The Wii Sucks and You Know It
Posted on 01 24, 2008 under Gaming by foodad |Nintendo is an innovative company. When I was 16, I got my first Nintendo Entertainment System and it blew me away. You know what I am talking about. They packaged the thing with Super Mario Brothers, a game that was so ahead of its time, so intoxicating that anyone who picked up the controller –or as much as heard one of the tunes would fall instantly in love. But it did not stop there. Games like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus and Castlevania took gaming to a whole new level and created a new wave of video gaming junkies. The followup Super Nintendo was also fun, although I thought that the Sega Genesis was better overall for sports games. With the Nintendo 64, they again innovated with the gun style controller, more buttons and platformers like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. They carried this into their excellent Gamecube platform and gave us Zelda Windwalker and Mario Sunshine in a compact system that you could even easily take with you.
The problem with Gamecube was that everyone was captivated by the Playstation 2 and Microsoft’s original XBOX. With PS2’s vast library of games and XBOX’s superior online strategy, this system was bound to be missed by anyone other than foodad and the kiddy set who probably were not ready for Final Fantasy, Return to Wolfenstein or Halo2. This article is not about history, it is about suckage of the Wii.
I own a Wii and I also own an XBOX 360. It is not even fair to compare the two because the Wii has one “Broadway” PowerPC processor where the XBOX has 3 3.2GHZ Power PC processors, but yet the Wii is out there as a competitor of PS3 and XBOX 360, but it’s more of a PS2 competitior. Incidentally, the PS2 is still going strong!
But foodad you say… the Wii is not about graphics or raw processing power, it’s about fun!
The first thing that irked me about Wii was that Wii-sports seems half baked. It’s definately a throw-in, training tool. If you are a noob, then this is a great game to allow you to cut your teeth. It is basically brainless. For example, Noodad has bowled 2 near perfect games! Tennis and Baseball do not even require the nunchuk. All movement is done by the AI and you are left to pitch the ball, swing the bat or the tennis racquet. Sure I found these mildly amusing, but if you don’t have anyone real to play against, this gets old fast. There is no online play for Wii sports. and the people who would really enjoy the Wii, my kids, are not allowed to play video games yet.
The online play that I experienced was extremely lacking. Nintendo has left it up to the game providers to provide the platform for online play. When I had major issues with playing Noodad in FIFA 08, I had to go to Electronic Arts for support (which was painful, but eventually fairly effective). Microsoft knows that in order to successfully establish an online community and have good-quality, online play, you need to have a vast network infrastructure. Who better to support that than Microsoft? I understand that even this has not been glitch free, but Microsoft typically has 10 million people playing online at a time. Can the Wii boast a fraction of that? The lag on FIFA is sometimes unbearable and inability to connect to another player results in an abrupt end to the game. You are also penalized by being given a loss if it was your side that caused the issue (I think, not 100% sure how they determine it).
I also find that I am spending way too much of my time looking at the warning screen. I should be able to skip that screen. I have seen it enough. Thank you to the Darwin awards candidates from www.wiihaveaproblem.com for making this senseless waste of time necessary. If I want to skip splashes with XBOX? A. I just push A or maybe B… whichever it is. I push a button and it goes away.
Given the lack of significant improvement over the graphics and gameplay, I feel that the Wii could have been a firmware upgrade and a controller ad-on for the Gamecube. Here are some Wii versus Gamecube graphics comparisons.
I find the sensor bar to be annoying and that the positioning of it radically affects my gaming experience.
I mentioned before that I bought FIFA 08 for both the Wii and for the XBOX360. I had a great time with FIFA on the Wii, but I had some issues such as:
- The online gaming was laggy and the strategy for dealing with problems (total disconnect resulting in a loss) was unacceptable. Why couldn’t we just continue against the AI?
- When I pass the ball to one of my teammates, they just stand there. With XBOX360, I can move them back to the ball.
- The movement is a lot smoother and I feel like I can see more of the field with the Tele view.
- Instead of stupid splash/loading screens, XBOX360 kicks me into a training area with Ronaldinho and a goalie. I can practice shooting and trick moves while I am waiting for the game to load. How awesome is that? 3 Processors!
- The XBOX has a be-a-pro mode where you can play a whole season as a player you like. The Wii has some stupid foosball game.
- The only thing that I found better about the Wii game was that Clive Tilsley was more enthusiastic and interesting than Martin Atkins. Atkins is awesome but I miss the way Tilsley says FABREEGAAAS!! The commentary on the XBOX360 is more robust and therefore less repetitive, but they are both pretty good. Both games have Andy Gray on color commentary.
- You cannot talk to your opponent on the Wii and that is SO annoying. How are you supposed to tell them what a noob they are?
Maybe the Wii picked a bad time to come into my life. I do not have a lot of friends that can come over to play video games right now. I think that the Wii is a victim of the fact that I have a preemie baby at home and very little opportunity to game during the day or evening when it would be reasonable for a friend like Noodad or redh4wk to come over and play. I am also a little more demanding. I just cannot stand knowing that when I play Madden on the Wii, there is a better version out there on XBOX360 and PS3.
I think that the Wii is excellent for people who are not hardcore gamers. I think that it is great for social play (at parties). Basically, anytime noobs are around and you still want to do something that feels a little bit like gaming, that’s what the Wii is great for! I also think it would be fun to have it as a second system. For the record, I still love my Gamecube, but for now I do not need a Wii. I saved one Wii remote with all of my miis in case I change my mind in the future. My Wii is on ebay as I write this. Happy bidding.

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But I agree with DonDeen. I've played the XBox 360 and the PS3 and my jaw drops with the level of detail and the graphics and sound. But I have never had more fun with a video game system like I do with my Wii. This is because of one thing: everyone feels like they could do it and it is essentially the gateway drug to video game addicts.
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one day someone brought in the wii and we were all able to jump in and play games against each other with relatively equal success.
in the end, it is about what population the systems are marketed for. i've never heard anyone recommend the wii to experienced gamers. it's for kids, casual/social gamers.
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I've seen some pretty bad lag on the 360, and I find their interface pretty bad. But I enjoy it for different reasons. That doesn't mean it sucks. (The Red Ring of Death, on the other hand . . . .) But I bought the 360 mainly to play online football and a couple of other games with my brother who already has a 360. But I look at the 360 game list, and I see shooter after shooter after shooter. And I've been playing FPS games for so long, they bore me.
Besides the frequently mentioned Zelda, there are some good, tough games for it, like Battalion Wars 2, Fire Emblem, No More Heroes, Resident Evil, Metroid Prime 3.
Just because you don't care for it doesn't mean it sucks.
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I personally think its cool that there are 2 systems worth having for very different reasons. Thats never really happened before. PS3 is the big loser in all this.
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I don't know why it sells so well, didn't realise there were so many casual gamers left in the dark before. I wonder what they played for the last 15 years, Jenga?
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