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[RurouniZel]

Wii was an amazing system. I don't give a fuck that most gamers think otherwise.

 

[The M.O.B]

Loved the Nintendo Exclusives that I couldn't get anywhere else, and a few 3rd party ones.

I feel it had around 15 or so great games which made the system worth it to me. Actually I would say it had by far the best exclusives I couldn't get anywhere else this gen.

But it fell completely flat when it came to online, I couldn't be bothered and MKWii was the only game I actually put a few hours into online. WiiWare was decent and had it's gems but overall it was nothing special to me.

Farewell Sweet Wii.

 

[Yes Boss!]

My favorite console from Nintendo. One of the best first-party lineups on a Nintendo console. And VC was huge for me. Loved that feature.

It is not dead at all...just migrates to Wii U.

 

[Hoodbury]

It started off slow for me but I really love that Wii-mote and chuck controller setup. It's so comfy and ergonomic and multifunctional. Loved what the pointer controls brought to the CoD games and Monster Hunter Tri introduced me to that great franchise.

I had a great time with it overall and can't wait to enhance those same games on the Wii-U. I know I'm not the typical Nintendo fanboy, but I'll be just happy playing my annual CoD releases on it and throw in a ton of Monster Hunter hours.

 

[The Horror the horror]

You have to be a troll or someone with lofty tastes if you don't believe that the library of games for the Wii justified the purchase of the console. It did, in my opinion, but it was the weakest Nintendo home console to date. But the NES wasn't great either, and it was completely overshadowed by the much improved SNES, which is what I'm expecting from the Wii U. The Wii U will perfect the rough concept started by its predecessor and I'm willing to say that it will be Nintendo's finest home console since the SNES.

 

[wsippel]

Piece of shit system with some amazing games. I'm not a huge fan of Nintendo's big first party IPs, but games like Sin & Punishment, Endless Ocean, Disaster, Another Code, Reginleiv and most of all Xenoblade made it my favorite current generation system - even though I spent a lot more time playing PS3 and 360. Quality over quantity.

 

[cajunator]

excellent:

Mario Galaxy 1,2
Zelda Twilight Princess
No More Heroes 1,2
Sonic colors
Sin and Punishment 2
A boy and his blob
Zack and wiki
Excite Truck
Metroid Prime 3/Metroid collection
Endless Ocean 1,2
Xenoblade
Kirby Return to Dreamland
DKCR
Red Steel 2
Smash Bros Brawl
Mario Kart Wii
Zelda skyward Sword
Klonoa door To Phantomile remake
Punch Out
Little King Story

mediocre but fun:

NiGHTS Journey off Dreams
Elebits
Warioware smooth moves
Excite Bots
Kirbys Epic Yarn
New super Mario Bros Wii
Deadly Creatures
Mushroom Men
Super Paper Mario
Fragile
Crystal Bearers
Epic Mickey
Monster hunter Tri

Letdowns:

Sonic and the Secret rings
Dewey's Adventure
Red Steel
Heavenly Guardian

 

[ksamedi]

First 4 years were awesome. After that it became a dust collector for me (except for the occasional great release like Zelda, Xenoblade, Goldeneye).

Loved the new control method. Probably my favorite after SNES and DS.

 

[AniHawk]

sin & punishment 2
best 3d mario
best 3d zelda
best 2d mario
xenoblade
fire emblem
best 3d metroid
good offbeat third party games

overall: a return to form. shames the gamecube and the n64.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

meh.


enjoyed Resi 4, MKWii, Galaxy.

all it did was tide me over the wait period for ps3 to come down in price and build up a library...

 

[tiggerkiddo]

I played most of the big name titles for it but I didn't care for them. Not a fan of 3D Mario (Except for Mario 64) so I got bored with Mario Galaxy. I didn't try Skyward Sword and didn't feel a need to, though I'm sure it's still a solid game. Donkey Kong Country Returns was the big downer for me, it's a beautiful looking game and I love the music but it just isn't like the SNES trilogy, it lacks the character and charm so I just can't connect with it. I want to try Xenoblade but don't feel a great desire to. There are still a few game I want to try for it but not enough for me to justify buying a Wii U now. It was more of my retro game and Gamecube machine until I lost interest in digital purchases.

 

[Doorman]

The Wii ultimately turned out to be an interesting case for me. My shelf of games is decently well-stocked, and overall I look at the library as having a few truly GREAT games, followed by a whole bunch of "good-ish" games. Things that I enjoyed but were obviously flawed, hidden gems, unusual things that probably never would have been made for the other consoles in the first place. Its only real downfall to me were a relative lack of really strong online games, and the games that really felt like large-scale "epic" experiences were kind of few and far between.

Still, I've loved having the system itself, there's certainly more than enough to warrant the purchase for me, it turned out to be a great party console back in my college days. It feels like only Nintendo truly maximized the system's potential when it comes to games with major effort put into them (aside from one year or so when Capcom picked it up with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Monster Hunter Tri), and that's kind of a shame. I guess ultimately, if you look over the Wii expecting to be blown away by its presentation, you'll probably walk away disappointed, but if you're willing to give some experiments a chance, there are plenty of things worth playing.

 

[RM8]

Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Super Paper Mario
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
Shiren The Wanderer
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Monster Hunter Tri
Opoona
Little King's Story
Dokapon Kingdom
Muramasa
Rune Factory Frontier
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
A Boy And His Blob
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Klonoa
Lost in Shadow
Punch Out
Excite Bots
ExciteBike: World Rally
La-Mulana
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
Xenoblade
The Last Story
Mario Kart Wii
Sonic Colors
Metroid Prime Trilogy
No More Heroes 2
Red Steel 2
Epic Mickey
Mega Man 9
Mega Man 10
Wario Land Shake It!
Blast Works
Battalion Wars 2
GoldenEye 007
Castle of Shikigami III

I mean, you need some pretty narrow taste in gaming to not find anything enjoyable in there, and I just did a quick list of stuff I have played.

 

[TheGreatDivide]

Wii was an amazing system. I don't give a fuck that most gamers think otherwise.

Clearly you do or you wouldn't be so passive aggressive about it.

 

[Revolutionary]

Bought it twice, sold it twice. First time for the hype, second time for Smash Bros. Deeply regretted it both times.

I'm still going to buy the Wii U, though... because I never learn.

 

[Robot Pants]

Boring. Sold it after 2 months and bought 360/PS3 instead.

 

[axisofweevils]

I think the Wii gets a bit of a bad rap.
Yes, the online sucked. Yes, it had shovelware (what successful console doesn't?), but at the end of the day, I still own 40 Wii games - and some of them are the most unique / memorable / quirky experiences I've had this gen.

Xenoblade, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Mario Galaxy, Rhythm Heaven, Sin and Punishment 2 ......

Personal highlights:

Teaching a Narwhal tricks in Endless Ocean 2.
The spooky telephone calls coming through the Wiimote speaker in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Disappointing library.

MH3 was good. Prime 3 was good. SSBB was worse than Melee. SS was okay. Nothing special.

Galaxies were all time greats. NSMBW was great. And the great games were fantastic. Just too far in between.

 

[Dark Schala]

Some of the best games of the generation, and an underrated library of games. And Dolphin.

So I love the Wii even if it had some pretty tough droughts.

My feelings exactly, outside of the Dolphin part as I have little experience with it.

It had a few of my favourite games of the generation (Galaxy 2, Skyward Sword, Xenoblade, FE: Radiant Dawn, Sonic Colours, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, etc.), and a decent library in general. But I can't deny that the third party support wasn't there in the way that I wanted it to be. I also feel like Nintendo disappointed with the Virtual Console, and I'm sure others will agree (the same can be said for PS1 Classics for much of the generation). Regardless, it still allowed people to access various games either that were not released out here (the Japan Imports category), or they didn't have access to in their youth (ex: older SNES games, older N64 games, etc.).

Edit: There are a lot of "good" games. Not games I'd consider GotG, but decent games in general. I liked SH: Shattered Memories, I loved Arc Rise Fantasia, Opoona was good, Muramasa is gorgeous, The Last Story is refreshing, No More Heroes 1/2 were fun, etc. And Sin and Punishment 2 and Trauma Team are grossly underrated.

In addition, I had fun with lots of people I know who weren't ever likely to play games. Lots of dancing games, Wii Sports, NSMB Wii which you should never play with friends because it's as bad as Monopoly, creating Miis, Are some of the games waggle? Sure. Did people have fun, though? They definitely did, and that's what was most important. I thought it was a decent local multiplayer system. *shrug*

My Wii also acted as a GameCube for me because I'd never had a GameCube before I got my Wii, so I guess that's partially why I feel like I got a lot of value from it.

 

[Derrick01]

It's the most disappointing console I've ever owned and at the time it was the only console that I sold while the generation was still going and still in its prime (360 would later become #2). Underpowered, gimmicky controls that combined with the weak power confirmed that it wouldn't get any games the others got just about, sub par online system and community structure, extremely limited library of good games.

I won't miss it to say the least.

 

[Gilby]

SNES>Wii>GC>NES>N64

...I think, it's kinda hard to put them in order.

 

[geebee]

Those of you who hardly touched the console... are you the type of gamer that only gives a shit about "AAA" and sports games?

 

[RkOwnage]

My feelings on the Wii are a mixed bag, what looked as a promising innovative console for me evolved into a system I just bought mainly first party titles on.

I don't regret the purchase, at all, and here are some of the games that made the system worth while to me.

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2
New Super Mario Bros
Donkey Kong Country Returns
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Punch Out!
Mario Kart Wii
Wii Sports
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
Epic Mickey
Wario Ware
Super Paper Mario
Brawl
Metroid Prime Trilogy

I know I am leaving Skyward Sword off of the list, but as much as I loved the story, and I really did, it was my absolute favorite Zelda story, the controls killed that game for me. Twilight Princess still felt like the other Zelda games, just with little flicks being added in for "motion's sake", and I preferred the GCN version anyhow, but Skyward Sword's 1:1 controls ruined that game for me. I wish there was an alternate scheme, even though I know how hard it would have been to include.

I only hope the next Zelda game on Wii U goes back to standard controls with some sort of tablet functionality, which it looks like it will.

Wii was a good system to me, and I didn't even mention WiiWare or Virtual Console in my thoughts, but I'd be here all night.

 

[Majmun]

I will call a console great when it can manage to entertain me the whole generation on its own. And I can't imagine being a Wii exclusive gamer. That would be horrible IMO. The droughts were too extreme.

The Super Mario Galaxy games, Boom Blox and Xenoblade are one of my favorite games of this generation. But the rest has been pretty lackluster, excluding the usual Nintendo quality games.

Disappointing.

I'd also argue that the Wii by far had the most diverse selection of games this gen.

PSN and XBLA libraries say hello.

So many people ignore the games released through Sony's and MS' online services. The diversity is huge.

 

[Robot Pants]

Those of you who hardly touched the console... are you the type of gamer that only gives a shit about "AAA" and sports games?

Yea bro.
Totally a Madden FIEND.
Get outta here.

 

[Spehornoob]

The Wii was a mix of successes and failures. Unlike a lot of GAF, I love motion control and think that, when well done, it's a wonderful think to experience. But a lot of third parties dropped the ball. Still has both of my favorite action games this gen, Red Steel 2 and No More Heroes, the Galaxy Games, Metroid Prime 3, and a whole lot of great stuff.

I really hope companies still make use of the WiiMote on the WiiU. At least for games that it makes sense with. HD Red Steel 3 (plus Co-op) would be Godlike.

 

[brinstar]

I think overall it was my favorite Nintendo console. IMO it has the best Nintendo first party offerings after SNES, and the VC allowed me to revisit a bunch of my favorite games, and discover plenty new ones. And I really enjoyed a lot of third party games on the system, especially Monster Hunter 3 and Phantom Brave which I spent a TON of time on.

So yeah I think it was an awesome console up until about 2011, when support really started tanking, that combined with the HD consoles getting some strong titles, and the whole digital thing exploding the Wii couldn't keep up.

That being said, I play all my consoles regularly, and my Wii is no exception. Currently working my way through Xenoblade and The Last Story.

 

[TheGreatDivide]

Those of you who hardly touched the console... are you the type of gamer that only gives a shit about "AAA" and sports games?

No.

It's adorable that Nintendo fanboys think they're TRUE GAMERS though.

 

[TheChits]

Surprising as it may be to some, the Wii is handily my favourite Nintendo home console since the SNES. So many great games. So many unique games. The Wii's strongest attribute was its lack of focus on multiplats (for me, as a multiplatform owner).

While it isn't my favorite nintendo console (gamecube <3), I agree about the amount of games unique to the system being one of the neat things about it. The unique library of games it had and the controller made me really love the wii

 

[kittens]

I really loved the Galaxy games, and RE4 with pointer controls was a blast. Other than that, no great memories.

 

[KTGarda]

It's definitely my favorite console of the generation. It's just a shame that third-parties did so little to capitalize on the system's popularity, and that Nintendo was unwilling to try and go it alone.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Worse than the Gamecube, IMO. Virtual Console was the only thing that made me turn it on for years at a time.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I got more use out of my Gamecube.

Monster Hunter Tri, Last Story and Xenoblade redeemed the wii...barely.

 

[bobbychalkers]

The little white box that could....Some of my favorite games ever are on the system (I'm looking at you Xenoblade and S&P2). I was Wii only until late last year and it served me well. There are still tons of games that I never got around to that I plan on picking up since the Wii U is backwards compatible.

 

[Turrican3]

+ lots of excellent Nintendo games
+ pointer-based aiming
+ best ping-pong (WS Resort) and tennis (Grand Slam Tennis) ever played. PES Playmaker was great, too
+ some obscure, innovative third party games

- no HD graphics
- almost non existent 3rd party "AAA" support

Easily my favourite system this generation (I own some 60+ games, more than PS3 and 360 combined), and probably one of the finest Nintendo home console lineup ever.

 

[SoulPlaya]

I actually thought it was great, but it confirmed to me that a Nintendo console just can't be your main console anymore. The quick willingness that Nintendo has in abandoning a console is just too much. Besides that, I thought it ha a great set of games. Not many, but still great. It reminded me of the N64, actually.

 

[I'm an expert]

Those of you who hardly touched the console... are you the type of gamer that only gives a shit about "AAA" and sports games?

Not at all. I hate triple As, shooters, sports. What I found out was I only cared about Nintendo 1st party, and then I played them and realized I didn't even care about that. It's the same shit all over. If Nintendo dropped some new IPs.. but it's just Mario and Zelda and shit. It's old. And obviously third party on Wii was shit. Best Wii game I played probably was Square's My Life as a King.

 

[The Mana Legend]

I will call a console great when it can manage to entertain me the whole generation on its own. And I can't imagine being a Wii exclusive gamer. That would be horrible IMO. The droughts were too extreme.

The Super Mario Galaxy games, Boom Blox and Xenoblade are one of my favorite games of this generation. But the rest has been pretty lackluster, excluding the usual Nintendo quality games.



PSN and XBLA libraries say hello.

So many people ignore the games released through Sony's and MS' online services. The diversity is huge.

I could easily see myself being a Wii exclusive gamer if for whatever reason I had to be. The library has a lot of overlooked, super underrated gems that no one played. The Wii has a lot more than just first-party titles. People just overlook the hell out of its library because most games had no advertising and no hype. Then with a lot of great Virtual Console and Wiiware titles, it creates a great library that nobody seems to know about.

 

[noobasuar]

It was alright but it was no gamecube.

 

[cajunator]

I actually thought it was great, but it confirmed to me that a Nintendo console just can't be your main console anymore. The quick willingness that Nintendo has in abandoning a console is just too much. Besides that, I thought it ha a great set of games. Not many, but still great. It reminded me of the N64, actually.

It was for me, actually, but then I did buy 50 games for it.
Only bought about 20 between Ps3/360. For me the Wii had a lot of little games that really surprised me, like bringing back NiGHTS and Klonoa and thats why I loved the console.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

For a different perspective. How I felt in Europe (bought 2008.5 as finished University gift, plus everything I wanted came to the system*)

Pre-2008.5: NOE were dreadful with the VC. Who wants to be forced to play 50Hz only games that don't display correctly or run at the correct speed? (that writes off large swathes of available games) Especially after lots of people have been aware of emulation via PC (and hence 60Hz). Retail was a mess with some key games months late like Super Paper Mario and Super Smash Bros Brawl. As for niche stuff like Fire Emblem or Trauma Center, ha. Region locking not being avoidable outside of modchip (and that not working great) at this time didn't help settle this.

Post-2008.5: WiiWare washed the bitter taste of the VC away, except the whole stuff will take ages to come out in Europe...if it does (still a huge problem on Nintendo's digital platforms). I also remember when World of Goo was going to be retail only (with a 6th world) because the European publisher was insane. On the boxed front. NOE eventually started showing up a disinterested NOA with Xenoblade, The Last Story, Fatal Frame 2 and Pandora's tower and so really improved compared with the months late of the past. We have homebrew now, shame there isn't a great deal to import but homebrew had other good uses. Guess no Excitebots and Rhythm Heaven Fever being several months late are a bit of a downer on an otherwise decent era (the latter has the Japanese audio as a bonus though).

Its end-life has been like N64 in Europe. Basically a few month gap between last game and new system launch. Guess Gamecube was the same (though I broke that up with a Baten Kaitos Origins import) and only the handhelds have had good cross-over.

Like Gamecube people under appreciated the system at the time. Hopefully like Gamecube hindsight will mean people are kinder.

Other scattered thoughts: VC momentum was too fast in the first year. Guess they expected third parties to be queuing up rather than having to chase them up (and not really being that bothered about this). Expectation of the same pace has hurt feelings regarding the eShop VC which has had a glacial pace. Maybe feeling would be better if they could have worldwide timescales (like they manage with big retail games) rather than Europe has Wario Land for 4 months or whatever.

Probably the last time we'll ever see a console emulated and playable on a mid-range PC during its lifetime.

*. The things I wanted were:
-Homebrew. Mainly for region free. I proceeded to own 5 import games. And one of them is the Japanese version of Wii play (my first remote, at the time of early 2007 was cheapest way to get remote).
-WiiWare. I thought the concept of smaller games at a cheap price was neat. But really indie games on PC were more this. Some good things though like the Art Style series. Also, I kind forgot how cheap retail games could get making WiiWare seem more expensive in comparison. Plus I didn't see the whole region fragmentation thing which made it easier not to care about the service then get fed up games I wanted didn't come out.
-Super Smash Bros Brawl. The Dojo man! The loading times made the game quite unbearable to me. USB loader helped a lot but by that point I'd had my fill. Nevermind.

 

[dsigns1]

Lacked big time in graphics, online integration and the controls were inconsistent. To make it worse the games that I bought the system for (Smash/Mario Kart) took steps back from the GC versions. Worst system I ever purchased.

 

[Ushojax]

Had more than enough games to satisfy me and motion control was a pleasant experience for me.

 

[Gilby]

It was alright but it was no gamecube.

Yeah, it was better

('cept Smash Bros...)

 

[brandonh83]

It had some of my favorite games this generation and I loved the aesthetic, the menus, the music in the menus, etc. I just didn't feel like it had enough. It had plenty of throwaway games that I didn't care about, and the games that were my favorite of generation were the only games I really liked for it. I felt they did well with the virtual console, most of the important stuff ended up landing on it at some point.

I would give it an 8.8.

 

[lightchris]

Overall, I kinda liked the Wii. Better than Gamecube without question.

I still like the controller concept and am a bit sad that the potential was only used by very few games.

Third party support was a letdown of course but the excellent first and second party titles (especially Mario Galaxy, Xenoblade, Metroid Prime 3 and Zelda) somewhat made that up to me. I play multiplatform games on PC anyway (if available).

 

[RukusProvider]

The launch of a new system is always exciting, but it's also usually the death of another. The Wii is over, ultimately, what did you think? Which games did you enjoy most? Any major let downs?

Pour one out.

Mario Galaxy 1 was amazing.

Too many peripherals to deal with.

No online

Motion controls were average but wore out their welcome quickly

Rest of the games were not for me so I sold it shortly after getting through Mario Galaxy. Overall, a very poor console for my needs.

Pretty much the reason I've not put any effort into keeping up with the WiiU or have any interest.

 

[Boerseun]

I bought everything, as usual, and Nintendo once again came up with my favourite dedicated platforms (DS for handheld and Wii for TV console).

When people are critical about Wii, just ask them what they own on it or what they've played. And don't be surprised when the biggest haters also turn out to have the least experience with the system.

In short, I reckon it's a great console, I own in excess of a hundred games for it, and I've had a great time with Wii. Wii U will be mine and the fun will continue.

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

Pretty much the end of Nintendo's relevance as a hardcore gaming company. Sure they'll continue to cater to casuals, kids, and old people, but for the rest of us, it's over.

 

[Ath]

The Wii is actually my first home console, was never really allowed one before. When I was 18 in 2007 and I had some money, I figured it was time to change that so I bought it for Christmas. I do not regret it one bit, it's given me some terrific experiences.

The Wii was absolutely terrific when I moved out for University. Gathering friends over for Guitar Hero and Wii Sports was always a blast. It was easily the best console for parties. Grand Slam Tennis and Mario Strikers Charged Football always lead to hilarity as well, especially when drunk! Super Smash Bros Brawl was always a reliable one as well.

When it came to the deeper titles, while it felt like there was a lot of shovelware on shelves, there were lots of terrific games as well. Super Mario Galaxy (and its sequel) were joyful experiences, The House of the Dead Overkill was too hilarious and the GoldenEye remake was very well done too. Having Gamecube back-compatibility was awesome as well.

It had its faults of course, the friend code system was annoying so I never really used online. There were long droughts between releases and third-party support was mediocre.

I like RPGs, so I was disappointed that apart from the old Gamecube classics like Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia there wasn't a large selection. Then in 2011, it gave me this:

Xenoblade made me feel like a kid again. I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the world. I wanted to go on a journey with the cast. I wanted it to be Reyn Time, all the time. It's easily one of my favourite games of all time, since it pretty much represents everything I love about games. Just being able to play Xenoblade made my Wii totally worthwhile. The Last Story was also a great experience as well, very different to Xenoblade, but it also gave me that same feeling.

So yeah, I like the Wii. A lot! Getting the WiiU on day one.