The Wii and You
Do you consider yourself a "hardcore gamer"? Do you own a Wii? If yes, do you play your Wii regularly?
I love my Wii, there are so many quirky titles available for it - but it doesn't get nearly as much playtime as my Xbox 360... I started thinking about this yesterday when Leo Laporte mentioned it while chatting with his audience. I've had my Wii since the system launched, purchased most of the major Nintendo titles (Mario, Zelda, etc) but it sits atop my entertainment center, vigilantly watching over me as I run over pedestrians in GTAIV.
But I look at my game shelf, I see Smash Brothers, Paper Mario, Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Mario Strikers - all games that I have finished (Zelda, Galaxy, Paper, Smash) or just burned out in a few days; I don't see myself playing Strikers again with Smash Brothers being out, and even then I can't see when I'll be playing Smash Brothers with the RG Crew when we all want to play Rock Band or GTAIV online. But why? Smash Brothers is a fantastic game - even according to us - but when I want to play online with my friends, I have to put on a blindfold and hope for the best. Maybe this is why the Xbox360 is so popular with 'hardcore' gamers, we know we want to play with our friends online - especially with all the current gen consoles offering this gameplay - Microsoft's Live system is a simple solution, works great (most of the time) and we can easily find our friends based on their gamertag. Nintendo wants us to share 12 or 16 digit "Friend Codes", go through multiple menus to input them, and FCs don't carry over to other titles. I know they're doing their part to protect little Timmy and Susie who want to play Happy Feet against their other 5 year old siblings, but shouldn't WE have a choice in how we connect to our friends?
Sadly, I think Wii also has had some bad timing lately. While "everyone" picked up Mario Kart Wii, don't forget what else came out that day - GRAND THEFT AUTO IV - maybe that has a small impact on what hardcores are going to be playing longterm; the straight forward party racing title with only so many options, or the open ended world of Liberty City? I still am glad I chose Boom Blox instead of Mario Kart - but even now that I have finished Boom Blox, it gets played by my non-gamer relatives instead of me.
I still have hopes for the Wii - they are still working on expanding into more mature titles, similarly to the end of the N64 era where we saw Conker, Perfect Dark and even Shadow Man, hopefully to keep some hardcores coming back. Games like Killer 7's Sequel "No More Heroes" are a great start, maybe Nintendo will hit that piece of super software that keeps gamers coming back again and again, for more than bowling.
At least they can bank on Fanboys.
