Wii General Discussion

[FoolKiller]

Thank you, SweetshopUnion. And yes, the Wii is a wonderful console even if people thought Nintendo was dead.

Nice video. I like that you stayed focused on the experience it provides, which is the key to its success.

Outside of fanboys I think the only people that thought Nintendo was dead were third-party developers, which is what gave the Gamecube its troubles. Now they are scrambling to make ganmes for the Wii.

And while I am critical of the shovelware being put on the Wii I am fully aware the PS2 had just as much. It just becomes more apparent on the wii because of the new control scheme. On the PS2 poorly utilized controls meant they didn't take advantage of analog buttons and sticks. But the motion controls have a much wider range of possibilities and so when it is poorly done it stands out glaringly.

As such people are overlooking that the Wii does have good exclusives like Boom Blox.

 

[JohnBM01]

Well, the Wii has character. If you want something more realistic and more innovative than the Wii, you may well have the Wii nunchuck while running in place on the Power Pad (World Class Track Meet and Dance Aerobics should come to mind). You know, it's a new kind of concept, but the Wii is old school cool if you ask me. Maybe people didn't like Nintendo because there wasn't anything that really blow you away (not even exclusive titles of Mario and Zelda ilk). I think the mindset of most people is that the Wii is boring because of not a real blowaway title. When the Wii was released, I wanted to play Red Steel. Only that I heard Red Steel wasn't all that good.

As for describing the experience. That's what was paramount and important to me. Like IBM's old slogan: what makes YOU special? What makes the Wii special? Simple- you're the controller. As I said in my video, Nintendo has always been somewhat a pioneer for me. They haven't been a stranger to interesting devices. Think back to stuff like the Power Pad, the Power Glove, a little device called the Zapper, R.O.B. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B. ), Super Scope, and stuff like that. They came true again with this interesting setup. The system has character even it isn't some smashmouth gaming system.

 

[FoolKiller]

Well, the Wii has character. If you want something more realistic and more innovative than the Wii, you may well have the Wii nunchuck while running in place on the Power Pad (World Class Track Meet and Dance Aerobics should come to mind). You know, it's a new kind of concept, but the Wii is old school cool if you ask me. Maybe people didn't like Nintendo because there wasn't anything that really blow you away (not even exclusive titles of Mario and Zelda ilk). I think the mindset of most people is that the Wii is boring because of not a real blowaway title.

I honestly think that if the motion controls had been more flushed out there would have been some more blowaway titles. As it is they weren't an developers decided to just cram them in. Once the Motion Plus thing comes out I hope that the newer games will be blowaway. Every geek out there first saw this and imagined a lightsaber dueling game, then got disappointed. Maybe with Motion Plus?

When the Wii was released, I wanted to play Red Steel. Only that I heard Red Steel wasn't all that good.

Give it a rent. It is hit or miss with some people. I know they had a sequel in the works, but after the announcement of the Motion Plus the developers made some comments about how they wish they had known it was coming and then went silent. Hopefully they are implementing the new controls. It could have the potential to be a great launch title for the new tech.

And I think that does point out one thing I see Nintendo not do that Sony and Microsoft do, second-party support. You know, like Microsoft does with Bungie or Sony does with Polyphony Digital. They are a separate entity but you contract them in as part of your group, maybe even by a controlling interest, and then offer them all the development help you can. I don't think there are any second-party Nintendo games, are there?

R.O.B. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B. )

You might want to check out Super Smash Brothers Brawl. A little robot makes a comeback.

 

[Wolfe]

I don't think there are any second-party Nintendo games, are there?

The Super Smash Bros. series (HAL) and the Metroid Prime series (Retro Studios), to name two.

 

[FoolKiller]

The Super Smash Bros. series (HAL) and the Metroid Prime series (Retro Studios), to name two.

Ah, and I was assuming they were straight first-party titles.

Still, those are still relying on old franchises. They need something fresh that gets associated with the Wii.

Not that Mario is bad or should go away quietly, but something new that can get a fan following and create buzz like LBP or Gears did would certainly bring some traditional gamers back. It would also create some releases to keep attention on the system between Mario and Zelda releases.

 

[JohnBM01]

I've learned how to put in GameCube controllers into the Wii. So any game requiring the Classic Controller or a GameCube controller can be used now that I've found out how to do it.

 

[C-ZETA]

I've got every single 'main' controller for the Wii, Classic Controller, Wii Wheel, the lot. What's your highest amount of KO's in Brawl, guys? Currently playing Brawl right now so I wanted to know.

 

[Thiele]

I got a classic controller the other day ($30, my sister made me pay for it, now she doesn't even want it) but it's a lot better playing SSBB with this.

 

[JohnBM01]

Wish we had Super Smash Bros. Brawl. All I know is that one of the newer characters I like is Pit off of Kid Icarus.

 

[Thiele]

I recommend it, great game. 👍

 

[FoolKiller]

I've learned how to put in GameCube controllers into the Wii. So any game requiring the Classic Controller or a GameCube controller can be used now that I've found out how to do it.

You'll be happy. There are some games that just work better with traditional controls. But, I blame that on developers. Maybe publishers as I have now seen two reports of developers with core games using a mature story claiming no publisher wants to pick them up because they see the Wii as not having the market for that kind of thing. One of those games was The Conduit, but I can't remember what the other one was. It looked like Silent Hill with snow instead of fog though.

Wish we had Super Smash Bros. Brawl. All I know is that one of the newer characters I like is Pit off of Kid Icarus.

I recommend it, great game. 👍

I agree, it is one of the better games on the Wii. Although, I have noticed that the main Nintendo IPs are the best for pick up and play fun. Snake and Sonic require a learning curve. We all know Snake would have killed everyone before they even realized he was there.

 

[Tornado]

The Super Smash Bros. series (HAL) and the Metroid Prime series (Retro Studios), to name two.

HAL handles Smash Bros.? I didn't know that.

 

[Wolfe]

HAL handles Smash Bros.? I didn't know that.

The whole concept of Smash Bros. is credited to Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby (a HAL franchise, for anyone who didn't know). Ever wondered why Kirby is consistently a strong character in the games?

 

[FoolKiller]

The whole concept of Smash Bros. is credited to Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby (a HAL franchise, for anyone who didn't know). Ever wondered why Kirby is consistently a strong character in the games?

Suddenly it all makes sense now. I was absolutely amazed at how well one could do with Kirby.

 

[Tornado]

Mega-late quote!

Sonic and the Secret Rings -- Many people didn't like this game, and I didn't at first, but after you earn the "upgrades" it's a blast. Pretty graphics, the tilt-control gameplay works alright, and it has a nice straightforward, old-school Sonic feel to it.

Eeeeww.

 

[Wolfe]

Mega-late quote!

Eeeeww.

Your bold tags missed "straightforward." To me, the essential Sonic experience involves nothing but moving towards the goal at a high rate of speed. SatSR certainly has its flaws, but in automatically accelerating Sonic down narrow corridors, it does a pretty good job of matching that essential Sonic experience.

 

[Thiele]

My Wii's been acting a bit strange lately, (please no jokes ) i was playing Crash of the Titans and it just literally froze, the pointer and everything was just static on the screen. I pressed reset and nothing happened, so i held the power button for 5 seconds to turn it off. I then put SSBB in and i got a message saying "An error has occurred" something.

 

[FoolKiller]

My Wii's been acting a bit strange lately, (please no jokes ) i was playing Crash of the Titans and it just literally froze, the pointer and everything was just static on the screen. I pressed reset and nothing happened, so i held the power button for 5 seconds to turn it off. I then put SSBB in and i got a message saying "An error has occurred" something.

Its probably the heat. Wait until June then try again.

Seriously though, this is the first instance of a Wii failure that I have heard of.

EDIT: I take that back, I had an error once, but it was a rented disc with lots of scratches.

 

[RacingGameFan22]

I have a simple question.

Do you guys actually think that if the Wii didn't take off like it turned out it did, Nintendo would had pulled a Sega and went into Third-Party Publishing?

I read in the (now defunct) EGM a few years back that Company President Iwata said that the second that Nintendo stops making game consoles is the second they get out of the video game business

so, is Iwata-san right, or was he blowing a lot of hot air? Because you know, after all, Nintendo's last two systems were way behind in terms of sales and the Wii wasn't exactly thought of as a automatic slam-dunk when it was first announced because of the assumption that the remote (and to a extent, the entire console) was a gimmick.

so, I know this is all speculation now, but what would had happened if the Wii, say, immediately fell behind the PS3 and the 360 in terms of sales? would had Nintendo pulled the plug on game system making and went straight into third-party publishing like Sega?

Give me your opinion on this, because I was just thinking about this and I want your take on it. Have At It!

 

[Wolfe]

With how stubborn they can be, I wouldn't be surprised to see them refuse to make games for other consoles. I also don't think the Wii would have been their last shot if it had failed. Especially with the success of their handhelds. Probably the console after that, if it also failed.

 

[Tornado]

The problem with that idea is that Nintendo has never (ever ever) followed the loss-leader strategy that is so common in the video game market. While the Gamecube was a distant third place last gen, they came in second place in terms of profit (remember, Microsoft lost billions of dollars on the original X-Box).

Even ignoring the fact that Nintendo always dominated the handheld market (which has always been a very profitable area), if the Wii had bombed completely Nintendo still wouldn't have lost anything. This is largely why Nintendo doesn't seem particularly bothered by the systems relatively low console attach rate, because they don't need to recoup any outstanding costs to begin with. The circumstances surrounding Sega were far different (Saturn cost a ton to develop and produce, for example, and was designed in a way that meant it could not be made cheaper), and don't really apply to Nintendo.

 

[Scaff]

With how stubborn they can be, I wouldn't be surprised to see them refuse to make games for other consoles. I also don't think the Wii would have been their last shot if it had failed. Especially with the success of their handhelds. Probably the console after that, if it also failed.

With regard to handhelds you are of course quite correct that Nintendo could certainly survive on them alone.

However if we pretend for a moment that they do not exist then a Nintendo developing software only for other consoles I could certainly see happening. Iwata-san can be as stubborn as he likes, but lets be 100% commercially realistic about this, Nintendo is a company with shareholders and no way in hell are they doing to let it just close the doors and loose the millions they have invested when they could make a fortune on software sales alone.

Regards

Scaff

 

[Wolfe]

You're right, they wouldn't just close their doors, but I bet they'd rather do something else entirely than make Playstation/Xbox Mario games. They probably wouldn't go back to making playing cards, but I could imagine them trying to take on the iPhone and Blackberry Storm with a phone/game system/media player. How successful such a thing could be would depend on marketing and how many stubborn design bungles Nintendo makes (eg. supporting AAC files, but not mp3s).

 

[FoolKiller]

Tiger Woods '10 looks to be pretty good with Motion Plus added. I have 07 and it was OK, but putting was not cool.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/13/joystiq-hands-on-tiger-woods-10-wii/
Joystiq has a video demo in their story.

 

[Kryz11]

Hey guys.

I was thinking..
I am a huge gamer. Been gaming since atari systems since lil kid.
Currently I play PC, PS3, Xobx360, PSP... no Wii no DS

I was watching invisiblewalls podcast, and they mention good things about the wii, and some bad.. but one catch my attention was the wii motion plus. So Now I am really interested in the system since that PLUS will give me total freedom on new games of fun!!!

SO Is it worth to buy the Wii right now? or should I wait a bit for the new PLUS controlls to kick in then buy it?

Anyone know when will that be? what kind of games will have the feature?

How about today's games? Give me some good titles other then MARIO, ZELDA games.. because I know they are good...

SO help me out, buy now or later?

 

[Scaff]

I'm going to post up an answer than may get me a few angry replies, but it is however 100% honest.

Do not buy a Wii unless you are 100% sure.

I shelled out on a Wii, extra Wiimotes/nunchuks, Wii Fit, etc last year and it would have to rank as one of the worst buys I have every made.

I don't use it, the kids don't use it, the wife doesn't use it. Personally I find the controls to be, for the most part, a gimmick that has added very little to the experience.

Now a DS (not DSi) and a copy of GTA Chinatown, that I would recommend 100%


Regards

Scaff

 

[GT4 genius]

If anyones interested Joystiq are running a live text feed of Nintendo's GDC keynote address.

 

[Tornado]

So I was playing around on Klonoa Wii, and I must say that the graphical overhaul is fantastic. That being said, the game just seems to be missing...something. Something that the original game and Lunatea's Veil had, but that this game doesn't.

 

[FoolKiller]

So I was playing around on Klonoa Wii, and I must say that the graphical overhaul is fantastic. That being said, the game just seems to be missing...something. Something that the original game and Lunatea's Veil had, but that this game doesn't.

A gamepad?

 

[Tornado]

No. I was using a Wavebird, so that wasn't it. It was an atmosphere thing.
That being said, in a hilarious double standard, I love the idea of PS1-era games being remade for current gen systems. Not the Wii, mind you, but still.