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[Glorified G]

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.

Galaxy makes up for it though. The best game of last gen. Still bitter about how 3D World end up being such a turd (may be too strong but I hate how they focused on MP which made the game design for the single player poor, in comparison to Galaxy)

I'm mixed on the Wii. I appreciate how different it was, the homebrew support, Gamecube backwards compatibility but it was also Nintendo's first system that really suffered from the lack of traditional 3rd party support. And no HD hurt too.

Objectively, looking at the other two consoles had (PS3, 360) in terms of hardware features and support, the Wii was worse than the other two. But I did appreciate what it did excel at and look back fondly on the time I had with it.

It's middle of the road for me. Not one of the best consoles ever but not one of the worst. I enjoyed it MUCH more than I do with the Wii U and that's more of my tastes expanding and owning more platforms.

 

[Crimsonlink]

I don't know, maybe you should read the op.

Not sure what's wrong with Xenoblade and Monster Hunter Tri, as they're both great games.



I'm certainly not going to argue with you here. I don't hold the same level of nostalgia for the SNES either, despite loving it.

Geez maybe you shouldn't be so rude and combative for me simply stating my opinion for disagreeing with the OP. I did read the OP but I'm not going to assume everyone bought the same games he did and am wondering what passes for gems in the Wii's library that almost everyone who had a Wii bought them.

As for me having only 5 games, you are assuming thats all I have played, plenty of friends had other games that I tried out or rented. I didn't like most of them which is the major problem the Wii had for me. The Wii controls and the games themselves did nothing for me personally.

Nintendo was already not winning me over with their output for GC, so when Wii games were coming out I was really skeptical about their quality. Galaxy series (improvement from sunshine for sure) and a couple others were good but nothing mind blowing and Skyward Sword is the most disappointing Zelda for me that I ended up selling it which I never usually do for Zelda games. Paper Mario took a nosedive in quality, Kirby became so easy and a whole lot of 1st party Nintendo games became worse overall imo and they stopped releasing Metroid games after Corruption except the Trilogy.

Looking at the 3rd party list of the OP, its justs offshoots of a lot of games done better on the HD twins, sure it was good enough for the Wii if you only owned that one console. But why settle for the lesser 3rd party effort for the Wii if you can get it on one of the HD consoles such as Dead Space without Wii controls?

Overall thats just my opinion, the controls and shoddy 3rd party games just made it a not good console. Some people may have liked the efforts of the 3rd parties but I was not a fan.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Like every hardware released by Nintendo, it had great first-party releases. The console itself was awful.

 

[EmptySkyForm]

That's like saying the PS2 wasn't a great console because you can play PS2 games on the PS3

You are right it is like saying that. Because that's the way that I meant it. Although PS2 was great though. It had online, dvd support and other stuff I can't think of at the time. Like I said context matters.

 

[foxuzamaki]

I think it's fairly obvious to most that when someone says "x system is great", they're speaking about its game library. Now if someone says "x really is a great piece of hardware", they're talking about the box itself.

YUp, this should be obvious, but anybody trying to argue against the obvious in this case has a different agenda

 

[omgwtfbentime]

In retrospect, the Wii is a solid system with a great library of overlooked games. In the time though? I think a lot of people were pretty underwhelmed by the Wii. 2008 was rough, after Brawl and Mario Kart dropped people were expecting an exciting E3 and all we got was a whole lot of Wii Sports Resort and... Wii Music. Later that year Nintendo kind of announced Punch Out!! Wii and Sin and Punishment 2 almost under their breath though, so it wasn't ALL bad. But core Nintendo fans definitely felt a little betrayed after that even though Nintendo saved a lot of face after realizing most people who bought the Wii for Wii Sports weren't really interested in more software.

I loved the system, I love its library of games and I think Wii felt like a return to innovative and weird Nintendo after sticking to mostly what worked on the N64 with the GameCube. But I also understand why many people don't think so fondly of it as a system.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Geez maybe you shouldn't be so rude and combative for me simply stating my opinion for disagreeing with the OP. I did read the OP but I'm not going to assume everyone bought the same games he did and am wondering what passes for gems in the Wii's library that almost everyone who had a Wii bought them.

As for me having only 5 games, you are assuming thats all I have played, plenty of friends had other games that I tried out or rented. I didn't like most of them which is the major problem the Wii had for me. The Wii controls and the games themselves did nothing for me personally.

Nintendo was already not winning me over with their output for GC, so when Wii games were coming out I was really skeptical about their quality. Galaxy series (improvement from sunshine for sure) and a couple others were good but nothing mind blowing and Skyward Sword is the most disappointing Zelda for me that I ended up selling it which I never usually do for Zelda games. Paper Mario took a nosedive in quality, Kirby became so easy and a whole lot of 1st party Nintendo games became worse overall imo and they stopped releasing Metroid games after Corruption except the Trilogy.

Looking at the 3rd party list of the OP, its justs offshoots of a lot of games done better on the HD twins, sure it was good enough for the Wii if you only owned that one console. But why settle for the lesser 3rd party effort for the Wii if you can get it on one of the HD consoles such as Dead Space without Wii controls?

Overall thats just my opinion, the controls and shoddy 3rd party games just made it a not good console. Some people may have liked the efforts of the 3rd parties but I was not a fan.

Well, now you've gone and done it. You've actually explained yourself!

Was that so hard? I can respect this opinion. Saying "lol people actually bought more than five games for the system?" (not your exact quote but pretty close) isn't something I have much time for.

 

[Garlador]

My beloved Wii gave me (and continues to give me) lots of love.

Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, Punch-Out!, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Zack & Wiki, No More Heroes 1 & 2, Madworld, Dead Space: Extraction, Resident Evil: Umbrella and Darkside Chronicles, Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Super Paper Mario, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, House of the Dead: Overkill, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kirby's Epic Yarn, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Little King's Story, Deadly Creatures, Okami Wii, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Red Steel 2, Mother****ing XENOBLADE CHRONICLES, etc. Many I'm forgetting.

And complete backwards compatibility with my exhaustive Gamecube library.

It was stuffed full of great games. Love the little waggle system to bits.

I had Metroid: Other M too, I guess.

 

[ninjablade]

Why? If the Wii was configured like the Wii U hardware-wise, this hypothetical Wii would have most likely have sold for like $50 more and sold a similar amount of units imo (especially since the only thing separating the PS3, Xbox 360 and this hypothetical Wii would be their libraries).

Naw the would be configured like a 360 with about half the power, then it would be 300$, nintendo would be able to get ports and be in much better shape for the future but they fucked up.

 

[User1608]

Absolutely agree. My favorite console ever and it had so many wonderful games and classics. Despite the droughts and bouts of incompetence from Nintendo, particularly from its final years after 2010, I had a blast and the Wii remote and nunchuck are awesome too! Best controller I've ever used. My favorite game is tied between Brawl, Galaxy and Skyward Sword, and DKCR made me a huge fan of Donkey Kong. Love the ape.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

It was every bit as good as the PS360. The first party titles were great, and a metric fuckton of incredible third party AA exclusive games (ie Mushroom Men, Red Steel 2, No More Heroes, etc).

 

[Bill Rizer]

With such a horrible video output.

Spoiler

But yes, games were good

 

[TI82]

Worst Nintendo home console in my opinion. Still about 10-20 good games.

 

[ChaosZeroX]

It had some great games, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it was the best console. It was the worst Nintendo console imo

It had a lot lacking for a gen7 console.

 

[M.D]

I thought about buying a Wii Mini to play mostly the big games from Nintendo, but they are still relatively expensive

 

[greg400]

Naw the would be configured like a 360 with about half the power, then it would be 300$, nintendo would be able to get ports and be in much better shape for the future but they fucked up.

More crystal ball scenarios that don't even make sense because the Wii was a massive success. Lol.

 

[Rodolink]

I just hate its horrendous resolution!, at least the wii mini should have HD upscaling or something. But besides that, I still have it hooked up to the TV for The Last Story and Pandora´s Tower (just passed Xenoblade C.last february)

 

[OrbitalBeard]

I thought about buying a Wii Mini to play mostly the big games from Nintendo, but they are still relatively expensive

Don't do it!

Buy a Wii U when you can find one for cheap. You'll get a fantastic box to play Wii games on (MUCH better than Wii Mini) and you can grab any Wii U games that interest you.

 

[Bubba_Sparks]

lol, it was absolutely destroyed by the 360 and PS3 in terms of features and game library. It had a few good Nintendo games and some other gems and that was it! The worst console I gave ever owned and the worst Nintendo has ever made prior to the Wii U.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Wii 1st party shat on the other two consoles from on high.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

lol, it was absolutely destroyed by the 360 and PS3 in terms of features and game library. It had a few good Nintendo games and some other gems and that was it! The worst console I gave ever owned and the worst Nintendo has ever made prior to the Wii U.

Feature-wise, completely agreed.

I actually prefer Wii's lineup to PS3's though, despite really enjoying that console.

360 is tougher, as I loved XBLA.

 

[brinstar]

I was in college during the Wii's heyday, and it was definitely the console of choice on campus. Which made sense because it was much cheaper, had a ton of social games and didn't require $1000+ TV's (at the time) to make the most use of. 360 was second popular, and I remember at the time before the PS3 rebrand like NO ONE had one.

Around when the PS3 Slim came out I picked one of those up, but I never got the hate for the Wii library. It didn't have the AAA mainstream stuff that was rapidly becoming popular but there was third party stuff on Wii that would've never been on Gamecube.

 

[DAREALGUMMY]

You are right it is like saying that. Because that's the way that I meant it. Although PS2 was great though. It had online, dvd support and other stuff I can't think of at the time. Like I said context matters.

So even though the Wii had TONS of fantastic original games, not having DVD support (because guess what, it did online) it's not a good console? So just because the Wii U exists it negates the Wii? What if it didn't support the Wii? The Wii would be great in that case? That's pretty dumb.

 

[ninjablade]

More crystal ball scenarios that don't even make sense because the Wii was a massive success. Lol.

It was a success, but it could have possible built a solid brand that gamers care about, nintendo missed out on a lot of very important thirdparty franchises that move consoles more then there 1st party lineup ever could cause of the console being lastgen tech.

 

[SlaughterX]

Ehhh, I'm gonna have to disagree. It was definitely a better console than the Wii U, but that's not saying much. Compared to the 360 and PS3 it's downright disappointing. The console itself, performance wise was the most disappointing thing for me, combined with the whole waggle gimmick, no real third party support excluding gimmicky shovelware. The Wii was a huge commercial success for Nintendo but that's about it.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Wii 1st party shat on the other two consoles from on high.

First-party support from SCE on the PS3 was exceptional!

 

[McBradders]

It's like Nintendo never made the Virtual Boy. Or does it magically not count?

The Wii is fantastic. Nothing wrong with it at all. If it's not your thing, fair enough, but it's a brilliant little box with a fantastic library of unique games. Definitely underrated.

 

[jwj442]

It's sad to see people dismissing the Wii's first-party lineup with "not that great besides Galaxy." Admittedly, some of the top-line franchises did have a down generation. But there was a lot of good stuff beyond Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Smash, especially in the B-tier IPs but even a few major hitters too. You have Xenoblade (plus the other Rainfall RPGs, though I haven't played them), Donkey Kong Country, Mario Strikers, Battalion Wars, Sin and Punishment, Wario Land, Punch-out, Excite ___, Fire Emblem, Rhythm Heaven, Kirby platformers - and many of these hadn't been on a console in years or were brand-new. And while New Super Mario was eventually done to death, at the time it was the first console 2D Mario in decades. To me this stuff makes up for Metroid, Zelda, and some of the other big stuff not living up (though I think the Skyward Sword hate is overdone, but I will concede its flaws). Their first-party lineup is really quite a diverse and deep set of games. People say Nintendo should go outside their main franchises more - well, the Wii was a time when they definitely did, both creating new ones and reviving dormant secondary IPs.

The third-party lineup is also probably Nintendo's best post-SNES selection on a console, at least up to 2010. Still not as good as the 360/PS3 of course, but a lot of interesting and quality stuff. Zack and Wiki, Bit Trip series, Trauma Center, Monster Hunter, Castlevania/Contra Rebirth - these aren't AAA games, but they're good.

 

[ASIS]

Feature-wise, completely agreed.

I actually prefer Wii's lineup to PS3's though, despite really enjoying that console.

360 is tougher, as I loved XBLA.

PS3 from 2009-2013 was beastly though. Yeah 2012 may have been a dud but Sony really turned the system around from a disastrous start. For me it was the best console of 7th gen.


.. I still loved the Wii however, don't get me wrong.

It was a success, but it could have possible built a solid brand that gamers care about, nintendo missed out on a lot of very important thirdparty franchises that move consoles more then there 1st party lineup ever could cause of the console being lastgen tech.

One of the very few times I agree with you 100%. I didn't even think this was debatable.

 

[ChaosZeroX]

Wii 1st party shat on the other two consoles from on high.

You're kidding right? PS3 had amazing exclusives that imo beat out the Wii.

 

[Stimpack]

You're the minority.

1) The majority of people don't know the difference between the Wii and the Wii U
2) The Wii U is more expensive and would've been a lot more at the time
3) The Wii U didn't have the same casual appeal, controller was too complicated

Thinking they could just swap the two hardware bases and expect the same sales and financial results is honestly ridiculous.

I wrote a bit and decided to delete it. I just don't have an interest in discussing the financials, and that was never the conversation I was attempting to start. Sorry.

 

[LegendofLex]

It was a success, but it could have possible built a solid brand that gamers care about, nintendo missed out on a lot of very important thirdparty franchises that move consoles more then 1st party ever could cause of the console being lastgen tech.

Is that why neither current-gen PlayStation or Xbox are performing better than Wii did, despite Wii still being supply constrained in the US at this point in its life cycle, neither of those platforms having something like Wii to compete with for market share, and the fact that we're not currently in a recession?

Such great system sellers those very important third-party franchises turned out to be!

Not to mention that DS + Wii is the best generational combo we'll ever see in the world of dedicated gaming platforms.

 

[PaulBizkit]

The most disappointing console i ever had. I bought it in 2008 for smash, multiplayer and gamecube games, and sold it at the following year because there were no games that interested me.

All the while, i saw RE5, Uncharted, Valkyria Chronicles, Infamous, god of war 3, gta 4 and many many games passing by while i played Disaster Day of Crisis.


At least i managed to play all the gamecube games i wanted, No More Heroes and.. mario galaxy i guess.
Since i sold it in 2009, i never played metroid other M, dk returns and Last Story (the only game i regret not having played).

 

[OrbitalBeard]

PS3 from 2009-2013 was beastly though. Yeah 2012 may have been a dud but Sony really turned the system around from a disastrous start. For me it was the best console of 7th gen.


.. I still loved the Wii however, don't get me wrong.

Oh for sure, it was a great system with lots of great first party content. The Last of Us is one of my favorite games ever. And I loved God of War III, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, Journey, etc.

The most disappointing console i ever had. I bought it in 2008 for smash, multiplayer and gamecube games, and sold it at the following year because there were no games that interested me.

2008 was definitely a really bad year outside of the first few months (and Wario Land: Shake It!! alongside a couple WiiWare titles)

 

[EmptySkyForm]

YUp, this should be obvious, but anybody trying to argue against the obvious in this case has a different agenda

Obviously I didn't get it then. Is it difficult to believe that when people say something in a certain way, that other people will also read it that way. Really dude, you thought I have some sort of agenda to spew here? smh, That's some high level nintendo offensive defense right there.

If games is the case then yeah, the wii was great.

Twilight Princess is my favorite zelda, sin and punishment was amazing, xenoblade, last story was great, mario galexy 1 was awesome but I didn't play 2 yet. Kirby return to dreamland is my favorite kirby next to the amazing mirror. Metroid prime trilogy was my first introduction to the prime series. I had lots of great memories with the wii's games.

 

[Strangelove77]

I like the physical console, but the games sucked. Especially the ones from Nintendo. Every one of their franchises have inferior Wii sequels.
The Wii shit out inferior Mario, Metroid, Smash, Zelda and Mario Kart games.

 

[televator]

It was okay... I dropped it like an old shirt once I got the WiiU. Never liked the technical aspects of the system nor the Wiimote and waggle, but some games were worth owning though they are better played on an emulator or on WiiU.

...I can't spare any real praise for the actual hardware. Lol Good riddance!

 

[Celine]

The wii has great games and the wii is a great system are two different arguments.

The great Wii games you cited are based on the Wii hardware.
You can emulated it (more or less faithfully) but you are emulating the Wii hardware.

What I mean is the reason why you play a game based on the Wii architecture is because of the game itself, not the context (because the context change with time) what remain is the game.
Why do you play a Saturn game (emulated or on the real hardware) twenty years after the launch?
It's surely not for the context that was there 20 years because that has wildly changed (again I'm not sure if you can grasp the example not knowing anything about you).

 

[Garlador]

You're kidding right? PS3 had amazing exclusives that imo beat out the Wii.

Opinions and all that, but I personally don't think a single PS3 exclusive was anywhere near the same league as Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, or Xenoblade Chronicles.

Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, and God of War 3 were exceptional games though.

 

[greg400]

It was a success, but it could have possible built a solid brand that gamers care about, nintendo missed out on a lot of very important thirdparty franchises that move consoles more then 1st party lineup ever could cause of the console being lastgen tech.

Again, more crystal ball garbage. Third party developers didn't flock to the GameCube when it was more powerful than the PS2. Nintendo got the third party ports from the other platforms the first one to two years of the Wii U's lifecycle and nobody gave a shit because the core Nintendo fans don't buy Call of Duty. That audience will never be on Nintendo's platform regardless of how powerful their console is. Claiming that that is somehow their road to success is ridiculous.

 

[ForsakenLotus]

The Wii was a good console, but I definitely don't think it is one of the best consoles of all time. I don't even think it was the best console of its generation, that is the PS3 for me.

Of course, anytime you invest, really put time into a console's ecosystem, you are naturally going to find gems and games that get largely looked over; and inevitably you can put together a long list of games and say, "look at all these games, this is one of the best ever."

But when you apply context, I think the Wii becomes a console that catered to Nintendo fans, was underpowered by a lot, didn't have as much convenience and apps that the PS3 and Xbox 360 had, the online infrastructure wasn't as good (and many games didn't have online), multiplatform games with missing content and just a severe lack of major multiplatform games.

But the Wii was a good console.

 

[gamerMan]

As long as Nintendo keeps making consoles I'm going to buy them. I mean Super Mario Galaxy. I don't care if no other game came out on the Wii. What gamer could miss that one? I could play that game 20 years from now and still be amazed at its design. It's a masterpiece of videogame design.

 

[EGM1966]

Yup it was (in fact still is) a cool little console with plenty more of good games.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

I loved mine. So many good game.

 

[ninjablade]

Again, more crystal ball garbage. Third party developers didn't flock to the GameCube when it was more powerful than the PS2. Nintendo got the third party ports from the other platforms the first one to two years of the Wii U's lifecycle and nobody gave a shit because the core Nintendo fans don't buy Call of Duty. That audience will never be on Nintendo's platform regardless of how powerful their console is. Claiming that that is somehow their road to success is ridiculous.

They didnt flock cause playstation destroyed everything, even early on with the wiiu, nintendo got solid support from thirdparty getting huge franchises but the damage was already done those franchises have an established user base for the past 6 years with a solid online community.

 

[greg400]

They didnt flock cause playstation destroyed everything, even early on with the wiiu, nintendo got solid support from thirdparty getting huge franchises but the damage was already done those franchises have an established user base for the past 6 years with a solid online community.

And do you know why the PS2 started destroying everything? It had the sales and the DVD player despite being the weakest. Just like the Wii had the motion controls and was the weakest. PS3 was in the financial shitter when it and out because it was so expensive with Microsoft taking their audience and now look at where Sony is. Acting like they've done some irreversible damage when other companies have proven to reverse that damage but then believing that Nintendo can't? Talk about bias.

 

[Hella Lugosi]

I just wish it didn't have so many controllers and accessories.

The console itself is so small and slim and portable, but then you have all the wiimotes and nunchuks and gamecube controllers and classic controllers, motion plus adapters. It's a real pain to lug all this stuff around when you have to move.

Excellent library though and gamecube backwards compatibility makes it even better.

 

[ninjablade]

Is that why neither current-gen PlayStation or Xbox are performing better than Wii did, despite Wii still being supply constrained in the US at this point in its life cycle, neither of those platforms having something like Wii to compete with for market share, and the fact that we're not currently in a recession?

Such great system sellers those very important third-party franchises turned out to be!

Not to mention that DS + Wii is the best generational combo we'll ever see in the world of dedicated gaming platforms.

Lol your talking about one gen, and even then those third party games sold 170 million consoles still much better then what the wii did, anyway you look it every console with the best third party, wins the gen, except for one gen where we have the biggest decline in the best selling console ever.

 

[FStubbs]

And do you know why the PS2 started destroying everything? It had the sales and the DVD player despite being the weakest. Just like the Wii had the motion controls and was the weakest. PS3 was in the financial shitter when it and out because it was so expensive with Microsoft taking their audience and now look at where Sony is. Acting like they've done some irreversible damage when other companies have proven to reverse that damage but then believing that Nintendo can't? Talk about bias.

Third parties never gave up on Sony. That's the difference.

 

[Gucci Messiah]

Ehhh, I'm gonna have to disagree. It was definitely a better console than the Wii U, but that's not saying much. Compared to the 360 and PS3 it's downright disappointing. The console itself, performance wise was the most disappointing thing for me, combined with the whole waggle gimmick, no real third party support excluding gimmicky shovelware. The Wii was a huge commercial success for Nintendo but that's about it.

I'd say the Wii U is much better than the Wii software wise. Yeah it has a dumb controller but at least it's semi-traditional and doesn't force you to flail around like a fool. Online is still laughable with no account system but you don't have to use friend codes because Nintendo thinks its consumers are too stupid and sensitive to handle the real world. I agree with most of what you're saying though.