Wii! Wait, why?

So like many people I own a Wii. I did the whole hunt one down for months after it was released and finally on that fateful day I was able to buy one. What did I do with it when I got it home? I set the box down and just went back to playing the game I was playing through at the time (Turok) I hadn’t even bought a game for the Wii. So after I finished up Turok I went to the store and picked up a copy of Zelda: Twilight Princess and guess what? Even though it’s the same game we’ve seen for years I had a lot of fun playing through it. I’ve bought a few more Wii games since then but it is the neglected system in my gaming collection. I’ve only finished two of the games I bought for it (Zelda and No More Heroes) with interest in a bunch of others but when it comes time to buy a new game I just get a PC or PS3 game instead. It’s just the way it is right now.

So let me just flat out say this right now, I do not like motion controls they’re not really all that great. I have not played a game with them where it made the experience more enjoyable or made me feel like I’m in the game anymore then when I’m holding a regular controller. As much as I liked Zelda: TP having to swing the Wiimote to swing the sword for 40 hours became a chore and I was wishing for an alternative about 10 hours in. After playing No More Heroes I like what they did. The A button swings your sword and the waggle is saved for finisher moves. You also had to use the controller in a jerk off motion to charge the battery of the beam katana which was fun. I thought these were both good uses of the Wii motion controls but it didn’t really add anything to the game, I would of enjoyed NMH just as much without the waggle.

The big thing waggle was suppose to improve was the FPS genre and guess what? It didn’t really do that. A couple games or really just Metroid Prime 3 use it in a playable manner but the other games like the COD games or the Conduit don’t really play that great. Trying them out all I wished was that I had a mouse and keyboard or a dual stick controller, and I thought that even with MP3. The big problem are the FPS games that make you move the cursor to the side of the screen to turn. You have to big of a chance to just aim off screen and stop moving instead of turning. I guess they could use the analog stick to turn but then you lose strafing, I don’t know it just doesn’t work.

Lately games on the Wii don’t make you use the waggle at all or they give you the option to use the waggle or the classic controller which I think Nintendo should of been doing from the start. They wouldn’t of alienated their “hardcore” audience if the games gave you an option. I do believe they’re slowly winning people back with fan wanted games like the newest Punch Out and Kid Icarus on the upcoming 3DS but we will see.

While I don’t really play my Wii or plan to anytime soon I do support the games that are coming out right now. We’re seeing some obscure Japanese games like Shirin the Wanderer which I’m extremely interested in but will probably never play. Muramasa: the Demon Blade by the makers of Odin Sphere looks great too. The art style really fits with what the Wii can do, I want to see more games like it out here. The new Sin and Punishment just came out here when the first game never saw an official US release and that game looks badass and looks to use the motion aiming really well because you don’t control the turning as the game handles that in an on rails way. I also know the Monster Hunter series is extremely popular in Japan and kind of a cult thing here in the US but we get the latest game, Monster Hunter Tri here and with it we see the release of the Classic Controller Pro, finally a real controller for the Wii and I hope with it out more people start releasing games that fit into this Wii centric not really mainstream game that use this controller instead of the Wiimote.

When I was in a store last night and saw Coldstone Creamery the game for the Wii I was disgusted, shit like that is why I hate the Wii with a passion and hate what it has done to gaming. But the things mentioned in the last paragraph are why I like it. I’ll never 100 percent think it was ever a good thing for the gaming world but I’ve learned to accept it.