I'm Not a Hater; Just a Realist

I'm gonna say it. It's long past time someone did. The Nintendo Wii's effective lifespan is over. Last week, there were a rash of small, quickly ignored articles about how Nintendo is going to remain on the cutting edge (the other authors' emphasis, not mine); there's just one I really want to talk about though. It wonders if the Wii can earn back the "hardcore" (I'll call them just "core," but that's a different rant) gaming crowd. The short answer is "No." Among the people who actually play games, the Wii is a joke. Sacrificing high definition graphics for usability was a bold move, and it's a great business move, but it only really works if there's software to back it up.

All of the games made in-house by Nintendo are amazing. Pretty much everything else is awful. There are so many terrible games out there that the Interwebs created a new term: Shovelware. I know of only two games that could come close to drawing in core gamers, but they came way too late and are still too quirky to change the trend. As a real gaming console, Wii was almost dead on arrival.

What drove Wii's sales was price, family-friendly appearance, and the promise of good games...eventually. The good games came out, and I played them, but I was reminded (again) that I don't really like Mario, Zelda, or Metroid. Poor planning on my part. The Wiimote, cute as it is, is simply not accurate enough for any real precision work on which many of my favorite games thrive. The graphics were adequate, but not as immersive as other systems. There's a lot wrong with the Wii, but that never seemed to matter.

Good ole Reggie et al. did a marvelous job pitching this to all groups, but they found their greatest toehold among casual gamers. My Xbox controller has, depending on how creative you wish to be, 14 buttons that I must keep track of at all times and use appropriately. Wii's initial goal was to emulate that kind of high-end gameplay, but effectively use two buttons. Lofty goals, but developers never really got on board. Nintendo knew what it wanted and knew how to get it, but third-parties still haven't quite gotten the gist of it.

If the only criteria we look at are units sold and money made, Wii is the irrefutable victor of this generation (so far). Yet, all of my friends have had more fun with their Xbox 360 than they ever would on Wii. Hell, one friend sold a Wii, bought a 360, and regrets ever buying Nintendo's baby.

Wii is innovative and fun (in spurts). It's opened the world of gaming to virtually everyone. It is a resounding success in all the ways that matter to Nintendo, but they'll have to come out with something new soon. Production is finally meeting demand. Reduced scarcity will reduce interest, and things get less rosy.

Nintendo still has a lot of Nerd Credits in its inventory, but it's got to find a better balance of innovation and familiarity for its next generation, or the core gamers might just resign themselves to a Mario-less world and keep playing something else in high definition on a console that includes a damn DVD player.

Change is all well and good, but Sony's proven time and again that it won't mean much if it alienates the core fanbase. Casual gamers make up a huge portion of the population and spend lots of money, but it's the core gamers who inspire the innovative spirit of those in the industry; don't sacrifice them for an easy buck.




P.S. To illustrate the concept of Shovelware, Action Girlz Racing exists.