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The Wii was such a good console.

Let me throw some titles at you:
Super Mario Galaxy, Xenoblade, Zelda Twilight Princess, Zelda Skyward Sword, Fragile Dreams, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Warioware Smooth Moves, Wario Land: The Shake Dimention, Klonoa, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Darkside/Umbrella Chronicles, Metroid: Other M, Metroid Prime 3 (and the motherwowing Trilogy), New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kirby's Adventure Wii, Kirby's Epic Yarn, No More Heroes 1 and 2, Muramasa, Little King's Story, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Sin and Punishment 2, Art Rise Fantasia, Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, Okami, Punch Out, Red Steel 2, Mario Kart Wii, Monster Hunter Tri, Pandora's Tower, The Last Story, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearer, Dead Space: Extraction, Sonic Colours, Wii Sports and dozens more brilliant games.

Then we've got the underrated gems of WiiWare:
Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10, Fast Racing, Art of Balance, Castlevania Rebirth, Contra Rebirth, Jett Rocket, Excitebike World Rally, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King/Darklord, Dr. Mario Online, Bomberman Blast, Toki Tori, Cave Story, World of Goo, Final Fantasy 4: The After Years, Lost Winds, All the Bit Trip games and i'm probably missing tons of fantastic games.

I can't elaborate on this much because I only played one but there were also remastered Gamecube games with Widescreen and motion controls like Pikmin!

Then we have Virtual Console providing affordable games for all of Nintendo's past systems (and where I played most of the classics for the very first time) and even keeping competitor libraries alive with support for the freakin' Turbografx!

Add Gamecube backwards compatibility, controllers that suit pretty much every situation with the choice of Motion controllers or traditional buttons and you have one hell of a great system with so many good games to play.

Now the Wii wasn't perfect, obviously it wasn't a beast in the power department and thus didn't share many games with it's HD brothers. The majority of the Wii's games were also complete trash and it's family friendly image encouraged people to buy products like Carnival Games over Silent Hill. This image also resulted in many core gamers seeing the Wii as a "kiddy system" full of shovelware when in reailty it was perhaps the best system of it's generation.

You did have to dig deep to find a good Wii game but all the ones I listed just now were off the top of my head, there are so many fantastic memorable Wii games and I would argue that many of these games are Nintendo's best work. Super Mario Galaxy? Xenoblade? Sin and Punishment? The Wii will always live on in my heart as one of the best systems ever made. It's incredibly misunderstood and i've even seen people on GAF disregard the Wii which is unfortunate.

A common arguement for avoiding the Wii is it's primary feature, motion controls. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that waggling is good, but I will tell you that pointing is. Using the Wii remote as a cursor is pretty much as close to a mouse that you can get, there wern't many shooters on the Wii outside of Metroid Prime 3 and Goldeneye but those games controlled so very well. The Wii remote and nunchuk still share many of the same buttons as a traditional controller making almost any game possible and while pointing was the Wii's secret weapon a simple shake could also go a long way. I can't imagine using a button to spin in Super Mario Galaxy, it's just so natural. Same goes for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, even in NSMBU I still shake the gamepad just becuase of how good it feels.

The Wii was a special system, everyone had one but who actually had one as a games console? Because in my opinion the Wii may very well be the best console ever made or it's at least up there.

Long live the Revolution!

latest
 
Great system. Still the only gen7 platform I still have set up. Admittedly, that has a lot to do with it being capable of outputting old games at 240p. Still, I enjoy a game of Zangeki no Reginleiv or Tatsunoko vs. Capcom from time to time.
 

dralla

Member
I can't disagree more, arguably the worst console I've ever owned. Worst Smash Bros, worst Mario Kart, worst Zelda, worst Metroid Prime, Its only saving grace is Mario Galaxy, which are incredible. I think the Wii U has already surpassed it.
 

EmptySkyForm

Neo Member
The wii was a terrible console. It lacked many standard features of that generation.

Having good games does not equal a good console. Those are separate, the games are on the console are great but the console itself is still terrible. All of the wii games can be played on my Wii U thus nullifying the argument you made.
 
Yup, really great library but sadly a lot of people only know it as a Wii Sports/shovelware machine. Definitely expecting the Wii to gain more recognition for it's sheer variety of great games as the years go on.
 
I can't disagree more, arguably the worst console I've ever owned. Worst Smash Bros, worst Mario Kart, worst Zelda, worst Metroid Prime, Its only saving grace is Mario Galaxy, which are incredible. I think the Wii U has already surpassed it.

This is pretty much how I feel as well. I hated the waggle controls and having a wire running between two different parts of a controller.
 

ohlawd

Member
The Wii is known and will be known as one of the worst consoles of all time.

which is a shame because it's got a damn good library
 
Its library is way, way better than it's usually portrayed. If you skipped the Wii but bought a Wii U, do yourself a favour and build yourself a nice library of great games, buth first- and third-party.
 
Yeah, I own like 80 to 100 Wii games, and I didn't buy anything that I consider to be crap or shovelware. There are at least that many worthwhile games on the console.
 
I think the Wii had a bunch of creative and interesting games, and not just from Nintendo. People talk the console down because of all the shovelware and crappy waggle games, but it really is a great console. The 'minimal' power kinda pushed developers into being more creative to stand out.
 

fernoca

Member
I can't disagree more, arguably the worst console I've ever owned. Worst Smash Bros, worst Mario Kart, worst Zelda, worst Metroid Prime, Its only saving grace is Mario Galaxy, which are incredible. I think the Wii U has already surpassed it.
Well you did, so you can disagree more.
 

BlitzKeeg

Member
I can't disagree more, arguably the worst console I've ever owned. Worst Smash Bros, worst Mario Kart, worst Zelda, worst Metroid Prime, Its only saving grace is Mario Galaxy, which are incredible. I think the Wii U has already surpassed it.

Outside Metroid, I completely agree. As much as I liked Brawl back in the day I'd never go back to it, Skyward Sword is the same way (only mainline Zelda I've disliked so far). I always felt like I was missing out by only owning a wii and not having enough money to get a different console throughout high school. I'll always be a diehard nintendo fan, but I'm never going to look back on the wii like it was a success. Just an anomaly.
 
I can't disagree more, arguably the worst console I've ever owned. Worst Smash Bros, worst Mario Kart, worst Zelda, worst Metroid Prime, Its only saving grace is Mario Galaxy, which are incredible. I think the Wii U has already surpassed it.

And I can't disagree more with your statement. The Wii U is a total failure, compared to ANY Nintendo consoles. And its sales prove that.

Worst Smash Bros? I can't really get the difference between Smash Wii U and Brawl and I have both, except for the nice story mode in Brawl. Worst Mario Kart? Well, yes MK8 is better I give you that. Worst Metroid Prime? Nah. Prime 3 was great. Worst Zelda? Eh, WiiU doesn't even have its own Zelda game. Atleast Wii had one which was pretty good (but also the worst in the 3D series, yes I agree with that)

And most of those games you mentioned aren't yet on Wii U which is extremly disappointing.
 

RM8

Member
It was, it has a big catalogue of great games that the "ew, everything was waggle" crowd pretends doesn't exist. I enjoyed my Wii far more than my PS3, to be honest.
 

Oddduck

Member
Personally, I thought the Wii had a better library than the Wii U.

I thought Wii's two Mario Galaxy games were better than 3D World.

Wii had Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid Prime Trilogy. The Wii U didn't have any Metroid at all.

And I'll take Wario Land: Shake It and Wario Ware Smooth Moves, over Game & Wario any day of the week.

There was also a lot of cool games like Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Sin & Punishment Star Successor, and Punchout Wii on the console.
 

Celine

Member
Wii is such a misunderstood system
Yes, if all you want are big budget cinematic games then there is little to nothing for you there.
However there are so much many good "mid budget" games aside from Nintendo known big names, usually with arcade sensibilities, which is a shame most of them past unnoticed.

For example:
KORORINPA

i have catball withdrawal

EDIT:
Having good games does not equal a good console.
Ah ah, one of the weirdest statement I've read on GAF (of all places).
 

Jb

Member
Is the Wii the first console that was the most popular of its generation and yet had the weakest library? Some great games for sure, but still disappointing in my book.
 
If not for Mario Galaxy, I would have been pretty disappointed. But man, Galaxy was the best when I brought it home. I went to the Nintendo World launch in the freezing cold and suffered through absolute cringe for that game. It made me feel like I was reliving my childhood all over again, and it remains one of my favorite games ever.

Don't get me wrong, I also really loved DCKR and (to a lesser extent) Brawl, but the titles I enjoyed were very few and far between. Easily my least favorite Nintendo console.
 
I quite enjoy it. It has my favorite Mario Kart since 64 and 3D Mario games that are at least interesting if not great.

However, it's the third-party exclusives that I think are really sneaky good: TvC is the best Vs. game ever, I think, and there is stuff like NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams and Red Steel 2 that is legitimately good. I have a small, but dedicated collection of really good games.

This console also has the most underrated game of all time: Wii Sports.

It's a definite bounce-back from the Gamecube. I didn't like the Gamecube to such an extent that I waited for awhile on the Wii and only bought one after I bought my family one for Christmas and played a bunch of Wii Sports and Wii Play with them.
 

Hugstable

Banned
Such a great amount of amazing games. Kirby Return to Dreamland/Epic Yarn, Xenoblade, Wario Land: Shaking Shit Up, the Mario Galaxies, Metroid Prime Trilogy are just a few of the amazing games that I really enjoyed the console. Wish NOA would give a crap about the Wii Virtual Console on Wii U, but oh well. Also Punch-Out, cant' believe I almost forgot one of my top favorite games on the system
 

jotun?

Member
The biggest problem with the Wii was that it couldn't output at 1080p. I don't care that it wasn't HD image quality, but the required upscaling from 480 meant that it suffered much worse input lag on HDTVs than the other consoles of its generation.
 
D

Deleted member 126221

Unconfirmed Member
I assume all of you claiming it's the "worst console of all times" never heard of 3DO, Jaguar, Virtual Boy, Pippin, Gizmondo, etc.

It was a great console and I love collecting its lesser-known gems. If you can get out of the AAA mindset, there's a LOT to love here.
 

Ladekabel

Member
The wii was a terrible console. It lacked many standard features of that generation.

Having good games does not equal a good console. Those are separate, the games are on the console are great but the console itself is still terrible. All of the wii games can be played on my Wii U thus nullifying the argument you made.

Though I agree with you that the Wii did lack features other console had and I wished for them to be there, what else defines a console more other than the library?
 

alienator

Member
In my current setup, in my retro mancave, the wii motioncontrols are totally unusable. yes this might be my own fault, because its a small room, totally stacked with all my old/retro/last gen and a 80cm CRT tv.

I sit less than 2 meters away from it, (1 if i strech my arm and wiimote) and if i place the sensor -bar underneat it, it wont register for 75% of the time, and if i place it above on the tv it wont register for 0% of the time. because i sit too close. so, yeah the system is flawed (for me), but i must also add, that i totally hate the motion controlls in 95% of the games.

i hate them so much that i even play sin&punishment with a gamecube controller (and still think its the greatest game gracing that system) Its still a system with great games (gradius rebirth, tatsenuko vs capcom, s&p etc etc) but its also the system where i couldnt complete mario galaxy or metroid 3 on, because of the controls.
 
Worst Metroid game, worst mainline Zelda game, worst Kirby game, worst Mario Kart, worst Paper Mario. Nintendo couldn't even get their own games right on that console nevermind the abysmal 3rd party support. I honestly think the Wii U has more good games and that is a very low bar.
 

Disxo

Member
Best console Imo
So many games and so many masterpieces.
Xenoblade Chronicles is currently the best game I've ever played Thanks to the wii.

I still have it plugged to an old tv and play like the first day.
 
Let's see, what are some good underrated games OP neglected to mention...

Deadly Creatures
De Blob
A Boy and His Blob
Boom Blox
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon
Baroque (super weird and dark)
Ghost Squad
House of the Dead: Overkill
Dawn of Discovery (great lite Anno town sim, my sister loves this game)

Not all exclusive, but just some of the good Wii games I have in addition to the classics.
 
The wii was a terrible console. It lacked many standard features of that generation.

Having good games does not equal a good console. Those are separate, the games are on the console are great but the console itself is still terrible. All of the wii games can be played on my Wii U thus nullifying the argument you made.


What? What else would I want to do on a gaming console besides play good games?

Wii pros outside of good games:

Nice looking, slim and sleak form factor
Multiple control options
Backward compatible with GameCube
240p output
Great homebrew

Wii cons:

Forced waggle in many games
Video output inferior to GameCube
 
Twilight Princess
Wii Sports
Wii Play
WarioWare Smooth Moves
Super Paper Mario
Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mario Kart Wii
Okami
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Metroid: Other M
Kirby's Epic Yarn
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Rayman Origins
Skyward Sword
Xenoblade Chronicles
The Last Story

Plus a whole bunch of classics that I got to own for the first time through Virtual Console: Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II, Super Metroid

And those are just the games I bought. (I was a poor college student when Wii was in its heyday so I missed out on most of the interesting mid-tier exclusives.) Still wanna pick up a few others like Punch-Out!!, Wii Sports Resort, etc. someday.

Damn, Wii was a fantastic console. Even its relatively less good games (Other M, Skyward Sword, Metroid Prime 3, Sonic Colors) were at least fresh and interesting. I think Wii U's had some legitimate all-time greats (Mario Kart, Smash, Splatoon, Pikmin 3, DKC:TF) but there hasn't been anything quite as exciting as there was on Wii.

I even loved the motion controls (aside from a handful of bad waggle implementations), and really wish Nintendo hadn't gotten super weak with their vision for a "revolution" by failing to implement refined gesture controls in all but a handful of games. (They sorta picked the ball back up with a few things on Wii U, but the revolution was clearly left behind.)
 

Lingitiz

Member
The library is great when looking back, but during it's life there were some rough years where months would go by with nothing worthwhile.

Still though there's quite a few exclusive must plays on the Wii.
 
I know the stigma it gets for being a "fad console" but it really was awesome. I look back fondly at it in hindsight. It didn't get the serious AAA 3rd party multiplats like the others but it had a library all its own.
 

Mihos

Gold Member
Sorry man, the Wii was horrible. Even my TV will sometimes take a few seconds to try and figure out what the hell signal that this is putting out.
 

Kureransu

Member
Honestly the whole HD hype made many people over look the wii. there are so many genuinely good games that came out for the system that no one gave the time of day because it wasn't of the HD experience.

games like Silent hill: shattered memories as well as dead space extraction were both really good games, even reviewed fairly well, but were all overlooked by the masses.

There were plenty titles by third parties no less that were just good, but overlooked. I feel like people saw Standard definition and assumed the games were trash if it weren't made by Nintendo.

I know the stigma it gets for being a "fad console" but it really was awesome. I look back fondly at it in hindsight. It didn't get the serious AAA 3rd party multiplats like the others but it had a library all its own.
This. A lot of really solid titles.
 
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