Topic: What Nintendo has done right and wrong with the Wii

[NWR_pap64]

I thought about this just now and decided to make a list of the things Nintendo has done right and wrong with the Wii. Feel free to add onto the list as there are many details I may mis during the creation of the list.

What they have done right so far
- Innovative new control scheme: Rather obvious one. If Nintendo had stayed with the Gamecube 2.0 idea it wouldn't have been as exciting and it's the innovation that is making people excited for the new console.

- Attracting a lot of developers: So far, it seems that Nintendo has been doing a great job of attracting 3rd parties to the Wii thanks to it's unique plans for the release. They even got developers who hadn't developed for a Nintendo console in YEARS!

We need to see how the developer support holds up for the next couple of years, however, as right now they may have a lot of developers at their side but they might or might not stay with Nintendo at the very end.

- Game download service: While we haven't seen how the overall service will work, it is in general a great idea. Imagine not only having the latest and greatest Wii games you have some of the best games of all time in an easy to reach online service. I wouldn't be surprised if some people pick up the Wii just for the game download service.

- A great launch promised: True, we still don't know if those 20 games will truly be there or there will only be 3 to 4 titles, but so far it seems that Nintendo understands that they need a great variety of games at launch in order to stay in the competition. No more 2 or 3 games business or small games at launch. Nintendo needs to bring the games home and BADLY.

- Red steel the first Wii game revealed: This can easily be argued, but you have to agree that having a dark and mature game be the first game ever revealed was a good move on Nintendo and Ubi's part. Nintendo knows that they need to get some older players into the console and what better way to do that than to show off a dark and gritty FPS that may offer a truly inmersive (sp?) experience?

- Embracing online gaming: And about time too! They finally realized that people wish to play Nintendo's greatest games with their friends around the world. They haven't fully explained how everything will work, but so far it seems a lot of games will be online ready at the Wii release.

- Good publicity: Nintendo has done the impossible and that is gain a lot of good publicity (well, until they revealed the Wii name that is :p). First, they got Game informer, a magazine that has openly stated that the idea behind the Wii had no real merit, raving about a Wii game and BELIEVING in Nintendo's Revolution. Then they got EGM praising it, going as far as to call it " a winner". And now with the Time article, Nintendo has gotten a lot of good press. The Wii needs a lot of good press as the more it gets the more people will have faith on Nintendo.

Enough with the good, now for the bad...

What they have done wrong so far
- The new name: This can be EASILY argued, but I think we can all agree that the new name (Wii) could make or break the system. I mean, the name is so crazy it could actually work! Or it's so stupid it could easily scare away some customers.

I think this is really a 50/50 thing. We won't know if Nintendo has truly done right and wrong until the Wii is launched and see how it does for the next couple of years...

This is all I can remember. Don't forget to add in any I may have missed.  

[Requiem]

Honestly, if Nintendo hadn't gone with such a radical form of thinking, I probably wouldn't be interested in anything next-gen has to offer.

[eljefe]

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Originally posted by: Requiem
Honestly, if Nintendo hadn't gone with such a radical form of thinking, I probably wouldn't be interested in anything next-gen has to offer.

Q
F
T

[Caliban]

What can you say, it's impossible to control perfection because we are human afterall .

What's QFT?

[mantidor]

Quoted for Truth

Oh also, it seems forced that way of thinking about the new direction of Nintendo, sure its going to be awesome, but are you really saying that if the Rev was Gc 2 with similar traditional controller and prettier graphics you wouldnt care for the next Mario, Smash Brothers, Metroid, Zelda, Kirby etc. etc etc. ? I really doubt that. Come on, we are Nintendo fans, we'll line up for Zelda for years to come whatever form it takes.



 

[NWR_pap64]

Quote
Originally posted by: Requiem
Honestly, if Nintendo hadn't gone with such a radical form of thinking, I probably wouldn't be interested in anything next-gen has to offer.

I agree that even if the Wii fails it will be remembered solely because it was the only console that was truly next gen.

I was never a big fan of the original XBOX. The only games I played on it were Halo 2 and the Dead or alive games. The XBOX 360 is basically an expansion of that, so it failed to captured my attention.

The PS3 I know it will get a lot of support and it will perhaps feature the most variety of games out of all the three consoles, but it's more of the same, really, except better graphics and every single thing thrown into the console (blu-ray, extra ports, USB ports etc. etc. etc.). In other words, Sony just made the PS3 bigger and better but doesn't offer anything that is truly "next gen".

Nintendo and the Wii, however, is the only one that offers something new that can ONLY be done in this generation and that is the controller and the other unmentioned feature of the Wii. It's a brand new way to play games and I think if done right it can easily take off and be a stepping stone towards achieving true virtual gaming.

Even if the Wii fails and Nintendo is forced out of the console race, there's no denying that the Wii idea will live on as someone will likely pick it up and expand it, just like Nintendo did when Atari crashed and burned back in the day.

And to answer your question, Mantidor, yes I would've picked up the Wii if it was just the GC 2.0. What I mean is that if had Nintendo just stayed with the same mentality as it did this past generation the excitement for it would've been dramatically low. Like; "bah, it's another Nintendo console. It will feature the same franchises. Yawn...".

I mean, in all honesty people, would you be EXTREMELY excited if Nintendo's latest console was just another traditional console? I mean, look at the hype and excitement going on with the Wii. I doubt the same would've happened if Nintendo had decided to do yet another traditional console. And part of the exciment is because it promises to be something new and exciting.

[Jensen]

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Originally posted by: mantidor
Quoted for Truth

Oh also, it seems forced that way of thinking about the new direction of Nintendo, sure its going to be awesome, but are you really saying that if the Rev was Gc 2 with similar traditional controller and prettier graphics you wouldnt care for the next Mario, Smash Brothers, Metroid, Zelda, Kirby etc. etc etc. ? I really doubt that. Come on, we are Nintendo fans, we'll line up for Zelda for years to come whatever form it takes.

I liked the first 3D outing of Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda and Metroid better than the next 3D games in each of the series.    (in Zelda's case, I am referring to OOT vs WW)   I really wouldn't be as excited about a Gamecube 2 as I am about the Revolution.  

[couchmonkey]

I think Nintendo has much more potential to get out of it's rut with this system than with a Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 style system.  It just wouldn't be interesting, and therefore it would carry the same stigma as GameCube without any of the advantages of Wii.  But it would be "safer".

One thing that I think Nintendo has done a little wrong is storage.  I believe the 256 or 512 MB internal memory is going to be way too small.  Yes, I can expand it, hopefully through a USB drive, but I wouldn't count on Nintendo to support something like that, it seems to be stuck on Flash memory, which just isn't cheap enough yet.  I believe the lack of HDTV support will also be seen as short-sighted three or four years down the road.  However, I don't think either of these is really critical to success, I just think they're going to be little disappointments in an otherwise fun experience.

If Nintendo was doing a 360/PS3 style system, I'd still be very excited, but I agree that without any controller innovations at all, it would be much less interesting.

[BigJim]

"innovative new control scheme" is still a question mark. I know by now it's easy to claim how great it is, but if it doesn't accomplish its goal and turns people off instead, then it's not a resounding success. We're not going to know this at E3 or anytime very soon. We gotta see what the market thinks. The one Nintendo claims to be targetting. Not us fanboys... which they're admittedly not even listening to, according to Iwata.

I agree with everything else, though. The VC is hot, and developer support seems to be percolating. Hope it can be sustained...

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I mean, in all honesty people, would you be EXTREMELY excited if Nintendo's latest console was just another traditional console?

I would be extremely excited if Nintendo decided to compete for real, and not live in a fun-tastic world where they have 100% of *their* market rather than 15% of the real world market that thinks they're irrelevant. I don't subscribe to the PR that normal controllers and consoles are broken, so I don't see anything wrong with the other platforms in and of themselves.

I can still be impressed. I've just been done with Nintendo's 2 year cocktease for about 1 year and 11 months. I used to get jacked up about everything they did like a regular 'ol fanboy, but not so much after the last 2 generations. My attitude's been "show me the money." Now that they're FINALLY going to show something, I'm all ears.

[Requiem]

Manditor - I definitely wouldn't be compelled as I am now to pick up the console. I'd most likely wait a few years after launch till everything is much cheaper to pick up the console.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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Originally posted by: couchmonkey
I think Nintendo has much more potential to get out of it's rut with this system than with a Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 style system.  It just wouldn't be interesting, and therefore it would carry the same stigma as GameCube without any of the advantages of Wii.  But it would be "safer".

One thing that I think Nintendo has done a little wrong is storage.  I believe the 256 or 512 MB internal memory is going to be way too small.  Yes, I can expand it, hopefully through a USB drive, but I wouldn't count on Nintendo to support something like that, it seems to be stuck on Flash memory, which just isn't cheap enough yet.  I believe the lack of HDTV support will also be seen as short-sighted three or four years down the road.  However, I don't think either of these is really critical to success, I just think they're going to be little disappointments in an otherwise fun experience.

If Nintendo was doing a 360/PS3 style system, I'd still be very excited, but I agree that without any controller innovations at all, it would be much less interesting.

Actually wasn't it revealed that Wii will in fact be able to connect to outside storage sources such as detachable HDs and USB flashdrives?

[Magik]

Maybe we should also add that the Wii looks super slick compared to the dull GC.  The Wii looks like a system that BELONGS in someone's home entertainment system and not in the kids toy department.

[BigJim]

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wasn't it revealed that Wii will in fact be able to connect to outside storage sources such as detachable HDs and USB flashdrives?

Technically able to, yes. "Will it" is another question.

SD Memory is still fairly cheap though.

[wandering]

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- The new name: This can be EASILY argued, but I think we can all agree that the new name (Wii) could make or break the system. I mean, the name is so crazy it could actually work! Or it's so stupid it could easily scare away some customers.

Eh. It's a name. I hardly think it'll make or break the system. That's the domain of the controller.

Mostly agree with your other points, though.

[couchmonkey]

I agree with BigJim on the harddrive: Nintendo has to actually offer some support in that direction for it to be practical.   There's a reason I don't play PC games much, it's that I don't like wasting my time on frustrating configuration and customization tasks.  SD cards are not bad, but still, for the price of a 20GB Xbox 360 hard drive, I probably couldn't even get 3GB worth of SD cards.  I don't think it will matter much overall, but Nintendo really sold me on external storage devices with all of its hype for 64DD, and to this day I still want a harddrive for my Nintendo, even if 64DD was a failure.

I actually think a lot of Nintendo's decisions have been right as far as capturing the non-gamer market goes: fewer buttons, no HD, less power, naming it Wii...many of these things bother me, or used to bother me (I'd pay more to have HDTV support and a bit more power), but the point is to make it cheap and easy to learn for non-gamers.  The name could probably have been better, but I still think it's better than Revolution for not excluding non-gamers.

I think the BIG thing Nintendo has done right or wrong is going after non-gamers.  That's the big gamble, and nobody can say if it will work or not until a few years have passed, but at least the success of the DS suggests Nintendo might be on the right path.

[NWR_pap64]

Quote
Originally posted by: couchmonkey
I think the BIG thing Nintendo has done right or wrong is going after non-gamers.  That's the big gamble, and nobody can say if it will work or not until a few years have passed, but at least the success of the DS suggests Nintendo might be on the right path.

You're right. The DS has proven that you can gather a huge audience of non gamers if you give them the right games. God knows how insanely popular the Brain training games are in Japan right now.

One thing I was going to mention is that there are some people that believe that Nintendo is going to ignore the hardcore games and go for the casual gamers only. That is in my humble opinion an exaggeration.

True, Nintendo does want to aim at the casual and non gamer market, but the hardcore gamer markets are also important. And we saw on the DS that they created games both the hardcore gamer and the casual gamer can enjoy. For example, the hardcore gamers got Mario Kart, Castlevania, New Super Mario Bros., Bomberman and such while the casual gamers got Nintendogs, Animal crossing and Brain age.

So I doubt Nintendo is going to truly ignore their hardcore audience. They just want to make games that are appealing and accesible to ALL.

[Mario323]

The name really isn't that bad.  It's a viral marketing thing.  Someone says Nintendo Wii and the listener says "wee?! Like W-E-E?"  and the talker says "No!  It's spelled W-I-I, but pronounced we."  So they automatically get this clear picture of "Wii" in their mind and the implication of "we" as in "us".  The fact that it is a homophone of "pee" and "male genetalia" also makes people tell others, which just creates more hype and gets more people informed.  If someone hears someone say "PS3", are they gonna say "what?  PEE ESS 3?  How do you spell that?" or "XBOX 360?  What?"..?  No!  They know how it is spelled and they have heard about it 100 times already.