just want your opinions?
Yes.
Yes.
As is or should i rush out and buy other controllers or what?
I'd say as is, if just you. I would at least probably buy a "Mario" game too though. I bought my son one, and Mario Kart. I would want to buy the Wii fit but it seems to be soldout everywhere... harder to get that than the actual Wii this year.
Yup- it's the kind of tech that pulls you up short and think "this will change everything".
Oh, and the gameplay is nothing but fun- Zelda in particular- nothing beats racing about on your steed, flailing about with your controller as you ride down baddies.
It depends on the type of games that you enjoy. If you like Mario or Zelda type games, it's the system to get. If you enjoy fighting games like Street Fighter or Tekken as I do, not so much.
I got a used PS2, thank you all for your help.
Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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So sad. The Wii truly is a great game system.
I hated console gaming. Too many damned buttons, triggers, and combo patterns, it really comes down to Dance Dance Revolution for the fingers.
But the Wii forces me to use real life movement to play. Boom Blox is awesome...you "throw" the remote and you "throw" the ball. Bowling in Wii Sports is incredibly close to really bowling. I bowled in a league in my youth for 8 yrs. Won a trophy at State competition one year. When I bowl on the Wii, that ball does EXACTLY what I would make the ball do in real life...hooks just the same!
I've talked with several people who got Force Unleashed on another console system, and we had entirely different playing experiences. They sat and pushed buttons. I'm up and swinging my arms around, shoving the nunchuck at the screen to Force Push, and working up a sweat. I even got winded during one battle with a Jedi.
We typically buy Wii games that are non-console types. So, Mario stuff is out. I conceded with Lego Star Wars and Indiana Jones, because, well, those are pretty cool.
I could go on, but I have more stormtroopers to pick up and fling over the railing to the factory floor below.
;-)
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My Personnel experience is that Wii was not worth it...
The game selection is not for me.. too much orientated for Children and the graphics compared to the Xbox 360 are terrible..
There are a few choice games for wii for me... but they are rare.. I have bought 4 games.. and have had no interest in any of the others.. Wii Fit, Star Wars:Clone wars, Mario Galaxy and Zelda.. all others are garbage or are much better looking on the 360..
If money is an issue.. Wii is cheaper and so are the games... If money is not an issue.. 360 is the way to go.. PS3 has many of the 360 games but I still like the 360 better because of the interface.. Though I do use the PS3 for it's blu-ray all the time..
For Children Wii is the way to go.. for Adult Core Gamers it is not.
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Agreed with Dragnmoon, though I have no problem with the kiddie game selection (though there are a couple of more mature games out there if you look for them; still, I play LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 all the time, so I'm not ashamed of playing pastel-coloured games :), I just found it really gimmicky. I'm in a house of five gamers who are all fans of a pretty wide variety of video game genres and after a couple of months of playing on the Wii constantly we've barely touched it besides getting out Wii Sports, Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros for parties. The controller just isn't precise enough so often sword-fighting type games you're just as good just waggling the wii-mote around randomly as actually trying to do it properly. I also find it massively uncomfortable for more traditional games (I stopped playing Mario Galaxy partly in frustration at the camera and partly because after several levels the controls still felt way too loose and unnatural).
So yeah, good for parties, lame for long term play. Admittedly it probably doesn't help that its 480p resolution looks terrible on our 42" TV, even without comparing it to the 360/PS3. Weird because I play old PS2 and even SNES games on that TV fine, the Wii just looks really bad for some reason.
On the other hand, some of the things people have hacked together using the Wii-mote (like the head tracker, interactive whiteboard and roomba controller) are really cool.
Not being a console gamer, I'd say yes. If you play for the "Point and Click" aspect, get something else. If you want to chill with your family/friends, then it's a good choice.
It depends on what you will use it for. I use it for parties with Rock Band and Guitar Hero being the main draw, and pulling out the fun games like Mario Kart and other Multi Player games.
Of course, if you do the party thing, you'll want to get a projector. As sad as it sounds, it's difficult to huddle 4 people around a 40" screen (my projector throws up to about 98").
Just want to throw in my two cents here. My father-in-law (who lives with my wife and I) bought my wife and I a Wii for our collective birthdays (mine on the first, hers on the 19th, we received the gift on the 5th) and we love it. We got Wii Sports/Play and second controller, and I used b-day money from my parents to get Mario Kart, a second nunchuk, and a third wiimote and classic controller.
We love it. Started off with the Bowling and Tennis. they have probably played Wii Sports every day since get got it. I'd've joined them except for my drive (3-4 hour commute), but on weekends, Mario Kart is tons of fun.
Last night I got the internet channel for the Wii and even browsed the Paizo forums.
Even though I consider myself more of a hardcore gamer than either my wife or father-in-law would consider themselves, the fact that they have more access to the console, and are getting enjoyment out of it. I don't feel bad that it was purchased (as opposed to a 360, the other option he was considering)
The Wii is something both totally different and surprisingly familiar. While I consider myself a "hardcore gamer", the hardcore gamers of today started out on games that, years ago, were "casual games".
I mean, the complexity for games has grown over the years, but for people who always wanted to get in on the gaming fun, while it was quickly becoming a niche hobby, couldn't because of how prohibitive modern "hardcore" games can be.
I remember balking at the six-button controller of the SNES, trying to figure out what kind of game needs six buttons. (Even Street Fighter doesn't really need six buttons, four will do, as King of Fighters and its ilk proved.) But as I became acclimated to increasingly complex control schemes and level design, I forgot that people who didn't play games were looking at modern games like they were some bizarre experience that required months of devotion to just crack into. Enter the Wii.
A couple of buttons, simple game philosophies, engaging entertainment. Although a lot of it's shovelware, most people who want to play don't know or don't care. When it comes right down to it, the "casual gamer", the people who consider watching a movie a night of entertainment, are not that far removed with the Wii. After all, the "controller" is called a "remote". (Why the heck they decided to call the Nunchuck what it is is beyond me, though...I guess "thingy" was too non-descript.)
My girlfriend's not a gamer. I love tabletop RPGs and most video games. (Though Square Enix hasn't released an RPG I've given two cents about since FFX-2, RPGs like Mass Effect still blow me away.) I let her play Sonic the Hedgehog. Sure, you only need one button, but its fast with lots of spike traps. Wouldn't you know it, she kept running into the spikes, or not getting rings, over and over. But it's not her fault. Even Sonic the Hedgehog was still kinda developed with the "gamer" in mind...you have to understand that spikes and those cute crab robots are going to kill you, and to quote Blade Runner, "reaction time is a factor". However, she loves Wii Bowling, and some of those other "move the remote to do stuff" games. Even a game I got her, "Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun", because she loves Agatha Christie novels, she enjoyed...because she liked moving the guy around.
Though I've retained my badge as a "hardcore gamer"--loved my PS2, now my 360--and the graphically stunning games, with high production values and multi-faceted online functionality, hat's off to Nintendo for reopening the doors to new "gamers", and reminding us why games like Mario, Gyromite, and Bubble Bobble engaged us years ago.
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Although a lot of it's shovelware,
And this is my problem with the system... 90% of the games if not more, for the Wii belong in the same Pit that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video games are buried in.
If Nintendo is not careful they are going to go the same route that Atari did when they made the same mistake.
Nintendo needs to take control of the Garbage they are allowing for their system and start having some quality control.
I don't like the Wii myself, mostly for the same reasons others have stated. The concept is neat, yes, but the games and graphics are severely lacking when compared to 360 or PS3.
Its pretty easy to spot if you look at things like the video game awards, and all you see is PS3, and 360 games as nominees for the best console games.
I used to have an N64 and all we ever played on that was mario kart and mario party, but everything else never really caught on.
I think that it's all a matter of perspective. We got a Wii for our kids this Christmas and they (and we) are loving it. If I had got a system for myself, I would have gone for a PS3, but for the family, the Wii is great. The games (we have) are fun and everyone can enjoy it. Of course there's a lot of "drivel" out there, but then that's what Blockbuster and game rentals are for... ;)
AJC
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Although a lot of it's shovelware,And this is my problem with the system... 90% of the games if not more
Nintendo needs to take control of the Garbage they are allowing for their system and start having some quality control.
90% of PS2 games were shovelware.
And why are you blaming Nintendo for the third-party games?I don't want to see a watered down RE5 port on the Wii. But what I WOULD like to see is a new exclusive RE game. I don't want it to be a port of a last-gen game. I don't want it to be a on-rails shooter. A game that uses RE4's gameplay, with improved graphics (yes, the Wii CAN do better than the GCN). Maybe it can implement MotionPlus (although that's not a big sticking point with me, as I think the Wii's motion controls in general have been rather overhyped...the IR pointing, however, is utterly brilliant). After they've created this game, and given it a budget and development team worthy of a full scale entry in the series, I want them to actually bother to promote the game. This doesn't even have to be extensive or expensive...I think that I, like most gamers these days, get more game information from websites than any other source. Given that I mostly use a DVR to watch TV, I can't remember the last time I watched ANY commercial, much less a video game commercial. So throw some money at IGN's advertising, a few other sites, and some video game magazines.
The problem that third-party developers are having with the Wii is that their half-assed "hardcore" game efforts put together by their D-teams with minimal budgets, minimal development times, and zero promotion aren't selling as well as the the PS3/360 games that they devote actual time, budget, personnel, and promotion to. So quite obviously, the problem is that there's no market for hardcore games on the Wii.
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Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Yeah, I'm getting the sense that there are two kinds of gamers weighing in on this: casual console gamers and hardcore console gamers.
For the record, I'm a casual console gamer, and former hardcore PC gamer.
The Wii is great for the family. There are lots of games that are excellent to get those non-gaming persons in your family to actually sit down and PLAY. Play on the Wii, for the most part, is interactive and engaging. It makes you move. I myself will not buy a game if it involves sitting on my butt and mashing a bunch of buttons.
We have the Wii Fit Plus, Sports, Sports Resort. We have the Lego games (for my son) that he adores. My wife enjoys the Dance Dance Revolution games, and we just picked up Samba di Amigo, a DDR-like game, but with maracas. Hilarious. I myself enjoy Boom Blox, Big Brain Academy, Force Unleashed, and the Wii Fit games.
I bought the RE: Umbrella Chronicles. Hate it. HATE IT.
I must agree with the post above...rent a game first. About half the games we rent, we instantly hate. Another quarter, we sort of like, but quickly get tired of. That last quarter? Games that are great.
A big surprise for us was Monster Lab. Goes for about $20 now. Has minigames, monster building and upgrading, duels, and more. Great fun.
Bottom line is that the Wii isn't a typical console. It can't be. It's strength is being a console that EVERYONE can play...kids, parents, grandma and grandpa.
unless you are 6 the wii will sit and collect dust as soon as you get tired of bowling
I'm older than 6, and my Wii is still in use after 2 years. Or is it three already?
ps3
*Yawn* Oh look, it's a blue-ray player that also has overpriced games!
Sure, there are a couple of games for the PS3 I'd like, but they tend to come out for the PC, too, with better graphics.
That's really all the PS3 could give me - graphics tech. And my PC eats PS3s for breakfast.
But the Wii is the first breath of fresh air in the whole console business - well, there's also the DS.
The concept is neat, yes, but the games and graphics are severely lacking when compared to 360 or PS3.
Not everyone wants graphics.
Actually, the games that were the greatest time sinks for me weren't about graphics at all.
Not that I don't like great graphics. I like Resident Evil 5 - on the PC, which has the best graphics.
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I play my Wii and PS3 in approximately equal measure. Maybe a bit heavier towards PS3 now, but for the first two years or so I owned both, it was HEAVILY slanted towards the Wii. I don't own a 360, because I'm not a huge fan of generic FPS games, and that seems to be the vast majority of the consoles library. If anything is a "casual" console, it's the 360...it's entire userbase is built on people who buy the flavor of the month FPS, sports game, and racing game....is ANYTHING more casual than that?
racing game....is ANYTHING more casual than that?
Are there even casual racing games any more? I remember the last I played was one of the old Need for Speed games - back when they had numbers. I think it might have been NFS3 or 4.
And now, whenever I see another NFS somewhere, I get tempted - until it mentions how you tune your cars and all that. Screw that! I just want to race a really fast and expensive car. Press the button for forwards and go!
Is any of the later games like that again? Or do they all involve finding the perfect configuration for the car?
I cant see spending the next-gen price tag on a console with the same graphics level of my old GC.
Not enough games that interest me as well, though I wouldnt mind taking a widescreen shot at the Metroid Trilogy again (assuming the games are widescreen in the wii version).
I can see the fun at a party factor, just not my bag. Ill stick with my PC and PS3.
I cant see spending the next-gen price tag on a console with the same graphics level of my old GC.
The Wii might not be that much cheaper than the other consoles any more, but that was a lot different when the consoles came out, at least around here (though I'm quite sure it was no different everywhere else):
When the PS3 was first released, it cost €500 (the one with the smallest HD, and I think that one had no Wi-Fi capabilities, either. The bigger version cost 600). It took quite some time (and several versions - which not only gained some features like bigger HDs, but also lost others, like downwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games) and several price slashes to arrive at the current price, which is not quite 300 for the one with the smaller HD (120) and without game, or about 350 for the one with the bigger HD (250) and a game in the bundle.
The Wii, on the other hand, cost €250. That means that especially in the beginning, you could have the Wii for half as much money as the PS3. You could get a Wii and some extra equipment (more remotes and so on) and maybe a game or two and still pay less than for the PS3 alone.
It's not so long ago that the Wii went from 250 down to 200. I guess they didn't need to slash the prices - the console was selling quite well without that.
But if you need shiny graphics, the Wii isn't for you, anyway.
Still waiting for my bloody fencing sim.
Three words:
Light
Saber
Duels
Wii Sports Resort has Swordplay, but it's just not the same. I want to sever hands while telling brats I'm their father.
I have high hopes for Red Steel 2 for the Wii as well.....Still waiting for my bloody fencing sim.Three words:
Light
Saber
Duels
Wii Sports Resort has Swordplay, but it's just not the same. I want to sever hands while telling brats I'm their father.
Haven't played long enough to comment on it, but you do walk around as a Samurai Cowboy in an Oriental Western Town.
The game does seem to track your sword movements more precisely than the first one - and you get to use your sword (and your guns) all the time, not just for duels.
Sometimes you use both in devastating combos.
But I think it's only a matter of time before LucasArts does some Wii-Exclusive game making use of motion plus. The Force Unleashed could have been that game.
Really liking Red Steel 2 so far. The mix of Western and Eastern is just crazy, and the game is a lot of fun.
A lot of upgrades satisfy the "RPG gene" (you can buy and upgrade weapons, upgrade your katana, make your special moves stronger - and you can get life extensions and armour), the fights are fun, and finally, you get to be a bloodthirsty bastard again ;-) (the bullet-time-like focus system from Red Steel 1 is gone, there are no honour points to be had from sparing anyone - so you cut and shoot your way through the enemy gangs.)
I like the controls - there might be a couple of little snags, but it's still a good control system. I can only imagine what The Force Unleashed would be like if it played like this!