- Hey y'all! Scott here. If we're gonna be talking about the Wii, we might as well get this outta the way. (television smashes) (remote drops) The Wii is one of the most
polarizing game consoles ever released. Many say it was nothing more than just a virtual bowling dust collector. And while that may be true, I personally believe that
while it was very flawed, the Wii was also heavily underrated. Ah, the Nintendo Wii. Everybody's least
favorite, favorite console. I say that because while everybody likes a hearty dose of piss on
this console at all times, let's be honest, everybody's
had a superb experience one time or another on this thing. People like to dog on this poor guy for a multitude of reasons, many being totally warranted. The Wii was completely underpowered compared to its competition,
the PS3 and Xbox 360. It was basically just another GameCube. The Wii was home to 90% shovelware, just games that were hot trash that stayed in clearance bins for ages. The Wii's online blew. The Wii's motion controls
were gimmickfest 2006. I mean, these are all definite problems but I really like the Wii. It isn't my favorite Nintendo console but it did a lot right. The design of this bad boy is stellar. The Wii is one of the nicest-looking game consoles out there. It's incredibly small,
compact, and it was so solid they had to include a
stand with every purchase just to give the thing
that much more class. The disc glove would
illuminate a blue light whenever an update for
the system was available, which was tart and annoying, but it's totally forgiven
for a little thing around the block known as
GameCube backwards compatibility. And that was, in my opinion, one of the Wii's greatest strengths. It was totally the
all-in-one Nintendo box. You had access to the entire
Wii and GameCube libraries and in addition to that, every
other Nintendo home console, other systems, and smaller
downloadable Wii games via the Wii Shop Channel. The Wii was the introduction
to the virtual console brand which were just older games now available on a digital storefront. But let's not forget another third of what was available
on the Wii Shop Channel: WiiWare, which was the brand used to describe downloadable smaller Wii games. WiiWare was definitely
a hodgepodge of quality but there were some pretty great WiiWare games out there back in the day: Dr. Mario Online Rx,
Fluidity, Mega Man 9 and 10, Excitebike World Rally,
World of Goo, and so on. And then we have the channels. You see, the Wii was the
first Nintendo home console with a mandatory system menu. Yeah, the GameCube had this
thing of a system menu going on but the Wii menu was mandatory
to peruse to get anywhere. Different applications
were considered channels which were either preloaded on the system or downloadable via the Shop Channel. And man, did the Wii ever have channels. The Disc Channel was always
a mainstay in the family, a great crowd pleaser, but
once you were all out of games to play, where better
to lurk than the Mii Channel? Making your own custom
avatars was never as simple and fun as making Miis was. It was just entertaining to
see how out-of-this-world you could make a Mii look or how close you can make it
to look to another person. But man, was I ever
into the Photo Channel. This channel is barely
talked about to this day and that angers me more than anything photo-channel-related should. The Wii came with an SD card
slot, which meant you could take photos from it and
display them on the big screen and also let you go
wild with some effects. When you wanted to become an elite member of the economic stimulation squad, the Wii Shop Channel was always there. And of course, who could forget the Forecast and News channels? Just channels to keep you up to date with the latest news and weather forecast, but if you wanted to stay up
to date with Nintendo games then you had to download
the Nintendo Channel, which I spent way too
much time on as a kid. Video-wise, it had nothing but trailers for Wii and DS games,
other than a weekly show entitled "Nintendo Week". But it also included
downloadable demos for Nintendo DS games you could
play by wirelessly connecting your DS to the Wii. The Internet Channel was the way to watch YouTube channels
on your TV back in 2008 and I would talk about the
Everybody Votes Channel but I don't want to get into politics. The Check Mii Out Channel allowed you to upload your craziest Mii creations and compete in Mii-related
character creation contests. Most of these channels have
been discontinued by Nintendo. The only ones really usable these days are the Disc, Mii, Photo,
and Wii Shop Channel. And even the Wii Shop
Channel will be discontinued in early 2019. I liked dabbling in the Wii message board which allowed you to
send messages to friends which I never used because the Wii's online infrastructure was gross. I mainly used it to track
my play time with games. I don't know if more consoles do this. I love knowing how (beep)
useless I was being some days by seeing just how much
Mario Galaxy I was playing. Speaking of the Wii's online, obviously one of the
console's biggest turnoffs. It just seemed like for
everything the X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 did right with online multiplayer and gaming, the Wii was just vomiting profusely at the thought of the internet. Some games worked really
well like Mario kart Wii and GoldenEye 007. Yeah, that's all I got. What most people point out was the performance of Super
Smash Brothers Brawl online as it blew hard. Majority of other titles worked okay but their performance was a far cry from Nintendo's competitors at the time. Oh yeah, and the Wii's controller
was this honking thing. The Wii remote, or sometimes
referred to as the "Wii-mote". Either people hate this
thing or can tolerate it. I can definitely tolerate it. The Wii remote was actually
really, really simple when you got down to it, basically an accelerometer
and an IRR sensor gave this thing the
magic that was required for Wii Sports bowling. The motion controls worked
well most of the time, it just depends on the game,
in which problems can be attributed to bad programming
a lot of the time. Of course this design is
a bit on the simple side for games released in the
late 2000's, early 2010s. So plug in a nun chuck for
more advanced control options because, gasp, is that an analog stick? Not enough? You can always pop this
bad boy into a wheel or a gun shell for an extra
hearty dose of unnecessary. Of course you could pop
this nugget onto the bottom of the controller to
make the Wii remote do what Nintendo said it
could do at the very start. The WiiMotionPlus came
out in correlation with Wii Sports Resort and added
a gyroscope into the mix which allowed for more
precise motion control. This was later fully
built into new Wii remotes named Wii Remote Plus. But hey, if you're like way
into not using the Wii remote, the Classic Controller and
Classic Controller Pro sufficed as solid ways to play compatible games with more standard controllers. And if you wanted to use anything but your hands to control a game, the Wii balance board supported
a few other games other than just Wii Fit. I'm fine using the Wii remote, but it is nowhere near
my favorite controller. Its versatility is neat, how they designed so many
ways to play games with it, but overall, there are
definitely other controllers I'd rather play games with. Speaking of which, onto the games, which is what I think makes
the Wii so underrated. There are so many great first
party Nintendo games released on this thing it was nuts. And it had a good amount
of solid third party games plus some hidden gems. It definitely wasn't up to snuff with the GameCube's library in my opinion but comparing it to, say,
the Wii U or Nintendo 64, the Wii definitely brought
the goods in the form of quality Nintendo exclusives. The launch of the system
on November 19th in 2006 brought us Wii Sports, The Legend of Zelda:
the Twilight Princess, and Excite Truck. Wii Sports I gotta say is one of the most important games of all time. You can scoff as much as you want, but you gotta stop at some point and admit Wii Sports was a really fun game and it brought so many people together. As a pack-in, there was a
lot of re-playability here and you know, while the motion
controls were definitely still a bit primitive and
in their early stages, they worked well enough that it made it consistently a hoot to play. But of course if you weren't into that, you got Twilight Princess at launch, one of the most hyped up
Zelda games of all time. Regardless of your opinion
on Twilight Princess, having a Zelda game at
launch is surely a plus. And Excite Truck an odd bugger to round the
three Nintendo launch styles out but still a really solid
game for the system. The Wii series of games were always a mainstay on the console. These were mostly fun games
that really took advantage of the controller's capabilities, not the system's
capabilities, good god no. These games look like they were designed with four tubs of
Play-Doh and nothing more. Wii Sports Resort, Wii Party, Wii Play all have loads of fun to be had in them. But of course there's also Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 are excellence in the form of two disks. I said it before and I'll say it again: I plan to talk about
these games at length soon but for the time being, good job Nintendo! But if you wanted some 2D Mario action Nintendo made a new 2D
Mario game on a home console for the first time in decades: new Super Mario Brothers Wii. Yeah, the art style is bland
and it doesn't feel as magical as playing Super Mario Brothers 3 or Super Mario World for the first time, but the new Super Mario Brothers series is like comfort food. The Wii entry is a solid game and one of the better
in the new Super series. It also introduced
simultaneous Mario multiplayer but that was a mistake. Donkey Kong Country came swinging back, courtesy of Retro Studios, with
Donkey Kong Country Returns and what a game. I'm not a fan of the motion controls being used in this game, so
I would personally recommend the 3DS version. But still, DKC Returns is fantastic. Kirby made a comeback on the Wii as well. While the series remain pretty
consistent on handhelds, Kirby's Epic Yarn in 2010 was the first Kirby home console game since Kirby Air Ride on
the GameCube in 2003. And that was a racing game. If we're talking platformers,
it was since Kirby 64 in 2000. And Epic Yarn was pretty neat, man. Yeah, it doesn't have a lot of the tropes of standard Kirby games, but it's so pleasant to look at. It's just a fun game to relax
and take your time through, kinda like most Kirby games. If you wanted some standard
Kirby action, just a year later in 2011 Return to Dreamland
pummeled onto shelves and, as a standard Kirby game
a bit too generic Kirby for me personally, but I
still enjoyed the game. And a year after that,
Nintendo's final release on the Wii, Kirby's Dream
Collection, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the franchise. A really great compilation
featuring for the most part the first half of Kirby's
platform or history. What wasn't a really great compilation was Nintendo's offering
during the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers. Nintendo re-released
Super Mario: All-stars on the Super Nintendo
on a Wii disk for $30 and included some extras like a history booklet and soundtrack CD. The game is just a rom
dump of the SNES original. Compilation remake of
Mario one, two, three in the lost levels. Not one of Nintendo's
greatest efforts, definitely. And speaking of Nintendo
being lazy as piss, New Play Control! This was a series of games re-released that were simply GameCube games now with motion controls in them, maybe with a few extra
additions here and there. Some games like Pikmin
one and two are blissful with motion and pointer controls while Mario Power Tennis
just feels tacked on. I don't know, sometimes I really like what New Play Control brought to
the table, but other times it's like, I can already play
GameCube games on the Wii, re-releasing these things
don't really do too much in terms of the concept of making sense. Two Zelda games and two Metroid games. What a world we lived in. With Twilight Princess coming at launch and also being available on the GameCube, Wii owners would have to wait five years for a Zelda game made
from scratch for the Wii and Skyward Sword, ahoy! Definitely not one of the
most beloved Zelda games at the moment due to its
over-reliance on linearity, motion controls, and handholding. But watch: in five years
people will consider it the best Zelda game. Metroid got a fair
amount of love on the Wii with Metroid Prime 3:
Corruption coming in 2007, the Metroid Prime Trilogy
containing the first three Prime games with Wii remote controls. And- ah. Other M is considered one
of the worst Metroid games, but I haven't played it, so let's just avoid this
conversation entirely. Smash Brothers and Mario kart, the two heaviest hitters of a
Nintendo console these days. Mario kart Wii was never
one of my favorites, but it's still a really solid Mario kart. And Smash Brothers Brawl, my god, I will defend this
game till the cows come home. Is it a great competitive game? No, it's too slow and has
too many random elements like tripping and an
unbalanced character roster. But it's a good, decent,
great solid game, man! Like it has so much in it, it has such an amazing character roster. It had a Wikipedia article detailing every Nintendo game released just for funsies! I really love Brawl as a game. I think it gets a bad rap for its lack of
competitive nature, but man I still think it's a
really, really solid game. Punch-Out!!, dude. Punch-Out!! on the Wii is phenomenal. A bit too over-reliant on nostalgia but still crazy fun and a great game. Oh of course, Nintendo
had loads of other games on this thing. The return
of Sin & Punishment, Xenoblade Chronicles,
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Animal Crossing: City
Folk, Battalion Wars 2, WarioWare Smooth Moves
and Warioland Shake It! Big Brain Academy, Mario Strikers Charged, Mario Super Sluggers, effing' Excitebots. But still, there were notable
missing franchises on the Wii. F-zero, Star Fox, the other
Mario Sports games, Yoshi... Hey, some third-party offerings
definitely made the gaps a little less wide with
releases like Klonoa, Tatsunoko versus Capcom, MadWorld, Sonic Colors was one of the
better modern Sonic titles. Also the Wii was the first time we saw Mario and Sonic team up. What a whirlwind and a half! No More Heroes gained
quite the cult following, light gun games finally had
a system to call their own, GoldenEye 007 is a crazy
fun first person shooter. Third parties didn't sleep on the Wii. But of course I'm leaving
out a solid nine tenths of the Wii's library, which is this stuff. Yeah, the Wii was filled with shovelware. Had less than stellar specks, with some pissy online, motion controls, and missing
Nintendo franchises on it. But the Nintendo games
that did appear on it were mostly pretty great. And man, there are some
third-party offerings that definitely rock. The Virtual Console
was awesome on the Wii, feeling much more fleshed-out
and thoughtful than forthcoming Nintendo consoles
legacy content offerings. It ain't perfect, but I
think many should definitely look more at the positives with the Wii, as they will definitely
find something they'd like. It's an underrated console
that, while flawed, delivered a lot more than you may recall. The Wii isn't a perfect
system, but it shouldn't be chastised for popularizing motion control. Rather it should be celebrated for its amazing first party
lineup, interesting concepts, and great hidden gems is what I would say if I was (beep) asinine. Do you really think I'd be in support of Virgin McGames console over here? Please. I'm operating on a strict
anti-virgin policy. (8-bit music)
One of the best selling consoles ever made is underrated?
The Wii is possibly the most paradoxical and divisive console ever released. It was a huge phenomenon, yet it was ignored, abused, and trashed by the so-called "hardcore" gaming community. To this day, there are gamers who still think the Wii was a fad, motion controls are the Anti-Christ, Casuals are forever stuck on phones, and only the hardcore matter. Yet the success of the Nintendo Switch, which is built on many of the same philosophies as the Wii, is basically destroying that tired rhetoric.
Whether you like it or hate it, the Wii was exactly what the video game industry needed at the time, and it along with the Nintendo DS changed the face of video games and gamers forever.
I understand what the guy is trying to say. I see a lot of opinions that the Wii was a gimmick and nothing more. I liked that the Wii had underpowered graphics and unique controls - there are a lot of really fantastic hidden gems for the system.
The fact that it wasn't expensive to develop for compared to it's PS3/360 brethren causes developers to be more experimental in their game design. Games like Zack and Wiki, Captain Rainbow... definitely games that I don't think companies would have made for other systems. I also think that pointer controls are FAR superior for FPS games than dual stick.
Overall, I think it was a great system with awesome unique games, that the average gamer writes off as a motion controlled, gimmicky piece of hardware.
The single most false title ever.
While it didn’t have as much power as the PS3 and Xbox 360, almost everyone owned a Wii. It was hard to find them for awhile as there was a high demand. It forced both Sony and Microsoft to invest in their own motion control system which neither of which could compare. The Wii will probably be more iconic and remembered than the competition’s consoles at the time.
I’d probably not call it underrated unless you’re appealing to people who only focus on graphics and more main stream gaming.