A Look back: My Archive of the Wii 3rd party struggle.

[SaviorX]

Hi, its SaviorX here. I never really contribute to GoNintendo (I just read the daily updates) and have only posted in the forum twice before, but I felt the need to share this with those among you here. I might update this a few more times in the future, but for now I'll contribute a sample of some of the things I have recorded and shelved away like a troll in the depths of my hard drive. It contains excerpts and convincing statements I've found while scouring forums Webwide (that a term?) and I figured I'd put up something for GN; spice the forums up a bit. So without further ado.... The Swarm.

March 20 2007
"It's something we'd like to do, but unfortunately it's not a very good fit with Oblivion. Oblivion is a very demanding game hardware-wise and in terms of graphics processing and raw horsepower. It's not something the Wii was designed to do. They decided not to make the focus on raw horsepower but on interface and so forth. It's a great console and many of us at Bethesda have one but I know that bringing Oblivion over is not possible - we'd have to do a whole new game."
-Bethesda's vice president of Marketing Peter Hines, after discussing Oblivion on the Playstation Portable

June 15 2007
"I am a little concerned about the creative depth of the Wii pool. I'm not sure if they will top out in 2008 or 2007. The Wii will start to look really dated in a couple years when developers get more value from the 360 and learn more and more about the PlayStation 3.

"How much value can developers and creative folks get out of this wrist motion two years from now, or 5 years from now, or 10 years from now? ... How can they design products that aren't too derivative of what's already out there?" -Scott Steinberg, VP of marketing for the U.S. unit of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc.

Oct 25th 2008
"The title screen of this couldn't have been done on PS2 or Wii," -RE5 producer, Masachika Kawata

May 18 2009
"We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year. We've got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it's a format we're really looking at with the right approach. We're not going to establish a new range and call it 'My Girly Game Range' or whatever these other companies are doing, it's so me-too and boring. Bethesda "[doesn't] like the casual games area as such."- Bethesda’s Sean Brennan
***Bethesda’s title was Wheelspin, which attained the title of Worst Wii game ever by inquistr.com and justpushstart.com, along with a 37/100 aggregate rating on metacritic.


January 2nd, 2010
“I have to say that it was a space that was open and we took a gamble on it. It’s like, ‘Wow, there’s no mature games on the Wii. Is there an audience out there?’ We did some research, it said there was an audience out there. I won’t comment about Nintendo, they did champion The Conduit as a ‘this is a Nintendo game.’ And, you know, I think they did okay by us. At the end of the day, I just think that you’re seeing kids are skewing much younger towards next-gen. And that’s what I saw out of Conduit. Because not a bad game, visually it’s appealing, right? AI wasn’t that great. High Voltage’s first real effort as an indie developer, creating their own IP. And it was a good effort, right? And there’s always Conduit 2, right? …Anyone past 12 years old was playing 360 and PS3 shooters. And at that point, you can’t tell a 13 year-old, ‘But it’s on the Wii.’ Forget it, you know? That’s not what they see or hear. They’re not really interested in any techno-fetishist aspects of look how great it is on the Wii…And, you know, the effort that we put behind multiplayer on that game to basically get by friend codes and provide worldwide match-making and so on and so forth, I actually thought we dove too deep…

…Circling back to the whole mature Wii thing, again SEGA took a gamble, we put out some pretty decent content. I mean, House of the Dead: Overkill and MadWorld are great Wii games. They really are, especially House of the Dead: Overkill. That game is funny…Yes [it did better than MadWorld]. I mean they’re both doing okay and at the end of the day we’ll make our numbers, that’s good. Conduit’s done quite well for us. It’s been slow burn. That’s the other thing you find out about the Wii. It’s not necessarily first 3 weeks like most titles. And DS. It’s a longer burn, actually. So panicked at first, but it’s like okay.

But that begets the question, are we going to do more mature titles for the Wii? And it’s like, probably not. Look at Dead Space. We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it’s like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We get numbers, real numbers aside from NPD, and I’m like, ‘Woah.’”
-Constantine Hantzopoulos

[SaviorX]

January 5 2010
“The company's appeal to hardware gamers will become increasingly important as Wii sales stagnate and Q1's long-awaited slate of games (Army of Two: The 40th Day, BioShock 2, Gran Turismo 5 and Splinter Cell Conviction etc) comes to market,” -Pachter

Feb 17 2010

"Deadly Creatures was a fun experience. Critically well-reviewed. Didn’t find much of an audience and I think more of the core-gaming audience is on 360 and PS3. I know Nintendo doesn’t like that message". "I’m a huge fan of Nintendo personally, but that’s just not where the audience is or the audience there is fairly limited. The old guys like me and maybe you will still play the core stuff -- all the stuff we love about Nintendo on the Wii. But we don’t branch out and play some of the core experiences on the Wii. If we do, we go HD and play on PS3 or 360. de Blob started its life on Wii, but obviously with a great brand like that -- people love that character -- taking it to other platforms, the game mechanic can be done. Actually, I prefer it on a normal controller.” - THQ CEO Brian Farrell

April 6 2010
"Critically it [MadWorld] got a lot of acclaim, but commercially it wasn't the success we wanted it to be. Clearly that was a mismatch with the Wii audience - particularly in terms of the amount of cross-ownership between Wii and the other home platforms. If you're going to play a mature-rated game, you're going to get your 360, PC or PS3 out to do so. But you can't knock us for having a go. We were brave in that area, but the reality is, Platinum Games is such a cutting-edge developer they need the PS3 or 360 to realise what they actually want to do." -Sega of America COO and president Mike Hayes

Wednesday, 9th June 2010

“It’s a tough market. We had a lot of product, and the average quality of a game on DS and Wii is very, very bad. So in the mind of the consumer today, to buy a DS or Wii game is to buy a game that isn’t very good. One of the reasons the DS collapsed is piracy, it is very clear, but also it is a fantastic machine and very easy to develop for. It was possible for three kids in a garage to make a game for it. DS is the most successful platform ever, but all my kids’ friends at school have a DS with an R4. They have 100 games for no money. So yes, the market has collapsed for the DS and Wii.” - Namco Bandai’s VP of sales, marketing and publishing Olivier Comte

June 9 2010
Speaking of multiformat, broadly, was there any reason you didn’t go with PC or even Wii?
Yeah, there are two things there. PC is not out of the question and we’re still undecided but I do think that this is really a game best suited to consoles and I’m not sure if it would translate well to PC. The reason we didn’t do Wii or DS, or anything else like that, is because we wanted to bring it into the mainstream. And in many ways mainstream gaming is Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. We didn’t want to do a family friendly version. This is a pretty dark game and just wouldn’t work on the Nintendo systems. -Dave Cox, Castlevania Producer

4 Jan 2010
“You can obviously see that profits are down for Nintendo. I think the Wii is on its tail slide, unless they drop the price to like 80 bucks then you’ll start seeing it flying off the shelves. And I believe they’ll still make money if they drop it to 80 bucks… Point being is they have the ability to lower the price on the Wii [...] where Sony and Microsoft cannot do that. -Sega of America's Constantine Hantzopoulos

January 06, 2010
"Gamer's games" just aren't selling on the Wii anymore, with the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 only doing so well because things weren't quite as competitive in 2007. Darkside Chronicles sold a pitiful 16,000 copies in three weeks, and the number was below what we'd hoped. The lack of success for such games is a clear concern for the company.

Development on Wii [is] very difficult, with an oversupply [of games] and a gamer market that has radically changed. "[Hardcore games] are selling less and less on the console, [be it] MadWorld or Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop or House of the Dead: Overkill. Two years ago, there were still [hardcore] gamers on Wii, [but these have been] diverted from this console in favor of the new generation. The Wii console is very much a family commitment [and] rates relatively low. So for us, Capcom, the future is the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360." - Capcom France boss Antoine Seux

[SaviorX]

A comment by a forum poster:

THQ has never been known for making remarkable AAA games and everything they actually put effort into on the HD systems seems to get less and less attention. Hell they've basically been reduced to spamming every TV channel with adds for UFC 09 and Red Faction Guerilla every commercial break for about a strait month (at god only knows what cost). If only someone had told them Pro-Wrestling/Boxing/Professional Fighting games haven't earned serious coin since the N64/PS1 era or that a generic shooter whose entire sales pitch is a new destructible environment engine is perhaps not the way to capture gamer's imagination.

As for the Wii, the Wii isn't so much a Nightmare for third party developers as it is a money making puzzle. And while even a three year old could figure out this puzzle, industry professionals either can't or don't want to. Who'da thunk it? Putting bargain-bin efforts on a less than mainstream gaming platform isn't paying off for developers? Didn't see that coming! Hey I know, let's blame Nintendo for not paying for our commercials and buying exclusivity to our titles like MS and Sony do.

I'm sure many developers are convinced this is all the Wii's fault too for not making a console they could just port HD games to and that the Wii's popularity has taken away too many potential consumers to make the expense of HD gaming a viable financial venture. And yes, Nintendo is partially to blame for their role in this whole debacle, their lack of balance in focus and overall shortsightedness in ambition for the Wii has not only relegated them to being outsiders in the industry but helped in polarizing gaming between Hardcore and Casual with no room left for the once "core" norm. Ironically, Nintendo's the only thing in the Gaming Industry not going broke and in contrast is actually thriving like never before (despite their disatisfying performance in the eyes of gamers), so we have to take stock of the situation in placing any blame on them. And while everyone can acost them for not playing ball, inversely, Nintendo could acost the industry for not stepping up to even put a half-hearted effort towards making their console a viable lifeline for rolling with the punches in these tough times.

Nintendo stood their ground and the industry stood its ground, and in the end both lost out in different ways, though financially, Nitnendo is the only one smiling.

But even then, to place blame on the industry itself is only adressing part of the problem for third party developers this generation. The far more integral segment of this equation is this new breed of Gamers.

The entire industry in its haste to make a quick buck has cultivated a consumer that only wants hollywood calibur formulaic hardcore games. No wonder unique and fringe Genres are struggling, you have an industry now where the target consumer is either school kids who think anything with explosions and guns is cool or frat boys that wouldn't even be playing video games today if it wasn't for the original Xbox and prevailing hardcore trends cemented by the 360 and PS3. There's a reason why JRPGs are dying and failing in sales. There's a reason why any game that isn't hardcore, grimdark or gritty is relegated to mediocrity outside of non-gaming circles. Congratulations Gaming Industry, you somehow managed to replace the typical tried and true JRPG grinding, platforming jumping, Japanese Developer loving Core gamer with a Xenophobic, anti-anything Japanese targeted, piracy-prone, Hardocre, Spike TV-watching Subnormer who thinks Halo is the best game ever made and only plays video games so he can shovel talk 13 year olds online and frag his brah Skeeter.

[SaviorX]

The final post for today, from a forum poster:

A good product is marketed like this: "Hey, look at all of these cool bells and whistles that you'll get if you buy [product]! [Product] is awesome!"
Most of the "test games" for the Wii from third parties have been marketed to core Wii gamers like this: "Buy [product] if you want to see more of [product category]. And we swear that the next [product] will be better than this half-hearted effort! All we need are sales of this one!"
Do you see what's wrong with this picture? Third parties are marketing their core-market "test games" to nobody. The only incentive that they present for buying one of these "test games" is to see other games on the core market. They think that consumers (core-market consumers in particular, but also consumers in general) are stupid enough to throw their money away on a product that has no discernable benefit to them except for a vague promise of something better in the future that you'll have to pay even more money for.
Basically, they're approaching the whole concept wrong. If they had released a game that consumers wanted for its own benefits, they would have succeeded. But this "test game" garbage is nothing more than negative marketing, and time and again the sales numbers have shown that it doesn't work because consumers are too smart to fall for it. And then, each and every time, the developers or publishers of the "test game" wring their hands and state, "Look! There's no market for core games on the Wii!"
In reality, they're just self-fulfilling their own dire prophecies.

[jasonmaivia]

I've read it all, SaviorX.

The Wii has had the worst treatment this gen by 3rd party developers.
I've already stated that the Wii is THE WORST console this gen...no doubt about that.
A handful of great titles on the Wii can't compete with hundreds of awesome, high-quality games.

It's a shame that things had to end this way for Nintendo core gamers. I'd already seen it come around launch time, when there were hardly any 3rd party developers doing anything for the Wii before it was released, and afterward.

Remember the droughts?
People complain about the PS3 not having games, but most of those complaints can't be backed up easily when it's getting the majority of all 3rd party efforts (multiplatform), which isn't possible for the Wii if there's no PS2 or PSP version being developed seperately.

Nintendo really F'd up. THEY may be making tons of cash, but I should have to suffer as a gamer.
The Wii may be my last Nintendo console to own, and I've owned them all since the NES. If Wii 2, or whatever it may be called, doesn't get equal 3rd-party support like Sony or Microsoft's next machine, I'm done with Nintendo home consoles.

If Nintendo makes another underpowered machine, expect it to get Xbox 360 & PS3 games instead of multi-platform "Xbox 720" and "PS4" games.

I'll stick to what's been good to me
**hugs DS**

I'm hoping for better games on 3DS.
It's already getting games Wii owners WISHED they had.

[motherbra1n]

god sega are fullof so much crap these days.
message to sega:
bring house of the dead overkill to the ps360, then bring bayonetta (which toned down graphics) to the wii. advertise house of the dead overkill as much as you did on the wii and advertise bayonetta as much as you did on the ps360. if bayonetta sells badly and house of the dead overkill sells well, you have every right to complain, but in your current position, you need to stfu

itis sort of nintendos fault for making an underpowered system, theyve repeated this mistake several times and better not repeat it for the next gen. seriously just imagine all of nitnendos 1st party games AND high budget third party titles

[Little_Mac]

Third parties screwed up at the beginning of this generation when they backed the wrong horse in the hd consoles and allocated all major resources to those two consoles because everyone thought nintendo would be in last place. This generation has been boring outside of the few gems that have been released because every developer has the "me too" mentality instead of the creativity that use to drive games, and this goes for all consoles. This industry is becoming to big and every publisher and developer are looking for that blockbuster title which in turn kills creativity in games. The most underrated games this gem are the stand outs. The wii might lack third party support but after seeing the trash that they have released so far I really don't care if the support the wii or not.

[Whatever]

May 18 2009
"We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year. We've got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it's a format we're really looking at with the right approach. We're not going to establish a new range and call it 'My Girly Game Range' or whatever these other companies are doing, it's so me-too and boring. Bethesda "[doesn't] like the casual games area as such."- Bethesda’s Sean Brennan
***Bethesda’s title was Wheelspin, which attained the title of Worst Wii game ever by inquistr.com and justpushstart.com, along with a 37/100 aggregate rating on metacritic.

I'll never forget this quote. This might have been one of the biggest overstatements in video game history.

itis sort of nintendos fault for making an underpowered system, theyve repeated this mistake several times and better not repeat it for the next gen. seriously just imagine all of nitnendos 1st party games AND high budget third party titles

Nothing prevented 3rd parties from releasing high budget titles on the Wii.

I admit though that an underpowered system IS quite a disadvantage for an industry that mostly tries to lure the consumers in with better graphics and stuff like that. Nevertheless the thing that just baffles me is that they didn't even try. The console sold 70 million units and they DIDN'T EVEN TRY.

You know how many 3rd party titles for the Wii I bought ? 2. Okami and MH3. Every time I go into a store and look at the Wii games, there's just nothing (worthy) to buy.

I always complain about this in the commentaries, so I better stop here, though I'd like to mention I actually agree with jasonmaivia. This might have been my last Nintendo console. Their games might be great, but from time to time I want something different than Mario/Zelda/Metroid and you just don't get that on Nintendo consoles anymore. Even last generation had F-Zero GX, Eternal Darkness, Skies of Arcadia, Resident Evil 4, Splinter Cell. This generation ? Not...really...

[Star Luigi]

I always hear people saying that the Wii has zero, or nearly that, good Wii 3rd party titles. Always. Even when told of known gems, they refuse to listen to anything contradicting that view. And then I see a bunch of them in which hard work was put into. I feel like ever since 2007, when there was seemingly nothing good 3rd party-wise, people just assume it has remained so. This is ignorant in my opinion. Most say that there is too much shovelware for them to find any good games, if they even believe they're any. Shovelware is a drag but, it is unfortunately the baggage of any system on the plane of success. The PS2 had it, the DS has it, and almost certaily any future popular system will have it. But because Nintendo really went for the, mostly untapped, casual market, which shovelware is aimed at primarily, that seems to them all there is on the system,although there is an abundance.

Post 3rd party titles you feel are being ignored/underrated and why you believe they're great. Here I'll start with a few:

Blastworks: Build, Trade, Destroy
Zack & Wiki: QBT
Muramasa: Demon Blade
de Blob
No More Heroes/2
Madworld
There are many others I'd add, but I'll leave them for you guys to speak about.

[Kezay]

It also doesn't help that third parties came into this generation with the grand majority of their efforts behind the HD platforms with scraps for the Wii. Save for Ubisoft and Sega, I don't think anyone else really backed the Wii with much content from the outset, despite that Ubi's support was questionable. From the outset the Wii had it tough going as most publishers in general considered Wii an also-ran, an "aside" to the other platforms before the generation even started.

Look at EA, it wasn't until the response out of E3 that they decided to ramp up support for the console prior to launch which consisted largely of port jobs like Godfather and Medal of Honor, both of which were great games at the time (Godfather still is) but it was obviously a cash in effort to jump on the Wii boom bandwagon. How they've handled Madden is nothing short of mind boggling which is why they've yet to really cement that title on the platform outside of the earliest version released on Wii. Dead Space Extraction, while a good rail shooter (I'll get on Capcom about this eventually) it was not what people wanted. I still remember reading on forums like Nsider and NeoGAF how giddy people were when those screenshots first released and how pissed off they became when it was revealed the game was a rail shooter. Referring to it as a guided first person shooter also wasn't doing much to curb the feelings of those who pretty much calling it what it was, a rail shooter. It's a very quality driven one, but at a time when the Wii had more than its fair share of such games it was getting a bit ridiculous. They've had their good moments though in making Rock Band work out the way they have as well as bringing games like Boom Blox and such to the platform. I will say though, that it was odd seeing the PSP of all platforms seeing versions of Army of Two and Dante's Inferno and not the Wii.

Don't even get me started on Capcom, while they have put out some quality work to be sure (Zack and Wiki, Monster Hunter, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, etc.) they did excellent with their Wii converion of RE4 yet instead of following it up with a new traditional Resident Evil, what do we get? A retcon/retread rail shooter of RE0 and RE1, which while being a good rail shooter is not the game people expected. It did well just as RE4 Wii Edition did. So what is lined up for RE on Wii after that? Ports of RE0 and RE1 and ANOTHER rail shooter in Darkside Chronicles that basicaly covers RE2 and Code Veronica. Again, while a good rail shooter it's not what people expected and no surprised it bombed. Fool me one, shame you, fool me twice, shame on me. Oh and the only game to even follow in RE4 Wii Edition's footsteps was basically a gimped version of Dead Rising using the RE4: WE engine.

Okay, let's jump to LucasArts. Now, not a whole to really say against them because the little support they've given Wii has been good. However, the one problem I have is their response to The Force Unleashed no Wii. Now, anyone who has played the Wii version knows how the controls are, they're pretty good, pretty tight, for gestural control much like what makes the Wii version of Godfather as good as it is. However, the game was a technical mess, I never had it glitch out on me but there were obvious quality assurance issues throughout the game aside from the fact it looked like a direct port of the PS2 title. When Force Unleashed 2 was revealed and finally some Wii information came out for it, one of the team members basically stated that the Wii version is only getting much better support this time because of how well the first one did on the platform.

And Activision, oh they've done well with the Wii, made sure that it got a lot of its multiplatform titles. However, I do recall someone from either InfinityWard or Activision saying Modern Warfare wasn't possible on Wii, just couldn't be done. And yet, you can get that game on the Wii. However, that isn't so much the point that bothers me as much as how the Wii version turned out. It's a great game with online features greatly expanded beyond World at War but for $50 you got a port of a two year old game with nothing of the extra additions that were made avaiable via DLC for the other versions. It was like buying the game raw without anything two years ago on the 360/PS3 but for full price with no chance of any extra content.

With that being said, Activision also pretty much had a LucasArts moment, basically saying the only reason Wii even got another CoD is because of how the online community for Wii's World at War cemented itself. Makes me wonder how much faith they had going into even World at War considering they didn't run any ads for it at all until just before December that year. Mind you, nothing of the sort was done for Modern Warfare Reflex, in fact we didn't even have solid media for MWR until early purchasers started putting up videos for the game on youtube which Activision promptly took down before the release date. That was like free advertising for them as the game looked worlds better than those horrible screenshots Activision released which they claimed looked back because of a "bug." (WTF?) And now, here we are again, Black Ops on the way and we know more about the DS version than we do the Wii version and it will likely stay that way until release time. Can't be too mad at them though because the games still came and I'm definitely down for some GoldenEye this year.

Ubisoft has been a mixed bag all around. They were backing the Wii pretty strongly early on, despite the questionable nature of Red Steel and weird development history of Raving Rabbids, they were there for the Wii day one. However, to see games like Far Cry Vengeance, PoP Rival Swords and GT Pro Series end up the way they did was a travesty. Why even release those games in the state they were in other than to cash in on the Wii craze? And drowning the Wii in a sea of Petz/Imagine games, game show games and a specialized branding of cheap party games under the Family Fun moniker didn't help things either. (really? Imagine Babiez? Let's Play Lumberjacks!?) I still remember when Ubisoft basically stated that revenues from the sales of Wii software was being used to fund HD software development versus development on the platform that was helping them make up much of those revenues. Talk about a WTF moment. But, much like Activision, I do give them their props as they did bring us Tenchu, No More Heroes series, a Wii unique version of Forgotten Sands, stepped their game up immensely with Red Steel 2, are bringing the new Ghost Recon over (we'll see how it turns out) and created an expanded audience title that doesn't seem like a complete knock off of Nintendo's own that has performed well in Just Dance. I will say though, despite the Shaun White games making their bread and butter on Wii, the new Shaun White Skateboarding thus far is looking like absolute garbage on the Wii in comparison to the other versions of the game, not sure what the heck is going on there.

There are other examples, but these are some of the biggest for me. What's worse is the constant fear of Nintendo's own developments that publishers are warded off because of competition from Nintendo's own games or because they feel they can't compete in that sector so they simply don't try. In many cases, the Wii versions of games only see the proper support they should have seen initially when half hearted effort proves to be successful, but at that point, it could be too little too late. There are people who may have gotten Force Unleashed on Wii they were met with a less than satisfactory experience that might not even consider Wii's Force Unleashed 2 as a result. There are people who likely permanently cut off from Wii versions of multiplatform games because of how they were handled, such as the glaring propositions of the Madden franchise. It's not even so much like I expect a BioShock or a Final Fantasy XIII for the system, I just expected better support than it has had considering it's a market leading platform, yet it's being treated like the Gamecube before it.

It would be nice to have good games without strings attached like "test games" and ultimatums where it's almost like threatening Wii owners. It would have been nice if publishers looked at the wide range of software that sells on Wii and build from those experience instead of just looking at WiiSports and Party Games and closing the book on anything else. It would be nice if such questionable decisions like lack of awareness, silent launches and crazy schedules (looking at you Square Enix and your December 26th release of The Crystal Bearers, WTF!?) weren't so rampant even among the more quality driven titles.

But I suppose that's all water under the bridge now. Like the past few Nintendo consoles Nintendo is once again being left to fend for itself and despite the success of the Wii platform this generation it will likely not translate into better support in the next generation. If Nintendo's next console becomes a breakout success as well, I can see it having a similar third party software development history as the Wii now with third parties fumbling over themselves again trying to find out how best to grab their piece of the pie versus making an honest effort to generate a quality driven presence on the platform. Mind you, it's not all bad, there are a lot of quality games on the Wii and I appreciate every last one of them, but no doubt the support should have been better.

[Ngamer01]

If there's one thing people forget is the economy. It went in the toilet in '08/'09 and is still weak this year.

It is common sense when the economy is bad that hardly anyone would be buying luxury items like game consoles and games. So it isn't right to put poor sales solely on people. The economy had something to do with it too.

[mariomaniac45213]

I gave up on Third Parties. The only four third party games I have on Wii are MH3, Tatsunoko, CODMWR, and Secret Rings. NOTHING else third parties have made for wii are worth my time. It's port after port or shovelware or niche title or spinoff. I can't take any of them anymore except SEGA at least they are trying (even though the quality isn't there 2/3rds of the time). From now on i'm buying only first party retail titles (excludes Sonic Colors and Goldeneye, maybe Epic Mickey if it's good I will wait for reviews on that one). I refuse to support companies the hardly try. It's like a painter who comes to your house paints half your home with no second coating and wants to charge you full price.

Oct 25th 2008
"The title screen of this couldn't have been done on PS2 or Wii," -RE5 producer, Masachika Kawata

Now if ain't that a huge slap in the face to Wii owners AND Nintendo. It's a fucking title screen for pete sake. What a troll!

[Autosaver]

The Wii has far more 3rd party support then its predecessor. The gamecube.

It has a lot of good 3rd party support. Just be happy it isn't in PSP condition.

[mariomaniac45213]

The Wii has far more 3rd party support then its predecessor. The gamecube.

It has a lot of good 3rd party support. Just be happy it isn't in PSP condition.

You're right it does have more support BUT the quality isn't as good last gen. I'd much rather have 1 good AAA third party effort than a dozen average to mediocre efforts.

Last gen brought us

-Viewtiful Joe
-Viewtiful Joe 2
-Billy hatcher and the Giant Egg
-Super Monkey Ball
-Super Monkey Ball 2 (sure Wii version has two monkey ball games also but they suck ass compared to these)
-Resident Evil 4 (the original version)
-Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (last quality sonic game IMO)
-Beyond Good and Evil

Heck even the ports/remakes had quality and effort put into them last gen like

-MGS: Twin Snakes (Wii doesn't even have a MGS yet Snake got a free ride in SSBB)
-Resident Evil Zero
-Resident evil 2

Shame I can't say the same thing this gen. The only third party games that even compare to the one's I listed above are MH3 and Tatsunoko.

[Kezay]

@ mariomaniac

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle should go in your ports/remakes section. I'd also argue against the idea that only MH Tri and Tatsunoko v Capcom compares to the games you listed, you have a good mix of games there, but higher profile releases like MH Tri and TvC are probably more comparable to Resident Evil 4 versus say, Billy Hatcher or the Monkey Ball games.

Anyway, the GCN did get some great game but the Wii isn't without its take either. The thing is though, is that the GCN is by far more of a success than the GCN was and is being trusted just about the same, probably worse in some respects.

For the Wii in terms of some of the good exclusives:

Tatsunoko vs Capcom
Monster Hunter Tri
Red Steel 2
Little King Story
Silent Hill Shattered Memories
Tenchu IV
No More Heroes
De Blob
Muramasa The Demon Blade


Ports/Remakes (retail and WiiWare)

Godfather: Blackhand Edition
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Klonoa
A Boy and His Blob

[mariomaniac45213]

@ mariomaniac

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle should go in your ports/remakes section. I'd also argue against the idea that only MH Tri and Tatsunoko v Capcom compares to the games you listed, you have a good mix of games there, but higher profile releases like MH Tri and TvC are probably more comparable to Resident Evil 4 versus say, Billy Hatcher or the Monkey Ball games.

Anyway, the GCN did get some great game but the Wii isn't without its take either. The thing is though, is that the GCN is by far more of a success than the GCN was and is being trusted just about the same, probably worse in some respects.

For the Wii in terms of some of the good exclusives:

Tatsunoko vs Capcom
Monster Hunter Tri
Red Steel 2
Little King Story
Silent Hill Shattered Memories
Tenchu IV
No More Heroes
De Blob
Muramasa The Demon Blade


Ports/Remakes (retail and WiiWare)

Godfather: Blackhand Edition
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Klonoa
A Boy and His Blob

Well I WOULD count Monkey Ball it is a big successful franchise that has games released for DS, Xbox, PS2, Wii, GCN (where it got it's start), Iphone, and the upcoming 3DS. I also wouldn't count wiiware because that's a little unfair because GCN didn't have downloadble games. Yes I accidently added SA2 Battle in with the new games. I tried De Blob it was very boring to me. That's not to say it isn't good just that it wasn't for me so I didn't add it. Also what the hell is Tenchu?

EDIT: I looked up Tenchu 4 and reviewers have said it's a very mediocre to average games.(70-79% range) It also isn't an exclusive as it was released on the PSP the same day.

[EXMGX]

"wonders how the xbox 720 and ps4 Graphics will look like "

I expect it to be

most of my Wii games r first party but i did buy some few third party games i got r ...Resident evil 4, Dragon ball z, no more heroes 2 and sonic unleashed, smackdown vs raw 20008, red steel (it came with the original no more heroes) oh ya i had this rayman game but sold it

sigh...the Wii needs a price cut or it won't survive this Christmas its the truth

[Kezay]

Well I WOULD count Monkey Ball it is a big successful franchise that has games released for DS, Xbox, PS2, Wii, GCN (where it got it's start), Iphone, and the upcoming 3DS. I also wouldn't count wiiware because that's a little unfair because GCN didn't have downloadble games. Yes I accidently added SA2 Battle in with the new games. I tried De Blob it was very boring to me. That's not to say it isn't good just that it wasn't for me so I didn't add it. Also what the hell is Tenchu?

EDIT: I looked up Tenchu 4 and reviewers have said it's a very mediocre to average games.(70-79% range) It also isn't an exclusive as it was released on the PSP the same day.

I never said you couldn't count Monkey Ball I was moreso responding to your comment that the only games on Wii that could compare to the games you listed were MHTri and TvC. The Monkey Ball games were excellent, I don't disagree there, but considering some of the other good third party games the Wii has and you're saying the only games that can compare with your GCN list are MHTri and TvC when you have titles like Monkey Ball and Billy Hatcher up there... yeah I'm gonna disagree.

Also, my mistake on leaving that WiiWare bit up there, I actually edited out the games (notice how my list doesn't even have a WiiWare game on it) but I forgot to remove the actual notation from the title. And you are right, I forgot the PSP got Tenchu as well. Though I did think Tenchu was well done for what it was, my only beef being that there was no IR control for the bits that would make sense with it, like aiming with shuriken and such. But, if it matters that much, I'll replace Tenchu with Trauma Team which is exclusive and an amazing one at that.

sigh...the Wii needs a price cut or it won't survive this Christmas its the truth

We'll have to wait and see what happens, what you're saying is no more true than anything anyone has ever said about games sales this generation before the actual point of assertion ever came through. If there is one thing this gen has taught us it's that the Wii is some twilight zone kind of anomaly when it comes to things like that. People figured the Wii was done last year even with the price cut and it went on to break an industry record by doing 3 million plus in December alone. This year there are quite a few titles that could definitely drive sales for the holidays.

I can easily see DKCountry Returns having a similar effect as NSMBWii, not as pronounced, but there are a lot of DK fans out there that would appreciate a return to form not unlike NSMBWii regarding classic Mario gameplay. For the FPS crowd that has made CoD a million seller many times before, there is also Black Ops and especially GoldenEye. The Rabbids games consistently have a solid performance for Ubisoft and I expect it to be the same this year. Social based games like the sequel to Just Dance, a kids version of Just Dance, Guitar Hero and Rock Band will all be appearing this year. In general, there is probably more gaming wise going for the Wii this year than last year. Also I'm not even entirely sure if it does hit this holiday but you also have WiiParty possibly waiting in the wings, too.

[Ezekiel Rage]

the Wii is THE WORST console this gen...no doubt about that.
A handful of great titles on the Wii can't compete with hundreds of awesome, high-quality games.

really? i mean seriously? i dont know what to say... i mean, i do own a PS3 and a Wii... I have 44!!! Wii games i play regularly (not counting VC or WiiWare, retail only) and only 8 for my PS3. And i would ahve more games for wii if i had more money. to put it lightly: i think youre the perfect target audience for microsoft or sony XD

now excuse me i have to prepeare for other M by finishing super metroid on my wii. and i have to hurry up because donkey kong, kirby, goldeneye and zelda are waiting, not to mention that new spider-man game coming out.
oh and of course that one new PS3 castlevania ill get this year. wish i wouldnt have to work...