Gaming: The Wii is a Lie

"It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it. So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on." - Michael Capp, President of Epic Games on the Wii


With more quotes like this beginning to show up on the web, it looks like some gamers are starting to regret their Wii purchase. Here are a few reasons I think the Wii has failed.

Ease of Use. When the Wii was first introduced gamers were told that the reason behind its unique controller was to make games easier to play. I suppose some people are intimidated by the multiple buttons present on most game controllers. Nintendo was going to make games easier to play. With the exception of a few titles such as Wii Sports, this is simply not true. The inaccuracy of the motion controls and sensor bar has often left me flailing my arms while watching my character on screen do absolutely nothing. Many games simply don't work with the current technology. Perhaps they will with Wii2. When the controls do work, they're a waggle motion that replaces what should be a button press (Mario's spin move in Mario Galaxy) leaving you wondering why you're not using a standard controller in the first place.

Innovation. We were told that the games industry had gotten boring and stale, turning out sequel after sequel. This may very well be the case, but Nintendo hasn't exactly separated itself from this trend. Instead they have released another Zelda, another Donkey Kong, another Mario Kart, Mario Baseball, Mario Soccer. When was the last time Nintendo created an original IP? Third party support isn't setting the world on fire either, unless you want to play yet another collection of mini-games.

Price. At $250 the Wii was considerably cheaper than the $400 Xbox360 and $600 PS3 at launch. But is it really that much cheaper when you start considering what you get for your dollar. You are basically getting a $40 GameCube with a bluetooth remote and wifi. The majority of the software looks equal to or worse than what was previously available on the 2001 released GameCube. When you start adding in the cost of additional Wiimotes and Nunchuck controllers you are approaching next gen price ranges without getting the benefit of high definition graphics or movie playback.

So what does all this mean? Nothing really. The Wii will continue to out sell everything and the media will continue telling you how cool the Wii is. But remember what we learned from watching American Idol. Just because something is popular, doesn't mean it's any good.