Is the Wii Starting to Grow Up?

GameStooge.com writes: "Sega's booth at Comic Con NY 09 was refreshing and welcome to a lot of "hardcore" NIntendo Wii fans who are sick of going to the GameStop counter and having nothing but $30 titles that are either a collection of minigames, hastily put together movie license titles or kiddie versions of major titles - the latest titles, for instance, the choices were Ultimate Shooting Collection, Coraline, SimAnimals, Imagine: Fashion Party, Deal or No Deal, Neighborhood Games and Hotel for Dogs.

The common problem isn't really the licensing - it's the way the titles seem to aim low. They seem like a cheap attempt to cash in on the Wii phenomenon. Take Hotel for Dogs, for instance. The game is a series of unchallenging minigames interspersed with some clips from the banal kids movie. Even as a minigame collection, it fails. Unfortunately, this is the sort of game that populates the Wii. There's nothing wrong with Carnival Games, but when a platform is oversatuated with variations on that theme, one wonders if the marketing teams of certain video game publishers aren't relying too much on the reported demographics of Wii owners. They don't seem to understand while those demographics purchased the Wii, they don't have the interest in buying software like the core Nintendo audience, who are relegated to waiting for the occasional first party release that might cater to them - and Nintendo doesn't understand that doesn't include Wii Music.

From what was seen at Comic Con NY 09, that may change."

[Xander-RKoS]

Is the Wii growing up? Or are quality games that take longer than a year to make finally being finished?

Seriously guys, c'mon, it wasn't recently that all these developers said "hey guys, the Wii can actually be used to make good games", it was more like, a year or two ago, and while games like Carnival Games is about a few afternoons of programming, the games like Madworld, The Conduit, etc. have been in production for quite sometime.

Frankly, as I see it. Wii is unveiled, everyone thinks it's funny. Wii is making the most revenue for developers, people start making games for it. Developers looking to make a cheap buck put games out within the same year, developers wanting to make something of quality put something out the year or two after.

[JonahFalcon]

Oh come on. The Xbox 360 had serious games being released by third party devs from launch through now, as well as the PS3. The Wii hasn't had serious 3rd party support - at all, really, after the initial games flopped (see: Red Steel, Far Cry, etc.)

[BrotherNick]

That's mainly because of the market. The wii is more broad in scope. I guess killing aliens and zombies is quite grown up. I'd say wii fit is more adult oriented than most of the games we play. :D

[JonahFalcon]

However, as the article states - the "broad scope" is an illusion. They include people who bought the Wii because it is a hot item, and have no intention of buying third party games - or at least games over $20. They have no interest in video games, just activities like Wii Fit or minigame twaddle. They play the Wii like you'd play some FreeCell on your Windows PC.

"I guess killing aliens and zombies is quite grown up."

Didn't read the article, huh? It mentions such games as Broken Sword and Roogoo: Twisted Towers, etc. Please read the article, especially where it says this:

"There’s a difference between a dumb kiddie film and a smart family film; Hotel for Dogs and Ratatouille both aim for the same audience, but while the former will make you check your watch, the latter will charm and entertain you."

[Voiceofreason]

JonahFalcon, Please refrain from ever commenting on this subject again because it is obvious that you dont have a clue what you are talking about. First off RedSteel was not a flop. I dont know about Far Cry but how good is a 2 year old port suposed to do?
Trying to compare the 360 launch to the Wii launch? Are you serious? Most dev's wanted nothing to do with Nintendo or the Wii around launch. And lastly as far as Wii 3rd aprty support goes. WTH have you been? GHWT better reviewed on Wii and sold better on Wii, Shaun White snowboarding reviewed better on Wii, sold better on Wii. Then I dont guess you bothered to check the release list for 09 did you? Tons of 3rd party support to see if you just open your eyes.

I know from being on N4g a while that most of the people here are actually clueless when it comes to games.Your post is just another example. I just dont see how anyone can call themselves a gamer and just be so totally clueless to the gaming industry for the past 3 years. If you want people to take you seriously you might want to spend some time researching this stuff before you talk about it.

[JonahFalcon]

And the Minister of Wii Defense claims there's never been anything wrong with the Wii. Wii Music and Wii Fit are what the core Nintendo audience craves! Red Steel was an excellent game and not a 63 on the Metacritic aggregate score! More minigame games!

Please, don't be a fanboy and admit that most of the stuff that the Wii gets is bottom of the barrel, lazy junk like the games mentioned at the beginning of the article. You should be excited that some third party devs are trying to cater to a core Nintendo fan instead of Grandma and Little Johnny Four Year Old.

[Maddens Raiders]

and that's pretty much it. No sugar coating will change that nor delusions about how "grown up" wii fit is. When I get fit, I go to the gym and watch grown up - real life t&a bouncing on the treadmill right next to me.

Of course the 10 - 20 wii fans on this site will go all spasmatic once reading this shockkkkking news.

[Voiceofreason]

Just cant help proving you're a moron? Take some reading classes and show me in my post where I said Wii was perfect? Or that Wii music was the greatest game ever. You really are an idiot. In typical fanboy fashion you take what is said, fail to comprehend it due to no education and start ranting and crying about things that were never said. I never said Wii was perfect at any point, but you ignorant inbreeding types just cant seem to comprehend English well enough to let that sink in.

[Mahr]

"The Wii hasn't had serious 3rd party support - at all, really, after the initial games flopped (see: Red Steel, Far Cry, etc.)"

How exactly are you defining 'serious 3rd party support'?

I don't particularly like referring to Metacritic, but of the top twenty highest rated Wii Games, fifteen are third party. One of them, World of Goo, is even higher-rated than Brawl was.

Of the top 42 highest rated Wii games, which range in scores from 97 to 80, only eight are first party -- those being Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Brawl, Metroid Prime Corruption, Super Paper Mario, Wariowares Smooth Moves, Mario Kart, and Wii Fit.

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

The other 34 are all third-party. None of which are mini-game collections.

[ChickeyCantor]

" Oh come on. The Xbox 360 had serious games being released by third party devs from launch through now, "

No developer took the wii serious because they though the PS3 and 360 would boom of the shelves.

So they took the risk of bigger budgets, thinking they would make a 1000% profit.

Thats why we saw so much shovelware because it looked like it was selling great. But if they pushed out better games from the start you wouldnt be complaining. Also in the beginning some developers were trying to push out core games. But publishers thought that shovelware was the best way.

@madden,
News or just your nonsensical drivel?

[TheFreak]

No the wii has always been an adult, it is 3rd party devs that are starting to mature. About damn time!

Maybe we can see some fellow gamers that will follow the example and mature a little, but I fear not :(

[wiizy]

uh ok. good thing nintendo was smarter then so call hardcore gamers that cant even define hardcore games. i guess if a game has guns then its hardcore? makes no sense. nintendo should never stop making casual games cause variety wins, thats why its on top.

[JonahFalcon]

Wow, the second straight time I have to write this:

Didn't read the article, huh? It mentions such games as Broken Sword and Roogoo: Twisted Towers, etc. Please read the article, especially where it says this:

"There’s a difference between a dumb kiddie film and a smart family film; Hotel for Dogs and Ratatouille both aim for the same audience, but while the former will make you check your watch, the latter will charm and entertain you."

Also:

"That’s not to say that you have to be Mature-rated or a shooter to be appealing. It isn’t when a title is cutesy or over-reliant on the Wiimote that angers Nintendo fans; they’re fully used to it, and will embrace it if there’s some effort and intelligence put into it. Just see Super Mario Galaxy. It’s laziness, condescending titles that pander to the lowest common denominator that annoys them."

[ape007]

mad world

conduit

ready to rumble

house of the dead

they all look awesome and unique

[pcz]

house of the dead over kill and deadly creatures!

[eagle21]

Unless you live under a rock.

[Imallvol7]

lol i doubt it.

[cliffbo]

the trouble is that the Wii hasn't been selling to people that will want to play these games. it might have more consoles sold but i'll bet anything that these types of games will always sell better on the 360 and the PS3... that's what we paid for.

[dragunrising]

Depends how you look at it...my grandpa games on the Wii :-p

I agree with the article, in the sense that more mature titles are on the way for the Wii. There will always be the shovelware, Babyz and Imaginz games...however, we have Conduit, Madworld, Deadly Creatures and House of the Dead to look forward to (just for the Spring). I expect the Wii will continue to reel in third party (mature) games and perhaps the hardcore crowd (n4g :-p) will embrace it. Maybe one day the PS3 and 360 fanboys will unite against the Wii fanboys...one may dream.

[JonahFalcon]

It's not just that. It's the fact that The Conduit looks amazing. It looks like a late life cycle Xbox game or launch Xbox 360/PS3 title. Ready to Rumble Revolution and Deadly Creatures both look great.

It's easy to forget what the Wii could be capable of when developers aren't trying to make a quick buck. The shovelware titles out now look like mediocre GameCube games, not Wii titles.

I don't own a Wii, but I may pick one up in the future if this trend continues.

"the Xbox was being maxed out relatively early in its lifetime,"

That's patently untrue. Compare Halo with Halo 2 - or Brute Force with Half-Life 2. The Xbox never reached its full potential.

[cliffbo]

but everyone (and i am not exaggerating here) that i know with a Wii: 7 in all, will never ever buy games like these. Nintendo have put themselves in a cul-de-sac and will struggle to escape it. and by the way, out of that seven only one person got it for herself. all the others bought it for their kids.

the Wii, by it's very nature, is a short-play-time machine. you wouldn't feel comfortable sitting down and playing a games for hours. eventually your arms get tired and the drawer comes a calling.

[Voiceofreason]

Cliffbo the only way someone would believe what you have to say is to be a complete idiot. You're of course using outdated information that assumes Wii owners do not buy games. If they dont buy games how did Nintendo account for 49% of software sold last year between the Wii and DS? Oh and that's 49% of all games 1st and 3rd party. 49% of all games sold were sold on Nintendo hardware.It's really comforting to know that the only people who can come up with negatives about the Wii also havent got a clue what they are talking about. 2 different surveys have been done showing the Wii gets plenty of play time. Far more than the PS3 which at this point gets played less than the original xbox.

[ChickeyCantor]

" There will always be the shovelware, Babyz and Imaginz games...however, "

Its the same way the Ps2 lived its life, but people tend to forget that.

[dragunrising]

I agree that people forget the PS2 had a lot of shovelware and did just fine. The problem with the Wii though is that the quality of 3rd party titles hasn't defined it like the venerable PS2. The Wii (Gamecube and N64) on the other hand is (and was) defined by Nintendo titles. Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't churn out a hit but once or twice a year. The PS2 benefited from a casual and hardcore gamer alike, however for many (or even most) people the Wii is a mere toy. In other words, its the equivalent to a novelty board game that you play every once in a while. Titles like the Blob, Bloom Blox, Deadly Creatures, Conduit, etc, etc are important for the sole reason they are not Nintendo offerings. For many people Nintendo games may be enough, but the majority of hardcore (or midcore) gamers its not. The Wii's appeal is much greater than anything the PS2 was fortunate to have and as such suffers from more shovelware, trying to make a quick buck on the uninformed.

[ChickeyCantor]

You can't say the library isn't growing.
DS had the same problem and check out all the games it has now.

People said the DS is a toy too, that it offers nothing for the core crowd.
I'm not worried about the games, even EA wants to bring a game like Dead space.

[TruthbeTold]

the - The Conduit looks like a late stage first Xbox game comment. We all know that due to its PC-like build, the Xbox was being maxed out relatively early in its lifetime, and we never saw nor could we see some of the effects that we see in The Conduit. That goes for raw polygon count as well. The games are in the same resolution of course, but that is pretty much the only way that they can be truly equated. I liked the article, but that statement is just ignorant, and makes the writer sound like a Wii hater who is forcing himself to give the Wii some props. Decent article though. The Wii is growing up, in a 3rd party sense that is. Nintendo for the most part is handling their business.

[Gue1]

edit:

My bad. The Wii's really Starting to Grow Up.

I just sometimes make a comment first to reserve the first spot to then read and edit. =)

[JonahFalcon]

And once again, someone didn't read the article:

"That’s not to say that you have to be Mature-rated or a shooter to be appealing. It isn’t when a title is cutesy or over-reliant on the Wiimote that angers Nintendo fans; they’re fully used to it, and will embrace it if there’s some effort and intelligence put into it. Just see Super Mario Galaxy. It’s laziness, condescending titles that pander to the lowest common denominator that annoys them."

It discusses other titles like Broken Sword and Roogoo: Twisted Towers, then says:

"There’s a difference between a dumb kiddie film and a smart family film; Hotel for Dogs and Ratatouille both aim for the same audience, but while the former will make you check your watch, the latter will charm and entertain you."

Please read articles before you comment on them.

[Gr81]

The Wii isn't starting to grow up. Its just the shifting of resources from third parties is starting to come to fruition. The talking point of Wii being a kiddy system to begin with is nonsensical. Quality games take time to create, simple as that. No one expected the Wii to be the sales beast it is, but now that the userbase is becoming too large to ignore, you are seeing the support come in droves. Iwata has even stated as such, and being the President of Nintendo, he must have tangible reasons to make such a claim.

I'm honestly curious to hear what the next wave of excuses, or goal posts will be. Some fans are just too blind to see that while they keep holding on to old disproven ideas and perceptions about the Wii, everyone else has moved on to accept the system and provide new and innovative experiences. This can only mean great things for our industry as a whole. The third parties that don't focus on the marketleader and ignore the large installed base of the Wii will have to deal with the consequences. Some companies have already felt these consequences in real substantial ways, and are making moves to stop the bleeding. Others...well aren't around anymore, or won't be around for much longer. Its just the way it goes.

Don't be surprised when other third parties speak about downsizing and start to allocate more focus on Wii games than the other systems combined..Oh wait, what's that? It's already happening? Hate to say I told you so.

[wiizy]

wrong. variety wins. you like animated movies, i dnt. wii games should be wiimote focus thats the point of the wii. many gamers including wii haters are waiting for wii sport resort, im not but its wiimote heavy. now quality of games should improve and they are. point is variety wins.

[Durffen]

Is that screenshot of Killzone 2? That gun doesn't look like it's from The Conduit, but I think I saw it in the KZ2 Demo.

[ChickeyCantor]

Looks like BLACK

[Durffen]

That it does.

[mastiffchild]

Everybody has been well aware that this year would have more "core" games out for the Wii. We're already waiting on Fatal Frame 4 and Tenchu4(FF4 getting 85% in Famitsu)nearly have HotD:Overkill and Deadly Creatures and the list ofr the rest of the year from 3rd parties is long and interesting from Cursed Mountain through Fragile to Muramasa-and that's saying nothing about Ninty themselves or Capcoms likely eventual output.
Sega have Madworld, The Conduit and HotD out in the next few months and while CTYD looks really poor I'm certain Capcom have some good stuff for Wii coming soon while Nintendo have the, imo, really hardcore S&P2 coming soon along with fan fave Punchout!!. E3 will likely see some big news from Nintendo-prolly a Zelda before Xmas, new Pikmin, Metroid side story and so on.
Motion Plus(and therefore Spirts Resort is interesting. Will "casuals" want better control? Is it Ninty attempting to improve what Wii does well to cement their current standing and "educate" some of their new user base while wooing some of us back onto our white boxes? Seems like it to me and though the article states the obvious a little and we've known a while that better games were coming(plus the added Wii controls GC range-please MP on the Prime games)ot's still nice to see someone bother saying something other than "Wii has no good games". The hope is now that these games are both good and get bought(no more Okami/NMH syndrome)so that devs make more of them.

[SinnedNogara]

@ JonahFalcon

WTF!!

Listen. Nintendo isn't abandoning hardcore gamers. The third-parties like Ubisoft and DDi are. Do you expect a new game from Nintendo every month. Shigeru Miyamoto makes 1 game a time to avoid overwork. I don't see any other big geniuses at Nintendo who make games (Mamashi Kishimonto has his own company, Sora).

Enjoy your 5th RROD!!!

[ChickeyCantor]

A game like MEtroid is not from shigi.
Remember, Shigi is not the only game-designer.

[Mikhal5569]

Reading through all these articles and comments makes me wonder why "Nintendo" suddenly become such a bad word.

One things for sure, there's too much bad blood between Sony fans and Wii fans. (Microsoft fans also, but to a lesser extent.) The whole Nintendo argument is based on the assumption that "Nintendo" supposedly abandoned the 'core' gamer. This however is simply not true. Nintendo always focused on the more friendly oriented games and let third parties bring in the more extreme stuff. (They did get overly strict with the Gamecube's content early in it's life span, but lazed up a bit towards the end.)

Flash forward to the launch of the Wii. Nintendo stated that they would allow a broader range of games including more hardcore titles for the 'core' audience. And a much bigger focus on casual gaming which would be more assessable to none-gamers.

Obviously, most publishers didn't immediately buy into the idea and took a wait and see approach. While others tried to cash in on the 'casual craze.' Now, the system has a install base which is far too big for any sane developer to ignore, and now it's getting actual games that have had full development cycles.

If anything, I would sat that it's not so much the Wii growing up, but that some of the third party developers are.