The uber geeks

A Year with My Wii

I followed news and stories on the Wii about two years before it was officially released. Rumors were running rampant at that point, and now-ridiculous ideas were then being tossed around. Things like this Nintendo Revolution Video on Youtube had me salivating and foaming at the mouth for what Nintendo was going to do. There was even another popular speculation that the system would be some sort of 3D movie/game projection system, claiming the “Broadway” and “Hollywood” nicknames of the system’s GPU and CPU as proof, as well as the air of mystery around the whole system.

So when the Wii was finally released, I have to admit, I was a little unimpressed. I mean, it had none of the ridiculous 3D projection or full on 3D image viewers that had me excited to begin with. It was just another system. But it did have a cool controller and looked sleek, similar to an Apple product (my white iBook and Wii are long lost brothers).

I’d never been an early adopter of a gaming system before, though I’ve owned nearly all of them. I bought an X-Box a year and a half after it was released; the PS2, two years after its initial release. I decided between the three next-gen systems that Wii was going to be my choice. So a week after it first went on sale, I went hunting. Thanks to a Wii seeking site I was able to pinpoint where the newest shipments would be coming in. I called a Wal-Mart, had the information confirmed, and went to stand in line the moment I was done with classes that afternoon. After twenty-three hours in line, I had it. It only took me one full week and the time spent sitting in the lawn and garden section of Wal-Mart to get it. I played Wii Sports right off the bat and fell in love with the controller. I had to wait another month until Christmas before I’d get another game, though.

And that is my main complaint about the Wii. It’s a great system. It blends the best of casual gaming, while still offering something unique to the hardcore gamer. However, a great system can’t be great without a library of games to back it. I must’ve played Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess every day for three months, as that was the only game I had for the Wii for the first nine months. The Wii was, and still is, plagued by a huge amount of horrendous third-party games. Games like Ninjabread Man come to mind, with scores of 25 out of 100. It’s a shame games like this make it to the system, because other third-party games that may in fact be good won’t get the sales they deserve. Although I’ve yet to play it, I’m hearing fantastic things about Zack & Wiki Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure. Unfortunately, it looks like it will receive little or no attention from the majority of consumers.

So this is what I’m hoping for this year for the Wii. I know they’ve got a nice list of first party, Nintendo-made games coming out this year that will be huge (Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii come immediately to mind). But Nintendo needs a healthy dose of third-party games to become the great system it can be. Aside from Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda, a few Virtual Console games, and the bundled Wii Sports when friends come over, I haven’t had much incentive to play my system. I own three games, and the rest I rent and am either completely disappointed in or can only muster a meager “meh” about them. Here’s to hoping a fresh batch of great third-party titles await me this year!

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