As a Wii owner, I am very, very, very, very, VERY desperate for software. And I’ve barely had mine a month at this point.
That said, yes, SSB:B IS the cure for all of my ills.
No More Heroes is getting good reviews, and I can’t wait till I have the chance for Zack and Wiki.
None of which are AAA titles IN AMERICA. Mario Kart is pretty close to AAA and is debatable but from what they are showing of that one it’s a carbon copy of all the other MK games that have been made.
We definitely disagree here. Smash Bros is one of the most popular IPs in NINTENDO gaming for the last 2 generations. NINTENDO gaming has had very limited success compared to it’s competitors in the US for the last 2 generations of gaming.
You’re really reaching on some of these. Take away the pack in and the big three which were already conceded in the OP and, though they are good games, none of the other games you’ve listed are superstar caliber games.
Nope. It’s not exaggerated. Wii owners, INCLUDING ME, wish that wasn’t true but it is. Even main stream gaming sites are starting to have a backlash about the Wii and it’s lack of decent games this far into it’s lifecycle.
Huh? I think you need to broaden your horizons because there is far more than just that one blog.
In my anecdotal experience my main game websites (IGN and Gamespot) only have 1 Wii game rated above 7.5 out of every 6-8 games that come out. There are normally 3-4 out of 8 that have a score less than 6. Even though the 360 and PS3 do have games with those scores it’s not nearly as high of a percentage.
And no I’m not going to spend a bunch of time scouring those sites and compiling data for this post. Like I said, it’s anecdotal.
I just don’t see the success of the Wii hinging on this one game. The vast majority of people who bought Wiis aren’t hardcore gamers and they don’t much care what comes out.
When I first got mine, and started playing with my friends, I said: “You know, if I never buy another game for this, and I just spent $300 for bowling and tennis, I bet I get my money’s worth.” I still believe that. I’ve bought other games and have fun with them, but the simple group games that anyone can play are the reason the console is so great.
For everyone complaining about how poor the software support is, there are three people who are still calling up their local stores a few times a week, hoping they can manage to buy this year+ old console.
I’m sorry, but Mario Kart and Animal Crossing are absolutely AAA titles in America. Have you seen the absolutely ridiculous sales figures of the most recent iteration of each title? Wii Fit has proven to be a juggernaut in Japan; it will likely perform similarly here.
You do realize that Super Smash Bros. Melee was one of the best-selling games of last-generation, right? On a console whose install base was dwarfed by the PS2?
Again, I urge you to look up some sales figures. Nintendo hasn’t had the massive hardware success of Sony the past two generations, but their big sellers have been among the best-selling games of their generation (just like Halo was a giant smash on a console with an install base that was tiny compared to that of the PS2). Smash Bros. is a huge franchise. It will absolutely be one of the highest-selling games of this generation.
Even four (I see no reason to ignore the pack-in) superstar games (bolstered by a number of good games) is very healthy at this point in a console’s life.
Mainsteam gaming sites have been bashing the Wii for not having launched with a software catalog on par with the PS2 at the end of its lifespan since the console launched.
The fact is that it takes a while for consoles to really get off the ground, and for some reason people tend to ignore that when it comes to the Wii. In fact, one of the few consoles I can recall that has had as strong an offering as the Wii has at this point in its life was the Dreamcast.
With the Wii specifically, there’s also the fact that it caught the entire industry off-guard, and third-party developers have had to scramble to prepare projects for the system. We’ll know a lot more about what we can expect to see on the Wii for the rest of the year over the next few months.
For a system at this point in its life, the Wii is, at worst, typical in the amount of good software available on it.
It should come as no surprise that the Wii is home to lots of shovelware. All successful consoles are. I shudder to think what the ratio of good games to shovelware looks like on the PS2, GBA, and DS. Their numbers would dwarf that of the Wii.
This is not the case. Nintendo has released information regarding the demographics of Wii-owners, and most of them are traditional gamers.
This I have no trouble believing; it seems there is a whole lot of junk being shoveled onto the Wii. I don’t mind too much as long as there are good games too. Plus I can’t stay mad at Ninjabread Man.
I’m sure that I spend less time gaming than a lot of people, but for me personally I have no idea how I’ll possibly find the time to play through all the Wii games I’d like to. I’m playing through the hard level on Guitar Hero, and just recently got to 120 stars in Galaxy. When these two came out I had just started RE4 and Metroid, so I have those to go back to. My fiancee got Zack & Wiki for Christmas, which we haven’t even started yet. I’d like to play more of Excite Truck. I want to play No More Heroes. SSBB, Mario Kart, and Wii Fit are coming out. I want to try Okami, which I missed on PS2. I guess Rock Band is coming as well.
And the past week I’ve been wasting all my time playing Professor Layton anyway :D.
Wait, I figured out why I may not have as much time for games as other people.
Stupid wedding planning 
I’m no fan of the series, but SSB:M outsold titles such as FFXII, MGS3, Halo 1, every last gen Madden, Kingdom Hearts, and the list goes on. Six million worldwide is nothing to sneeze at. SSB:B sold a million copies in Japan in less than two weeks. On strength of userbase it will no doubt go on to outsell it’s predecessor.
What kind of games would you list as superstar caliber? The uniqueness of the Wii means that we won’t be seeing sequels to major action games such as DMC. I think the “superstar caliber” games, especially from third parties, will be new IPs. Personally I’m looking at games like Mushroom Men, de Blob, and Speilberg’s Boom Blox to be the shining lights of third party efforts this year. Capcom would be crazy not to release an RE4 spinoff using that engine too, but it will no doubt be overshadowed by RE5, and rightly so.
That one blog that was the source of all the information? Having a development blog updated daily was a pretty good step for Nintendo, who as it’s been said tend to be fairly secretive about their upcoming efforts. We have no idea what is coming in the latter half of 08 from Nintendo for example.
Nintendo is working on the following games for the Wii for 2008:
Super Smash Bros Brawl (March 9)
Mario Kart Wii (April 11)
Wii Fit (May 19)
Disaster: Day of Crisis (Summer)
Mario Baseball (Summer)
Animal Crossing Wii (TBA)
Wii Music (TBA)
Untitled Kirby Game (TBA)
Then there’s all the third party stuff, a lot of which looks really amazing.
We haven’t had any new info for any of these for a while. None of them got a mention at GDC just recently. I’m not ready to consider any of them a lock for this year, although no doubt some of them will make it.
I agree the third party line up is looking good, especially the three I mentioned above, which makes a nice change from last year. Some of the WiiWare stuff looks nice too.
Nintendo has a very consistent MO. They only really hype up their next big release. It’s why Mario Kart Wii is still a practically unknown quantity when it’s being released in two months.
Smash Bros Brawl has sucked up all the hype, as we get closer to E3 and the Tokyo Game Show a good portion of these titles will be revealed in almost complete form. Of course, a few of them will be delayed, as that is also Nintendo’s MO.
Gah! No! Bad! Do not want!
hides under blanket
The last game scared the crap out of me. That wasn’t fair.
Ghostbusters Wii, with Proton Pack Simulation!
Enterance loud FLASH and EXPLOSION
Ext. Charred Wasteland
(Zoom in to two KIDS covered in soot)
KID 1:
Dude, that was awesome.
KID 2
Seriously.
(Enter MOTHER)
MOTHER:
What happened in here!?
KID 1 & KID 2:
We crossed the wiimote beams!
(Fade out with Ghostbusters theme playing)
Ghostbusters Wii!
Summer 2008