Infendo regular invisibleman brings up a great point today in response to our post on the Wii and rehabilitation.
You know, I’ve been hearing all these Wii success stories for months now, and they are all wonderful, but after thinking about all of them, I find something curious: they all revolve about Wii Sports!!
Are there any other Wii games out there that deserve the praise Wii Sports has been getting? Or should publishers start talking about the benefits of Wii Sports instead of Wii? Just like when people talk about how ingenious Guitar Hero is, they don’t talk about how ingenious the PS2 or the 360 are!
It’s an interesting point. However, whereas the guitar is a peripheral that could actually be sold as a stand alone product for any console or simply just for your television (think those Atari game collection knockoffs at the mall kiosks), the Wiimote is the system. It’s a subtle difference, but the Wiimote is actually capable of producing other games besides Wii Sports, should developers other than Nintendo decide to get innovative and start firing off similarly groundbreaking IP. Guitar Hero is a one trick pony until they unveil whatever the heck Rock Band turns out to be.
Still, it begs the question: Is there a game out there now or in the near future that will recreate the feeling you had when you picked up and played Wii Sports for the first time? That will sustain this new momentum that has been severely lacking in the video games industry for a while now? I hope so, but with each passing month I see more and more stories about Wii Sports being the system, and not the other way around. It’s almost troubling. Almost.
