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Is it just me or is Wiiware mostly craptacular?

FTWer said:
XBLA has a good game to bad ratio of like 90-to-10. The opposite of Wiiware.
XBLA game list is not only better than the stuff on Wiiware, but I'd say better than it & Wii's normal game library combined.
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:lol I hope that's a joke post.


Anyway, I'm not sure why a large number of bad games pulls the good games down with them (which is implied by the thread title and lots of posters here). I've never understood that argument and probably never will.

It might make the gems harder to find, but that's why we have recommendation threads (there are some informative lists about the best WiiWare games in this very thread, even!) and some of the bigger titles (World of Goo, Lost Winds, Mega Man etc.) all had their own threads. Plenty of options to inform yourself on what's good and what's not.

But even with all that, what I can agree on is that having no demos at all is a serious drawback. Especially in comparison to the other two services. I love that I'm able to try out most games on PSN before taking the plunge, even if it's usually only a small expenditure compared to retail releases. PSN definitely needs mandatory demos as well, though. XBLA clearly leads the way in that regard.


ethelred said:
I like games. I know plenty about the PS3. And PSN has a lot less that interests me than either XBLA or WiiWare. It has almost nothing exclusive that I'm interested in. So suck on that.

(PS3 retail also has a whole lot less that interests me than 360 retail or Wii retail! I'm glad I don't feel the need to come up with justifying rationalizations for my multi-hundred dollar tech expenditures)
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While I'd personally disagree with that (Flower is probably the best downloadable game I've played this year), your love for Lost Winds makes all up for it. :D
 
There are a lot of crappy Wii retail games too.

But here's a secret:

You don't have to buy them.
 
FTWer said:
XBLA has a good game to bad ratio of like 90-to-10. The opposite of Wiiware.
XBLA game list is not only better than the stuff on Wiiware, but I'd say better than it & Wii's normal game library combined.
Click to expand...
Lol the good bad ratio is nowhere near that good, but the amount of good to great games on XBLA completely trump what's on WiiWare.
 
FTWer said:
XBLA has a good game to bad ratio of like 90-to-10. The opposite of Wiiware.
XBLA game list is not only better than the stuff on Wiiware, but I'd say better than it & Wii's normal game library combined.
Click to expand...
FTWer
Junior Member
 
It's funny that when people lists XBLA titles, they include remakes and re-releases. The problem is that the Wii has this but in another service, so it is not fare to compare them like that.

Lists should exclude all the remakes and re-releases.
 
manueldelalas said:
It's funny that when people lists XBLA titles, they include remakes and re-releases. The problem is that the Wii has this but in another service, so it is not fare to compare them like that.

Lists should exclude all the remakes and re-releases.
Click to expand...

I think it's somewhat valid. Sure, VC games occasionally get a few upgrades, like Pokemon Snap's new ability to send pictures, but they're never updated with the level of care a lot of XBLA titles are.

The VC alone trumps the XBLA list, though. Banjo-Kazooie versus Mario 64 is a pretty one-sided fight.
 
Seriously?

Go through the XBLA game list, You'll be hard to find any amount of shovelware. Most of the games selected are cherry picked to be on there except a handful.
FYI The Xbox 360 Community game channel is the equivalent of Wiiware I guess. Cheaply made games with no quality control with a few gems in the horde.
 
Its amazing that this thread is still alive.

Its also telling when people use ported games to support their list wars.:lol

EDIT: OMG FTWer.:lol :lol
 
manueldelalas said:
It's funny that when people lists XBLA titles, they include remakes and re-releases. The problem is that the Wii has this but in another service, so it is not fare to compare them like that.

Lists should exclude all the remakes and re-releases.
Click to expand...
Unlike the VC, XBLA remakes usually has something added to them like updated graphics, online play, the ability to upload videos for others to see, or new modes/stages. Then there's the online leaderboards which is a standard for all XBLA games. With the VC, you're looking at and playing the same exact thing that you played years ago. Re-releases get ignored by me on all these download services unless it's something that I never played before, like Sin & Punishment.
 
WW has a lot of exclusives not found elsewhere............unlike PSN,XBLA which often share the same games.(Not a Troll Attempt :l)

Just my 2cents
 
AniHawk said:
I think it's somewhat valid. Sure, VC games occasionally get a few upgrades, like Pokemon Snap's new ability to send pictures, but they're never updated with the level of care a lot of XBLA titles are.

The VC alone trumps the XBLA list, though. Banjo-Kazooie versus Mario 64 is a pretty one-sided fight.
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Exactly
 
Haunted said:
It might make the gems harder to find, but that's why we have recommendation threads (there are some informative lists about the best WiiWare games in this very thread, even!) and some of the bigger titles (World of Goo, Lost Winds, Mega Man etc.) all had their own threads. Plenty of options to inform yourself on what's good and what's not.
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"Professional" reviews of DD games on the three consoles have been terrible, so barring the biggest of releases it's not a reliable source. As for general impressions... frankly I can't trust most of what gets posted because there are always some rabid Wii-only gamers who have no concept of perspective (let alone having any), and they demolish threads attacking anyone who dares complain about anything (the current trend is apparently to legitimately believe that there is an active media conspiracy against the Wii) and praise even the most mediocre of titles. I have World of Goo via Steam, and while I had a good amount of fun with it and thought it was worth the $15 or whatever I paid for it, I certainly wouldn't rank it in my top 2008 games list and thought the art style (which certain idiots seem to think were objectively awesome) was pretty tired.

And stop posting lists of "coming soon" titles. It's pathetic, and you don't know if any will actually be good. If the service needs phantom-games to justify its existence then it's a failure.
 
FTWer said:
Seriously?

Go through the XBLA game list, You'll be hard to find any amount of shovelware. Most of the games selected are cherry picked to be on there except a handful.
FYI The Xbox 360 Community game channel is the equivalent of Wiiware I guess. Cheaply made games with no quality control with a few gems in the horde.
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5120y0.jpg


It's cool that you love XBLA, it's a great service. Your ignorance and hatred of Wiiware, however, is pretty hilarious.
 
People think XBLA is filled with crap? Really people. You can enjoy WiiWare all you like but denying percentage of good, quality products on XBLA is just asinine.
 
Akai said:
SapientWolf said:
A few gems aren't going to make up for the lack of consistency on Wii Ware. It doesn't have the solid genre coverage of XBLA or the charming experimental games of PSN. It's just not a strong competitor for those two platforms and I don't know if it ever will be this gen.
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Maybe in a world where "solid genre coverage" and "charming experimental games" somehow replace entertainment...But that's not this one...At least not that I know of...
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I'm referring to how those downloadable platforms have managed to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Nintendo has done very little to champion their own downloadable platform in terms of courting third parties for exclusives. XBLA and PSN wouldn't be what they are today without guidance and active participation from MS and Sony.

I'm not just arguing about who looks better in a list war. I am taking into account the visions held by the platform holders and how they are working to realize them. And I just don't see any clear direction for Wii Ware right now.
 
Rlan said:
People think XBLA is filled with crap? Really people. You can enjoy WiiWare all you like but denying percentage of good, quality products on XBLA is just asinine.
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Well, I think XBLA is just like the X360 itself when it comes to games.

Yes, there's a lot of quality on there. But, in my opinion, that quality comes at a price. Think of all the arcade games and HD remixes. You're taking old games and giving them a new bit of flair. But, this bit of flair doesn't keep the games from being constrained within their original boundaries, which in the end makes them....boring. Just because games are "good" doesn't mean I have to give a crap about them; I'll merely acknowledge their quality and move on.

Just like with the X360's game library in general, there's a lot of quality, but that doesn't mean much when I'm looking for new, interesting experiences instead of repackaged ones that merely maintain some level of quality because they're made by competent and focused development teams.

WiiWare, like the Wii itself, is very experimental. Because of this, we do get a lot of crap on the service, because small teams are not putting focus into the work, but are rather "testing the waters" with all sorts of concepts. They're trying to see what sticks and what doesn't. However, when a good game comes along, there's a fine chance that it's going to be something worth talking about, because people haven't seen much of its kind before.

Now, every service has repackaged games as well as games that are really original and awesome. I'm not arguing this. I'm merely arguing that there certainly are reasons why people may prefer WiiWare over the other services, or may even like it just the same, and that goes beyond whether or not the games are merely of a particular quality. I, personally, am not in complete and utter love with either XBLA or WiiWare, but if I had to list reasons for why I did like these services, the lists would not be the same. I wouldn't just say "because both services have quality games that I enjoy." It goes deeper than that.
 
pakkit said:
5120y0.jpg


It's cool that you love XBLA, it's a great service. Your ignorance and hatred of Wiiware, however, is pretty hilarious.
Click to expand...

??What ignorance? Wiiware is packed with shovelware games. The 360 downloading service has tons of shovelware as well, but regulates most of them to the Community games section. Games put up for XBLA are of mostly good quality games, they have good quality control on what they put up.

As for VC, they are just barebones ports & not technically new games. Comparable to the downloadable PSone games on PS3 & Xbox originals on the 360.
 
FTWer said:
Wiiware is packed with shovelware games.
Click to expand...
There are some shovelware titles, to be sure, but your equating mass-market titles as shovelware is an off-base and antiquated viewpoint, especially when talking about the Wii.

If anything, it's the lack of variety that hurts WiiWare the most. There are a sea of puzzlers, a lot of them great, but more of them explore old territory or are mispriced.

A quick glance at reviews of XBLA reveals a lot of games getting 4s and 5s, similar with some of the poorer efforts on Wii. The difference lies with marketing, scheduling, and demos. If a great XBLA game is coming, you'll know about it. You'll have a solid release date, previews, and a guaranteed demo on your system.

Taking a dive on WiiWare is a much riskier situation. Bonsai Barber has gotten great reviews across the board, but I can guarantee that it hasn't lit up the charts. For a concept so abstract, and an uninviting cost of 10 bucks, it's nearly impossible to convey to the consumer why they should have this game without relying on word of mouth and a gamer's whim.
 
In retrospect, I must say that the shovelware is no worse than what is on the Wii itself. After giving/selling most of my Wii collection to my brother and realizing that I game better with few games that are great I realized that while there are many good games the amount of crap is what gets to me.

The biggest downfall is that you can find out so much info on a disc game but its impossible to find out whether or not a WW game is good. Its the same with VC and its just so much of a risk to throw away money (even though I have only wasted about 1 10th of the money I have spent on VC/WW thats still a lot of money)
 
lsslave said:
The biggest downfall is that you can find out so much info on a disc game but its impossible to find out whether or not a WW game is good. Its the same with VC and its just so much of a risk to throw away money (even though I have only wasted about 1 10th of the money I have spent on VC/WW thats still a lot of money)
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I agree with you on point one. I think it's a combination of nintendo news sites not giving much attention to wiiware on top of wiiware really being a dart board in terms of release dates. it's pointless to hype up a game that might hit between tomorrow and 5 months from now, and by the same token impossible to hype up this incredible game that just got released today. While I think the signal to noise ratio argument compared to the other systems is crap, I do agree that the marketing of wiiware is horrible. The shop channel does nothing to market itself and even the nintendo newsletter essentially treats World of Goo the exact same as Family Pirate Fun Party. On top of that the reviews are inconsistent (with many titles not even being reviewed) and as a whole, even though the service has great games, it's pretty much a complete mess.

The second point I don't really agree with however. The newest of the games on VC are still around 10 years old with the oldest games almost 25 years old. The fact that Nintendo does nothing to market these falls into the problem above, but finding out information on most of these titles is relatively easy with google. Even the review problem is the same as above, but usually most of these games you can find reviews and info on relatively easily on the net, at least much easier than WiiWare games.

I love the service. I personally think it has the best games out between all of the services. But I'll be first in line to say that the Wii Shop Channel as a whole needs a vast makeover. I don't think it's any coincidence that PSN and XBLA are both very similar when it comes to shop layout, with banner ads (essentially), call outs, sponsored areas, etc. at the very least nintendo should allow for a sponsorship program BEYOND the absolutely retarded "one wiiware game a week" setup. allow publishers to advertise games for a slightly larger percentage of profits to nintendo. give more prominence to newer games or critically acclaimed games.

FWIW, Nintendo did do a great job with the year anniversary of WiiWare. They sent out tons of media and email blasts, highlighted the system's better titles, and overall did a great job of getting the word out. They should just do it more often than once a year.
 
I just popped in again to see if FTWer has edited his XBLA list with great original titles minus ported classics. Well...he hasn't :lol
 
I happen to like the arcade ports. *shrug*
Guys can't seem to make anything sound good without trying to shit on everything else.

A simple "It's just not my thing" would suffice but it's gotta be "Arcade ports?!?!? Ewwwwwwww".

A Twisty Fluken said:
Still mad at MS for putting the kibosh on Dodonpachi and Ketsui XBLA :(
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To be fair if MS didn't shut it down Cave would have. Hard to sell $70 arcade ports when prior games are available for $10.

Besides..considering how much 5pb has boned these releases(Well DoJ at least..Ketsui still ain't out yet) I can't imagine an XBLA version working well at all.
 
jrricky said:
I just popped in again to see if FTWer has edited his XBLA list with great original titles minus ported classics. Well...he hasn't :lol
Click to expand...


They have new content & modes, not just ports.
 
I think FTWer made a typo when he signed up, sure it's not meant to be WTFer?
 
Haven't got a single thing off Wiiware, nothing interests me (got world of goo (not really that great anyways) on my mac).
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
To be fair if MS didn't shut it down Cave would have. Hard to sell $70 arcade ports when prior games are available for $10.

Besides..considering how much 5pb has boned these releases(Well DoJ at least..Ketsui still ain't out yet) I can't imagine an XBLA version working well at all.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the rights were hammered out with 5pb and Cave BEFORE MS got involved. (First mistake?)

And yeah, 5pb's porting skill is another story altogether. So perhaps Cave dodged a...bullet?
 
FTWer said:
:lol :lol :lol
Are you fucking kidding?

XBLA:
Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (soon)
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram
Alien Hominid HD
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Bomberman Live
Braid
Castle Crashers
Doom
Duke Nuke
Geometry Wars 1 & 2
Marathon: Durandal
N+
Soulcalibur
Space Invaders Extreme
Vigilante 8 Arcade
Exit 1 & 2
Lumines Live!
Penny Arcade Adventures
Ikaruga
Rez HD
Megaman 9
Outrun
Street Fighter II HD remix


Plus old classics with updated online play, achievements & graphical filters for most!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Contra
Super Contra
Double Dragon
Fatal Fury Special
Golden Axe
Metal Slug 3
Rush 'n Attack
Samurai Shodown II
Smash TV
Streets of Rage 2
R-Type Dimensions


XBLA has a good game to bad ratio of like 90-to-10. The opposite of Wiiware.
XBLA game list is not only better than the stuff on Wiiware, but I'd say better than it & Wii's normal game library combined.
Click to expand...

These are pretty much straight ports and should really be compared with the VC library (Which I can say easily trumps XBLA and PSN combined)

The rest also contains a lot of handheld ports.

BTW, you missed plenty of good XBLA exclusive games like Pacman CE and Galaga Legions. For shame!
 
Having read the last few pages, and eaten a LOT of popcorn, I just feel the need to point out that objective =/= fact. They can mean the same thing, but don't always.
 
Nuclear Muffin said:
These are pretty much straight ports and should really be compared with the VC library (Which I can say easily trumps XBLA and PSN combined)

The rest also contains a lot of handheld ports.

BTW, you missed plenty of good XBLA exclusive games like Pacman CE and Galaga Legions. For shame!
Click to expand...

Well if added online multiplayer play, online leader boards, achievements for completing extra tasks, and in some of those cases a graphical overhaul/upgrade is the same as the games released on the VC, so be it I guess :/
 
I think they're all pretty good services, there's a lot of shovelware on every one, but there's also a handful of great originals on each as well that have gotten as much playtime from me as retail games. My Life as a Dark Lord is one of the upcoming games I want the most, for example.
 
Adam Prime said:
Marvel vs Capcom 2 and SF2HD Remix make PSN and XBL better than anything on WiiWare...

:D
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Why, because they're old classics?

How the f- do we not take into account the Virtual Console then?

It's like saying Nintendo exclusives do not matter, nothing glorious about their 8bit and 16bit days.

Damn, did not know the 16 year old crowd which came with the playstation was so strong here.
 
Gabyskra said:
Why, because they're old classics?

How the f- do we not take into account the Virtual Console then?
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Yeah, pretty much. If you count old classics and ports, you have to include the Virtual Console and the Virtual Console Arcade.

Majora's Mask just released on the U.S. Virtual Console, so....now all other download services must bow down to its greatness!
 
Oh god what a mess, the Wiiware put simply has had the best year one out of the three. Xbox Live Arcade Year One was pretty damn worthless what with the huge gap in between releases and your one game per week was a half-assed port of Time Pilot, the Playstation Network had a few gems but really only hit is stride last summer when the Network finally discovered some measure of constancy.
 
I'm satisfied with Wiiware. I already bought like 10 great games out of it and most are very original of top of being good. With Cave Story, Night Game and A Boy And His Blob coming I can't really complain.

I actually found more games i'm interested in Wiiware than in PSN.

.
 
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