Wii: Difference between revisions

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{{tropeUseful Notes}}
[[Filefile:nintendo-wiiWii-console.jpg|framethumb|200px|"Two [[Game Cube|GameCubes]] duct taped together" = [[Crazy Enough to Work|Outsold the]] [[NES]] ''and'' [[Play Station 3|its]] [[Xbox 360|rivals]].]]
 
<!-- %%Leave this. It's mocking a quote made by a developer. -->
 
{{quote|''"Wii Would Like to Play."''|'''[[Tagline]]''', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP-THj03Zk4 English commercials] for the Nintendo Wii}}
 
By the end of the [[GameNintendo CubeGameCube]]'s life (not to mention the beginning of the [[Nintendo DS|DS's]]), [[Nintendo]] was known for three things: one, being innovative; two, for being the "kiddy" console company; and third, for being dead last in the [[Console Wars]] (but only for home consoles, as the [[Game Boy Advance]] was still selling strong). Third-parties wanted nothing to do with them, and some gamers thought Nintendo would concentrate on handhelds or even go third-party like [[Sega]], [[Hudson Soft]], [[Atari]], and [[SNK]]. In the escalating cost of superior graphics in the [[Console Wars]] between [[Sony]] and [[Microsoft]], it was thought that Nintendo couldn't compete. And they didn't. Instead, they [[Take a Third Option|created the Wii]].
 
Nintendo focused on an innovative, motion-based control scheme involving the Wii Remote, or the [[Fan Nickname]] "Wiimote", a controller shaped like a fusion between a NES controller and a television remote control that could sense the movement of the person holding it. This lowered the difficulty curve immensely. Usually a beginning gamer would have to not only to learn how to control his character, but also learn how to control his ''controller''. "'[[Halo (Video Gameseries)|Hold RB for More Dakka]]'? What's [[More Dakka]]? What's RB? Do I have to hug him? And [[How Do I Shot Web?|how do I]] make him [[Memetic Mutation|doesn't afraid of anything]]?" ...Okay, maybe we're exaggerating it a little bit. But maybe we're not. Compare this to the ease of using of a remote control and you can see why the Wii Remote was such a clever step.
 
The Wii also focused on a low price point, (approximately $199 in Japan with no game, and roughly $249.99 elsewhere with ''[[Wii Sports (Video Game)|Wii Sports]]'', itself a casual friendly introduction to console gaming.), countering the escalating price tags on its competitors. They did this by cutting out many features that the other consoles took for granted, like DVD playback, that weren't that important to the gaming experience. Nintendo then marketed the console as "for the whole family", and to further this, made it look as sleek as an iPod.
 
And it '''worked.''' The Wii's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|crushing marketing victory]], Day 1 profitability and ludicrously high sales numbers make it the most successful currentseventh-generation console <ref> As of the end of March 2012, it has sold around ''27 million'' more units than the [[Xbox 360]] and ''32 million'' more than the [[Play Station 3]]</ref>. It worked so well that 4 years later all hypocrisy broke loose and both Sony and Microsoft [[Follow the Leader|came up with copies of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck]], namely the Kinect and Move, right after having their promoters call it a useless gimmick to lure bad gamers.
 
Plus it did it all without needing specs that raised the cost of the system (which they could not have afforded). The innards of the Wii are based off the [[Game Cube]]<ref>Gearbox Software's president, Randy Pitchford, even [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127173947/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/13/interview-gearbox-president-sounds-off-on-wii-ps3-360/ referred to the Wii as a "supercharged GameCube"] in an ''[[Electronic Gaming Monthly]]'' interview</ref>. While its total polygon count is much higher, the Wii's hardware is still based off 2001 technology, so while it's cheap, it doesn't have the advanced features more powerful consoles have.<ref>The Wii has no hard drive for the sake of cost and reliability. Hard drives in consoles are used to stream large amounts of data as well as store it, and games like ''[[Doom]] 3'' and ''[[Half Life]] 2'' could probably run on the Wii if it had one. It's also missing programmable pixel shaders, restricting it to simplistic vertex-based shaders that cannot be modified. This became obsolete with the arrival of [[Direct X]] 8 (used in the Xbox) and [[Open GL]] 2, so in terms of shaders the Wii and its competitors are speaking completely different languages.</ref>.
 
Nintendo's online offerings are a far cry from the other system, including the [[Scrappy Mechanic|infamous friend codes]] (although those are being emphasized less and less). Nintendo has focused on local multiplayer, which the other two consoles seem intent on abandoning. The Wii does have [[Wii Ware|an online store]] like its competitors, and a separate Virtual Console store that essentially serves as legal [[Emulation]]. Unfortunately, a true mass storage solution (like, say, an external hard drive) didn't appear until the end of March 2009, and only a limited number of demo versions of the games are available.
 
Third-party developers initially either ignored the system entirely or tossed in some quick-and-dirty ports of [[PSPlayStation 2]] games (generally with shoed-in controls) like ''[[Ninjabread Man (Video Game)|Ninjabread Man]]'', with more serious efforts coming only after the system's continued popularity established it as a friendly environment. The Wii has also received a reputation as a platform with lots of shovelware, due to its low development costs, although this is a trend that has always dogged the market leader of each generation. Making matters worse is that most Wii games aimed at a "hardcore" audience are rare, thus not enough to grab an audience that a steady stream would, plus a lot of the niche games are declared to not be niche, and thus when they don't sell well, it's blamed on the Wii audience, even though such game don't sell that well on any system. The result iswas that [[Capcom]], [[Sega]] and [[Ubisoft]] arewere the only 3rd-party companies stillthat focusingfocused heavily on Wii development throughout the market life of the system.
 
However, despite cries of "inferior" graphics and processing power, the Wii continuescontinued to sell better or as good as the other systems, depending on whether there was a recent [[Killer App]] release. Much of the early analysis of the console's inevitable failure comes across as [[It Will Never Catch On]] mentality in light of its overall success, and the occasional [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146958.html April Fool's joke about the Wii being highly successful] is now [[Hilarious in Hindsight]].
 
Nintendo has beenwas engaged in a constant cat-and-mouse game with hackers with the Wii firmware since launch. Frequent system updates includes patches to close loopholes known to be exploited by hackers. It is also possible to play DVDs through unauthorized means, though Nintendo would have us believe it requires a hardware upgrade because movie playback wears out the system's DVD drive so quickly. They're probably not lying - Technically, the Wii has very little memory and storage space for buffering, so in order to avert [[Loads and Loads of Loading]], it compensates by spinning the disk really, ''really'' fast for prolonged periods of time. This has an unfortunate tendency to shorten the lifespan of the optical drive significantly.
 
Games for the Wii mostly fall into one of four categories:
 
* '''Nintendo's first party titles'''. In addition to games for "classic" franchises like ''[[Super Mario Bros (Franchise).|Super Mario Bros]]'', ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|The Legend of Zelda]]'', ''[[Metroid]]'', ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' and ''[[Kirby]]'', Nintendo sells a line of games directed towards casual gamers - people who have never played video games before, or only do so in social settings. Examples include ''[[Wii Sports (Video Game)|Wii Sports]]'', ''[[Wii Fit]]'', ''Wii Music'', ''[[Wii Sports Resort]]'', and ''[[Wii Party]]''. All of these games are designed around the Wii's motion controls and are responsible for Nintendo's new-found success. A handful fall into both categories, such as ''[[Mario Kart (Video Game)|Mario Kart]] Wii''.
* '''Casual games by other companies.''' Nintendo's casual games have delivered them gobs and gobs of money, and naturally other companies want in. This is mostly [[Ubisoft]] territory, but almost every game publisher has released at least one. Many of them include "We" in the title since they legally cannot use "Wii", like ''We Cheer'', ''We Ski'' and ''We Dare''.
* '''Ports, Ports and more Ports''': The Wii, hardware-wise is very similar to the [[Game Cube]] (In fact, ItIts core architecture is aessentially moddedan improved [[GameNintendo CubeGameCube]]) and to an extent thecloser to PSP and [[PSPlayStation 2]] then other consoles on the market at the time, so at the beginning of its lifespan the console was host to dozens of games ported from them. These ranged from popular games like ''[[Bully (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bully]]'' to sleeper hits like ''[[Okami (Video Game)Ōkami|Okami]]'' and ''Mercury Meltdown'' to games so low-quality Sony's US department refused to license them, like ''[[Ninjabread Man (Video Game)|Ninjabread Man]]''.<ref>This has actually reversed from 2009 onwards - the [[PSPlayStation 2]] is mostly kept alive by downgraded Wii ports</ref> Developers attempted to port [[PSPlay Station 3]] and [[X BoxXbox]] 360 games, and a few actually worked, like ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]''. Others [[Porting Disaster|couldn't pull it off]]. After a while, though, they resorted to a tactic usually seen on portable consoles - make an entirely new game for the Wii, from scratch, and call it a port. ''[[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]]'', ''[[Prince of Persia]]: The Forgotten Sands'', ''[[Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Video Game)|Dead Rising]]'' and others were given this treatment.
* '''Niche and budget games''': It costs around 1/4th as much to make a Wii game that it does to make a game on other consoles. This means that games that would normally be considered too risky or unprofitable to get made can be developed, and the makers of games like ''[[Monster Hunter (Video Game)|Monster Hunter]] Tri'', ''[[Sonic Colors (Video Game)|Sonic Colors]]'' and ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Video Game)|Silent Hill Shattered Memories]]'' have acknowledged that. In fact, there are game genres that are nearly extinct on other consoles (such as 3D platformers) that survive on the Wii for this reason.
----
 
<!-- %%Don't pothole names unless there is a significant difference between the page name and index item name. If the only difference is punctuation, that's what custom titles are for. -->
=== Games: ===
 
* ''[[Animal Crossing (Video Game)|Animal Crossing]]: City Folk''
* ''[[Anno Domini (Video Game)|Anno 1404]]'' (called ''Dawn of Discovery'' in the Wii version).
* ''[[Back to Thethe Future: (VideoThe Game)|Back to The Future]]''
* ''[[Backyard Sports (Video Game)|Backyard Sports]]'' series
* ''[[Bit Trip (Video Game)|Bit .Trip]]'' series (''BEAT'', ''CORE'', ''VOID'', ''RUNNER'', ''FATE'', ''FLUX'' and ''[[Compilation Rerelease|COMPLETE]]''.)
* ''[[Boom Blox (Video Game)|Boom Blox]]''
* ''[[Bully (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bully]]''
* ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]''
* ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]''
* ''[[The Conduit (Video Game)|The Conduit]]''
** ''[[Conduit 2 (Video Game)|Conduit 2]]''
* ''[[Dance Dance Revolution (Video Game)|Dance Dance Revolution]]''
* ''[[De Blob (Video Game)|De Blob]]''
* ''[[Dead Rising Chop Till You Drop (Video Game)|Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop]]''
* ''[[Dead Space: Extraction (Video Game)|Dead Space Extraction]]''
* ''[[Deadly Creatures (Video Game)|Deadly Creatures]]''
* ''[[Disaster Day of Crisis (Video Game)|Disaster: Day of Crisis]]''
* ''[[Doctor Who Return to Earth (Video Game)|Doctor Who Return to Earth]]''
* ''[[Dokapon Kingdom (Video Game)|Dokapon Kingdom]]''
* ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns (Video Game)|Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''
* ''[[Dragon Quest X (Video Game)|Dragon Quest X]]''
* ''[[Elebits]]''
* ''[[Enclave (Videovideo Gamegame)|Enclave]]''
* ''[[Endless Ocean (Video Game)|Endless Ocean]]''
* ''[[Epic Mickey (Video Game)|Epic Mickey]]''
* ''[[Excite (Video Game)|Excite Truck]]'' and ''[[Excite (Video Game)|Excitebots]]''
* ''[[Fatal Frame (Video Game)|Fatal Frame]] IV''
* ''[[ChocobosChocobo's Dungeon (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon]]''
* ''[[Fragile Dreams Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Video Game)|Fragile Dreams Farewell Ruins of the Moon]]''
* ''[[FAST Racing League (Video Game)|FAST Racing League]]''
* ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time]]''
* ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers]]''
* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius (Video Game)|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]''
* ''[[Flat Out (Video Game)|Flat Out]]''
* ''[[Itadaki Street (Video Game)|Fortune Street]]''
* ''[[Freddi Fish (Video Game)|Freddi Fish]]: Kelp Seed Mystery'' (a port of the computer game ''[[Freddi Fish]] and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds'')
* ''[[Ghostbusters the Video Game (Video Game)|Ghostbusters the Video Game]]''
* ''[[The Godfather (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Godfather: The Game]] (Blackhand Edition)''
* ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye Wii007 (Video2010 video Gamegame)|GoldenEye]]''
* ''[[Grand Slam Tennis]]''
* ''[[Guilty Party]]''
* ''[[Guitar Hero (Video Game)|Guitar Hero]]''
* ''[[Harvest Moon (Video Game)|Harvest Moon]]: Animal Parade''
* ''[[Harvest Moon (Video Game)|Harvest Moon]]: Magical Melody'' (originally a GameCube game; released as the only version in PAL countries after the Wii was released before the original system's version could be released, and as an [[Updated Rerelease]] in North America, which originally got it on its original system)
* ''[[Harvest Moon (Video Game)|Harvest Moon]]: Tree Of Tranquility''
* ''[[The House of the Dead (Video Gameseries)|House of the Dead]]: Overkill''
* ''[[Indiana Jones and The Staff of Kings (Video Game)|Indiana Jones and The Staff of Kings]]''
* ''[[Ivy the Kiwi (Video Game)|Ivy the Kiwi]]''
* ''[[Just Dance (Video Game)|Just Dance]]''
* ''[[Kamen Rider Climax Heroes (Video Game)|Kamen Rider Climax Heroes]] W'', ''OOO'', ''Fourze''
* ''[[Kiki Trick (Video Game)|Kiki Trick]]''
* ''[[KirbysKirby's Epic Yarn (Video Game)|Kirbys Epic Yarn]]''
** ''[[Kirbys Return to Dream Land (Video Game)|KirbysKirby's Return to Dream Land]]''
* ''[[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]]''
* ''[[The Last Story (Video Game)|The Last Story]]''
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]''
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]''
* ''[[Lego Adaptation Game (Video Game)|Lego Adaptation Game]]'' (every game except for the first two ''Lego [[Star Wars]]'' games)
* ''[[Little Kings Story (Video Game)|Little KingsKing's Story]]''
* ''[[Lost in Blue (Video Game)|Lost in Blue]]''
* ''[[Mad World (Video Game)|Mad WorldMadWorld]]''
* ''[[Mario and& Sonic Atat The Olympic Games (Video Game)|Mario and Sonic At Thethe Olympic Games]]''
* ''[[Mario Kart (Video Game)|Mario Kart]] Wii''
* ''[[Mario Party (Video Game)|Mario Party]]'' 8 and 9
* ''[[Mario Sports Mix (Video Game)|Mario Sports Mix]]''
* ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance (Video Game)|Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]''
* ''Max & the Magic Marker''
* ''[[Mega Man 9 (Video Game)|Mega Man 9]]''
** ''[[Mega Man 10 (Video Game)|Mega Man 10]]''
* ''[[Metroid Prime (Video Game)|Metroid Prime]]'', both ''3'' and ''Trilogy''
* ''[[Metroid Other M (Video Game)|Metroid: Other M]]''
* ''[[Monster Hunter (Video Game)|Monster Hunter]] Tri''
* ''[[Monster Lab]]''
* ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]''
* ''[[Muramasa: theThe Demon Blade (Video Game)|Muramasa the Demon Blade]]''
* ''[[Mushroom Men (Video Game)|Mushroom Men]]: The Spore Wars''
* ''[[Nancy Drew (Videovideo Gamegame)|Nancy Drew]]: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek''
* ''[[Naruto Clash of Ninja (Video Game)|Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution]]''
* ''[[New Super Mario Bros Wii (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]''
* ''[[No More Heroes (Video Game)|No More Heroes]]''
** ''[[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Video Game)|No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle]]''
* ''[[Okami (Video Game)Ōkami|Okami]]''
* ''[[Opoona (Video Game)|Opoona]]''
* ''[[Pajama Sam (Video Game)|Pajama Sam]]: Don't Fear The Dark'' (a port of the computer game ''[[Pajama Sam]] in No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside'')
* ''[[PandorasPandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side (Video Game)|Pandora's Tower]]''
* ''[[Phantom Brave (Video Game)|Phantom Brave]]''
* ''[[Pokémon Stadium (Video Game)|Pokémon Battle Revolution]]''
* ''[[Poke Park Wii (Video Game)|Poke Park Wii]]''
* ''[[Punch Out (Video Game)|Punch -Out!!]]''
* ''[[Raving Rabbids (Video Game)|Raving Rabbids]]''
* ''[[Rayman Origins (Video Game)|Rayman Origins]]''
* ''[[Red Steel (Video Game)|Red Steel]]''
** ''[[Red Steel 2 (Video Game)|Red Steel 2]]''
* ''[[Resident Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Resident Evil]]'' (re-release from the [[Game Cube]] version)
* ''[[Resident Evil 0 (Video Game)|Resident Evil 0Zero]]'' (re-release from the [[Game Cube]] version)
* ''[[Resident Evil 4 (Video Game)|Resident Evil 4]]: Wii Edition''
* ''[[Resident Evil: theThe Darkside Chronicles (Video Game)|Resident Evil the Darkside Chronicles]]''
* ''[[Resident Evil: theThe Umbrella Chronicles (Video Game)|Resident Evil the Umbrella Chronicles]]''
* ''[[Rhythm Heaven (Video Game)|Rhythm Heaven]]''
* ''[[Rock Band (Video Game)|Rock Band]]''
* ''[[Rune Factory: Frontier]]''
* ''[[Rune Factory Oceans]]''
* ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours (Video Game)|Scarface the World Is Yours]]''
* ''[[Sega Superstars (Video Game)|Sega Superstars]] Tennis'' and ''Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing''
* ''Shikigami No Shiro'' III
* ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Video Game)|Silent Hill Shattered Memories]]''
* ''[[The Simpsons Game (Video Game)|The Simpsons Game]]''
* ''[[Sin and& Punishment: Star Successor]]''
* ''[[Skylanders: SpyrosSpyro's Adventure (Video Game)|Skylanders Spyros Adventure]]''
* ''[[Sonic Colors (Video Game)|Sonic Colors]]''
** ''[[Sonic Storybook Series]]''
* ''[[Sonic Riders]]: Zero Gravity''
* ''[[Sonic Unleashed (Video Game)|Sonic Unleashed]]''
* ''[[Spectrobes]] Origins''
* ''[[Spore Hero (Video Game)|Spore Hero]]''
* ''[[SPY Fox (Video Game)|SPYSpy Fox]]: Dry Cereal'' (a port of the computer game ''[[Spy Fox]] in Dry Cereal'')
* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]''
** ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy 2]]''
* ''[[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]]''
* ''[[Super Robot Wars NEO (Video Game)|Super Robot Wars NEO]]''
* ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl''
* ''[[Tales of Monkey Island (Video Game)|Tales of Monkey Island]]''
* ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]''
* ''[[TatsunokovsTatsunoko Capcom (Video Game)|Tatsunokovsvs. Capcom]]''
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up (Video Game)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Up]]''
* ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour''
* ''[[Wario Land (Video Game)|Wario Land]]: Shake It!''
* ''[[Wario Ware (Video Game)|Wario Ware]]: Smooth Moves''
* ''[[We Cheer]]''
* ''[[Wii Fit (Video Game)|Wii Fit]]'' and ''[[Wii Fit]] Plus''
* ''[[Wii Party (Video Game)|Wii Party]]''
* ''[[Wii Sports (Video Game)|Wii Sports]]''
* ''[[Wii Sports Resort (Video Game)|Wii Sports Resort]]''
* ''[[World of Goo (Video Game)|World of Goo]]''
* ''[[Xenoblade (Video Game)|Xenoblade]]'' (called ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' in Europe and North America)
* ''[[Zack and& Wiki: Quest Forfor Barbaros' Treasure (Video Game)|Zack and Wiki Quest For Barbaros Treasure]]''
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Videogame Systems]]
[[Category:Short Titles]]
[[Category:General Secura (Let's Play)]]
[[Category:Video Game Long Runners]]
[[Category:Nintendo (Creator)]]▼
[[Category:index]]
[[Category:WiiGeneral Secura]]
[[Category:TropeNintendo]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
▲[[Category:Nintendo (Creator){{PAGENAME}}]]

Latest revision as of 02:35, 19 March 2024


/wiki/Wiiwork
"Two GameCubes duct taped together" = Outsold the NES and its rivals.

"Wii Would Like to Play."

By the end of the Nintendo GameCube's life (not to mention the beginning of the DS's), Nintendo was known for three things: one, being innovative; two, for being the "kiddy" console company; and third, for being dead last in the Console Wars (but only for home consoles, as the Game Boy Advance was still selling strong). Third-parties wanted nothing to do with them, and some gamers thought Nintendo would concentrate on handhelds or even go third-party like Sega, Hudson Soft, Atari, and SNK. In the escalating cost of superior graphics in the Console Wars between Sony and Microsoft, it was thought that Nintendo couldn't compete. And they didn't. Instead, they created the Wii.

Nintendo focused on an innovative, motion-based control scheme involving the Wii Remote, or the Fan Nickname "Wiimote", a controller shaped like a fusion between a NES controller and a television remote control that could sense the movement of the person holding it. This lowered the difficulty curve immensely. Usually a beginning gamer would have to not only to learn how to control his character, but also learn how to control his controller. "'Hold RB for More Dakka'? What's More Dakka? What's RB? Do I have to hug him? And how do I make him doesn't afraid of anything?" ...Okay, maybe we're exaggerating it a little bit. But maybe we're not. Compare this to the ease of using of a remote control and you can see why the Wii Remote was such a clever step.

The Wii also focused on a low price point, (approximately $199 in Japan with no game, and roughly $249.99 elsewhere with Wii Sports, itself a casual friendly introduction to console gaming.), countering the escalating price tags on its competitors. They did this by cutting out many features that the other consoles took for granted, like DVD playback, that weren't that important to the gaming experience. Nintendo then marketed the console as "for the whole family", and to further this, made it look as sleek as an iPod.

And it worked. The Wii's crushing marketing victory, Day 1 profitability and ludicrously high sales numbers make it the most successful seventh-generation console [1]. It worked so well that 4 years later all hypocrisy broke loose and both Sony and Microsoft came up with copies of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, namely the Kinect and Move, right after having their promoters call it a useless gimmick to lure bad gamers.

Plus it did it all without needing specs that raised the cost of the system (which they could not have afforded). The innards of the Wii are based off the Game Cube[2]. While its total polygon count is much higher, the Wii's hardware is still based off 2001 technology, so while it's cheap, it doesn't have the advanced features more powerful consoles have.[3].

Nintendo's online offerings are a far cry from the other system, including the infamous friend codes (although those are being emphasized less and less). Nintendo has focused on local multiplayer, which the other two consoles seem intent on abandoning. The Wii does have an online store like its competitors, and a separate Virtual Console store that essentially serves as legal Emulation. Unfortunately, a true mass storage solution (like, say, an external hard drive) didn't appear until the end of March 2009, and only a limited number of demo versions of the games are available.

Third-party developers initially either ignored the system entirely or tossed in some quick-and-dirty ports of PlayStation 2 games (generally with shoed-in controls) like Ninjabread Man, with more serious efforts coming only after the system's continued popularity established it as a friendly environment. The Wii has also received a reputation as a platform with lots of shovelware, due to its low development costs, although this is a trend that has always dogged the market leader of each generation. Making matters worse is that most Wii games aimed at a "hardcore" audience are rare, thus not enough to grab an audience that a steady stream would, plus a lot of the niche games are declared to not be niche, and thus when they don't sell well, it's blamed on the Wii audience, even though such game don't sell that well on any system. The result was that Capcom, Sega and Ubisoft were the only 3rd-party companies that focused heavily on Wii development throughout the market life of the system.

However, despite cries of "inferior" graphics and processing power, the Wii continued to sell better or as good as the other systems, depending on whether there was a recent Killer App release. Much of the early analysis of the console's inevitable failure comes across as It Will Never Catch On mentality in light of its overall success, and the occasional April Fool's joke about the Wii being highly successful is now Hilarious in Hindsight.

Nintendo was engaged in a constant cat-and-mouse game with hackers with the Wii firmware since launch. Frequent system updates includes patches to close loopholes known to be exploited by hackers. It is also possible to play DVDs through unauthorized means, though Nintendo would have us believe it requires a hardware upgrade because movie playback wears out the system's DVD drive so quickly. They're probably not lying - Technically, the Wii has very little memory and storage space for buffering, so in order to avert Loads and Loads of Loading, it compensates by spinning the disk really, really fast for prolonged periods of time. This has an unfortunate tendency to shorten the lifespan of the optical drive significantly.

Games for the Wii mostly fall into one of four categories:

  • Nintendo's first party titles. In addition to games for "classic" franchises like Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong Country and Kirby, Nintendo sells a line of games directed towards casual gamers - people who have never played video games before, or only do so in social settings. Examples include Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Music, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Party. All of these games are designed around the Wii's motion controls and are responsible for Nintendo's new-found success. A handful fall into both categories, such as Mario Kart Wii.
  • Casual games by other companies. Nintendo's casual games have delivered them gobs and gobs of money, and naturally other companies want in. This is mostly Ubisoft territory, but almost every game publisher has released at least one. Many of them include "We" in the title since they legally cannot use "Wii", like We Cheer, We Ski and We Dare.
  • Ports, Ports and more Ports: The Wii, hardware-wise is very similar to the Game Cube (In fact, Its core architecture is essentially an improved Nintendo GameCube) and to an extent closer to PSP and PlayStation 2 then other consoles on the market at the time, so at the beginning of its lifespan the console was host to dozens of games ported from them. These ranged from popular games like Bully to sleeper hits like Okami and Mercury Meltdown to games so low-quality Sony's US department refused to license them, like Ninjabread Man.[4] Developers attempted to port Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 games, and a few actually worked, like Call of Duty. Others couldn't pull it off. After a while, though, they resorted to a tactic usually seen on portable consoles - make an entirely new game for the Wii, from scratch, and call it a port. Sonic Unleashed, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Dead Rising and others were given this treatment.
  • Niche and budget games: It costs around 1/4th as much to make a Wii game that it does to make a game on other consoles. This means that games that would normally be considered too risky or unprofitable to get made can be developed, and the makers of games like Monster Hunter Tri, Sonic Colors and Silent Hill Shattered Memories have acknowledged that. In fact, there are game genres that are nearly extinct on other consoles (such as 3D platformers) that survive on the Wii for this reason.

Games:

  1. ↑ As of the end of March 2012, it has sold around 27 million more units than the Xbox 360 and 32 million more than the Play Station 3
  2. ↑ Gearbox Software's president, Randy Pitchford, even referred to the Wii as a "supercharged GameCube" in an Electronic Gaming Monthly interview
  3. ↑ The Wii has no hard drive for the sake of cost and reliability. Hard drives in consoles are used to stream large amounts of data as well as store it, and games like Doom 3 and Half Life 2 could probably run on the Wii if it had one. It's also missing programmable pixel shaders, restricting it to simplistic vertex-based shaders that cannot be modified. This became obsolete with the arrival of Direct X 8 (used in the Xbox) and Open GL 2, so in terms of shaders the Wii and its competitors are speaking completely different languages.
  4. ↑ This has actually reversed from 2009 onwards - the PlayStation 2 is mostly kept alive by downgraded Wii ports
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Wii?oldid=2049652"