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[ninjablade]

this is some of the biggest BS i have ever heard, games are what make a console great not the hardware, you can make the most powerful console on the market and have it still be considered shit if there is no games anyone wants to buy on it.

Its a combination of games and hardware, many people hated waggle and you were forced to use it, also many people hated wii's video out put and graphics capabiltiy some people just couldnt deal with those things, playing 360/ps3 on hd tv and going back to wii was very difficult. I normally would agree with you but the wii was just a wierd console, we will probably never see a difference in graphics and controls that big in the same gen again.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Nah, the Wii had so much shovelware that I HIGHLY disagree. The Wii U in the first year was superior to the Wii in it's entire lifespan imo and I am not even going to go with the Gamecube which imo was possibly Nintendo's best 3D gaming console.

 

[Turrican3]

Fantastic system and home of some of the best games ever we'll still be talking in 20/30 year's time.
Also my current all-time favourite, with over 60 titles (never bought so many on any other platform in my entire life as a gamer)

And don't even get me started on the wiimote + nunchuck combo, IR pointer was arguably one of the most significant, game-changing innovation in control schemes, it still makes me sad to think it has a 90% chance of being shelved like, forever.

Obviously it wasn't flawless, if I had to choose one and only one thing Nintendo should have done differently I'd say: day one motionplus.
Being an add-on with a relatively late release split the userbase and gave it too little time to shine (still, Wii Sports Resort was *awesome* and I really, really liked the pseudo 1:1 sword in ZeldaSS)

 

[BocoDragon]

The Wii was amazing. Great Nintendo titles and so many hidden gems.

People who are caught on "casual waggle party games" or "shovelware" are completely missing the gold of that library. There were so many gamer's games.

 

[Xater]

Terrible console. I'd probably rate it even lower than the N64 when it comes to Nintendo consoles. Barely any games I wanted to play, waggle and bad hardware.

 

[Marvel]

It wasn't HD, had no games I wanted, underpowered and thrived off of gimmicks.

Awful console imo.

 

[Ryng_tolu]

Of course it was.

 

[random25]

Nah, the Wii had so much shovelware that I HIGHLY disagree. The Wii U in the first year was superior to the Wii in it's entire lifespan imo and I am not even going to go with the Gamecube which imo was possibly Nintendo's best 3D gaming console.

Best selling consoles are usually flooded with shovelware. PS1, PS2 and Nintendo DS have been flooded with them. The only thing keeping them off this gen touching the 3DS and PS4 is the lucrative mobile market.

 

[wazoo]

I like that you can dig into the library - including the Wiiware - and find tons of B series games

 

[rjc571]

I like that you can dig into the library - including the Wiiware - and find tons of B series games

Most of which are much much better designed than the soulless AAA garbage polluting the Sony and MS consoles.

 

[wazoo]

Most of which are much much better designed than the soulless AAA garbage polluting the Sony and MS consoles.

No need to call AAA fanboys to arms, this will not help this thread. Now that the wii is dead and most games are even playable through Dolphin in HD, we should be able to judge the library on its own merits rather than in the middle of a stupid console war.

 

[Dishwalla]

Thought it was the best Nintendo console since the Super Nintendo, even though the first party games were all worse than the ones on the GameCube, with the exception of Mario Galaxy 1 & 2. There were and are just so many fun and unique games for it.

Jury is still out on the Wii U for me, first party games are definitely better than the Wii versions, but there's little else outside of them, unlike on the Wii where there was a ton of stuff beyond the surface.

 

[Etrian Oddity]

I really wish third parties didn't hate on it so much with the AAA HD boner everyone had last gen.

But I also feel for the companies that did take a shot (Platinum, Grasshopper, etc) and didn't get very much in return, financially.

 

[Maedre]

The Wii is my least favorite console of all time. because of the low spec and the following problems with HDTVs. The games were flickering, many had very poor performance. The Wii more was a fun idea but most of the time more lag than fun.
Sure there were some very good games, but a console needs more than good games. If the core structure is bad, these good games get pulled into the deep.

 

[Infinite_Daremo]

Its the only console i've ever sold. Bought into the waggle hype. Sold it when the waggle hype was still going strong for the exact price I paid so nothing was lost.

 

[Morfeo]

Yes! My favorite system since the 16-bit era, so good and so underrated!

 

[AHindD]

Totally agree. Picked up my first Nintendo console ever about 6 months ago (a Wii U), and I'm slowly building my Wii collection (Xenoblade, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Galaxy games, Res Evil 4, Fire Emblem, Zelda games). Each of the games I've listed I feel shouldn't be missed, some true classics.

I think some people are being alittle unfair to what the system was truly capable of even given its lower-spec hardware.

 

[Possumowner]

The Wii had some incredible games on it..unfortunately people only seem to remember the huge amount of shovelware that also appeared on it.But if you pick through there were some stunners.From Mario Galaxy to things like Madworld,Kirby,Fragile Dreams,Klonoa,Fire Emblem,Last Story,Sin and Punishment,No more Heroes,Zelda,Animal Crossing...etc,etc..there really are some greats

 

[KidB]

It had some of the greatest games I've ever played but I wouldn't say that I loved the console itself, mainly due to the lack of power compared to its competitors.

 

[Servbot24]

It had a few great games, but overall was a disappointment. Buying it at launch as I did was a ripoff. Mario Galaxy was brilliant, there were a few surprise games such as Zack and Wiki that were great. Skyward Sword not being very good was definitely a huge letdown for the console.

Honestly I think Wii is even worse than N64.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

never really liked it as a whole and I barely played a lot of the big games... I never really care for Mario or Zelda all that much (I grew up with LTTP/SMW/SM64 but I just don't really have interest one way or another anymore in them; still amazing games of course). there was a cool 'charm' about it though; I like the Wii avatars; Wii Fit was oddly therapeutic; and it was an awesome party console... we'd have max player games of Mario Party or whatever back in uni and non-gamers always really liked it.

oddly enough, my favorite game was Final Fantasy CC My Life as a King :O with the Dread Pirate DLC

loved that game, I must have put 150 hours into that lol. never really hear anyone talk about that here on gaf. that was by far my most played game on it. that or Ogre Battle on the VC haha

it had some shovelware game called SimAnimals too that I liked pos quality but I had a lot of fun with it for one weekend ;p

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Best selling consoles are usually flooded with shovelware. PS1, PS2 and Nintendo DS have been flooded with them. The only thing keeping them off this gen touching the 3DS and PS4 is the lucrative mobile market.

True, but the PS2 for example had a staggering plethora of good to amazing games to balance out all of that shovelware, but the Wii didn't. For every gem on the Wii, there were approximately 20 shovel ware games at your local Walgreens polluting the Wii's library. Also, the underpowered harder didn't particularly do Nintendo any favors. The motion implementation was unique I must admit and their ambition was commendable, but lots of games made the motion controls feel gimmicky.

 

[oti]

Loved my Wii! Kinda hated it a year after getting it (going as far as selling the damn thing and getting an Xbox 360 for Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect, great decision) but looking back I loved it. Such a unique console that while frustrating at times brought me some of my most beloved video game experiences solo and with friends.

 

[uncelestial]

It was Nintendo's worst console. It was obsolete when I brought it home to my HDTV. I had to special order progressive-scan component cables from their online store for $20. Motion controls were really only worth a shit on Wii Tennis. Motion controls made combat in its two Zelda games a random wagglefest, and the stupid nunchuk attachment was a poor solution that made playing first-person games feel utterly weird. It never got third party support worth a shit, it stayed turned off for months and months gathering dust, there was no online account system so all digital purchases were device-specific, and there was no voice chat, matchmaking, achievements, or online community. It was severely underpowered compared to its contemporaries, the name was awful, the games only read from the disc and couldn't be installed or patched, and barring Super Mario Galaxy, the first party library featured very lackluster entries in all of Nintendo's core franchises, while very little in the way of interesting new IP came out in the life of the console.

Compared to the have-it-all days of the NES and SNES where Nintendo had competitive technology, great new IPs, great third-party support, and amazing entries in established franchises, I have no idea how anyone can say Wii is Nintendo's best console. Nintendo still continues to suffer from their idea of "affordable novelty" that turns a profit on hardware because of some gimmicky idea like a tablet controller, motion controls, and glasses-less 3D. Since getting stuck in the mindset that the Wii was built on, their share price has dropped from $80 to $20 and they find themselves a distant third in the current console gen.

So, no, it isn't the best console. And it might have set a great company -- one of my favorite companies -- on a path that will see it radically downsize and turn into a Sega-esque franchise publisher whose mascots coast on nostalgia, say yes to everything on every platform, and subsequently drive their own value into the ground.

 

[redcrayon]

True, but the PS2 for example had a staggering plethora of good to amazing games to balance out all of that shovelware, but the Wii didn't. For every gem on the Wii, there were approximately 20 shovel ware games at your local Walgreens polluting the Wii's library. Also, the underpowered harder didn't particularly do Nintendo any favors. The motion implementation was unique I must admit and their ambition was commendable, but lots of games made the motion controls feel gimmicky.

It's really two separate points though- despite it's far greater number of awesome games, the PS2 also had a dozen bits of shovelware to every good title, having a vast library of almost 4,000 games is going to do that.

Why not just compare the good stuff, it's enough to say that of the 1,500 games on the Wii, less than 200 or so are worth looking at. The proportion is going to be the same on any popular console, I'm not sure that more than 500 Ps2 games are worth a look either, and I'm sure the same percentages probably hold up for the Game Boy, PSOne and DS too.

If the argument is 'but it's different, 20% of the PS2 library is worth looking at, as opposed to 10% on the Wii!' then I think it can still be happily reduced to 'a toxic stream of licensed shit existed on all popular consoles before mobile made it cheaper to go there.' There's still more than enough good games for anyone to play without having to start plumbing the depths out of boredom, it's enough to say that there were more good games on the Ps2 without comparing the hundreds of games on each system that none of us would either touch or are familiar with.

 

[Chao]

Wii was a very bittersweet experience for me.

On one hand it is where fantastic games like Mario Galaxy were born, had motion controls which were mindblowing at the fact that everyone was playing it. But on the other it was the console that launched in 2006 with 2001 hardware and I can still remember my disappointment when I saw the first pictures of new games.

Couldn't get past the fact that everything looked and sounded better in the other two machines, and I had to wait until WiiU's release to see HD Nintendo games.

It still hurts.

 

[oti]

Couldn't get past the fact that everything looked and sounded better in the other two machines, and I had to wait until WiiU's release to see HD Nintendo games.

It still hurts.

I never felt this way. Not even once. Maybe it's because I grew up in PC Germany with god ugly econ simulators or something, but the Wii's graphics were never a problem for me.

That said, I'd love to try out Wii games in HD but getting Dolphin to run seems a bit intimidating. Gotta get that sensor bar first anyway I guess.

 

[cHaOs667]

The Wii had a lot of insanely great titles. Sure there was a ton of shovelware, but games like Super Mario Galaxy 1/2, Xenoblade, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Sin & Punishment 2...I could go on! Not the perfect console, but it is indeed great.

I even had much fun with 'not so great' titles like Excite Trucks and Heatseeker.

I really liked the Wii but somewhere in early 2008 i started to buy more and more XBox 360 games, completely abandoning the Wii by the end of 2008.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

Virtual Console on this system was amazing. Alien Crush remake, TurboGraphics 16, Neo Geo stuff. Incredible.

 

[JetSetRadio]

We only used it as a drunk party machine, it was awesome playing games with people who had never owned a console before. After they got sick of wiisports, most of them boxed it and never looked back unfortunately.

I'm still catching up on some of the better games through dolphin, really enjoyed another code R recently.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Wii only looks good now because you just list your favorite games years later but we forget how horrible the drought was.

Spread those games throughout 6 years and you realize how dreadful it must have been for 1 console owners. Super Mario Galaxy is in my top 5 but the wii was a mess outside of that. Also wii was not in a vacuum, the Xbox/PS3 had one of the longest and best generations of all time during the same period.

 

[PhaZZe]

So many good games, trauma center, warios smooth and shake it, mario kart, smash, wii sport, xenoblade, dkcr, xenoblade, mario galaxy, zelda tp, megaman 9/10, tatsunoko vs capcom, endless ocean, re4, bomberman blast, contra rebirth, zack & wiki, mp3/trilogy, pandora tower, house of dead overkill, no more heroes, okami. It was an amazing console with so many games.

 

[Porcile]

Wii only looks good now because you just list your favorite games years later but we forget how horrible the drought was.

Spread those games throughout 6 years and you realize how dreadful it must have been for 1 console owners. Super Mario Galaxy is in my top 5 but the wii was a mess outside of that. Also wii was not in a vacuum, the Xbox/PS3 had one of the longest and best generations of all time during the same period.

Only the last year and a half prior to Wii U. If you were willing to try games then as this thread demonstrates, you were duly rewarded with quality titles on a consistent basis. Throw in WiiWare and VC as well, and Wii during its lifespan was the best Nintendo console in terms of overall software since the SNES.

 

[dragonfart28]

My favourite fps of all time.

 

[Celine]

Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 as good as they are, are just the surface of what Wii can offers.
Same for the other Nintendo "heavy hitters".
Wii true value in the long term will be seen beyond them (which are known quantity), in the overlooked good "middle budget" games, first party or not.
That's my thought as a gamer/collector at least.

 

[Drackhorn]

I loathed the controls and wanted to kill it. With fire.

 

[Porcile]

My favourite fps of all time.

Nintendo should've bailed Eurocom out, but I suppose their debts must of been through the roof. They would've of been a great studio for their worldwide efforts. :-(

 

[PdotMichael]

Wii was quite thin in the software department especially for a sales leader. But I guess after 10 years there is enough stuff to make a worthwhile list of games to try out, even if the list isn't even close to the ones of other leader's like the PS2 or SNES.

 

[ASIS]

Wii only looks good now because you just list your favorite games years later but we forget how horrible the drought was.

Spread those games throughout 6 years and you realize how dreadful it must have been for 1 console owners. Super Mario Galaxy is in my top 5 but the wii was a mess outside of that. Also wii was not in a vacuum, the Xbox/PS3 had one of the longest and best generations of all time during the same period.

At the time, yes it did seem that way, but honestly looking back most AAA titles are completely forgettable right now, and most of those long ass lists turned out... Meh.

So no, none of the console even came close to being the best IMO, but the Wii's library retrospectively sure as hell seems more unique than the 360's, for instance.

 

[JohnnyWestlake]

CoD on Wii's fun level >>>>>>>> CoD PS3 / 360. I'm amazed they even managed to essentially port Modern Warfare over well enough, let alone it actually being fun.

 

[PdotMichael]

At the time, yes it did seem that way, but honestly looking back most AAA titles are completely forgettable right now, and most of those long ass lists turned out... Meh.

So no, none of the console even came close to being the best IMO, but the Wii's library retrospectively sure as hell seems more unique than the 360's, for instance.

Funny, because especially the 360 got Alot of niche support by Japanese developers. In the last months I bought like 20 games for a handful Euros for bullet hell shooters, fighters and stuff.

 

[Kozak]

It was a pretty bad console.

I defended it at the time but looking back its ridiculous how much beefier hardware would have helped the system.

It was home to some of my favourite games of that generation for sure but as a console, it sucked.

Every game I played I wished it looked better or was in HD.

 

[Cheerilee]

http://kamedani.tumblr.com/post/55798867746/4-gamer-interview-with-shigeru-miyamoto-part-1

Pikmin 2 was made after listening to the different things in 1 people were unhappy with and it filled in those gaps but if you fix the things fans are not happy with, does that make a fun game? That was a lingering question we had..
From that point we thought of what 1 should have been in the first place, even considering the reactions to the multiple endings, and decided to make 3.
At the same time, we looked at the Wii U which was in development and felt if we had it’s capabilities at our disposal, we could better make the game we envisioned.

I felt like I wanted to go to HD sooner.
Even for the Wii, no matter how much it made the system cost, it would have been great if it were HD in the first place. However, it was going to take some time for HD televisions to become common and we felt that until that point was reached, there would have been no point for Wii to be HD.
From our point of view, once the subsequent generation to Wii came around, HD televisions would be more common and we felt it would be time to make our games in HD then. However, HD became more common about 2 to 3 years earlier than we had anticipated.

When it comes to games, I don’t see the need for Zelda in 4K but for Pikmin, making it 4K compatible could possibly further show more small detailed Pikmin moving around, show things from an even further perspective, and being able to see more may make a more fun game.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

That's a pretty fucking incredible line up now that I see it laid out in front of me. Xenoblade is one of the GOAT JRPGs and probably the aesthetically most impressive game I have ever seen.

 

[Bishop89]

I thought it was a horrible console.

Very barebones with only a small amount of decent games (mostly first party) and shit controller/control scheme.

 

[ASIS]

Funny, because especially the 360 got Alot of niche support by Japanese developers. In the last months I bought like 20 games for a handful Euros for bullet hell shooters, fighters and stuff.

The fact that they are niche does not make them unique. At least from my experience.

Nevertheless you do have my attention, what are the games you bought?

 

[DrROBschiz]

I thought it was actually a decent console

I certainly got my investment worth out of it

 

[Anticol]

I disagree completely, made me stop caring for nintendo.

 

[PdotMichael]

The fact that they are niche does not make them unique. At least from my experience.

Nevertheless you do have my attention, what are the games you bought?

360 is with the PS2 the best console to get most of Cave's portfolio for example.
Unique enough for me.

Also

 

[AcePartyN7]

Interesting subject because I found some Wii for less than 30£ and I’m really interested in as the model that I want got the GC backward compatibility.
I also did not play mostly of the good Wii games so I think it’s a pretty good deal but I’m not totally sure if I should go for it because even if I’m not that much in the graphics I’m a bit scared that the 480p resolution can be too much visible on my 1080p.

Any advice? Is it worth even on an HD TV? Any games in particular to recommend? Is it hard to find Wii games, Wii