Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Nintendo: Lost and Found?

This week on GBE2 the topic Lost and Found. Before Nintendo's E3 conference, I was sort of lost on what to write about.

Let's start at the beginning. I own all three consoles. In my house the PS3 and the Xbox 360 gets played way more then the Wii. Why? Because with the Wii, Nintendo lost its way. What? Don't I love my Wii? (yes, I do) What I mean is the motion control  of the Wii, the fact that it's not in HD or as graphically powerful as the other two meant that some "hardcore" games couldn't be played on the Wii. Instead what we got was tons of third rate "party" casual games. Yuck. I like Wii Sports, but any party type game that wasn't made by Nintendo was sucky. So my Wii sits, waiting for the next Mario, Zelda, and other games like that. And I love those titles enough that my Wii is definitely worth having. It's been 5 years since the Wii came out and it's no doubt Nintendo lost its way with the kids who grew up to be hardcore gamers.

But yesterday at E3, the Wii U  was shown and boy, what a showing it was. I'm not going to repeat everything I talked about yesterday, but I'm confident that Nintendo is trying to find its way back to the core auidence of gamers and I am so excited. The Wii could never handle titles like Ninja Gaiden or Battlefield. Besides the graphics, the Wii tried to go into the casual market. It didn't release many M rated games. Many of the titles for Wii U that were teased yesterday aren't family friendly. There's nothing wrong with family friendly, but not at the expense of the hardcore.

The Wii U is being touted as the console that can be all things to all gamers. I say good. I want to be able to play quality FPSs on my Wii. I also want Mario games and Zelda and other series I grew up with. If the Wii U is everything it says it is, it will be a great day for gamers when it's released next year. Then Nintendo will find its way back to the adults who grew up to be gamers because of  its early consoles.

9 comments:

  1. We never did get a Wii but have wanted one. Maybe we'll wait on the Wii U.

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  2. Good news/ bad news - We have a Wii. I don't know how to turn it on. ;p

    Joyce
    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

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  3. I enjoy our Wii system as much as I enjoyed your post. I look forward to the new innovations that Nintendo has in store!

    Kathy
    http://www.thetruckerswife.com/

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  4. this makes me giggle...understand yet don't own any of these devices. In my world this is the closest i get to "technology gaming" (work in a trauma hospital..come home and collapse) and when i read your posts i smile. Its a world i like to visit! thank you

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  5. Really hope Wii U is a working title and not what the console will eventually be called *chuckle* Also not sure exactly what's going on with the graphics for this console - something about them using images from pc or some such when they did the demo? Do like the hand-held part though. Looks interesting but I'm reserving judgement for now.

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  6. @Mojo Writin' What Nintendo did is pretty standard with the graphics. Since there aren't any games available for show yet, they used graphics from other consoles, other consoles do the same thing. But with Wii exclusive titles like Twilight Princess demoed with Wii U, it's easy to spot what the new console is capable of.
    The big thing is the Wii as it is now, it can't even hope to run those 3rd party games they featured. Just by using the names and having developers talk about the possibilities of the Wii U is promising. And yes, Wii U is the official name. :)

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  7. I love the Wii, but for us, it gets pretty basic usage--a little golf, a little workout, that's about it.

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  8. My kids love the Wii...I didn't know they were coming out with a Wii U!! I guess I'll know what will be on the Christmas list if it is out by then.

    Cheers, Jenn.

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  9. I have none of these, but various family members have one or all of them. When I discovered that some of these are portals to Netflix, I thought about getting one of them. Still thinking about it ;)

    My Lost and Found GBE 2 blog is here: http://helpforsingleparents.blogspot.com/2011/06/lost-and-found-teachers-who-kill-their.html

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