Look at an article I wrote about the Wii over 1 1/2 years ago. Was I right?

I wrote published the following article May 3, 2007 on a website I'm not going to post here just in case I get called for spamming. Keep in mind that the article was written pretty close after the Wii was released. Here on gamespot I got the following replies, among a mass of others

"One of the worst articles I have read. Sounds like a SW poster who doesnt have a Wii and bashes the crap out of it."
"The guy writing that article is pretty big on stupid. He should take some smart pills before he turns into a Presidential candidate."

After the constant bickering I got tired of reading all the posts. There may be a few people who liked the article, but I'm not sure. Everyone on here seemed so quick to bash it (and me).

Here's the article. Was I wrong? I'll add a few points with brackets:

I'm no Sony or Microsoft fanboy. I own all three next gen consoles and have fun with all of them. The Wii is starting to get me a little depressed though. I haven't been playing it as much...and each time I do, it feels less and less "revolutionary" by the passing minutes. Heck, no game since "Wii Sports" has taken full advantage of the Wiimote...and that's sad. I may not be a psychic, but I think there's a good chance the Wii will NEVER improve...same way the Nintendo DS never improved. Look, I'm pretty sure you can tell which direction the Wii will go by just looking at what happened to the DS. Check it out:

Developers will pump out extremely short and simple games

The games started off short and simple on the DS and then got to the point of "Lift that Rock! You beat the game!" Most new games released for the DS can easily be completed in 2 hours. And this isn't "Super Mario in under 2 hours," the games are DESIGNED to be over with in no time. Now let's look at the Wii. The games are already short for the system, and I'm finding myself beating some of them in five hours or less[hasn't changed]. These games would work as a Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade or PS Network game, but charging $50 for some of these games is flat out robbery! And when they're even easier and shorter, I doubt any serious gamer will shell out the cash.

Companies will not improve on Wiimote sensing [I think I was right about this]

Right now everyone is saying that the makers of these games just haven't gotten the hang of the Wiimote sensing yet. Like I mentioned above, "Wii Sports" has come closest to taking advantage of the sensor. And that's the game that comes with the system. Now think back two years ago, we were all thinking the same thing about the DS. Nearly every game that came out on the DS had little to no touch screen support; but everyone was saying, "don't worry, they'll integrate the touch screen, they have to." It wasn't that developers were bad at integrating touch screen support; it was that using the touch screen in most cases was an inferior way to play games. The touch screen's role has since decreased, however, with most games using the extra screen as an options menu or a place to put a map. Well since the Wii is pretty much stuck with its motion controls, there's really nothing they can do. The Wiimote can only do so much, and so far, we're not seeing anything terribly amazing. I'm willing to bed more and more games will start requiring the "****c controller," or, like the new "Paper Mario," just call for the Wiimote to be turned on its side and used as the old Nintendo D-Pad. Don't look forward to this changing.

Nintendo will release ANYTHING! [Muahahaha. Call me Nostrajoshy. Just teasing ;)]

With the DS, Nintendo would get terrible games from the most obscure developers just to boast that they had more titles than the PSP. That's cool...have fun pumping out eight iterations of "Brain Age" while I play the 3D action games that the PSP does WELL. It's called quality control. Rarely will you look at any game on the DS and see reviews that go over eight out of ten. Now the same thing is happening to the Wii. While like the DS, the system had a few good games at launch, they've since been pumping out crap and the pipeline is smelling a whole lot like poo.

Graphics won't show any major improvement, in fact, the majority of future games may be 2D! [So maybe the 2D point isn't very accurate, but there hasn't been much of an improvement to the graphics]

When the system first debuted, there were quite a few 2D games coming out with graphics that could easily go on the Gameboy Advance. Everyone thought the same thing, that in the future, most of the games would be N64 quality. Well after two years, the DS has gotten worse at providing us 3D experiences and maybe one in a dozen games are actually 3D. (no, "New Super Mario Bros." does NOT count). We're already starting to see this trend with the Wii with games like Bust a Move Bash, Cooking Mama, Warioware: Smooth Moves, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

Rampage: Total Destruction for the PS2:

Rampage: Total Destruction for the Wii:

Crappy first person shooters and racers will come out. [Uh-huh]

Loads of puzzle games will come out [Eh, more or less.]

Talk about cheap cash-ins! Puzzle games for the DS tend to be so simple and so boring that the most difficult part of the game is reading the Japanese-inspired title. I'm not sure why they even release them... the only puzzle game that people play for the DS is Meteos. Wii's future looks to be about the same.

Online play will be restricted to only a few games. [Told ya]

Two years in and the DS has only a few online games. While the Gamecube jumped into the fray while Xbox Live and Playstation Online were going strong, they Nintendo made only a handful of games play online for that too! They've had the technology for their past two systems to network gamers to play online, why would they start releasing a ton of online games now?

Lack of games developed by Nintendo. [Once again, told ya]

While all the games developed by Nintendo for the DS were really great, only a slim number of them ever came out. For a system to really succeed, it is going to need some of the first party characters that Nintendo is famous for bringing us, but sadly, like the DS, very few of these have been announced. Hopefully the lack of Nintendo games for the DS signals that they were spending their time working on Wii games. Doubt it though. I mean, a system launch without a Mario game? What the heck!

Companies will release nearly identical games just to make a buck or two. [Uh...]

Oh no! We're already starting to see this with the Wii with games like Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and Kororinpa: Marble Mania. And what's this thing with them re-releasing games that come out over half of a year after their original release date on the PS2 and Xbox. Rampage: Total Destruction and Ant Bully weren't good then and they aren't good now! Hopefully the Wii won't start releasing games that are nearly identical to other games on the system like the DS has started to do. Let's just say that there are probably 10-15 Sudoku games out on the DS and several puzzlers and platformers that feel identical to each other as well.

Good luck finding a decent rpg [Called it]

Recent Nintendo systems haven't really given us too many rpgs. The handheld systems did have quite a few and the Gameboy Advance had a ton of great ones. Now we move onto the DS and we see that it had quite a few rpgs but almost all of them were mediocre dungeon crawlers. Honestly, judging by the Gamecube and N64, I really doubt that the Wii will have many rpgs, but if it does, hopefully the companies put more work in than they did for DS rpgs. And I think all rpg gamers on DS will agree, let us get rid of drawing the squiglies to cast spells.

Kiddo games galore [Oh yeah]

I seem to remember the past few Nintendo systems having a surplus of kid games and a drought of games that will appeal to anyone over the age of fifteen. Most of the games that have come out on the DS and Gamecube have just been too simple and/or easy and/or have a kiddish look to them and just aren't what the older video game audience is looking for. Bicker all you want! Yeah the Wii has RE4 and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon coming, but both of those are ports, and I've played the heck out of both of them already leaving me nothing adult-oriented for the Wii.

Written By Josh Stevens

1.) post a link to the original thread

2.) for every point you made there, i have something to come back with. but right now i am tired, and to lazy to. so if tommorrow morning someone hasen't already done so, i will prove all of your points false

Developers will pump out extremely short and simple games

Got any examples? I like simple gamesa for starters. To me simple games are better than complex games. Mario Kart is a simple game, World of Goo is a simple game. Are you just talking about length? Casue most PS3 and 360 games can be finished in 5 or so hours.

Companies will not improve on Wiimote sensing [I think I was right about this]

Of course they won't.

Nintendo will release ANYTHING! [Muahahaha. Call me Nostrajoshy. Just teasing ;)]

beside wiimusic, again any examples?

Graphics won't show any major improvement, in fact, the majority of future games may be 2D! [So maybe the 2D point isn't very accurate, but there hasn't been much of an improvement to the graphics]

Crappy first person shooters and racers will come out. [Uh-huh]

Loads of puzzle games will come out [Eh, more or less.]

The wii has all the great puzzle games this gen. You are on drugs

Online play will be restricted to only a few games. [Told ya]

Yep, but its getting better. N's just late.

Lack of games developed by Nintendo. [Once again, told ya]

What are you talking about?

Companies will release nearly identical games just to make a buck or two. [Uh...]

Very rare to see this today. Almost all devs were cought with their pants down. The only oe i can think of off the top of my head is Dead Rising (a terrible idea) and the play it on wii games (which are meant to re-introduce these games to the new non-gamers so they will buy the sequals).

Good luck finding a decent rpg [Called it]

True for every console this gen.

Umm...its nintendo.

your wrong,

so wrong, no console is perfect

never will be until online and split screen are both back in the game lol, aand they stop focusing so much on the graphics

and instad the length and gameplay to !

rpgs your right on that one but is it nintendos fault, no theres a few on wii tos2 just to name one

a few on 360 , and very few on ps3,

its not a wii problem its a whole problem that you cant solve unless you make your own company

as far as fpses go , wii has more split screen fpses then any of them ,and what it offers is actually good to bad reviewrs ruin it for most people lol

like they gotta be told what to wear !

racing games, we have need for speed cruisn -exclusive mariokart exclusive classic ritish motor racing nitro bike, mx vs atv , excite truck

etc do you need 100 fps and 100 racing games? if so that pretty sad!

nintendo not releasing games is a myth lol they released 22+ games spacifically for he wii , and more for the ds if your interisted ,

and then you got gc games and vc, your on a losing case!

losing i tell you

because in 09 we

have mario/zelda teams next project

punchout

wii sports 2 resort

disaster day of crisis

metroid prime 1/2 pikmin and mario power tennis remakes

and thats just a hint ! not the full line up , because unlike ms and sony who already have 09 planned nintendo takes their time, delivering messages and still produces the same amount of quality found in ps3 360 games from their respective owners, i ve played all 3 for the sake of bein able to play them so why not!

and dont complain about bargin bin titles, thats been around for many years , most of the popularized consoles since 32 bit era had them ,

dont like em dont play them

aaae etc shouldnt matter either you should know what you like to play!

listening to reviewers to tell you if the game is good or not is like relyin on a 56 k it helps but it doesnt quite work out well ,

examples, 10,0 gta iv , i dont think so, now i want my 60 bux back but cant have it lol, good game but it wasnt what the reviewers were sayin about it

red steel a 5.5 i dont think so 7.5 sounds more accurate, seeing as it is a launch game

you should get my point by this one or youll always fail to realise that , a review is only an opinion of one

timesplitters future perfect was rated 8.3 on xbox and ps2 while a 7.9 on gamecube this should tell you somthing, its an opinion not a fact because io own all 3 versions of this game nothin is missing from the gc version except online which thats off on the ps2 version now any way and no one plays it on xbox live any more oh and credit cards were required so no ,

i dont think its fair to listen to a reviewer lol,

i can see if you were a total noob and didnt know what to play ,

but theres also somthin called blockbuster or netflix

lol get it rent somthin before buy and now you et free demos on psn and xbl that should help to , to see what you want, us needin to see what critic say are history now!

and last but not least dont you think you could have posted this in the system wars forum!

also you mentioned graphics as if graphics were the problem ,

i dont see a problem with playstation 1 snes gba ps2 xbox or gc graphics or n64 for hat matter,

i dont recall for the last 2 gens nintendo being the least powerful ,, i recalled them either having the most powerful and 2nd powerful for their respective gens but which one sold the most, the one with the least powerful graphics soo if you want to complain now so be it but that isnt nintendos fault its not ours either,

so get over it, nintendo told us what to expect, heres what reggie and iwata said many times

wii will not be a traditional console, it will only be slightly more powerful then a gc ,

and have said they will make sure a game from almost any one of their franchises comes to wii,

at or after launch ,

and thats exactly what they delivered ,

i have 86 games in all on wii /vc wii ware and half is made by nintendo half is made by 3rd party ,

how do i have this much you may ask well i know what i like to play leave it at that,

reviewers or your opinions do not tell me what to buy ,

unless i ask !

which is very rare lol,

heres how i see it , if you been playing games since nes, and still need to know what you like, dont you think its time to look for a new hobby lol,

yes theirs new series.s but if they were fps , or racing which theyve been , you should know what to expect and if your afraid its a shallow one, rent it first! or go for what you already played, say , in 1991 you played super mariokart and loved it chances are you own the next one which was mariokart 64 ,

but in the same time frame you played family feud , and you hated the heck out of it, dont you think your gonna avoid any next one in the series lol

quite simple,

sure looking at some reviews does help but they aint 100 percent your opinion either,

in fact thats not your opinion thats the reviewers opinion i know from experience that , ive played loads of highly rated software , which turned out to be in fact not so good,

example is rockband , the person playing this game must of liked the guitar but when i played this omg i hated the guitar , so thats an indication i would hate the dang thin dont ask , lol

or how about ddr, loads of people say this is a fun /good game, i played it, turned out to be not so good,

you thought standing up to play wii was tiring , then you should go to the arcades and play this ,,

10 minutes of you stomping feet trust me your feets gonna be so sore more sore then if you played wii lol !

i got a few questions be serious

when you bought your wii did you expect 360 ps3 visuals?

did you also expect top notch online service for a starter console that just had it for the first time?

and were you reliant on 3rd party titles (i know i wasnt, even when i own a ps3 360 , 3rd party isnt a priority lol its like accessories, you buy that third party controller its gonna break alot faster then a officail one,

same goes for games, results will vary

i enjoy all of sonys ms and nintendos offerings while i dont always enjoy the third party offerings i can list one for each of the 3 major consoles from 3rd party i hated

wii -alien syndronm

360-hour of victory

ps3-i will always regret this one, sonic the hedghog,

steet clear lol, ! it will only disappoint you more

if you arent already disappointed in the last sonic game before it-heroes

i dont know where to start.

but if the only games i played on the wii where wii music and wii sports i would have said the same i guess.

sadly, i didnt play wii music and wii sport was fun the first days until i got some real games.

i kinda disagree on most of your "facts"

but since im to lazy to type a whole bunch of letters that no fanboy will read anyways.

but basicly the wiis 2009 lineup is the opposite of what you just said.

lots of rpg's

awesome graphics

no 2d games, (even if they rock)

LOTS of shooters (the conduit,call of duty,house of the dead,sins and punishment ect.)

if ya wanne know more, go check IGN or something :P

There were a lot of things that could have been considered valid around late-September 2008. But after the conference Nintendo had in October and the games announced to 2009, all the problems broughtup in this "article" seemed to have been fixed, or at least is being worked on.

If there was one thing I had to point out, it is that the length of games are more notoriously known to be shorter on the PS3/360 than the Wii. Wii games are probably short as well, but PS360 games often get complaints for being short SOMETIMES (I SAID SOMETIMES), even though you have to pay $60 for them.

I just stoped reading at the part where you said that first person shooters and racers weren't gonna do well on the DS and WII.

look at all the shooters on the DS, and there fun, the psp only has like 1 FPS, the WII first when FPSs came out, the controls weren't great, then came metal of honour: heros 2, that had the best controls and upto 32 players online. FPS's after that had great controls. For racers, look at mario kart, the best racer right there.

What kind of games were you playing that only lasted 2 hours, i was playing stuff like galaxy back then.

The graphics did improve since it's launch, look at galaxy, smash bros. and The Conduit.

Don't even get me started on the greatness of metroid prime 3: corruption!!!

well, i just picked up a Wii a couple weeks ago and it seems that when I go to any gamestore, the games that I want are overwhelmingly sold out....the problem is their are only a couple that I want! I looked at the cornicopia of crap that has been out on this system and I can't believe it! Oh well, I'm having fun with Wii sports still and the virtual console is da bomb so whatever. Come on Nintendo, I didn't put your machine up next to my ps3 just so it can collect dust! LETS GET SOME GAMES! I WILL pick up mario galaxy and RE4 but their has to be something else out their in the works.......Col_Swamp

Why not get super smash bros. brawl, or metroid prime 3. those are some really good games.

Um....

I think your really wrong in saying the Wii is feeling less revolutionary. If anything I think its almost to revolutionary, using shaking actions etc. way to much, and scaring away some more traditional players.

And the rest just looks like a bunch of bull.

Worse grafics? yes, More casual games? yeah, but then again, no duh! Do you really think hardcore games and grafics were Nintendos strong point to begin with? And even so, theyve improved in this area ALOT since the gamecube.

.......You shouldnt of did on this forum all these "nintendo peeps" are gonna defend the wii as much as possible but not me. Im not one sided and I know whats true,and with half of the sutff you said were. So no people it is not all wrong.Foxi911

Im not one sided either, and maybye around 1/2 is true, but to act like Nintendos just been sinking in the mud is not true.

They have been improving, maybye slower then expected, but people always anticipate way to much.

And then for him to come here and start braging is nothing but BULL.

[QUOTE="Col_Swamp"]well, i just picked up a Wii a couple weeks ago and it seems that when I go to any gamestore, the games that I want are overwhelmingly sold out....the problem is their are only a couple that I want! I looked at the cornicopia of crap that has been out on this system and I can't believe it! Oh well, I'm having fun with Wii sports still and the virtual console is da bomb so whatever. Come on Nintendo, I didn't put your machine up next to my ps3 just so it can collect dust! LETS GET SOME GAMES! I WILL pick up mario galaxy and RE4 but their has to be something else out their in the works.......nintendo2200

Why not get super smash bros. brawl, or metroid prime 3. those are some really good games.