Wii's advertised and hyped big guns this past holiday were Wii Music, Animal Crossing (with Wii Speak), Wii Fit, and Mario Kart. Wii Music was a minor let-down, Animal Crossing was a bust, and Wii Fit and Mario Kart are still selling like crack. Two out of four ain't bad, right?

Excuse me...TWO?! Two games for the entire holiday season from Nintendo and not ONE of them is rated Teen? Not one of them caters to the hardcore gaming community. Not. One. Sure, there were some random third-party pack-a-thons that did pretty well (My Fitness Coach, Carnival Games, Jillian Michael's, etc.) but none of them are seriously hard-core games that will make me buy them simply because no other system does it better.

Now before I go on, I want to explain the purpose of the column this week. Nintendo will never be able to break into the hardcore market with their current system, the Wii. How did I come to this conclusion? Let's delve into my thought...

It's not that I don't think Nintendo will try. They'll put out their Madworld, House of the Dead, Dead Rising, and other hardcore slide-n-dice bloody games in an attempt to cater to those more mature Wii owners. They'll make their big presentations to us. They'll say over and over again that they haven't forgotten us... Oh they haven't forgotten us. They know we're here. Obviously, since we're buying the hardcore games on other systems. It's just that they don't really need us. They have the casual and regular gamer's hands in marriage and are banking off their pockets. Wii Fit, a gigantic money-maker, makes Nintendo money every day of the week with bucket-loads of sales. As is Mario Kart. The Wii itself is selling like a stock-broker in '09; like donuts with the “Fresh & Hot” sign on at Krispy Kreme; like a Nintendo Wii on eBay. That's right, it's now common knowledge.  The Wii is one hot tamale.

So why would Nintendo care about little old me? The college kid with just enough money for a game a month. Why should they file a divorce from the casual crowd for at least a while?

Why should they? Hardcore gamers are already tired of the Wii's shovelware and have grown tired of Nintendo the company. They act all high-and-mighty about their hardcore following and plans for them, and then don't deliver. Even when they do minorly deliver, we don't buy it...because we, as hardcore gamers, have another gaming system which has many more hardcore options that supply us with a solid control scheme with no learning curves made for a toddlers built into most games. Why would we pick up your system and one game in the past three months made for me? We won't, and we have proven that we don't. Ports of supposedly 'hardcore' games from other systems aren't going to do well because...well...we've ALREADY PLAYED THEM, and a better version to boot! We don't CARE about motion controls added on. Nintendo is too busy throwing their gaming divions into creating games catered to the casual family. They haven't put out an original, hardcore, amazing first-party game  in a loooong time.

My main problem is this: don't put on a fake face Nintendo. Don't act like you've got your act together on all ends, because you don't. You're making money, and that is what a company is designed to do. That's great! Usually, a console has a checks-and-balances system that is controlled by casual games, shovelware, and solid, or hardcore, games. Your scale is way off balanced, and everyone in the gaming universe can see which side needs some loving. I own a Wii, but I know my Wii to Xbox 360 to PS3 game ratio isn't 1:1:1. These next few months better be filled with announcements that rock the gaming world, because voice chat and four scales taped together isn't doing it for me.

Written by :

CrAzYbRoS

 

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Jaklap

Re:Wii Shout: Where Do We Go From Here? Feb 25 2009 21:00:47 I feel exactly the same. I made the mistake of buying my Wii. I've always been a Nintendo fan, I guess that's why. I had a gamecube before I had played a good amount of PS2 or Xbox, and before that my neighbors had an N64 and the other had a genesis. I was so exited for the Wii, and to be honest, I wasnt as hardcore of a gamer as I am now. I played hardcore games like Halo and that stuff, but I didn't spend time on forums or any of that stuff. I bought the Wii, and was exited for the stuff like Animal crossing, but also excited for hardcore stuff like....like...well, nothing. The Wii hasn't pumped out ANY hardcore games besides, maybe...Mario Galaxy, that are good. Now that I am a more hardcore gamer, I've started gaming on the PC becuase the Wii can't deliver what all gamers want.

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