This was fun to write and let it all out.
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I think their BIGGEST mistake is to not launch with an Onyx Wii beside the Pearl Wii.
Finally, someone focusing on the real issue here. Man, I have not had a problem with the Wii or anything about it until this Sept. 14th conference.
That's when I learned what was shown at E3 2005 and talked about then would not happen. I was happy and ready to buy a Wii just from what little they showed at that press conference alone. That console looked amazing. Jet black is where it's at. The other colors seemed alright but black is the best.
Then they started showing these white rooms and the white console once they unveiled the remote. Then, they'd only show white. Oh, don't worry they said. We're planning on releasing the black and white consoles only at launch. Ok, I said. Sounds fine.
Meanwhile, Twilight Princess is delayed. Nothing big. They made a promise to release it on Gamecube and they are sticking to the promise. Speculation about what Wii games there could be. Then rumors start going out about Wii control for TP. It keeps growing as it is found out, slowly but surely, that, yes indeed, TP has Wii controls. It will be released same day as Wii. There will be two seperate versions.
E3 2006. Wow, look at all these Wii games. Man, Nintendo has quite the lineup in the works. Wait, where was Smash Bros.? Oh, they fooled us. Great trailer. Too bad the game is coming out in 2007. Oh well. Following the news, we knew it hadn't even started development until after the E3 05 conference. Not a surprise. Mario looks great. Probably won't make launch. But at least we'll get to play that Paper Mario game to hold us over. And Metroid looks to be shaping up real well.
Time passes. Game speculation and rumours. Price is to be lower than $250. Reports of Gamecube games being moved. Finally, it all comes to down to the press conference. Sept. 14. A day that will live in infamwii.
There will be no Metroid at launch. Smash Bros. was long delayed. What happened to the Camelot RPG or Crystal Chronicles sequel? Who knows, they won't be available at launch either. That's right. All games we mentioned at E3 05 won't be here at launch.
Hey, remember that black console that we waved around and wowed you with. The color we promised we'd launch with along with a white console. Well, we don't. White only.
By the way, the console will cost $249.99. Look at that. One cent below $250. Why didn't we just say that was the price way back then? I don't know. I guess we wanted to get some expectations that it wasn't that price and would be more than one cent below that figure.
But hey, guess what? Remember that Gamecube game? Uh, Twilight Princess. Yeah, that's our launch title. But if you were hoping for something that was built for the Wii, I guess we'll throw in Excite Truck.
What's that? You think you'll skip the launch of the Wii because you were hoping for different games to be there, plus you think you'll wait for the black console and an inevitable price drop instead? What are you going to do in the meantime? Play Gamecube games? Ha! Forget it. We moved all the Gamecube games to the Wii. That way, we can delay launching actual Wii titles until we have launched all our old Gamecube games. And you'll have nothing to play unless you buy our console now. Yeah, I know we kept promoting them as reasons to keep your Gamecube and signs that we were still going to support your perseverance with the system. Heck, we even game them release dates. That was great.
You see, in the end, it all goes back to that black console. Back then, it was everything we wanted it to be. It had a great look. People were still loving the name. TP was supposed to be released on the Gamecube. It was going to have Metroid and Smash Bros. at launch. Next chapters of Mario and Donkey Kong and Zelda were on the way. This was something.
But now, we have a white console with a name that still drives some people nuts with a game that was supposed to be released a year ago for a different system as it's launch title (shades of Kameo, though Kameo was longer wait). I guess it's so that they can attract the non-gamers. And now some wait, with not much to do this fall. There wasn't much needed to keep me on board but it was enough to cause to cause me to fall off.