Well, technically over 10 years, but 10 nonetheless. That's right, The original Wii is now a ten-year-old piece of dust gathering hardware…Where has all the time gone? Dunno, but I suppose it's time to give the Wii a proper retrospective and personal memories.
When the Wii initially launched, it instantly became a phenomenon in the gaming industry. The idea of using motion controls in-game seemed to have been perfected by the Wiimote, and it seemed like both an amazingly unique, novel concept, and the future of gaming. So many people felt like they were truly engaged in the game. You had so many people marveling over this new way to play games, it really became a remarkable period of time…that is, until we realized the truth about the Wii.
When we realized that you could just simply swing the Wiimote in any random direction in Wii Sports Tennis,and still play well, it became apparent that the innovative controller was nothing more than just a glorified gimmick that would be dropped near the end of the Wii's life cycle. It didn't help that a large portion of official Wii games didn't support the motion controls very well, so the novelty wore off pretty quickly.
Another major problem with the Wii were the selection of games….Oh boy, sooooooo many shovelware titles, your head would spin. On one side, you have good Wii games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Twilight Princess, but then you get games like Ninjabread Man and M&M's Kart Racing invading the list of games, and you'll realize that the Wii was kind of short-handed in good quality titles. Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of great games to be experienced on the Wii (such as Xenoblade Chronicles) but there are just as many low quality titles that exist to make a quick buck.
Admittedly, there were many shovelware titles on the Wii, but perhaps the most unique thing about the Wii was the introduction of the Virtual Console and WiiWare titles. For the first time, you could officially buy re-released classic games that are both historically and culturally significant to the history of Nintendo…and other companies, with the use of Virtual Console. WiiWare gave us many different tools or applications that worked specifically for the Wii. That not only gave the user new abilities for their Wii, but also helped extend the overall life of it.
In the end, the Wii had many things it did right, and many things it could have done better or different. What started as something no gamer had ever experienced ended up as their best collector, you cannot deny the impact all of those 101 Million Wii's had on many of us, and will remain in history as one of Nintendo's greatest anomalies.
…Memories, huh? I had a good history with the Wii, for it was the first time I had ever owned a game console. I received my Wii on Christmas of 2006. The family and I plugged that in and tried the Wii Sports pack-in; what a blast that was. Motion controls were such a sweet thing until..well, a couple days had passed. You could literally play most of them sitting down, defeating the whole purpose of feeling like you're immersed in the game. Over time, there were a collection of good games (Super Paper Mario, Mario Galaxy, LEGO games, Mario Kart Wii) and a bunch of not-so-good ones (Basically most of the Non-Nintendo developed games) But overall, there was a plethora of memories involving broken friendships over Mario Party 8, bowling in Wii Sports, and cheating with the Wii-Fit board. Good memories… I guess the most depressing part of the Wii being ten years old is that I'm no longer a kid anymore.
Anyways, what are your thoughts on the ten-year anniversary of the Wii? Where were you the first time you saw the Wii?
