In Defense of the Wii: A Close Look at Nintendo's Latest Console and Its Criticism

On one hand, I really don't feel this article needs to be written. Nintendo's latest venture into the video game console market sold very well in its first year, and its momentum has hardly lost ground. The Wii has already proven itself a hit. Why does it need denfeding? Well, not every gamer thinks the Wii is worth their time. I have nothing against those gamers personally, but I want to take these moments to examine the Wii's criticism and weigh those thoughts accordingly. Let's just all sit down and talk about it for a bit.

The main criticism of the Wii lies with its games. Because the Wii offers a revolutionary gameplay mechanic (motion sensitivity and control), third-party developers tend to release very simplistic titles, just to make use of the motion control. What we basically see in stores is a bunch of cheap titles, and we get what we pay for. Some gamers brand the entire console line "kiddie" just based on these titles. A 1UP.com editor claimed in January of this year that Nintendo was the biggest disappointment of 2007. He called the game lineup "bleak. Worse than it was on N64. Worse than it was on Gamecube. . .the resulting third-party content is overwhelmingly bargain-bin trash."

If you go look in the nearest store, you'll probably see this, especially when you compare the Wii's selection with Playstation 3's or XBOX 360's. But wait just a second. Nintendo does indeed offer great titles. Don't forget their first-party titles. The Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Smash Bros., etc. This is why Nintendo gamers buy Nintendo. We rely on these titles more than anything. But that's not to say the Wii doesn't have other good games. NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, No More Heroes, Red Steel, Zak and Wiki, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. I could also count some cross-platform titles, since they are many of them. The point is that there ARE great games on the Wii,

But do the critical gamers want to play those? I believe that's the key to this whole argument. This generation of video game consoles is truly unique. Graphics are no longer the main consideration when buying a console. It's all about what we want to play now. And some gamers just to want to play certain kinds of games. There's nothing wrong with that. It's simply the nature of the market, but it's wrong to step on someone who wants to play something else. No one is more or less manly because he plays only fighting games, or shooters, or sports games. It's a matter of taste.

Let's also not forget Nintendo's mission statement for the Wii. "We're not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games," said Nintendo president and CEO in December 2006, to IGN. It's not about making a bunch of blood and guts shooters, or fighting games, or sports games, even though these ARE indeed a few of the system's selections. The console is specifically marketed to families, and it's worked so far. More families are playing video games TOGETHER now than ever had. Why? Because it's something they can all get in on, and the Wii's main third-party support, that "bargain bin trash," offers just that. So even the bad elements work to Nintendo's advantage.

I also think it's important to remember how Nintendo secured this "kiddie" image. Think back to the days before the Nintendo 64's release. With the successes of past Nintendo's consoles, the NES and SNES, many developers began to anticipate Nintendo's next money-making console. Of course, Nintendo would face competition. Sega had the Saturn, and a newcomer, the Sony Playstation, would prove to be the one to beat. Nintendo made a decision which cost them a lot of developer support. The new Nintendo console would be cartridge-based, sticking to a tried-and-true formula in the console market. The problem was that CD's were quickly becoming the standard. The competition had already embraced the format, and developers were already looking into it. CD's are easier to produce and much cheaper than those clunky cartridges. Many developers made decisions to discontinue supporting Nintendo, in favor of the disc-based Playstation especially.

To their credit, Nintendo had good reasons to stick with the cartridges. For all their benefits, CD's offer some distinct disadvantages. In those days, these technology had only reached a certain point. Load times were especially notable in the first-generation Playstations. Sony later fixed this problem. Plus, a CD is read-only. What happens when you want to save your game? You just hope that the console's hard drive has enough room to store your information. Unfortunately, hard drive technology had only reached a certain point, too. Playstation gamers often relied on the Memory Chips, essentially miniature cartridges that stored necessary data. The cartridge-based Nintendo 64 never suffered from this, though Memory Paks were available for it as well. Not having to worry about any of this, gave Nintendo complete freedom to design the console. The result, contrary to what gamers may say, was the most powerful console on the market at the time. That is a verifiable fact.

Developers would see it differently, and I see why. It's all about cost on their end. Money talks, folks. Playstation offered cheaper production costs and a quick turn-around, from the finished product to the consumer's hands. It only made sense. Even though the system was inferior to Nintendo's (only 32-bit, as opposed to the 64-bit system), the wealth of titles made up the gap. Playstation won that battle by a long shot and even offered games that are still remembered to this day. Need I even mention Final Fantasy 7?

When kind of market did Nintendo reach with its console? Yep. Mainly the littler ones. Folks, that's where Nintendo criticism started, with the departure of developers in favor of the competition. Nintendo's next console, the Gamecube, would close many of the technological gaps by becoming Nintendo's first CD-based console. But it would still fail to win back the wealth of third-party supporters. Some did manage to finagle their contracts to release special titles, or spin-off titles for Nintendo. Square most famously accomplished this with the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series, a spin-off of its popular Final Fantasy franchise which is quickly becoming a franchise of its own.

So do you see the problem? If Nintendo only has "kiddie" titles, it may not necessarily be their fault. It may no longer be possible to win back all of their third-party developers. Nintendo needs a big hit to convince some to return. Oh, wait! The Wii is a big hit (like it or not). Are some developers reconsidering? Some sources say yes. It is possible that the best Nintendo titles are still down the road. In the end, none of it matters. Even the family-friendly image is working to Nintendo's advantage.

I think a case could also be made for the Wii's uniqueness. The Wii offers a motion-sensitive control scheme. That's it's number one advertising feature. This makes the console a true innovation, but it may also be the console's greatest disadvantage. The motion-sensitive idea is so unique and new that many developers are unsure how to properly make use of it for their games. Sure various minor games have honed the use (those "bargain bin trash titles" mentioned earlier). But a serious third party developer may have to reprogram large portions of a game, or outsource the labor. The added work probably detracts as many developers as the prospect attracts. Plus, motion-sensitive gameplay is still very new. It's only natural that some developers approach it with caution. But now that the Wii has proven it make a success off of it, will it sway developer opinions? Again, some sources say yes. Perhaps the Wii's greatest titles yet await.

I go to back to the issue of taste. It's all about what you want to play. Personally, I don't play shooters that often. Thus, while Microsoft's XBOX 360 is an amazing console with great games, it only appeals so much to me. Yeah, I know HALO's fantastic, but it's still a shooter, and I don't play those very often. I like the system. I support it, but I didn't buy it. Many of you probably think otherwise. That's fine. Go for it. Your enjoyment won't hurt me. Why should mine hurt you? I'm not going to step all over you because you don't play Mario or Zelda. It's not everybody's cup of tea. It just happens to be mine. We all shoud rise above that. We're mature and intelligent adults here. There's no reason why we can't all coexist.

In conclusion, the Wii is indeed a great system. It's proven itself by its sales volume. Bashing it is pointless and unnecessary. Even if it were to fail tomorrow, it's still made its mark on the video game industry. If you don't like it, just play something else. No one will think any less of you. It's all a matter of taste.