible to help sales.

Terrible

It was a cute electronic toy/gimmick for non-gamers. Seriously, it seemed like everyone I knew that did not usually play video games owned one, while everyone I knew that played video games did not own one.

And the only game they played was Wii Bowling and Mario Kart.

With that said, that's not to say serious gamers did not or could not enjoy the Wii, it just didn't seem like the target demographic of Nintendo.

It's sort of "The Sims" of the console world; made for everyone, but pretty much only enjoyed by young housewives.

Almost everything was wrong with the Wii. Bad remotes, kids flinging them around, smacking their brothers, knocking over lamps. People with injuries, disabilities, carpel tunnel, bad shoulders etc, couldn't stand them. Non rechargeable batteries LOL. Terrible sensor bars that never worked, and had weak angel-hair pasta cords. Glitchy unresponsive games. Aside from a few over priced AAA titles, most games were weird, polygonal, ugly, bizarre, and boring. Overall it was overpriced like all Nintendo systems, games and accessories only the difference with Wii is the premium tag wasn't worth it for the cheap console. They also failed when they pretended they could make kids use games as exercise when lazy parents wanted their kids to magically be active instead of telling them to actually exercise, and Nintendo got on the bandwagon pretending it was some hero making the exercise console.

It was a repackage Gamecube with motion controls. This is not even me stating in jest. The emulator used for the Gamecube also works for Dolphin, that's how similar they are. This made it the weakest system of the three and it had the smallest internal storage. When include the exceptionally poor online support and general support the system was just not a good purchase.

@uninspiredcup: it didn’t “appeal to anyone and everyone”, it was the GameCube rereleased with a terrible, gimmicky controller, and terrible game support.

It had a solid number of real gems, but it made no sense as a primary system and you had to wade through a ton of junk.

@redphoenix80: “non rechargeable batteries” is one of the things Wii did right.

“Non rechargeable batteries” is another way of saying it takes real batteries, whatever you want (including rechargeable batteries!), and thus is also wireless.

Ps3, ps4, Switch, vita, etc. with their ridiculous sealed batteries mean you really need to use them plugged in, at best.

@wolfpup7:

Ps3, ps4, Switch, vita, etc. with their ridiculous sealed batteries mean you really need to use them plugged in, at best.

Hmm, disagree.

Hardly use(d) my PS3/ PS4/ Switch controllers "plugged in".

Then again very rarely play openworld games that require people walking eleven hours at a time doing absolute nothing of value, as most those games do.

So battery life is rarely an issue in a single sitting.

Now if all one plays is Bethesda/ Ubisoft sandbox games? Sure. Those people probably have an issue.

@wolfpup7: What in the srupid hell is this nonsense lol? The ps3 controllers would last a week on a charge, and the ps4s, just plug them in at night amd you're good for the day unless you play for 12 hours plus.

@vfighter: the stupid nonsense is using sealed, proprietary batteries in electronics, particularly those that need to last decades.

Sure, they’ll work for a while, but then at best they become wired, nonfunctional unless you plug them in, or entirely non-functional, depending.

I don’t think they should even be legal to sell like that.

Point is, contrary to the claim, Wii was actually well designed in that regard. Sony and Nintendo’s later systems are not.

I’m stuck running all of this stuff plugged in because of the “brilliant” decision to use sealed, proprietary batteries.

I still love the Wii, some great games and Galaxy 2 was responsible for bringing me back to consoles. One of my favourite games ever, what a shock after years of PC gaming. (A few months later I decided to buy an Xbox 360 to play RDR and that made me almost completely abandon PC gaming.)

The Wii has a bad reputation because it's mostly casual, a kiddy console, overly relies on the wii-mote for the interfaces, and is has just souped up Gamecube graphics.

People hate the motion controls.

Despite having the BEST port of Reisdent Evil 4. You cannot argue me with on this one.

@RSM-HQ: I play ESO on ps4 all the time and my controller doesn't even die by the end of the day, it gets close lol, but not dead.

Too respond to other comments:

There is nothing good about having to put really expensive new batteries into a controller every couple days. It was just a gimmick with Duracell. They even put Duracell batteries in the Pikmin 3 game. There was also a big issue for a couple years with batteries being bought almost dead already from all the major and generic brands. $15 a month for controller batteries is too expensive, especially if you have two controllers and have to buy double. The controllers were really wonky and never felt right to me. Too bad they didn't just re-release Game Cube with better stats, it's the last Console they made that was any good. Lots of great games too. Although GC did NOT invent 3d environment graphics that was actually the Sega Dream Cast, but it failed because it had serious development issues with games, and was trying to be too ahead of it's time, for the day, Most of it's ui and features were too slow to work right.

Probably varies on DualShock model, I have two from the PS4 launch. Which range to around four to five hours. And have had the same since the dim light feature was added, it was roughly three hours before the dim patch.

It gets looked down upon by gamers because it didn't push hard for better graphics, resulting in it also receiving lacklustre 3rd party support as it was just too much work to downscale games to run on it and have to rethink controls.

It was a great system for everyone else though. It's the only time in over 3 decades of gaming that we would meet up with a bunch of friends, even couples, and we'd hook up multiple Wii's to just play games together.

I owned one played it once or twice a year with family. Wii Sports was about as far as it got. Definitely missed out on metroid prime and Zelda twilight princess but the motion controls annoyed me. Definitely my least played system of all time.

@RSM-HQ: Idk, mine is the one that came with my newer ps4 pro. It's a white ps4 I call "the triple cheeseburger."