Reflecting Back on the Nintendo Wii

It was Christmas 2006 when I unwrapped my Nintendo Wii. The tag on the paper informed me that "Santa" was the one who purchased me this gift. Although I was in my 20s, this still seemed more believable to me than my mother actually finding one during the holiday rush.

I had read all the launch reviews, I had studied all the media reactions to the console, and I knew that it was near impossible to get one by Christmas. I didn't expect to be able to get my hands on a Wii until the following spring, which only hyped the system that much more for me.

My only real experience with motion controlled gaming came from light gun based games, or arcade machines that used plastic motorcycles as a controller. Honestly, I wasn't completely sure what to expect from the Wii motion controls at first. I had seen the commercials of kids diving behind their couches to duck from enemy fire...did I have enough space in my bedroom to play the Wii?

My adventure on the Wii began with Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. It was without a doubt the launch title that received the most praise, and after a few hours of playing, I completely understood why. I was in the zone when I played Twilight Princess. I was on my feet the entire time I played, slashing at enemies in an overzealous manner. I was a master of the bow and arrow, holding my arms out as if I were firing the real thing.

While I wasn't as involved in the motion controls as the gamers in television ads, I was still letting my imagination run wild. I enjoyed the Nintendo Wii experience immensely; it certainly lived up to the hype for me in every way during our initial romance.

Little did I know that somewhere along the way that romance would sour. At some point in the future the love I had for the Nintendo Wii would fade, and my love for other game consoles would resurface.

               
After the initial month of having the Wii, I found myself playing Xbox most of the time. Occasionally I would get the Wii out when family members wanted to play, but I started to really lose interest in it. My girlfriend at the time would want to play Mario Party 8 sometimes, but I really didn't like the game at all. It felt like a cheap cash-in, and the motion controls were little more than a gimmick.

Actually, that about sums up the problem I have with a lot of Wii software: Too many of the games are cheap ports, or quick moneymakers that make poor use of the motion control features. The third party support just never happened on the scale that I had hoped for.

A great game you may have missed.

There are some real gems that have made excellent use of the Wii's features: Mario Galaxy, Goldeneye, and Zack and Wiki -- that's just to name a few. Yet, it always seemed like these games were too few and far between to really hold my interest for more than a week or two at a time.

Even big hits like Mario Kart were a disappointment to me. My friends and family enjoyed Mario Kart, but my gamer friends shared my disappointment. A series that I had grown up with seemed to have become a game catered to the mass market. While there is nothing wrong with Nintendo wanting to make its games more appealing to a larger audience, I couldn't help but feel like gameplay suffered as a result. In order to make Mario Kart more appealing to your grandpa, elements of the game were altered to give players with less video game experience an advantage.

Let me give you an example: there's a magic bullet that brings you from last to first in under eight seconds, and knocks everyone out of your way in the process. That's absolutely ridiculous. It's been four years, and I'm still mad about some of the items in Mario Kart Wii.

Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?

I was still able to enjoy Mario Kart, but I couldn't help feeling like it was no longer designed with me--a lifelong Mario Kart player--in mind. As a hardcore gamer, I felt a little bit betrayed by Nintendo.

For games like Wii Play and Wii Sports, I can understand why you would want to focus on simplicity; it gives as many non-gamers a chance to love your product as possible. Still, there needed to be more than just those few games that hooked the hardcore gamer in. There needed to be more games that used the motion controls in creative ways that may not appeal to your Great Aunt Sue. Yes, they do exist, but there just isn't enough of them.

Much of my time playing video games is spent doing online activities. I'm trying to think back to a time I played online with the Wii consistently, but I guess I really only tried online play a few times.

With Mario Kart my online experience was largely negative. While I did have friends who owned Mario Kart, I had no idea what their "friend code" was, and they had no idea what it was either. Playing with my friends never happened on the Wii, and the insane "friend code" system receives most of the blame for that fact. 

Matchmaking was the only real option, and I found it to be quite a hassle. Games took forever to fill, and there really was no way to communicate with fellow players. By the time Goldeneye 007 came out, matchmaking became easier, but there was still very little way to communicate.

As far as using the Wii for social interaction with friends and family -- that never went beyond my living room. All issues of "friend codes" and matchmaking aside, there was just no way to really network with friends on the Wii.

It's obvious that Nintendo intended for their console to be a central entertainment hub, similar to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You open up your Nintendo Wii and the first thing you see is world news and the weather.

It's as if Nintendo intended for people to turn their Wii on every morning as part of their daily routine. Features like the always-on WiFi connection and the mail system seem to feed into this idea. Yet, the only mail I've ever received is spam from Nintendo. As for the always-on WiFi connection: I'm convinced it exists only to make my system glow bright blue while I'm sleeping.
               
There was never any real addition of content that made these features come alive. Where the Xbox 360 is the center of my entertainment universe, the Wii is something I boot up only when I want to play a very specific game.
               
Even browsing online content is a real hassle. The menus for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have evolved over time. The Nintendo WiFi Connection is set in stone, and it actually feels like it operates with the goal of being as slow and painful to use as possible. I never once purchased a game from the virtual console because, quite frankly, they are expensive and difficult to download.
               
There came a time when my Nintendo Wii did nothing but sit on a shelf and collect dust. Like any novelty item, I grew very tired of it. I had played all of the games I wanted to play, and I enjoyed them. I honestly did. But there just wasn't enough new content to justify me booting up the Wii any longer.

My adventure on the Wii would have one final chapter. It would end as it began -- with a Zelda game. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword arrived featuring advanced motion controls, and the most in-depth Wii experience yet. It's not only the best game I had played for Wii, it may be one of the best games of all time.
               
Everything I had ever wanted from the Wii was in this game. The motion features were not only used to their full potential, they were expanded upon immensely with the Wii Motion Plus. This was an incredible game, and it brought back that love for the Wii I hadn't felt since those initial months.

In a way, it was too little too late. The Wii was certainly getting its curtain call; Nintendo had already announced their next console, the Wii U. There were no great titles to speak of coming after Skyward Sword, but at least Nintendo was sending the Wii off with a bang. While I was grateful for the Skyward Sword experience, I can't help but wonder why we didn't see more games that pushed the boundaries of the console's hardware sooner.          

Whatever it is -- count me in.

I will say this: ever since Skyward Sword, I've played my Wii regularly. I've gone back to experience titles that I missed, and my friends and I sit down to play great multiplayer games like Boom Blox more often than we did over the previous year.

With Wii U on the horizon, I know that the life of the Nintendo Wii is coming to an end. Reflecting back leaves me with mixed feelings. As a serious gamer, I really wish that there was more software that fed my need for the challenges brought on by games aimed at a hardcore audience. Still, I can't help but smile when I think of the good times I had playing those few games that made the console so special.

I'm still a Nintendo fan. Further, I'm still a Nintendo Wii fan. I can't wait to be hyped up for the Wii U. I just hope that history won't repeat itself -- not completely, in any case.