Coming soon to a Wii near you

by Alisha Karabinus { Jan 24th 2007 at 4:15PM }

So what makes a drought? When our cohorts at Joystiq posted the following -- Nintendo's official word on the upcoming sixteen games that will round out Q1, there was some discussion regarding whether a library of 40 titles constitutes a deluge or a drought. Here's the list, per Nintendo:

Feb. 14 Wii Play with Wii Remote
Mar. 27 Disney's Meet the Robinsons
Mar. Bust-A-Move Bash
Mar. Prince of Persia Rival Swords
Mar. TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Mar. Bionicle Heroes
Mar. Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII
Q1 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Q1 SSX Blur
Q1 The Godfather Blackhand Edition
Q1 Medal of Honor: Vanguard
Q1 Sonic and the Secret Rings

So there's the obvious question of how you feel about the way the Wii's library is shaping up, but the deeper question is ... how many games do we need? It seems most of us would rather have skinnier libraries with nothing but quality games than a new subpar sports title or FPS every week. We're not sure that every one of these titles is gonna reflect the quality we'd like to see, but it doesn't seem thin.

Last, but not at all least, you may notice that we didn't include Mario Party 8, which is apparently slated for March 5. Since it wasn't on Nintendo's list, we left it out here, but that date is still listed on Nintendo's official site.

Tags: Bionicle, Blazing Angels, BlazingAngels, Bust-A-Move Bash, Bust-a-moveBash, Mario Party i, MarioPartyI, Medal of Honor, MedalOfHonor, Meet the Robinsons, MeetTheRobinsons, Nintendo, Prince of Persia, PrinceOfPersia, Q1, releases, SSX Blur, SsxBlur, The Godfather, TheGodfather, TMNT, Wii, Wii Play, WiiPlay

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

20XX @ Jan 24th 2007 4:48PM

Licenses and EA ports don't count against a drought. The Godfather, which is both, is actually a negative.

Matthew @ Jan 24th 2007 5:03PM

I, for one, am happy with the current catalogue of games. I'm looking forward (tepidly, after the words from those across the pond) to WiiPlay, but I still have plenty of Zelda left, and plenty of WarioWare to dive into, not to mention still striving to reach many goals in Wii Sports, plus I still am only a little way through Trauma Center and haven't even touched Super Swing Golf.

Personally, I'd rather have quality vs. quantity. That being said, Nintendo's only downfall with this console would be a serious game drought, and I don't forsee it with their current lineup - even subtracting pointless Ubi ports and movie-to-game horrid adaptations as expected.

My two cents.

-m.

urbal @ Jan 24th 2007 5:16PM

QUALITY vs. Quantity anyday.

Sonic_13 @ Jan 24th 2007 5:21PM

When Reggie was talking about never having a drought, he was including the release of Virtual Console games too. I can't find the exact quote, but he stated that major VC games would be released between the major Wii releases, to keep a flow of great games.

Preventing a drought was never just about Wii titles - it is about the one-two punch of both Wii and VC titles.

David Wright @ Jan 24th 2007 5:35PM

Wii Play is alright, but dont expect it to be even as half as good as Sports, Just remember its only a controller with a game attached to the side, the laser hockey is fun, but the pool controls are terrible.

I personally have only went back to it a few times, wii sports I play almost daily.

Don't expect TOO much and you wont be let down.

AzaMcWazza @ Jan 24th 2007 5:41PM

What I want to see is Quality and Quantity. Now this doesn't mean I want to 1000 titles and expect each of them top quality, but I want to see 1000 titles - and due to basic probabilities, we'll see a large number of them being really good. And, those good titles will be spread among the broad range of game genre's Wii is accomodating and everyone will be happy.

What we obviously don't want to see is quantity with no quality which has been the borderline result so far.

I want to see more Nintendo titles coming out more regularly. They are very slow off the mark and need a good kick up the arse on that one.

I want to see every 3rd party and their dog making games for Wii, but I want to see those normally quality developers (I'm looking at you Ubisoft!) producing the quality titles, not the half baked, shit arse mofo ports that they have been doing so far.

So in summary what needs to be done is:

- Nintendo release 1st party titles faster and stop dragging their feet, or holding back.

- Give your "top tier" partners a kick up the bum and tell them to get their games into shape

- Lastly, and most importantly IMO, get out there and give dev kits to indie developers - schmooze em. They may produce a gem, but at the very least will produce a good steady stream of average titles that people will buy.

To summarise the summary - Look at the PS2.

Rubang B @ Jan 24th 2007 5:56PM

Who else plans on riding VC downloads and used GC games until Strikers takes this baby online in Q2?

MewMewtwo45 @ Jan 24th 2007 6:00PM

Check again Wii Fanboy. Mario Party 8 is listed as Q2 2007 now on Ninty's press site. They probably realized it was silly to release MP8 without online multiplayer, so it's more than likely back in the oven (set to 450 degrees).

Naruhodou @ Jan 24th 2007 6:08PM

I'm pretty satisfied with the Wii launch and don't regret buying one. I still have launch titles left over to buy and can't put what games I do have down.
That said..Nintendo's pacing could be better and Wi-Fi couldn't come sooner.

"Lastly, and most importantly IMO, get out there and give dev kits to indie developers - schmooze em. They may produce a gem, but at the very least will produce a good steady stream of average titles that people will buy."

Yes, this NEEDS to be done. With all the concepts being thrown around about the Wii, I'm surprised there isn't more of this. The virtual console is perfect for it.

DJ @ Jan 24th 2007 6:55PM

Tiger Woods Tour 2007 could become one of the biggest selling games of all time! I know 4 or 5 other 40-something dads like myslef who plan to buy it.

Rubang B @ Jan 24th 2007 7:27PM

I love how the golf in Wii Sports has everybody hyped up about Super Swing Golf and the new Tiger Woods. Suddenly golf games are cool again.

Kenny @ Jan 25th 2007 12:16AM

I'm pretty much planning on buying the Wii for Wii Sports and Zelda -- so anything else is just icing on the cake. :)

Freddy @ Jan 24th 2007 9:43PM

Let not get Cubed again...

Derek @ Jan 24th 2007 11:25PM

Only Wii Play, Bust-a-Move, and Sonic were actually designed for the Wii remote. All of the others are available on every console. Where are the innovative games that Nintendo promised when they hyped this thing?

Dave @ Jan 24th 2007 11:21PM

You know, I guess there might be a post-launch game drought technically, but I really haven't felt it. With football season being in full swing over the past few weeks, I've been Maddening (that is the verb "to Madden", my friends) it up nightly. Sure, it's a port, but it's still a game to keep me occupied. And of course, there's Zelda and Wii Sports still claiming some play time here and there. I don't think people should shun ports so harshly, just because you can play them on another system.

Kenny @ Jan 25th 2007 12:30AM

Derek,

Excite Truck, Zelda, Warioware, Red Steel. What the hell are you talking about?

Zan @ Jan 25th 2007 1:50AM

Oh god, so many games I have to get and so little time and money...

j dub @ Jan 25th 2007 9:56AM

Wow, when do the good games come out?, and Kenny, I hope you don't think that that naming 4 games (on a system where the controls are suppose to revolutionize gaming), helps prove nintedo is doing something right. Because

a)Not everyone likes spending 50 bucks on a bunch of microgames
b)Red Steel was abysmal(sp?) in the replay value dept. so there goes another 8 hours of gaming for 50 bucks

While excite truck and zelda are great games, excite truck was the only one out of those two made specifically(sp again) for the wii.

Justin @ Jan 25th 2007 12:07PM

Hmmmm....

Im still playing:

Zelda
Warioware
Elebits
Trauma Center
Wii Sports - Best game ever
Madden
Rayman
Super Swing Golf - Its okay, a little too kiddie for me.

Games Im waiting for:

HEATSEEKER - You guys left this off of this list...its supposed to be a march release.
Prince of Persia
Mortal Kombat
Tiger Woods
SSX
Sonic
Medal of Honor

All of these titles are coming out pretty soon. I will buy every single one. I havent felt a drought. There are so many good games, me and my roommates fight about what to play next. Ive bought a couple of VC games but havent had time to play them yet due to all of the content I already have. Plus Metroid, SSB: Brawl, Mario Galaxy and all of the other awesome shit coming out. My 360 and my PS3 have just sat there since I got the Wii. Im thinking about selling them. Any takers?

j dub @ Jan 25th 2007 2:13PM

im always up for a second 360 to accompany my otherone and my wii

01 @ Jan 25th 2007 2:21PM

I don't know about anyone else, but I would like to see some good, cheap GC games to come out. It's "last-gen" but the dev kits are still around, and the wii supports all the hardware ect. Before that, though, where is my MP3, Disaster Day of Crisis and Project HAMMER? Why Nintendo, why would you give me a Wii and make me wait until it matures to get true pleasure out of it?

Man, these unconfirmed posts are going to be the death of me.... :-)