Actually, I don’t know. Its predecessors certainly were but I stopped buying consoles after the N64 (too disillusioned by F-Zero X, y’see).
Got me, then. I’ve got an HD screen with component hookups for the Wii and I think it looks just fine.
Try it on an SDTV sometime. You’ll be shocked at how much better and smoother it looks.
Hey! I happen to be a lazy programmer, and that remark was referential.
Now just for that, shake your wiimote to eat the “apologize” power-up.
Luckily for Nintendo, HD is still taking its sweet time to catch on. HDTV prices have to drop to about half of what they are now before the lack of HD-readiness will be a real problem.
The GameCube and Xbox were about even in the power department with developers giving the extra development love to the Xbox because of the hard drive, Xbox Live and its controller.
But there was almost nothing the Xbox could do that the Cube couldn’t. And they both blew the PS2 out of the water.
Using component hookups on my HDTV compared to composite output on my SDTV is no contest - HDTV at 480p wins by a mile. Jaggies might be there IF you sit 3 inches from the screen and are looking for them.
Using composite output on the HDTV makes the Wii look like a knockoff N64. Just ugly.
It’s the first console which made the women interested. Everybody likes it, and it’s fairly cheap.
:dubious:
–Jayn, lifelong female gamer
My parents even bought a Wii, and they hardly even buy games for the computers they already have. Yet, after playing on ours, they got one for themselves. I think the slew of mini-game games might have something to do with the appeal to casual players though–there’s no story to trudge through, or racing to the next save point before dinner gets cold. They can just pick up and play, and put it down again whenever they like.
Perhaps not you, specifically, but the Wii appeals to non-gamer females in a way video games didn’t before.
That said, so do Guitar Hero and Rock Band, for some reason.
I had to point that bit out anyways–even though I know video games are traditionally a male pastime, I’ve never quite wrapped my head around that idea.
(My husband mentioned that the vibrate function has been around long before the Wii, so it’s probably not that that’s attracting the girls 
)
That said, I bet the PowerGlove would have sold a lot better if it vibrated…
No it doesn’t. Get the adaptor/component cables for it. The Wii’s only flaws are an apparent lack of relevant titles that appeal to the hardcore RPG/FPS gamer, and lack of CVG-quality graphics. That’s pretty much IT.
Don’t forget the thoroughly hobbled online component. (And the lack of downloadable games other than overpriced VC ROMs, but that’s being fixed.)
Going for the FPS/RPG/graphics gamer would have killed this system just like it killed the last two. Nintendo already lost that battle twice, and once again they would have lost, because I doubt the gamer-Wii would not have supported Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.
Nintendo had to do something different or they were going to be in third place. So they have a system that appeals to a new audience, has a different experience than just more buttons and smaller pixels, and doesn’t need the latest home AV equipment to run at its best (but it runs just fine on the latest stuff). On top of all that, it’s $100-$200 cheaper than the alternatives. That’s why the Wii is successful. If you want what the other consoles offer, buy them - you were probably going to anyway.
For the non-gamer market, I’d say that not only is Wii Sports the killer app, but Mii Channel is, too.
The Wii is not without its faults, sure - the 480p mode compares unfavorably to the HD modes on the other two systems at first glance, and Wii Sports doesn’t do any favors here. Mario Galaxy pulls it off pretty good, though.
Quite a few of the early set of games for the Wii had the feeling that they were just Gamecube games with Wiimote controls patched on – because they were.
Online play could be better - I’m still unclear on which games can be played head-to-head online. It seems some games that support online play on other systems don’t on the Wii, and I don’t know if that’s a publisher thing or a Wii thing. The lack of voice chat doesn’t bother me, but I can certainly see the appeal.
I don’t have any opinion on the VC other than that I’m happy to see I can finally get Zelda 3 (which wasn’t included on the Zelda compilation I got with my Gamecube), and the real SMB 2. I do kinda wish they were cheaper, but really $5-$10 isn’t that bad.
The Wii does have games that suck (so does any console), but really, games are $50 so it’s not like you need 100 top quality games to have a good catalog - I’ll bet the average Wii owner will buy less than 1 game a month.
I’m just hoping the sports publishers don’t abandon the Wii like they did the Gamecube. I’m glad to see NCAA 2009 will be available on the Wii, since EA dropped the NCAA line from the gamecube in like 2004. Hopefully the strong console sales will keep the publishers around, and they won’t be scared off by the Wiimote. I would have considered buying and Xbox360 for better sports games, but it seems like much of big games for Xbox are FPS, and I got sick of FPS and online shoot-em-up playing Quake during college. The Wii “experience” attracted me to purchase a Wii instead. I probably would have sat this generation out, otherwise.
It’s not just the lack of voice chat, it’s the lack of any chat or even a global friends list. If you want to play against someone, you first have to exchange those ridiculous friend codes over some other channel, and each game has a different code.
In Smash Bros, you can play against randomly matched opponents, but you don’t get to know who they are, or even that they’re really human: if they disconnect during a game, the AI instantly takes over without telling you.
In other words, there’s no chance of forming an online community like there is on Xbox (since last generation), PS3, and the PC (with Steam). You can’t meet people online by playing against them, you can only invite people who you already know from somewhere else.
Noted. Is that a problem of poor online implementation in the games, or a design “choice” in WiiConnect24?
Can I just say that, less than 24 hours after hooking up the new Wii, I am 100% hooked. How the hell have I lived all my life without this thing? And I am a 40 year old mother of two, for Christ’s sake!
Scored a Wii crossbow at Target today…
The Wii is popular because it does what it set out to do: attract a new gaming audience with straightforward, playable games and a fun, innovative interface.
The fact that housewives are leaving dinners uncooked to play ‘just one more game’ is incredible. This was just what the console industry needed, and I applaud Nintendo for their strategy this time around. It would have been a waste of time for them to chase the WW2 FPS/Street Racing demographic; Microsoft and Sony have got those bases well covered. Complaining that the games on the Wii aren’t super duper high-def fragfests is like complaining that Burger King don’t serve filet mignon.
Besides, I’m just glad that someone has attempted to revive virtual reality’s corpse from the eighties with all this cool tech. Next step, lightweight 3d headsets.
I’m sorry, what did you say?