Opinion: What Wii has done wrong

by David Hinkle { Nov 7th 2008 at 5:15PM }

GameSetWatch has been running an interesting two-part column on the success and failure of the Wii in its first two years on store shelves (2nd anniversary arriving soon, read our 1st anniversary theme week here!). The second part of the piece, which focuses on the negatives, has a couple of interesting tidbits worth pointing out.

The first thing the piece focuses on is waggle and how the early promises of a more immersed experience for the gamer have not been fulfilled. We're willing to concede that, because of how great the console has sold in such a small period of time and how many developers and publishers have proceeded to churn out shovelware and dirty ports just in an attempt to cash in. There are always exceptions to the rule, however, with not only Nintendo showing us the amazing and unique things that can be done with the control scheme, as well as some other third party developers and their titles (Zack & Wiki, Let's Tap, and No More Heroes, just to name a few).

We won't spoil the rest of the piece for you, but, to be honest, it's really good. It calls the Wii out for a lot of its shortcomings, and not in a totally biased tone. And, if bashing the Wii doesn't sound like an interesting topic for an article to you, read the first part, where it's nothing but Wii love.

Source - Two Years In - The Wii's Successes
Source - Two Years In - How the Wii Has Failed

Tags: anniversary, anniversary-week, fail, failure, failures, lets-tap, no-more-heroes, zack-and-wiki, zackandwiki

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

scissors125 @ Nov 7th 2008 5:41PM

These are my opinions, and I hope not to get bashed for them:

The Wii has succeeded on the field of having one of the coolest online services ever: The Virtual Console. It's the whole reason why I own my Wii, and it's keeping me from selling it.

But the Wii has been an empty promise in terms of games, with having tons of potential, but no games that really take advantage of it. This doesn't mean that games with little to no motion controls are bad, it's just that the Wii has no games that really take advantage of the potential.

The peripherals also bug me, as well. I really don't want to pay extra money for a game + a dumb peripheral just so I can never touch the two again in the future. The only useful peripheral is probably the Classic Controller.

Most of Nintendo's "AAA" titles also lack challenge. Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii are guilty of this IMO. I don't really find a game worth playing whenever it's too easy and you never die. I mean, I don't look for frustrating challenge, I just want to feel a sense of accomplishment. Mario Kart Wii in particular was too luck based and frustrated me to no end. It felt like my 11 years of playing the series was just wasted.

I really look forward to what Nintendo has to offer in 2009, but as of right now, I kind of regret buying mine instead of a PS3 or 360.

Mr Khan @ Nov 7th 2008 5:55PM

Unless many people are a good deal better at Mario Galaxy than i am, i keep failing to understand where the complaints of that game's easiness come from

scissors125 @ Nov 7th 2008 6:18PM

In all honesty, no matter how much of a well made game Mario Galaxy is, I didn't enjoy it, and I don't understand the praise.

I thought it was boring and headache inducing.

It had something that was missing from it that could have made the game perfect, too. It just broke the game for me, I'm sorry.

The more hype I hear about it the more I hate it, too. I don't think it deserves all of the praise it got at all.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:08AM

@Mr Khan: Mario Galaxy *would* have been really easy if it weren't for the ridiculously clunky movement controls and the shitty camera. It was a moderately difficult game, but for all the wrong reasons.

@scissors125: I'm with you on that. After the shitty camera and lousy movement controls, the heavy emphasis on pointless long-winded dialog and overall story-driven-ness just killed any remaining potential for enjoyment. New Mario, however was great. Mario Galaxy should have just been a Wii port of that.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:09AM

"Most of Nintendo's "AAA" titles also lack challenge. ...Twilight Princess..."

Yes!! Zelda (along with other Nintendo mainstays) is slowly becoming a shell of it's glorious former self. People need to go back and re-play the NES Zeldas. They were fun because you had to actually *try*. The battle systems in newer Zeldas, by comparison, have all the depth and challenge of a damn storybook. Even the puzzles are becoming increasingly brain-dead.

Hell, videogames in general these days have become increasingly targeted towards "movie-goer" audiences instead of *gaming* audiences, and it pisses me off. Most so-called videogames these days are little more than a series of cutscenes strung together with inconsequential walking and button-pressing (and "blowing into the microphone", in the case of the DS...geez, don't let me get started on that...). And many of the ones that aren't like that are mind-numbingly repetitive (multiplayer FPSes and MMOs).

samfish @ Nov 8th 2008 12:41PM

"
Yes!! Zelda (along with other Nintendo mainstays) is slowly becoming a shell of it's glorious former self. People need to go back and re-play the NES Zeldas. They were fun because you had to actually *try*."

I give you my guarantee that EVERY single person who complains about Zelda being too easy would HATE a Zelda that is hard.
I agree that Twilight Princess was a little TOO easy, but the thought of dying multiple times per dungeon like in the NES ones and constantly restarting would be a NIGHTMARE.
The concept of death in videogames is a bit over rated these days. I don't think it should be non-existent, but some games' goal is to make you experience the thing, as opposed to constantly try to kill you.

fraxyl @ Nov 10th 2008 5:33AM

I disagree with Abscissa about the controls and camera. I never once died because of clunky controls or a retarded camera like I did in Sonic Adventure Battle. All my deaths were due to my own crappy playing! I'd really like to know why you thought they were sub-par, you keep saying that but don't actually cite any reasons for saying so.

I much prefer the camera and controls in Galaxy and Sunshine far above that of Mario 64.

Magnus @ Nov 7th 2008 5:45PM

Clearly, the Wiimote is a piece of crap. You just shouldn't be able to cheat in games by waggling the remote. Another issue is that the Wiimote is so limited realistic controls aren't possible with it, just simple waggle controls. Let's hope the MotionPlus changes that, because so far, the Wiimote has been a dissapointment. Another problem is that Nintendo has given the Wii too little processing power. One thing is "gameplay over graphics", another is giving your console so little power some games have to be downgraded before ported to the Wii (like Dead Rising). And finally, the horrible online and the limited memory. The limited memory problem will be solved, but I doubt Nintendo will do anything about the GODAWFUL lag in games.

CJLopez @ Nov 7th 2008 10:48PM

I look at the conduit, i look at monster hunter, i look at metroid prime 3, i look at mario galaxy, and I blame developers for DeadRising hateness, not the Wii

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:24AM

@CJLopez: Absolutely! RE4 on the *GC* looked better than most Wii games, and even Red Steel had pretty good graphics, aside from the dithering issues (but hell, it was a launch title). Hell, Call of Duty 3 looked almost identical to the 360 version (not that it was fun).

So, yea, I'm with you, I *absolutely* blame the third-party developers for completely flaking out. And particularly the performance-whore douchebags at Epic, since their engines appear to be so absurdly popular.

Mr Khan @ Nov 7th 2008 5:54PM

Clearly there are certain flaws to the Wii that Nintendo simply doesn't care to address. Though Iwata conceded that Friend Codes weren't ideal, it's not going to get any better at least until the next stable of consoles, as it clearly has little to no impact in the larger scheme of things

Equally, they care jack all about the lack of power, or the state of 3rd party support. The problem with gesture recognition was recognized, but i've yet to see a game that tried gesture-based play that could be totally broken by mindless flailing

Mr Khan @ Nov 7th 2008 6:02PM

Hmm

Upon reading the article, it was really a critique of how the Wii has succeeded and failed in what it was trying to do, not about the other inconsistencies, eccentricities, and blatant oversights

In other words, he didn't try hitting the easy targets.

Good show

Matthew @ Nov 7th 2008 6:00PM

As much as I'd like to go deep into the Wii's success and failures I'll just keep it short and sweet. The Wii is nowhere living up to the hype. It has failed in fundamental areas, areas in which it can overcome with an easy solution or possibly show some movement towards one, for example. Storage solution, a tremendous problem for many but what has Nintendo really come out to say about it to ease us for the next little while, nothing. Another failure, localization and release dates... can anybody say Day of Disaster? I know the UK version is out but I really shouldn't have to be importing a game announced and hinted at launch day for the Wii to only spring up years later fully fledged and now al over youtube to not even been given an idea when I can play it. Many final points, shovelware.. enough said and lack of challenging games along with lazy developers unwilling to push the Wii for whatever reason. Games like Madworld, Conduit, Fragile (even tho no NOA date has been given >.

Mr Khan @ Nov 7th 2008 6:03PM

lol. It's funny when an open html tag rips through a comment

VoiceofHarold @ Nov 7th 2008 6:41PM

I think one of the Wii's shortcomings is an almost total focus on content that is new, unique and "quirky." Not to say it's all bad, some of it is great and is important to the Wii's success... however, where are the more straightforward titles that merely make good, simple use of the Wiimote? You know, like some nice FPS games? One of the best titles I think was the Wii enabled Resident Evil 4 so far.

I just think there could be more games that are simple and make straightforward use of the Wiimote that aren't so quirky and decidedly different... shaking tilting balancing blox, blob whatever dokuplop etc. It's like they try to innovate so much that they don't produce some solid tried and true games with just the enhancement of some simple Wiimote controls. The fact that the Wii with its control scheme doesn't have a great or a few great FPS games is mind boggling to me.

Mr Khan @ Nov 7th 2008 7:41PM

Interesting perspective

I like the quirky games myself. When it comes to gaming (lame analogy incoming, man your stations!) i tend to prefer the strange and exotic foods to meat-and-potatoes

Though occasionally that itch needs to be scratched, which is were pure core games like Fire Emblem and The Conduit come in, no bells and whistles

samfish @ Nov 8th 2008 12:52PM

I would agree that that's one of the Wii's biggest problems.
I prefer the quirky kind of games, too, but I know I'm kind of in the minority there. Library diversification is the one thing the Wii needs more than anything.

Something that I find odd is that typically when a game becomes extremely popular, we see a bunch of high profile clones...GTA spawned a slew of sandbox games and Halo put FPS games on the map, for example.
...but we've NEVER seen that with the Wii (or any Nintendo system, really) on either side of the gaming divide. Where are the high profile Wii Sports games? The closest we got was Deca Sports, and it would be extremely charitable to call that high profile (especially since it apparently sucked).
Where are the Mario clones? Or the Zelda clones?

I don't think every Wii game needs to be some amaing step forward or attempt at innovation. I think developers and publishers just need to step back and make some good, quality games for both casual players and core players.

dan @ Nov 7th 2008 6:47PM

Mario Galaxy WAS hard -- if you went for all the bonus stars.

I think that's gonna be the only way they please us, and still expand the blue ocean. The basic game, you'll never die if you're basically competent. But if you chase all the secrets, expect a challenge. Final Fantasy does a good job of this, with fighting Bahamut and so on.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:08AM

Meh, the only trouble I had with any of the bonus stars was fighting the camera and sub-par movement controls. (Which was difficult, actually).

raindog @ Nov 8th 2008 12:48AM

Yeah, that's how I play every game.... not to merely beat it, but to find all the secrets and complete it 100%. I left Galaxy at about 95 stars because I knew I could go beat up Bowser any time I wanted, but some of the comet challenges to get to 121 stars were just too hard for me to do. After my current runthrough of Ocarina of Time (which I have also never finished.... this time for sure), I'll probably take another stab at it. But the basic, non-OCD part of the game seemed really dumbed-down and level after level of samey planets and starry sky just took my enthusiasm away last time.

I liked Super Mario Sunshine A LOT more than Galaxy, and it was the same deal. There were a couple of blue coins and a couple of hidden levels (in particular, the pachinko machine and the acid river) that I could just never do after dozens of attempts. But I just loved looking at that game, and the understated, bouncy music, and the way it controlled. I hope against hope that it gets a Wii sequel.

I understand wanting to appeal to newer gamers with simpler gameplay, but I'd like to at least feel a sense of accomplishment when I beat a level or a whole game, rather than just sunk time.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:35AM

@raindog: I know some people hated this (and I can understand that), but I found the "cleaning up the goop" parts of Mario Sunshine to be so addictive it was ridiculous. I guess it must have touched a certain OCD nerve in me (I like to call it the "Adrian Monk" nerve ;) ).

I didn't like Sunshine's story-emphasis, and many of the later stars were so frustrating (not "challenging", mind you, but "frustrating") that I gave up (which I hate to do), and I got tired of all the settings being more-or-less the same (Tropical Island, Tropical Island Again, Even More Tropical Island...), but I agree, it was better than Galaxy in a number of ways.

raindog @ Nov 8th 2008 9:50AM

I definitely enjoyed the cleaning-up aspects of Super Mario Sunshine. It was kind of like the "paint everything on the screen" games from the early 80s, except much more freeform and responsive.

I understand people's complaints that every level in Sunshine took place on a tropical island and shows it (apart from the "stole ur water pack lol" levels), but I think Galaxy is exactly the same way by virtue of taking place in space. And I personally find tropical islands prettier than space, which I find better suited to the shooters of my youth and their descendants, like Geometry Wars. No game has ever conveyed as pleasant a sense of being somewhere as Super Mario Sunshine has for me.

dan @ Nov 7th 2008 6:47PM

I think the Wii has yet to live up to its full potential. I'm hopeful that a game like The Conduit will do it. I'm hopeful that the new Zelda, designed exclusively for the Wii and not GameCube+, will get us there. I'm hopeful that No More Heroes 2 will make use of Wii Motion Plus and get us there.

So far, I've seen some of that potential. I'm impressed and happy. Me and my girl had a LOT of fun playing Mario Kart together. Mario Galaxy was great, and it was stuff like blowing bubbles and rolling on a ball that made the game awesome -- more than waggling through a star. Metroid had a lot of great moments, and shooters make a lot of sense.

But the console has to hit its potential before they announce a new one. Or else there will be a lot of bitter people, reluctant to buy the next system that promises to do what this system should have been doing all along.

Matthew @ Nov 7th 2008 10:27PM

You know what kind of bothers me is that although those are excellent titles you mentioned. The time in between each of those releases was ridicolous, not to mention No More Heroes 2 is coming in 2010. Pretty much that just says the Wii is going to be collecting dust, there just isn't enough replay value in any of these games and there isn't enough of them.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 2:00AM

As long-time Nintendo gamers, we pretty much *know* that the next Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, etc (not counting the GC->Wii remakes like Pikmin 1) won't be out until right before the Wii 2, *at the earliest*.

esposch @ Nov 7th 2008 7:20PM

Yeah, the Wii has many shortcomings.
I was impressed with the motion control in Wii Sports, but soon found out how to 'cheat'. And I thought Twilight Princess would have similar motion control to Wii Sports. Really the only good games that used the motion control well are World of Goo, Metroid Prime 3, LostWinds, and Zack & Wiki. But then again, all of those games would work just as well with a keyboard and mouse.

The graphics aren't too much of an issue, as I believe that HD graphics are as much as a gimmick as the Wiimote itself (except in some exceptional cases).

But the reigon coding is a bitch, especially to PAL gamers (96% of PAL gamers with next-gen consoles can run games in 60hz, so all of the NTSC software works on our TV's). Thank god for GeckoOS.

But I think a point that Brice missed was the fact that the Wii is a games console, and not a gimped PC like the 360 (and PS3 to a lesser extent). In actual fact, I bought a Wii specifically because it *doesn't* have games like Gears of War. I got my PC for that.

Hamster @ Nov 7th 2008 8:13PM

I would say on the whole I have been disappointed with the Wii, based on the simple fact that pre-Wii I was a life-long diehard Nintendo fanboy and now post-Wii I feel alienated and disillusioned with Nintendo and hence gaming in general. I still think the Wii has amazing potential and has some amazing games (SMG, MP3:C, LoZ:TP, SSBB), but unfortunately it seem it's always going to be the Wii Sports console, ie. a silly novelty for non-gamers.

I just hope and pray that Nintendo isn't mistaking innovation with gimmicks, fun with silliness and accessibility with dumbing-down because that's the impression that I often get.

Perfect control is what I demand in games (the perfect control that Nintendo invented and perfected). To compromise that for tacky, cringeworthy, broken gimmicks (excessively shaking remote and nunchuk for no apparent reason, blowing/yelling into DS microphone, etc.) to pander to non-gamers is not acceptable as far as I'm concerned.

Daryl @ Nov 7th 2008 9:21PM

The wii controller is a success and a proper implementation of Blue Ocean Strategy. I don't see how anyone could deny that.

Metroid was improved, zelda was improved, mario was improved, all because of the wii mote. It's not just "casual" games. It's "hardcore" games too.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:42AM

Meh, Metroid Prime 1 had far better controls than Metroid Pirme 3. And that's comping from a person who would much rather play RE4 on the Wii than RE5 on the 360/PS3 just because of the controls.

Metayoshi @ Nov 8th 2008 5:03AM

Coming from a Metroid Prime 1 fan, I would have to agree that Metroid Prime 3 had improved controls. But Prime 3 was such a disappointing game that its value comes nowhere near Prime 1, or even Prime 2. Thank god Nintendo decided to remake Prime 1 with Wiimote enhanced controls.

As for Mario being improved... I would have to say that Mario Galaxy could have been played with a Gamecube controller. The only thing you would lose is the whole "shooting the star bits" aspect of the game, which, in my opinion, was not really necessary, and the "pull stars" sections of levels. Then again, my favorite stars were the ones that had none of these, except for the first Melty Molten Galaxy star, but that could have easily been omitted since it was the platforming sections that I loved. All of the motion controlled parts could be assigned to button presses for Mario's spin attack, and the control stick during the manta ray surfing and ball rolling minigames. I would have enjoyed Mario Galaxy the same if it was a Gamecube game.

Daryl @ Nov 8th 2008 2:34PM

In galaxy you have to click on stars and then suck yourself up with gravity. That would suck without either a mouse or a wiimote.

Daryl @ Nov 7th 2008 9:25PM

Mario Kart wii takes serious strategy.

You can't lead right away, or you'll get nailed by a barrage of items. If you have the skill, you'll take the lead at just the right time, when they can't knock you down.

So its not all luck.

Abscissa @ Nov 8th 2008 1:09AM

Zak and Wiki is probably not a very good example. That was a great game, but it did have a lot of gesture-recognition stuff that worked HORRIBLY. Like all of the game's levers (WTF were they thinking making the levers gesture-based instead of IR-pointing-based?!?! Idiots!) and the completely unplayable rhythm mini-game (How the hell did that garbage pass QA?).

Metayoshi @ Nov 8th 2008 4:49AM

I believed the camera in Mario Galaxy was spot on and near perfect. Probably the only time I hated it was during some swimming, and that's only a small fraction of the game.

The controls were also very tight in my opinion, especially compared to past Mario games. Either that, or I'm just born to play this game and my fingers are just naturally able to do Mario's wide array of acrobatics whenever I want. The only 'glitch' I saw in the controls was being able to stop Luigi's slide if you tapped the control stick in the same direction he was sliding since it would start up his walking/running animation from a stopped state.

And there's no way I can classify that entire game as easy. The Luigi's Purple Coins star in Toy Time Galaxy was definitely one of the hardest stars I have ever played through, and all of Luigi's Cosmic Comet stars were ridiculous. If you call those easy, all I can do is applaud you for being damn good at Mario Galaxy because I consider myself pretty darn good at this game.

WalkingCarpet @ Nov 8th 2008 9:53AM

All I want are some good shooters. Is that too much to ask?

Although The Conduit and COD 5 do look rather promising...

Nica @ Nov 8th 2008 3:04PM

i just wish motionplus had been released earlier, but i can understand that price was an issue. storage is huge for me and better online would have been nice, but whatever, i'm happy.

on a completely unrelated note, i've seen that dog/cat/rat combo used in the pic. i used to attend school in santa barbara and that's where the picture was taken. it's a pretty amazing sight and the trainer seems like a really cool guy.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2008/05/21/natpkg.rat.cat.dog.kcoy

Ethan @ Nov 8th 2008 3:10PM

RatCatDog man!

Daryl @ Nov 8th 2008 4:32PM

The biggest "mistake" that Nintendo may have made is to front load its first party lineup.

With metroid, zelda, and mario galaxy, I felt like I was on a roller coaster. It was the best string of games ever. Then the roller coaster stopped.

But hey, that's just how an addiction works. I can't blame Nintendo for creating a good addiction.

Kell @ Nov 8th 2008 6:03PM

Putting aside all the technical rationale and perceived hype, the main reason Wii is so popular is because it appeals to more casual gamers, who believe you can pick it up and play without learning moves, controls, buttons etc. Intuitive motion-based gameplay where your movement = what happens, in a one-to-one sense.

In that respect, Wii has definitely failed.

To be more specific: Where's my $&%^#& lightsaber game?!?!?!

Daryl @ Nov 8th 2008 7:26PM

The wii actually has a steeper learning curve for some of its games, such as mario kart. It actually makes it MORE challenging. But for people who want their games to be hard, that is good.

The wiimote can make both challenging games and easy games. It's truly got it all.

Nintendo is a success because it dominates both the hardcore and casual markets.