[Guest article by Andrew Adam]
Internet communities tick me off sometimes. No matter if I am on the Nsider2 forums, surfing internet gaming sites, or listening to podcasts, it’s easy to hear a lot of bashing of the Wii. “I’m bored with my Wii.” “The Wii has no good games.” “The casual players are killing video games.”
Really people? I don’t quite understand all the complaining. Does no one remember the last two generations of Nintendo consoles? We have entered the second glory age of Nintendo reigning on top, and all people can do is gripe.
“I’m bored with my Wii.” ”“ How? Is Super Smash Bros Brawl already dull? I find that hard to believe, considering there are plenty of people still playing Melee ”“ so it’s a safe bet the same goes for Brawl. Mario Kart is owned by a ton of people, has a good online experience and you can get anyone to play it. Heck, between my girlfriend, brother and myself, we have sweated out over 100 hours on the Wii Fit. Not to mention great third party titles like No More Heroes, Boom Blox, de Blob, Mushroom Men, Guitar Hero IV, Rock Band 2, Shawn White and Rayman Rabbits 3 just to name games released in 2008.
“The Wii has no good games.” ”“ This bring me to the second common gripe. Besides the above mentioned Wii retail games, there is the huge library of Wiiware and Virtual Console titles. World of Goo is being praised everywhere and is only $15. Tetris Party might be the best version of Tetris, and its $12. Mega Man 9 is true throwback to the retro gamer ”“ full with insane difficulty and 8-bit goodness. Toss in great Wifi multi-player games like Bomberman and Cue Sports, great platform games like Toki Tori, Lost Winds, the Art Sytle series and even the ultimate time waster Defend Your Castle, and it’s hard to argue these new downloadable games available provide much bang for your buck.
And you can’t tell me that you never have an itch to replay some old favorite at one time or another. Super Mario 3, the Castlevania series, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Star Fox 64, Punch Out, good classic Sonic titles and over 250 other games I don’t want to waste time re-writing are all a simple download away. Yes, I know there are storage issues, but with a little fridge work these games can kill your “boredom.”
“The casual players are killing video games.” This is the worst of the bunch. How? How are they killing video games? Casual gamers are providing Nintendo and other companies money to put toward other quality games. Yeah, that’s an “awful” thing.
Has Nintendo suddenly stopped making “hardcore” games? No, they haven’t. Do they have a lot of games in development not ready for us to play or even show? Yeah, that happens when you throw so many titles at a bunch of greedy gamers almost too fast, just to keep us happy. They are making more games than ever before, and have more money to try and innovate thanks to casual gamers entering the gaming scene. Don’t be hating on Nintendo for effectively marketing a poor economy.
As for the cry for mature titles, third parties are coming to the rescue. Mad World, The Conduit, Tenchu 4, Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers, Final Fantasy: Echoes in Time, Arc Rise Fantasia, Deadly Creatures, Ghostbusters, House of the Dead: Overkill, Klonoa, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Oncechanbrara: Bikini Zombie Slayers, a TMNT fighter and we do have Punch Out!! and Sin and Punishment 2 coming from old Ninty themselves.
Sure, Wii Sports Resort is going to outsell them all, but the main reason for that is all of you are going to not buy the before mentioned games and complain there is nothing to play. So is that the casual gamers fault ”“ or yours?
Third parties are trying to save the hardcore fans. They did it on the DS when Nintendo had a down time making games, and people bought those third party titles. Let’s make the same happen on the Wii people. Show the third party companies some love.
And love your Wii people ”“ don’t be hating. I know I love mine ”“ faults and all.