Wii Roundup

[bobquasit]

Here are the games we've bought online for the Wii so far:

Donkey Kong - I got this mainly for Sebastian. Frankly, it's a disappointment; it's the old console version, NOT the arcade version. It lacks the later levels, and gameplay isn't the same.

Military Madness - This is hands-down the BEST strategy video game ever made. I played it way back when on the TurboGrafx-16, still own it, and have an emulator to boot - but I jumped at the chance to get it on the Wii. What an awesome game! I hate strategy board games, and I'm still a huge fan of this one.

Super Mario Bros. - The classic old side-scroller that I used to pump quarters into in college. What fun.

Bonk's Adventure - An absolutely great old TurboGrafx game, with one of the best endings I've ever seen. This was the first in the Bonk series, and I think it's the best. I can play this one through from start to finish in less than an hour, but it's still great every time.

Bomberman '93 - This is an update of the old Bomberman game that I played on the TurboGrafx. It's definitely more complicated than the original, which I frankly miss. Unfortunately the original isn't available on the Wii yet.

Super Mario 64 - When my roommate Scott first brought this home and started playing it, I went insane. I dreamed this game for years afterwards. It's the definitive 3D game. I sometimes wonder what made it so incredible: was it the ease of control? The clarity and bright colors? The depth of play? Maybe all of that. In any case, we've already collected over 90 power stars and are working our way towards 120 and a rooftop meeting with Yoshi.

I think that all of this shows that the Wii is headed towards the top of the console market. Whenever I read a story about the Wii vs. other consoles, inevitably there are some furious comments from Xbox 360 or PS3 fans screaming that the Wii is only a fad, a gimmick, with pathetic graphics - surely once everyone realizes how superior the Xbox or PS is they'll come crawling on their hands and knees, leaving the Wii behind them.

Bullshit! As someone pointed out, Nintendo has gone beyond the hardcore gamer market - they're no longer dependent on competing with (and beating) Microsoft and Sony, they're actually reaching an entirely new, untapped market of former non-gamers. Look at me - I haven't bought a new console in a long time, and the only reason I have a GameCube is because Teri bought it for me to play while I was recovering from surgery. Yet not only do we have a Wii, but we're buying games from it. The nostalgia market is yet another one that Xbox and the PlayStation haven't tapped into.

The hardcore gamer market is miniscule compared to the potential market for the Wii. And don't even get me started on the stupidity of selling a game system at a loss in order to make it up on the back end! Well, actually it does work, of course (or rather it can), but if your competition is actually making money on every system they sell, you're in serious trouble.

And since 95% of the responses to those grumpy hardcore gamers are inevitably pro-Wii, I think the majority of people agree. :D

Comments

[tprjones.livejournal.com]

I've been considering getting some Wii points to use, but I do have a question first: does the regular controller work on these games, or do you need something special?

It sounds like I'll have to try Military Madness & Bonk's Adventure. I never had a TurboGrafx so I missed these, and they sound like fun.

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

The regular Wii controller works for some of the old games, but not all of them - and for many of them it's not optimal.

You see, you have to hold it sideways and use the little plus-sign switch as a joystick. It's not convenient. It's tolerable for simple games like Donkey Kong (and it would be okay for Military Madness), but for fast-twitch games where speed matters, the Wii controller is just not comfortable to hold or use - sideways, that is.

Bonk's Adventure is a great example of a game that sucks when played with the Wii controller. You need a rapid-fire bonking button to really play that game well, so that when you jump in the air, you can spin and basically fly by bonking at super-speed. I realize that this probably sounds nonsensical, but you'll have to take my word for it. I don't know for sure that the Wii controller lacks a rapid-fire button, but if it has one, I didn't find it - and it's not conveniently placed.

The good news is that if you have any old GameCube controllers, they work great! On all the games that I've bought, anyway. It's fine for Mario 64. And it has rapid-fire buttons for both jumping and bonking in Bonk's Adventure. Heaven! I haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprise me if you could buy GameCube controllers for less than the cost of a new Wii "classic controller". It would be worth looking into, anyway.

Incidentally, if you want to preview the Turbografx games: I do have a couple of emulator programs and a number of ROMs. They're tiny, easy to email. Let me know.

[tprjones.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! When I bought the Wii I also picked up a Wavebird so I could play Gamecube games. I had no idea they rigged it so those would work on the emulated games, too. That's smart!

Thanks for the ROM offer, but at these prices I think I'll just go ahead and take the plunge. :)

I'm really looking forward to playing Kid Icarus again. I loved that game.

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

What's a WaveBird? I've never heard of them before.

It's really amazing how much fun some of those old games are. TurboGrafx (or rather, Hudson Soft) made some incredible games. It always seemed really unfair to me that they never made it in the American market.

Oooh, I just read on Wikipedia that Hudson Soft made a 3D version of Bonk's Adventure for the GameCube and Playstation 2! But it's only available in Japan. Still, maybe it will be released for the Wii eventually; I can hope.

Although so far they haven't released any GameCube games for download. I suppose they might simply be too large, although there hasn't been a game yet that has taken more than five minutes to download.

By the way, have you run the Wii system update yet?

[tprjones.livejournal.com]

I did indeed let it do the upgrade. The only change I've noticed so far is the addition of a clock on the main menu.

The Wavebird was (I'm told) the best Gamecube wireless controller made. It's nifty! I was told by several people that the transmitter for it wouldn't fit in the Wii due to the way the cover on top is configured, but I had no problem with it at all.

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

From what I've gathered a lot of the idea behind the Wii is that game play is the important thing, not pushing the limits of graphics and sound and stuff. However cool it might be to have a game that's almost like a movie visually, you don't really need graphics like that for good game play.

Mind you, about the only computer gaming I ever do is old arcade stuff like Battlezone or Missile Command.