Is there any way the Wii can possibly live up to the hype being hoisted upon it?

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Thursday, 21 September 2006 08:45

A quick run-through of most gaming blogs for the past week or so reveals a literal ton of Wii stories, overwhelmingly positive Wii stories at that. Even the mainstream press like CNN and Time magazine has gotten on the Wii-wagon. There has been a little bit of grumbling about the price and the region coding, but other than that the general consensus seems to be that the Wii will do everything short of curing cancer. On a personal note I've been telling people how much fun it was after playing it at E3. So with all these glowing reviews and unprecedented hype (i.e. changing the face of gaming forever), is there anyway the Wii can live up to what's it been hyped up to? Or are we cruising toward an inevitable letdown, which we'll probably blame on Nintendo?

There's no doubt the Wii is going to be fun. But can it ever move beyond simple pick up and play games? Obviously games like Wario Ware:Smooth Moves will excel on the system. But is something like Zelda really going to be better on the Wii controller? Or even preferable? Portions of it would be (fishing, arrows, boomerangs) but what about platforming, boss battles, and stealth? Can the Wii-mote completely replace the standard type of controller we've all gotten used to? I played Zelda at E3 and while it was impressive to control, I wouldn't say it was any better, just different. In the end I'm pretty sure I'll be buying the Gamecube version.

Games like Excite Truck are perfectly suited to the system. The system of tilting and turning your car in mid-air is more fun that it initially seems to be. But could you ever play a game like Gran Turismo? People will argue that they'll sell a steering wheel attachment or something similar, but if you look at the percentage of peripheral controller sales you'd know that the idea of buying all these attachments and upgrades will never catch on for the majority of users, therefore the support won't be there %100.

Now I'm not down on the Wii, I really enjoyed playing it and I'm really excited to get it into my home. I just don't think it can live up to the image we have in our minds. It's not going to change the face of video gaming anymore than the DS has. And it's not like innovation ends up living up to the expectations all the time (Rembmer those Virtual Reality games from the 90's?).

I guess what I'm saying is be careful for what you wish for. For some reason the Wii is commanding positive press like I've never seen in a console launch. And if everyone out there believes this system is the second coming, and it turns out to just be a lot of fun, we're all going to be let down. I think we're putting un-due expectation on a system that it has no way of meeting.

So what do you think? What games do you think will and won't work on the Wii? Will it be able to please the hardcore?

Comments (5) Add Comment

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written by Greshkov, September 21, 2006

we all know i'm a driving sim nut. that's not news, and neither is the fact that the wii mote will suck for driving sims. i think it's a gimick that is actually going to work. and by work, i mean be slightly more profitable than the gamecube. that being said, come march i plan on having one.

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written by Harpua Scorpio, September 22, 2006

Much like the DS, the Wii is going to be best for games that are built specifically to take advantage of the type of gaming the Wii has to offer. You recently mentioned in your Mario Hoops review that some of the best games don't use the touch screen almost at all. One of the things that has me most excited for the Wii is the Virtual Console. I'm a huge fan of XBLA and I think that the back catalogue that Nintendo has to offer is quite the selling point.

Will the Wii please the hardcore gamers? That depends...the WoW gamers? Not so much. We'll see how open everyone is to trying it out. I've actually started to question whether I want to wait to get one or not based on my current living situation, which is kind of cramped. It seems like you'll need a decent amount of space to play the Wii, but I could be wrong.

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written by Mr Butterscotch, October 01, 2006

I'm not convinced that ANYTHING will live up to the hype of the Wii, and I've actually gone off the idea of getting one. I'm not a graphics whore, far from it, but I really dislike the idea that the GC games I've got could have been Wii launch titles due to the power defferential (or lack thereof). Groovy. Or not.

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written by kaoSFell, December 04, 2006

*late I know*
Not that the system is out has anyone opinions changed?

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written by danzuke(NetPhantom), December 04, 2006

It's fun, no two ways about it. But as excited as I am, I'm still unsure about the longterm. The graphics are no big deal now, but what about 3 years down the road? Will the novelty have worn off? It's really totally up to the developers to make sure that the system stays innovative.