darkside

Yes it was and I think its failure in that area is a big reason the Wii isn't. Nintendo is totally right to go the way they are. I'm just saying they are giving me very little to play and I won't be back for Wii2, but they are building such a strong new audience they probably won't need gamers like me anyway. As long as everyone moves on to Wii2.

They did have a great first year and maybe they will have a ton of great stuff in 2009, but 2008 has been a pretty slim year. I did forget Smash Bros which I bought and enjoyed and I would add Fire Emblem to that even though it was a GameCube game in reality that got moved over. No More Heroes also deserves a mention though I hated it. I'm not going to count Mario Kart though some will. It was too much of a step back from the DS and Cube version for me to consider it a core game. It has just been so long since a game came out on Wii I cared about (Brawl was Jan and Fire Emblem was Feb) it seems like the whole year has been empty.

I'm definitely not saying all these decisions are wrong. Nintendo would have been foolish to go head to head with the 360, but I would hope for a core game or 2 for the Fall. Lets face it they are going into the big Christmas season with Wii Music and Animal Crossing as their premiere first party titles. I would have thought they would have had a Kid Icarus or something up their sleeve as well.

fumanstan

What was out 2 years into the Gamecube's launch that made it more hardcore?

darkside

That may be the problem. I'm looking back at the Cube overall and maybe some of the best core games weren't out by the 3rd Christmas. Like I said earlier it may turn around next year or two, but I don't remember the Cube having this dead of a year.

Here are games I liked that kept me interested in the Cube that I did consider core type games. I think most were out by the third Christmas in 2003.

1080
Auto Modellista
Baldur's Gate
Baiten Kaitos
Beyond Good and Evil
Blood Rayne
Burnout
Burnout 2
Capcom vs SNK EO
Cubivore
Dave Mirra 2
Dead to Rights
Def Jam Vendetta
Eternal Darkness
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Freedom Fighters
Gladius
Godzilla Destroy All Monsters
Harvest Moon a Wonderful Life
Hitman 2
Hunter the Reckoning
Ikaruga
James Bond Agent Under Fire
James Bond Nightfire
Knockout Kings 2003
Legend of Zelda the Windwaker
Lost Kingdoms
Lost Kingdoms II
Luigi's Mansion
Mario Golf
Mario Kart Double Dash
Medal of Honor Frontline
Medal of Honor Rising Sun
Metroid Prime
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2
Need For Speed Underground
Pac Man Vs
Phantasy Star Online
Phantasy Star Online III
Pikmin
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Red Faction II
Resident Evil Remake
Resident Evil 0, 2, 3 and Code Veronica
Rouge Ops
Sega Soccer Slam
Simpsons Road Rage
Simpsons Hit and Run
Skies of Arcadia Legends
Soul Calibur II
Spider Man the Movie
SSX Tricky
SSX 3
Star Wars Rouge Squadron 1&2 and many other SW games actually
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Monkey Ball 1&2
Tales of Symphonia
Tony Hawk 3, 4 and Underground
True Crime Streets of LA
Viewtiful Joe
Wace Race Blue Storm
XIII

Looking back at that list it appears that Nintendo as a first party has delivered just about as many major 1st party titles. I guess the fact they were front loaded near the launch for Wii may be my issue. The other problem I have is with the 3rd party support for major sports titles, Need for Speeds, Tony Hawks, Spider Mans, etc. In the Cube era these games were pretty equal across all systems. In the Wii era the Wii versions are generally terrible with little effort put in. There are a few exceptions like the recent Medal of Honor and Tiger Woods games that seem to get Wii control right.

The big thing I think I am missing were the games on the Cube that came out of no where and were very good to downright amazing. Beyond Good and Evil, Prince of Persia, Eternal Darkness, XIII, Burnout, Freedom Fighters and so on. This is the kind of game that seems missing on the Wii. Those are going to the 360 and PS3 and in return the Wii gets a bunch of Carnival Game clones.

fumanstan

I think the problem is that the large amount of casual games is overshadowing the number of hardcore games that are out there on the Wii. I don't think there's nearly as much of a shortage as people think although the licensed games and sports titles are a problem mostly due to the lack of power versus the slightly easier ability to port games on the Gamecube in that generation. I'm even one of the guys that own a Wii but barely use it, but I can see that there are a lot of games out there to play.

I think, however, that there have been a few games on Wii that have come out of nowhere. I mean, Zak and Wiki or No More Heroes seems to be along the same lines as the ones you mentioned and talked about quite often.

CreatureX

Here is a chart showing the world wide sales of Nintendo consoles.



At the rate the Wii is selling, it will surpass the SNES by the end March and the NES by the end of September of next year.

darkside

That is true. Also, the Cube was my favorite last gen so I always focused on its releases. Not the case with the Wii so I'm probably overlooking stuff that is getting lost in the casual game shuffle. For instance I also enjoyed Blast Works which came out this year, but had completely slipped my mind.

I definitely won't argue against their sales and I agree they did make all the right choices this gen. Maybe they will win me back over the next couple of years. It is usually year 4-6 when some great stuff comes out. If nothing else all this strong competition between the 3 is great for gamers. Having too much to play is a good problem to have.

Michael Corvin

Unless you are someone that keeps up with releases, then you are sitting here right now with nothing on the horizon. Of course a lot of us here probably have a backlog with a few big ones still sitting there. What was the last big hardcore title? Okami or Boom Blox back in the spring?

fumanstan

I don't know about nothing, as there's things like the licensed property game in the new Bond game, or for wrestling game fans there's a new Smackdown vs Raw. Call of Duty is coming out on Wii, and another Star Wars game (even if it is based on the Clone Wars) is coming. There's Need for Speed, Sonic, Tomb Raider, and Skate It are all before the holidays.

And while certainly there may be better versions on the PS3 or 360, most of the games listed above were multi-platform too.

Of course, that just brings back the argument that the "hardcore" gamer isn't going to care because they'll be buying most of these on the 360/PS3 because of the better graphics or versions, and I don't see Mom and Pop buying the new Call of Duty. And maybe it's just me, but i've also stopped seeing a lot of talk about how "it's all about the gameplay" in regards to the Wii controls over the traditional controllers. I remember that comment being used quite often a year back.

CreatureX

A couple of upcoming third party Wii games that may fall under the "came out of nowhere" category are 'Mushroom Men' and 'Deadly Creatures'. Also 'de Blob' came out this past September to some great reviews.

Chris_D

I'm only surprised based on the fact that my every Wii experience has been utterly underwhelming. Also, games on the system like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Warioware are a step back from versions on other systems like GC or DS. Graphics of course are ass.

But quite clearly, I'm in the minority and I get it that certain Wii experiences seem perfect for playing with the kids or whatever. Anyway, as long as I can get my fix elsewhere I don't mind the Wii being a big success at all.

orangecrush

Nintendo thanks you for your permission

Chris_D

I only said that just to make it clear I'm not some bitter Nintendo hater who expects them to cater to my whim. Clearly with the Wii they're not after my dollar and that's fine.

CreatureX

Just to get a sense of how much Wii software is being sold, here are the top selling console games of this generation so far:

Worldwide:

1. Wii - Wii Play (16.15 million)
2. Wii - Mario Kart Wii (9.53 million)
3. Wii - Wii Fit (8.76 million)
4. Xbox 360 - Halo 3 (8.1 million)
5. Wii - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (7.47 million)
6. Wii - Super Mario Galaxy (6.1 million)
7. Wii - Mario Party 8 (4.86 million)
8. Xbox 360 - Gears of War (4.7 million)
9. Wii - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (4.52 million)
10. Xbox 360 - Grand Theft Auto IV (3.45 million)

Sonny Corinthos

I didn't know the Wii has already out sold the N64 and the Gamecube. I loved both of those systems.

Spiderbite

Um...where's COD4 in that bunch? It sold 4.6 million on the 360 in the US alone.

Spiderbite

VGChartz has it as:
1. Wii Play
2. Wii Fit
3. Mario Kart
4. Halo 3
5. Super Smash Brothers
6. Super Mario Galaxy
7. Call of Duty 4 (360 version)
8. GTA (360 version)
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (really surprised on that one)
10. Mario Party

http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php

Damn...Nintendo is just printing their own money right now. Had no idea that Wii Fit has sold so many copies. Those numbers are super impressive. I don't feel like doing it but wonder what the Top 10 are when you take out first party games on all sides and just focus on 3rd party. Just for curiosity sake.

daniel18

I was surprised since I was one of the people who thought Nintendo was going to go the way of Sega.

Spiderbite

Bah, I was curious and looked at it anyway from a third party stand-point.

1. COD4 - 360 - 6.53 million
2. GTA4 - 360 - 6.07
3. Mario & sonic - Wii - 5.7
4. GTA4 - PS3 - 4.6
5. Assassins Creed - 360 - 3.95
6. COD4 - PS3 - 3.67
7. GH3 - 360 - 3.51
8. GH3 - Wii - 3.37
9. MGS4 - PS3 - 3.34
10. Assassins Creed - PS3 - 2.92

And if you don't want to include MGS4 since it had a couple of pack-in bundles, the next one would be:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 360 - 2.57

So going thru that eleven:
360 has 5 games
PS3 has 4 games
Wii has 2 games

Pretty impressive how close they all are. And who knew Assassins Creed sold so many freaking copies? Jeez!

***Oops...made a mistake. Big Brain is done by Nintendo. Edited the numbers accordingly.***

pinata242

The pre-Wii trend sure pointed that way. But clearly you didn't witness Nintendo win E3 2006.

Or the fact that the DS was already enough to keep them afloat.

They'll never disappear or be at risk of it again, I believe. They've got profitability figured out.

Michael Corvin

There is over a 2.5 million difference between the GTA (360) numbers. That's a pretty big discrepancy.

pinata242

NPD numbers don't include Wal-Mart, do they? Does VGChartz edumatically guess on those and add them in?

If so, then you'd have to assume they also do that for Wii titles so the shift should be comparable.

But if you further assume that Wii sells more casually and Wal-Mart is about as casual as you can get, VGChartz may be short-changing the Wii guesses there as well.

Spiderbite

VGChartz shows the GTAIV 360 U.S. only numbers to be at 3.94 million. Maybe that's were he got it. But his other numbers all seem to be worldwide so that is what I posted.

fumanstan

3.45 million seems low, based on total numbers from Take Two. From Wikipedia -

With over 10 million sold through as of 2 months ago, the 360 total should be closer to 6 million.

Kelkee

All I know is that everytime I go shopping I dont see any Wii systems, Wii Fits, or Mario Karts in stock. Been sold out everywhere since they were released.

And Wii Play should not even be included. The only reason people buy it is to get the extra remote. Its akin to MS pumping up their software numbers because of the software included with an MS Mouse.

CreatureX

If people want Wii Play only for the controller, why wouldn't they buy the controller by itself and save $10?