When the Wii came out, I was the first to buy one, I was the first to sing it’s praises, and when push comes to shove, I was the first to become a Wii fanboy. Now that some time has passed, and I have sampled a good proportion of the Wii’s gaming offerings, I’d like to assess how it has changed my gaming life.
The biggest change that I think the Wii has made to my gaming life is that I want a 360 and a decent PC. I want a 360 NOW. And if I hadnt just bought a new decent PC and I could afford a 360, I would have one.
This may be a strange thing to say that the Wii has caused, but the reason for this is that I want to play some decent games. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great games on the Wii. Some great games that I can count on one hand. To date I think I have played approximately 50 games on the Wii, and I can safely say that I have played every single one of those until it bored me. The hand mentioned above consists of these games: Zelda, Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Mario Strikers and Resident Evil 4. But what have these games actuallygiven me?
- Zelda – great game, but havent I played it umpteen times before?!? And now that I’ve finished it, when will it be back in the blue illuminated slot of my Wii?
- Wii Sports – again, great, but really only one for when you have the mates around
- Wario Ware – i played this on the gameboy, then on the Gamecube. See Zelda and Wii Sports.
- Mario Strikers – frustratingly hard in the later stages on single player. Great with the mates.
- Resident Evil 4 – see Zelda and Wario Ware.
My point is, the truly good content on the Wii has been done before. I know what I’m hearing you say, “but you are missing x game”, but think about it, how many of those games that you put in the x space there havent come out on either the PC or the 360 in a BETTER version. And by better, I mean both Graphically, and CONTROLS.
But arent the Wii’s controls it’s selling point?! Yes. But they are also the bain of my life.
Take Rockstar’s Table Tennis for a case in point. This was a good, fun, easy going game on the 360. Stick it over onto the Wii and “Oooh, there’s waggly controls, we MUST use this”. No you must NOT. Just because the controls are there, does not mean you have to use them. Of if you must, at least give us the option to use it as a normal controller, or plug in a Gamecube pad or something. I dont want every gaming session to feel like a marathon. This is just one example, but there are hundreds of others.
Let’s get back to the 360. I want to play decent games. I want to play Bioshock. I want to play Gears of War. I want to play NBA Live 08… What, NBA Live is out on the Wii?!? I know it is. It just has POINTLESS waggly controls. It is not fun. And that’s what games are supposed to be! I want to play it the way I enjoyed it on the Gamecube. [nb. before the arguments ensue, I am well aware that it is a crime to group NBA Live 08 alongside the other two games listed]
And this is what it boils down to. There just isnt the content for Single Player gaming. The waggly controls work well for multi-player games and minigames, but what happens when you want to play on your own?
You get out the 360 or the PC, thats what you do.
So, to all you Wii/Nintendo fanboys out there, I’d ask you to assess your situation, and ask if Nintendo is really thinking of us gamers anymore, or is it thinking about our mums, sisters and or mates. I don’t know, but I hope that they get us back on track sometime soon.
So until Mario Galaxy proves to be as much of a let down as Mario Sunshine, and until Smash Bros. Brawl comes out, I’m off to play Bioshock, Half-life and Gears of War. Preferably without having to get armache.
I’m a big fan of Optical Illusions, and just wanted to give a shout out to a great Optical Illusion blog that I check regularally – 
