I actually played Wii sports for 2 weeks straight (and I mean the “coming home from work and playing 6 hours” kind of straight), and enjoyed every minute of it. Hell, I lost 15lbs. in slightly over a month playing Wii Boxing. (Can’t wait for Wii fitness!)
The only problem I have had is with FPS. It’s tricky using an air mouse to turn and aim, imho.
With that said, I have only tried to play Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, and Red Steel. (Splinter Cell was a marked improvement over the other two, so I’m hoping the future will be bright for FPS on the Wii)
Rabbids is great fun, but Rabbids 2 seems much more oriented towards simultaneous multi-player mini-games. I wasn’t quite as impressed with the depth of the games in 2 though.
Mario Party 8 is a great party game, easy to learn and play. For racing, I just picked up Excite Truck and love it. Fairly easy to get into, but challenging enough to keep you around for a bit. And you get to smash the other players off of the road.
I also have to second fluiddruid on the Guitar Hero 3. It’s like video game crack.
The games I’ve played so far that best show off the Wii controller capability are Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy. Any concerns about how well the controller would work for a FPS or platformer should be laid to rest by those two titles.
Metroid is great but the fine folks over at **IGN ** is trying to promote a game called Zack & Wiki something. It hasn’t been realeased over here yet, so I can only repeat what they’re saying at IGN, that this is the game that best explores and enhances the wiimote.
The controllers have just as many buttons as other controllers. If anything, the motion sensor gives you MORE controls. For example, in Super Strikers, you can shake the controller to deliver a devastating hit–in addition to having all of the regular controls available in any decent sports game in button format.
There’s also a game pack you can buy with lots of little mini games that use the controller in interesting ways–everything from Pong to air hockey to a racing game where you use the motion controller to run and jump. The key here is not that there’s some lame little pack of free sports games, but that the controller has more controls than standard ones.
Some games (I think Super Strikers is one) use two controllers, one in each hand–like the old two-handed controllers, but much more comfortable because you can hold them as far out or as close in as you want.
Not to mention that you can download awesome games from the 16- and 32-bit eras and play them on your Wii. For that alone, I really really wish I had one. I would seriously play it every day. There’s even a Super Nintendo controller for it, for the SNES games.
Seriously, dude, if you actually PLAYED the thing, you might be in a position to judge it.
That said, if you’ve already bought one and you’re resolved to hate it, you can just send it to someone who would dearly love to have one and can’t afford it instead of bitching in CS.
I have to admit, the first thing I did after getting a Wii for Christmas (woo!) was download and play F-Zero. Sure, Super Mario Galaxy looked cool and all, but… F-Zero!!
That’s one of the many things I love about the Wii remote. Instead of having to sit with both hands in front of you, you can sit with your arms a comfortable distance apart. Better for my neck and shoulders.
I can’t wait until our copy of GH3 comes in (should arrive on my birthday!) And I really hope they make a Rock Band for the Wii.
It’s not “like crack”, it is crack. I cannot get enough of it. My wife is starting to complain that I’m spending too much time with it. My son complains because he can’t play Zelda or Mario Galaxy (both of which he loves) while I’m hogging the Wii.
We also have the original Rabbids. It’s a lot of fun but I just don’t have the endurance for it.
Philster if you end up truly not liking it I will buy it from you for $250 + whatever you paid in tax + cost of shipping. PM me if no one can change your mind.
I find the controllers tend to throw me out of the experience by consistently reminding me that I’m in my living room playing a game. Put in something like Ratchet & Clank for the PS2 and watch me duck when someone swings at his head or I’ll lean left trying to look around a corner.
I was excited about getting Cooking Mama but then the major online retailers wont ship to Hawaii (WTF!!! It’s not food, it’s a cooking game!) and the reviews I read said they controls kinda sucked. Nintendo’s turning into the mini game console for me. An expensive mini game console. But my little nieces love it. Although not as much as they love Rock Band.
It never ceases to amaze and amuse me how people older than six (chronologically anyway) can believe that since they don’t like something, everyone else who says they like it must be mistaken/deluded/etc. Not knocking you personally, but you’re in good company Philster.
Incidentally, Kingdom Hearts kicks ass and I hope KH3 jumps to the Wii if just to make your head explode.
I will add that I’m not impressed with the Wii so far and I’ve had it for almost a year, played 10 games or so from a range of genre’s (including Zelda, Metroid, Warioware and Rabbids) and don’t see any end in sight for the mediocrity. If you have a few issues of Game Informer laying around take a broad look at the reviews for the Wii games. There are very few 8’s, mostly 5-7’s and quite a few 4’s. I think across the internet a higher percentage of game reviews for the Wii are lower than a 5 out of 10 than any other system. 360 is almost hitting it’s prime stride. There are a huge number of must play games on that system, and the PS3 to a lesser extent.
I do want to try Galaxy though and that Smarty Pants game.
I’ll also chime in with praise for Metroid 3, the Wiimote dethroned the mouse for the ultimate controller. The immersiveness that the controller brings is amazing, I haven’t been sucked in and lost within a game environment like that since I first played Doom. It feels like I’m in Samus’ body (no, not like that )
Especially at first, things started slowly and the games were sort of hamfisted into the Wiimote. But I think the game companies are getting better and better at fitting the Wiimote into their games.
For a party game: I haven’t played the Wii version yet… but Mario Party games are good for the whole family, very accessible to everybody (every bit is explained as you go along) and usually pretty fun. My wife, who isnot a gamer, have played all the older versions for hours.
As for the OP… you know what, you may not like it. Whatever. In the “Movies you walked out of thread” some people walked out or shut off some of my favorites. It doesn’t mean either I or they bought into any sort of advertising hype. Only different strokes… To echo Wolfian, I don’t know why, when people aren’t into something that clearly a lot of people are, there is the need to put it down instead of just saying, “Well, I don’t get it, but whatever floats their boat”. I see this all the time (SDMB is loaded with examples). Are these people so lonely that their inability to fit in with the crowd fills them with rage?
Can I explain the Wii to you? Probably not if you’ve already decided you didn’t like it. The idea was to make video games more accessible to families and people who don’t normally play games. My suggestion: find the type of games that you normally enjoy, try them on the Wii. I think you will find they are just as fun. The games that really make good use of the Wiimote, really can make the experience much more fulfilling.
That game pack (Wii Play) is more of a demo than Wii Sports is. But the price is right–you can buy just a controller for $40, or Wii Play packaged with a controller for $50.
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