Rant: Nintendo Wii

[DeadPoolX]

WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG RANT AHEAD!

I like the Wii. It's fun and best of all, it has side-by-side co-op game play. Most of the PS3 and Xbox 360 multiplayer games are online-only. While that's great if you and your friends are far away, sometimes it's just nice to be in the same room. Not to mention that you only need to purchase ONE copy of the game instead of one game for each player (which probably explains why Sony and Microsoft's position).

Having said all of that, there are a number of areas in which the Wii truly ticks me off...

Third-Party Developers:
For the most part, the Wii has a terrible track record with third-party developers (TPD). Some titles are actually quite good (such as Ghostbusters or Ben 10: Savior of Earth), but most fall flat.

Part of the problem is that the Wii was designed for the "casual gamer." That's not bad a thing necessarily, but it's led many TPD to make games only a six year-old or someone's grandmother would truly enjoy.

Look at games such as Endless Ocean and Cooking Mama. EO has you explore the ocean and that's it. While that might be neat for maybe 30 minutes, if all you can do is watch fish swim by, what's the point? CM seems even more pointless than EO, in that if you want to cook something, why do it on the Wii and not in real life?

Another issue is that some TPD think that taking free online Flash games and packaging those up as a Wii game will sell. I can direct you to two such games -- Line Rider and Chicken Shoot. Neither of those games are very good (especially CS, which received a rating of 2.5 from GameSpot), but since they were free Flash games, no one really complained. Now they're being sold as full retail games (even though they're still available for free online) in order to trick younger and older gamers into buying them.

Very few TPD games actually sell well at all. Most of the Wii's best games were developed in-house by Nintendo and banks on characters such as Mario, Link and Samus.

Low-End Hardware:
I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but the Wii's hardware is far below that of both the PS3 and Xbox 360. In fact, many have gone on to say that the Wii is a slightly updated Gamecube.

The Wii's CPU clocks in at 729 MHz while the Gamecube was 485 MHz. Maybe that sounds like a significant upgrade, but not when compared to the Wii's competition. The PS3 and Xbox 360 have CPU speeds of 3.2 GHz. Those three Seventh Generation consoles were released in between 2005 and 2006.

To put this into perspective, the PS2 and Xbox (both from the Sixth Generation like the Gamecube) had speeds of 294 MHz and 733 MHz. Granted, the PS2's CPU was the lowest when compared to the other two consoles, but the Xbox clocked in just ABOVE that of the Wii.

That's incredible, isn't it? The original Xbox was released in 2001 while the Wii came out in 2006. That's a five-year difference and Microsoft's first entry into console gaming was FASTER than the Wii.

It gets worse, too. The PS2 was rated at 294 MHz, right? The Wii, in contrast, has its CPU at 729 MHz. Even though there's quite a difference in speed between the two, TPD continue to design games for both systems using the same graphics engine. In other words, because developers are too lazy to design a game specifically for the Wii, titles are often created with graphics for use on the PS2, which is a nine year-old system.

The above explains why Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Ghostbusters look the same on both the PS2 and Wii. Sure, the control scheme was changed, but the visuals remained untouched.

Many Wii games are simply ported over from the Gamecube, as well. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 are examples of this strategy.

Media:
The Wii uses a special proprietary format called a Wii Optical Disc and that's it. That means it can't play music CDs or movie DVDs (much less Blu-Ray).

I know the PS3 and Xbox 360 use their own gaming formats, but they can play CDs and DVDs. The PS3 can play Blu-Ray discs and I remember reading something about an HD-DVD component (before the format died) for the Xbox 360.

So while you can play music and movies on your PS3 and Xbox 360, there's absolutely no option for that with the Wii. If you want to play a CD/DVD, then you'd better buy a CD or DVD player.

The Wii comes with a paltry 512MB of internal flash memory and can add SD Cards (2GB or lower). In contrast, the smallest capacities available for both PS3 and Xbox 360 start off at 20GB. The Xbox 360 can go up to 120GB while the PS3 caps off at 160GB.

Motion Controls:
I think the Wiimote/Nunchuk combo is pretty cool and a somewhat unorthodox control setup. Unfortunately, it seems that very few TPD can actually create a Wii game and use the controls well.

The most common complaint from gamers and reviewers is that the Wii's motion controls devolve into "waggling" the controller around haphazardly and seem far too "touchy." The accuracy and effectiveness of the Wiimote seems unreliable in many games.

That's the main reason Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was panned so heavily. That game didn't come out on either he PS3 or Xbox 360 (so no direct comparisons could be made), but since the controls were so poorly implemented, the game sucked.

Some TPD can actually put the motion controls to good use. Ghostbusters, Mario Kart Wii and Soul Calibre Legends are good examples of this. However, aiming, driving and slashing with the Wiimote can tire out someone's hand/arm very quickly.

Accessories:
I know the PS2 and Xbox 360 have additional hardware (i.e. accessories) that're sold, but the Wii brings this to an entirely new level. While I can understand the Wii Wheel (for MKW), many of the other accessories are completely unnecessary.

Nintendo sells items like boxing gloves, swords, lightsabers, cue sticks, golf clubs, tennis rackets and individual musical instruments. These accessories don't work by themselves -- you need to fit the Wiimote (and sometimes the Nunchuk) into them. Basically, you're paying for ability to attach a controller you already own (and works just fine without any additions) to an extra piece of plastic. To add insult to injury, these accessories look really stupid.

Nintendo also sells "approved" SD Cards for the Wii at a higher cost than your average SD Card of the same capacity. Is this necessary? Nope. You can stick any SD Card into the Wii, provided it's not above 2GB.

But the worst of ANY additional device is, without question, the Wii Car-Lighter Adapter. You know what this does? It enables you to play on your Wii from INSIDE THE DAMN CAR! Yeah, maybe that sounds good for kids while on a road trip, but think about this -- nearly every Wii game uses the motion controls. I can't imagine flailing my arms about inside the backseat of a car (get your mind out of the gutter, Tawmis!) like that. It certainly wouldn't be pretty.

Price:
Console games have always cost more than their PC counterparts. I've heard that's due to licensing agreements, but I don't know for sure.

What I do know is that Nintendo demands way too much for their games. Most games on the Wii run from $50-60, with a few titles here and there beneath it.

That kills me and not just due to the overall cost. It's because certain games never go down in price. Games such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess were launch titles for the Wii (and LoZ:TP was originally on the Gamecube). That means those games were released in 2006 and as of this post, we're well into 2009. The price tag hasn't budged.

I've seen those games sold at Gamestop, Best Buy, Future Shop and even Blockbuster as "used games." Maybe that sounds good, but at best the "used game" will be five dollars less than a brand new version. So instead of paying a full $50, I could get a copy -- that's already been opened and played -- at a real steal of $45.

The worst case of over-pricing occurred when I saw Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars ported to the Wii (with no changes made) and on sale for $60 at Gamestop. The first BK game was released in 1996. According to Wikipedia, the system requirements asked for a 486/66 MHz, 8MB of RAM and a 2X CD-ROM drive. I'm sure it's a great game, but there's no way in hell I'd pay a full $60 for a 13 year-old game.

[Datadog]

The worst case of over-pricing occurred when I saw Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars ported to the Wii (with no changes made) and on sale for $60 at Gamestop. The first BK game was released in 1996. According to Wikipedia, the system requirements asked for a 486/66 MHz, 8MB of RAM and a 2X CD-ROM drive. I'm sure it's a great game, but there's no way in hell I'd pay a full $60 for a 13 year-old game.

I saw that! I was looking for some new DS games over the weekend and even on DS it was going for $40. Or alternatively, I could get it for $35 previously-played. The PPV games were just painful. Anything I wanted to get was either $5-10 less than brand new, and anything that was just 10 bucks was either a golf game or Socom Navy Seals.

[Tawmis]

But the worst of ANY additional device is, without question, the Wii Car-Lighter Adapter. You know what this does? It enables you to play on your Wii from INSIDE THE DAMN CAR! Yeah, maybe that sounds good for kids while on a road trip, but think about this -- nearly every Wii game uses the motion controls. I can't imagine flailing my arms about inside the backseat of a car

I just bet that - wha?

(get your mind out of the gutter, Tawmis!) like that.

Damn.

[MusicallyInspired]

Twilight Princess and Resident Evil aren't the only games ported. Nintendo plans to port more old GameCube titles over to the Wii and utilize Wiimote controls. A Donkey Kong game is already ported. And I heard a long time ago that the first two Metroid Primes were scheduled for this as well, though I have yet to see them.

[The Giggles]

SD Cards (2GB or lower)

SD cards go to 32 GB.

That's the main reason Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was panned so heavily. That game didn't come out on either he PS3 or Xbox 360 (so no direct comparisons could be made), but since the controls were so poorly implemented, the game sucked.

You mean the Staff of Kings? According to Mobygames there was no Crystal Skull game.

Nintendo sells items like boxing gloves, swords, lightsabers, cue sticks, golf clubs, tennis rackets and individual musical instruments. These accessories don't work by themselves -- you need to fit the Wiimote (and sometimes the Nunchuk) into them. Basically, you're paying for ability to attach a controller you already own (and works just fine without any additions) to an extra piece of plastic. To add insult to injury, these accessories look really stupid.

Nintendo only makes the Wheel which comes with some games. All others are unlicensed. But, yes it is pointless and looks stupid.

You can stick any SD Card into the Wii, provided it's not above 2GB.

Do only 2 GB SD cards work with the Wii? (I don't use my Wii much, so I haven't had to use any SD cards.)

The worst case of over-pricing occurred when I saw Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars ported to the Wii (with no changes made) and on sale for $60 at Gamestop. The first BK game was released in 1996. According to Wikipedia, the system requirements asked for a 486/66 MHz, 8MB of RAM and a 2X CD-ROM drive. I'm sure it's a great game, but there's no way in hell I'd pay a full $60 for a 13 year-old game.

I think they were trying to rip you off, I got my copy (for the Wii) for $30 new.

[MusicallyInspired]

With the System Menu 4.0 firmware update, you can now use SDHC cards (over 2GB) with the Wii. Along with this compatibility is the the ability to store Wii channels on an SD card menu and boot them temporarily on the internal memory when you want to launch them.

[DeadPoolX]

Yes, I know SD Cards can go up to 32GB. I wasn't writing about SD Cards "in general."

Originally, the Wii could only handle 2GB SD Cards. It seems the new firmware does allow for higher capacity cards. That's good to know. I remember trying a 4GB card last year and it didn't work.

Yes, I meant "The Staff of Kings." I keep getting the game's title confused with the fourth movie. I'm not sure why.

Prices in Canada are generally higher than in the United States (provided that's where you're from). Even with the exchange rate, $60 is still way too much. The American and Canadian dollar aren't that far apart. But that's the price I've seen Broken Sword offered at in multiple stores.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yes. Video game prices are crazy up here. I'll not support such craziness.

[DeadPoolX]

Yes. Video game prices are crazy up here. I'll not support such craziness.

Fortunately, I still have an American bank account plus two American credit cards. So I can pay for items and the exchange rate works in my favor.

I've been trying to use my Canadian credit card more, though. I need to build up a credit rating. It seems Canada and the U.S. don't share credit rating data (which is really dumb since both use the same systems) and as such, my excellent credit rating in the U.S. means squat.