I’m part of the problem. I bought a Wii. My excuse for buying the Wii is that Nintendo sold it to me as a system where I could play Zelda and Mario with these great new interactive controls. Now it is 2010, and my Wii has not been turned on since playing Resident Evil 4.
The Wii lured in the hardcore with Zelda and Mario but turned their backs on them as soon as USA Today came running to them to talk about Wii Sports and how it should be Game of the Year. Nintendo is filled with people who truly pioneered how we play and view video games today. They have the greatest talent arguably in the industry, but they don't use it. Nintendo could make a great game for Wii that I would enjoy, but they'd rather play to a casual audience and release a port of a DS game for their big Holiday release.
Nintendo has lost the hardcore. Sure, they will buy the next Zelda or Mario game, but that's it. So, who will be there on day one when the next Nintendo console is released? The casual gamers? Not likely, because they see the Wii as something they can play bowling on when their friends or relatives come over. The hardcore? No, they have been betrayed by Nintendo. The hardcore have realized Nintendo no longer cares about their opinions and would rather rake in the cash from Wii Fit then please the people that made them what they are today.
The hardcore see the Wii for what it is to throw ports of PSP and DS games on. The only people that will be waiting in line for Nintendo's next system are the diehard Nintendo fanboys that have brain washed themselves into believing they don't want things like achievements, good online play, and decent third-party games. So the real question is, will Nintendo be able to compete in the next generation with its current strategy?
Agree 100%
And sadly, I’m also part of the problem.
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Hey bro! no hate here but i must disagree I enjoy my Nintendo console but at the same time i have other systems/handhelds to tide me over to the big releases.I personally like how Nintendo didnt copycat off of the other two..there’s too much of that going on between Sony and Microsoft. Yea I admit some of the hard core players get left in the wash. As for me Im waiting for monster hunter tri and of course Tatsunoko Vs Capcom(which i even imported from japan).
I’ts not that bad man-relax
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Panos Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 12:13 PM
no, wii copied a wand that already existed in PS2!
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I too once owned a Wii. Thought it was a great alternative to my Xbox 360. Then after enjoying Mario Galaxy and a few other moments of fun I quickly got bored of it. I was hoping my girlfriend and I could play some games together since Nintendo does cater to the not so hardcore gamer. She too got bored of the mini games like Bowling and Tennis. The games just don’t have any lasting appeal because they offer no depth. So while a few games like Mario Galaxy were well suited for the system it just became a dumping ground for garbage. So I traded it for a PS3 and never looked back. One could argue an Xbox 360 owner doesn’t really need a PS3 but it’s exclusives and blu-ray more than make up for the 1 or 2 games a year the Wii has that appeals to me.
I just think Nintendo is a terrible company. Always have. Look at how lazy they have gotten now that they have a hit on their hands. Before they didn’t care much about 3rd party support but now they don’t really care about their own in-house games coming at a steady. So now they will suck as much cash out of the consumer as they can while they can. Wii scales, Wii heart monitors and probably some Nintendo Wii running shoes coming soon. Look at what Sony has done the past 3 years after a terrible launch of the PS3 and look at what Nintendo has done the past 3 years after a stellar Wii launch. I think it’s safe to say when your down you come back fighting. Well the closest thing to that for Nintendo is Wii Boxing.
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Haha, do you even play games? NSMBW is a port of the DS version? Clearly UR A HARDCOR GAMER!11
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had a wii got a ps3 aftr finishing SMG (ha looks lyk sub machine gun) been happy w/ ps3 ever since 2 questions 1. wut kik @$$ game came out 4 da Wii last year (2009)? 2. were ANY Wii games even nominated 4 ANY category as far as awards (2009)?
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Its only “gaming journalist” who harp on how bad or awful the Wii is(A few gamers also), but once games like “No more heroes 2,Super Mario Galaxy 2, Redsteel 2,the Grinder” comes out, your Nintendo will be constantly plugged in.
Its obvious that “HD” quality like games appeal to you and thats ok, but to say “Nintendo sucks” and stuff like that is absurd.Why do you think Sony and Microsoft is including Motion controlled hardware now? With an install base of “50 million” Wii owners, the last thing Nintendo wants to do is copy Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo is number 1 in sales after all right?
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got rid of mines the second week it was out wii is for big kids and family members who like games that don’t require you to do a lot and it actually would be better if the games came with DLC like smash bros.
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I totally agree. While maybe 2 or 3 decent games per year comes out my Wii, I get to play at least 1 new great game every month for my PS3 and 360
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This isn’t just a Nintendo problem.
I think Nintendo has and is wasting resources on things that don’t appeal to me and other “core” gamers(like the Wii Vitality Sensor), but it will probably sell MILLIONS because it has “Wii” in it’s title, but in the end it will be played very little.
I think Nintendo showed idiocy in creating Wii Speak, something that took 2 years too long to create and release, instead of releasing a simple headset. I guess Wii Speak went along with the “casual” audience market they have, and I think most of the “casuals” don’t even use it.
My big problem is with 3rd parties and the idea “mature” or “core” games don’t sell. I don’t see any evidence of this, yet, most in the media continue to spout it without asking simple questions.
Will I get the next Nintendo console? I don’t know, it depends on a few things and one of those things, is the use of friend codes and lack of voice chat in games. If friend codes are still used and voice chat isn’t “mandatory”, I’ll pass and just wait until a price drop.
I do currently own a Wii and a PS3, and I will say, I still play my Wii more than the PS3. I prefer FPS games with Wii controls, over the dual-analog setup, and Call of Duty: World at War is my most played Wii game to date.
Bret said, “Sure, they will buy the next Zelda or Mario game, but that’s it.” I didn’t buy NSWBW or Wii Sports Resort, due to lack of online play in both games.
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lmao that funny. is that all the game you can list from nintendo that are easy to remember. mario and zelda. i can list more like donkey kong, metroid, fire emblem, etc but heck if you want to blame someone go right on ahead. it only make you look like a fool. i own both wii and ps3. ps3 get all the shooting games playing while my wii get all other games played
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I feel betrayed as well. I purchased a launch Wii with the promise of true motion controls. Bought Zelda and Red Steel and then learned that Zelda was a GC game with waggle and Red Steel was just terrible. But I still didn’t learn…kept thinking the programmers just needed to learn a bit more…only to find that the controls could never be that precise and that 3rd party devs didn’t care if they got things right as long as they could cash in on the casual crowd. My last hope was motion plus…but needing to have the controller “recalibrate” so often to be precise is just sad. With that stupid pulse sensor and all the fake fitness games out there, it looks like Nintendo and 3rd parties are just in it for the cash. Bought an HD system and haven’t looked back.
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It lost me, bought a Wii and was like everyone under its spell for a few months. Came to and hated all games on it, even Galaxy, and Metroid Prime 3. Sold it and got a PS3. Best choice ive made.
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bought a Wiitard just to play Metroid Prime 3.
After finishing it, 4 days later I sold the piece of sh*!
Bought an Xbawks 360 instead, but PS3tard is a better system than all three!
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Dude, it’s your own fault that you haven’t turned on the system since RE4 came out, so it is indeed your problem. How can you know if you like any of the many great games that have been released since then if you won’t try them? There nothing to try? Well, then you’re either not looking (since the Wii has a huge variety of games — chances are that someone who’s looking will find a couple of games they’d like to try) or you’ve written the system off simply because it’s not as powerful (I’ve seen it, a lot), or both.
Claiming that Nintendo turned their backs on traditional gamers is wrong, too. How have they done that while releasing more traditional games in a few short years than they ever have on any other console (not to mention the many traditional games they shoot out on the DS)? Look it up.
They haven’t lost the hardcore. They’ve lost the man-children who believe graphics, violence, and big guns/swords is what makes a “hardcore” game. Me, I’m hardcore. I’ve been gaming since I could grip a controller. I love games, no matter what system they’re on, how many pixels or polygons make up the image, or how old or new they are. Nintendo still has me, since they continue to release magnificent games at a reasonable pace. I’ll definitely be lining up to pick up their next console with as much excitement as I’ll have for Sony’s and Microsoft’s. I only hope they fix their online system. >_<
Also, of course they won't use the same strategy next-gen (especially not with the other two trying to replicate it). They're Nintendo. Even someone who's passingly familiar with them know that they can't sit still.
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JDE Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 12:13 AM
EXACTLY! I play games for the fun factor, not the blood and guts, graphics, or online play. Those are just bonuses. I have owned a Wii since launch, (was bought at launch, but I got it on Christmas) and I have collected and beaten nearly 30 games for it, including Red Steel, which I liked. I can’t wait for RS 2, by the way. I recently got a PS3, and I don’t like the PS3 any more than the Wii. Sure, it can play Blu-Ray movies. Who cares? It’s not a big deal to me. I have yet to even play a movie with it. The PS3 and Wii are pretty equal in my book. I’m not super picky like many, MANY others I’ve seen.
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They haven’t lost the hardcore, they’ve just gained more casuals. And if you think about it, seeing as most Wii owners are casual gamers, who do you think Nintendo will cater for first? The casual gamers. Wanting more hardcore games from Nintendo is just being selfish, just go and buy an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3 if you’re not happy with the Wii.
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thing i hate about the wii
1 is the motion controls.
i wish they had the option to play all the wii games normally, using a normal controller.
i dont know about you, but waving my arms around like a escaped mental patient is the last thing i want to do at 10PM at night after a 13 hour shift, by the time i get home i barley have enough energy to walk up the stairs as it is.
2 where are all the new IPs?
mario this, mario that, luigi this, luigi that, wii sports, wii sports resort, pokemon.
they only have really old games on their system.
all they have done is taken series they had on the gameboy and brought new sequels onto the wii.
its like gameboy games on wii.
there is a few new IPs like madworld, red steel, cursed mountain, the conduit.
but very few and far between compare to other gaming platforms.
if the wii was cheaper, say 200 bucks and i could use a regular controller on it i would buy one.
i really want to play cursed mountain, the conduit and madworld, and i really like the mario brothers game, and mario cart.
but i dont want those games enough to justify a 400 AUD price tag.
how a sub HD console, a console with PS2 graphics can cost the same as a full HD console is beyond me.
but, meh ninty have always been professionals in ripping people off!
not as good as M$, but close enough.
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Dave Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 2:36 AM
Right… you hate motion controls and you would rather play with a regular controller. Well you can do with some games, but honestly as motion controls are the main selling point of the system why would you even consider this to be good? Any well designed Wii game doesn’t require you to flail your limbs around.
There are plenty of good, new IPs out on the Wii, they don’t get the exposure that Nintendo 1st party titles do. Perhaps it is a failure of Nintendo to support their 3rd parties, or a lack of any marketing budget, but it is also the fault of the so called “hardcore” for just complaining instead of actually buying the decent titles that are available.
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Tyler Treat Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 2:40 AM
That, in and of itself, is Nintendo’s problem, a failure to support a strong third-party platform.
name Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 6:33 AM
its called maximizing your fan base.
i know motion control’s are the wii point, without them its got nothing.
but why not leave them as a option?
i hope sony and MS dont release games exclusive to their motion control’s because i may want to play them.
the day motion control’s become a standard on every gaming platform is my last day of gaming.
[...] post: My Problem With Nintendo's Wii Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d582').each( function(e) { [...]
I totally understand whats the background to all this hate the Wii gets from gamers, but for me, and i consider me as hardcore gamer, it’s totally different. I owned a 360 and a ps3 since they were released in europe and enjoy them till today, but lately everything seems the same. So this christmas i bought myself a Wii, finally and am blowen away by how fresh and how “Nintendo” it feels. mostly because there is a huge catalogue of awesome games for me to play, cause i missed all of them. And not only the 1st-paties like mario and zelda. also games like “no more heroes”, “metroid”, “mad world” seem -fresher- to me then most of the Hits (uncharted, modern warfare…). all in all i’m one, perhaps the only, who truly enjoys his Wii for what it is. But im sure it’s only ’cause i just recently bought it and had no waiting time for good games.
And for the DS-port argument. unfortunatly i dont own a DS, just a PSP, and one of the hugest fafours Nintendo could do for me, would be ports of the DS-Castlevanias. But thats just me…
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I believe an editorial I wrote back in 2007 is relevant to this:
http://www.bravenewgamer.com/2007/07/yesterday%E2%80%99s-innovation-today%E2%80%99s-gimmick-and-tomorrow%E2%80%99s-future-why-the-wii-isn%E2%80%99t-next-gen-until-nintendo-does-something-about-it/
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I also bought a Wii shortly after they were released thinking it was going to be some amazing interactive console. After buying a bunch of games for it, it just didnt seem like it was worth it and just kind of sat there in my projector room. The motion controls werent that great (Yes, I played it on a TV and a projector) and most of the games didnt seem that great to me personally.
One of my best friends is a Nintendo Fanboy and him and me go at it all the time. His bigest argument is how he can buy and play old games on his Wii, and I always tell him I can download them and play them on an emulator. In my opinion they definately sacraficed a lot of their big fans with the console.
Personally I dont know why anyone would buy a WiiHD when you can pick up Natal and use your body instead of a controller. It seems precise and has a hell of a lot more features to it then a Wii controller. To each their own though…
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Well, I currently own all three consoles and both the handhelds, and I can’t say the Wii ‘hasn’t been turned’ for quite some time. Then again, I actually enjoy quality games like No More Heroes, Battalion Wars II, MadWorld, Another Code R (Trace Memory in the US), New Super Mario Bros Wii, TLOZ: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Muramasa, FF: CC: The Crystal Bearers, etc.
And hey, 2010 is going to bring us No More Heroes 2, Fragile, Arc Rise Fantasia, The Grinder, Gladiator A.D., Lost in Shadow, Monado, Sin and Punishment 2, Red Steel 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Epic Mickey, Monster Hunter 3, Metroid Other M..
Pfew, that’s quite alot of quality games for such a crappy console.
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We will see what we see when we have to WII WII in HD. I don’t think we can count out Nintendo just yet in terms of being able to compete with Microsoft or Sony. When I think of pure gaming I still think Nintendo and not Microsoft or Sony because of all the other junk that both Microsoft and Sony has tried to do with X-Box Live or Blu-Ray or whatever. Nintendo set out to build a game system and they succeeded. Who really knows whether Microsoft or Sony has succeeded yet with whatever vision they have for the future?
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wii beats the ps3 and 360 in my books
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mhh, you are right, a little..
i bought my wii on launchday (my first nintendo system ever, beside the original gameboy). im 34 years old, play games since i was 6 years, got the most consoles and computers (c64, amiga, pc, atari st, sinclair, atar2600, all segas, neogeo, atary lynx , pc engine etc – really the most, but no nintendos. i always thought, nintendo gets only kiddiegames. after the years, the games are boring to me, then ive seen the promos for wii: must have for me, cause this motionthing is the n ext, right step. so i bought the wii, and i play a lot of games -no kiddiegames! – and good games too. just open your eyes: the godfather blackhand for example, on wii with motioncontrols the best version. re4 too, metreoids are cool too. no more heroes, medals and calls (ok, IF the controls are good maked, the game is better on the wii, for me: i play actual modern warfare reflex – a great game on my ps3. on wii, the grafix are not stunning, but with teh tight controls, its so much more fun to play.), deadspace, hotd, resi uc and resi dc, (yeah, railshooter doesnt suck !), madworld, deadrising, conduit (ok, storytelling, leveldesign are umpfg, but gameplay at all is superb!)… and so go on: i got more than 30 hard/core games ! just open your eyes, there are enough, but not seen.
and on the mario/nintendo front: i only got mario kart and nsmbw and galaxy.
on my ps3 – i only play deadspace, bioshock, cod:mw (1 and now 2), resi5 (oh noo ! a shooter, where is the survivalhorror? where is the resigameplay i loved from the series beginning? re4:wii edition is the ultimate resi !)
…short: the wii isnt so bad as often said, just open your eyes a little bit more – and BUY the hardcoregames.
for me: give me dead space on the ps3 with the wii-controls ! the perfect game.
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I totally agree. I bought my Wii after playing Zelda:TP at a friends house. I bought Zelda and No More Heroes, finished Zelda lost interest in NMH. Then I bought Manhunt 2 which technically is great game but the last gen graphics on it just killed me. the only thing I use my Wii for now is old games on the virtual console, cause just about everything on WiiWare is lame. I know there are games like MadWorld, House of the Dead Overkill, Dead Space Extraction, and RE: Darkside Chronicles but that’s it on my list. Youre talking only maybe 1% of all the Wii games are for hardcore gamers.
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this is so wrong on so many levels. there plenty hardcore games. just cause you don’t see some your used to. Its your own fault for not looking into the games.
Nintendo is not abandoning them. they still there or just upset cause you didn’t research it.
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Tyler Treat Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 11:59 AM
Perhaps, but the fact of the matter is — as I said before — Nintendo has horrible third-party support, which needs to change.
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I too am part of the problem. But I can’t agree with you. Nintendo doesn’t want the hardcore fans anymore. All they want is their herd of sheep that only play stupid casual games like cooking mama and wii fit.
Also. Mario Galaxy was VERY FAR from being anything that resembles a hardcore game.
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WTF? i agree to some point but you are wrong dude, im a major diehard Ninty fan and have been for the past 18 years, the casual gamers will get put off from the next console and the “hardcore” as you say will be buying it again, that is if Ninty bring out the games we want, i dont see the point in achievements as they dont do anything lol… online play is okies but i perfer to play with ppl around me and yes some better 3rd party games would be nice.
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I guess Nintendo found something easier to make money with,they’re a company they really only care about money.Metroid Super Mario SSBB MKW Zelda and a few other titles and 3rd-party titles are the only ones Nintendo knows will keep them alive.The rest is something that any1 else can easily make.I still have my Wii becuase of its core titles.
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oh , i see, graficwhores ….
does i understand right? some say, there are no hard/core titles for the wii, cause the grafics are not suitable? oh boys, i played games in black/white and monochrome and green/black – so what? imho the best example: godfahter: on all other systems, its a lame gta clone with fine story. on wii, it begins to live.
but , its as everywhere on the world: if you dont want to see, you will’nt see.
thats all.
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