The Wii might not be so bad!

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I have never hid the fact that I am not a huge fan of the Nintendo Wii. In fact, I believe I have even clearly stated that I hated it. That it wasn’t for me. That was all true! However, things have taken a slight turn now. Don’t get me wrong, I am still not a big fan of the Wii, in fact they only have 2 decent exclusive titles. Those titles are as Follows.

Animal Crossing: City Folk – A good game, however there isn’t much difference between this version and the version found on the Nintendo DS called Animal Crossing: Wild World. There’s a few changes but not much. In fact, it’s so similar, that they allow you to transfer your Wild world character over into your City Folk game. Basically, City Folk is like an expansion pack for wild world, and not even a good one.

A boy and his Blob  – This is a remake of the original NES game, so if you were a fan of the original, like I was, then you will no doubt have to play this remake. The graphics are beautiful, the game play is fun. It’s an enjoyable experience for the whole family.

That’s it! Those are the two exclusive Wii titles that are even slightly of interest. Sure, they have other good games! I never said they didn’t, but the fact is those other good games can be played on better consoles with better game controls. Have I mentioned in this post how much I hate motion controllers? Because I really do!

Anyway, despite my dislike for the Wii, I decided today to rummage through the Wii shop, and see what all they had in there, and to my surprise there was some pretty good stuff! The first thing that tickled my fancy was Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, which apparently is a sequel to the Super Famicom / SNES game Final Fantasy IV, which for the record is in my opinion the BEST Final Fantasy game ever created!

After my mind boggled at that game, I decided to dig around some more, this time in the Virtual Console section of the Wii shop. I found myself shitshocked at what I found! Many of the best games ever created from past consoles, all right there on one system! I mean, they were old game titles, Most were well over 15 years old! However they were still incredible games, and they were right there! These were games that I used to play instead of doing homework! Games that I would play hooky for! Games like Super Metroid, Paper Mario, Mario RPG, California Games, the entire Phantasy Star Series and that’s just to name a few!

The one that really caught my eye though? Y’s Book I & II. You see, the original Y’s Game. Y’s book I was the first RPG I ever played! It got me interested in not just Role Playing, but gaming it’s self.  I played the original on a game system called the Sega Master System, and I remember staying up all night until I passed out from sheer exhaustion. Sure, before that game I played other games, but I had never played a game that long without losing interest. Considering I suffered from ADD, that was amazing. Needless to say the game became my all time favorite game.

Fun fact: Not only did Y’s get me interested in Gaming, but it also got both my cousins interested in gaming and even my aunt and mom. Yea, it was that much of a kick ass game!

Years later a system popped up called the TurboGrafx-16, which people were going gaga over. mainly because it had some game called Bonk’s Adventure and everyone thought it was the bomb diggity. The game didn’t appeal to me, in fact none of the games appealed to me, and so I had no interest in the gaming console. That was until they released Y’s Book I & II, the original combined with a sequel. Being such a huge fan of the original, I had no choice! I had to buy the TG16! So I did, I of course also got the CD player, and Y’s I&II, and I have to admit I was thrilled! I felt it was the best purchase ever made, and once again I found myself unable to set the control down, I found myself passing out from sheer exhaustion.

Now, they are available on the Wii, for only 800 Wii Points, which is the equivalent of less than 10 bucks! Needless to say I bought quite a few Wii points, and bought quite a few games and relived my past in ways I never thought I would again, and the games are every bit as good today as they were then.

So, now I don’t mind the Wii. It’s not a great system in my opinion, but it’s also not too shabby either. It has it’s pluses.

Nintendo USED to be great!

Nintendo recently Released a new Shiny black Wii console. This new console also comes with something called Resort, which is ANOTHER sports package. I do kinda miss the days when Nintendo used to include mario titles with their consoles.

Anyway, I did sit down and play on this new console. Before this I had never played with a Wii, but used to be a HUGE Nintendo fan-boy. So, I was looking forward to it.

I got the system hooked up, the hookup and set-up process did take a while, but this was through no fault of the game console. After finally getting it all set up, I popped in a game and started playing.

I played for approximately 2 hours.

Here’s the bottom line. The game console sucks! I mean, I am not going to sugar coat it. It stinks. At least in my opinion. Granted, I am aware that everyone has their own tastes and preferences, but come on! The game systems horrible!

Where to begin? First, I am getting SO sick and tired of Nintendo trying to make creative controls and interfaces. People don’t REALLY need a dual screen, or a stylus for their portable game systems, and they SURE as hell don’t need to be waving their arms around like a madman when trying to play on a home console. Just give me action buttons and a directional stick/pad or two and I am happy. It’s something EVERYONE is familiar with. Does Nintendo do this though? No! They try to become creative and artsy and again, in my opinion it makes the game consoles suck.

Now, moving on to the graphics. What the hell?! This is a now-gen console? There are games on the PS2 and original Xbox that looks better than the graphics being poured out of the Wii! I’m not saying all games on the Wii look bad. Not at all, there’s a few titles out that make you go “Ah! Now this is Now-gen!” but in most cases? That’s not going to happen. In most cases, the graphics are horrible.

What else could possibly suck about this system? Well, to begin with, all it does is play Games. I know, it’s a game system! That’s kinda what it’s supposed to do, but come on! This is the age of next-gen game consoles! Consoles don’t just play games! They do everything! 360 plays DVDs, has an easy to use twitter and Facebook interface. PS3 plays Blu-Ray, and probably has similar twitter and Facebook applications.. The Wii doesn’t do ANYTHING aside from playing games.

Well, it DOES have a little Opera Internet browser you can download, thus allowing you to surf the web from the comfort of your own TV, but that’s not all that spiffy. The PS3 does that too! Plus the PS3 allows you to watch Blu-Ray, and play games with good graphics.

Ok, there are SOME upsides to the Wii. It’s not ALL bad. The Wii will allow you to watch Netflix View instantly movies on your TV. Which is a handy feature, but the thing is in order to use this feature, you need to have Netflix send you a “Netflix disc” which stick in your Wii and presto! You can watch their view instantly movies through your Wii.

Keep in mind though, the PS3 and the 360 both allow you to watch Netflix View instantly movies as well, plus those consoles don’t require you to wait on a disc to be mailed to you before you start using the service.

All in all, I truly believe the Wii is a failure. The cost is the same as a 360, and for a hundred more bucks, you can get a PS3. Both consoles completely overshadow the Wii. Both in features and performance. I would SERIOUSLY suggest you look at other game systems before you run out and get a Wii. Yes, the controls are novel and unique. However, Unique doesn’t always mean good. It just means nobody else has done it before, and to be honest, there might be a good reason why nobody has done it before!

My how the mighty have fallen. Nintendo used to be great! I’m not sure what happened.