By Ben Salter
The Wii is dead. Okay, that might be a little harsh, but the reality is the Wii looks dreadful in terms of software. As we approach the weeks prior to E3, when the gaming industry dies for a little bit and there are next to no releases, it’s time to go back and play the gems we may have missed over the past few months. But wait! The Wii has nothing. The start of 2010 for Nintendo’s console has been as bare as I can remember. There’s been little to persuade new gamers to finally join the waggle revolution (old school pun intended) even with $100 knocked off the price.
We’ve only reviewed six Wii games in 2010. That’s not because we’re slack, it’s because there’s little else to review. Monster Hunter Tri is the 7th title worth our time (review coming) but it’s almost too little, too late. It was released in Japan 6 months ago, which in this day and age just isn’t acceptable. Yes, I know translation has to be taken into account but 6 months? Really?
Each week we’re inundated with PS3, Xbox 360 and PC news that blows our socks off. All three platforms have some seriously cool stuff on the horizon and it seems we can’t go more than a week or two without something new being announced. What does the Wii have? The Vitality Sensor. Yay. As a result the Nintendo of old almost feels lost to me. I feel abandoned, like the classic Big N games I grew up with will never see the light of day again. But just when all hope is lost Ninty goes and releases a Super Mario Galaxy 2 teaser. Last week we got Transmission 8, a trailer showing Luigi in full flight, and it was freakin’ awesome!
Nintendo has found a way to pull me back in by releasing a new Super Mario Galaxy 2 video every other day (the transmission trailers are all great). When they’re not doing that they’re releasing screens, promo-art, information about new power-ups and various other tidbits. Our Wii news section at MMGN is full of it. And now, as if it wasn’t tantalizing enough, review scores are starting to appear. I think I saw a glimpse of a 10/10, but I can’t be sure and don’t want to know. I try to play every game with as little influence from other publications as possible, but never have I wanted to go into a game with a clean slate more so than with Super Mario Galaxy 2.
The original Super Mario Galaxy was one of the most hyped games on Wii. It’s also one of the few games in history to actually live up to its unprecedented level of anticipation. It’s simple yet engaging story, coupled with deeply engrossing gameplay made it the must own game on Wii in 2007. Depending on your personal preference, to this day it remains the best game on the system (competition only from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption; although for God knows what reason some people are under the delusion SSBB and Mario Kart should be mentioned in the same breath of air).
Despite the Wii and even Mario’s ‘for kids’ stigma, even the most hardcore of gamers admits Super Mario Galaxy was a masterpiece. Many Nintendo fans consider it to be the true successor to Super Mario 64, after the somewhat disappointing Super Mario Sunshine; although, it was only disappointing by comparison and due to the Mario legacy. On its own merits it wasn’t half bad, but I digress. Back in ’07 we were also treated to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. At that point in time it looked as though Nintendo was going to give their loyal fans some support. While the GameCube was defeated by the PS2 and Xbox, 22 million sales isn’t a complete failure. It’s my favourite console due to its strong catalogue of quality games, most of which were aimed at the Nintendo faithful. Galaxy and Prime 3 left us with some hope that Nintendo would still cater for that market, even though they had new friends in casual gamers. Unfortunately it didn’t really happen. Three years down the track, and New Super Mario Bros. is perhaps the only game in the same league from Nintendo and we’ve only had the occasionally decent third party release.
That’s why Super Mario Galaxy 2 is so important. At first I was flabbergasted that Nintendo would release a direct sequel Mario title in the same generation, but it needs to happen. Loyal Nintendo fans, true gamers and even new Nintendo owners need this. They need a game that’ll remind them of the quality from the SNES, N64 and GameCube eras. Times when that very 80s retro “Nintendo seal of quality” actually meant something.
If you own a Wii and aren’t considering getting Super Mario Galaxy 2 on day one (WTF is wrong with you?) we’ll have stacks of content in the lead up to its US May 23 and rumoured Australian June 10 release that’ll hopefully convince you otherwise. The original Galaxy didn’t sell all that well with Nintendo’s new casual and non-loyal fans, but I hope that’s not the case with its sequel. If nothing else it’s a chance to experience something different on the Wii. While it probably won’t be as groundbreaking as the first game, if it’s half as good it’ll be a game you’ll cherish from start to finish. A game that could just win Nintendo game of the year and one I hope to see dominate the sales charts.
10/05/2010
To celebrate the release of Sonic and SEGA All-Star Racing in Australia on March 4th, we're giving you the chance to win one of 3 prize packs including a copy of the game and a Ryo action figure.
All you have to do is visit our competition page on MyWii, visit the official Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing site and answer the questions to go into the running.
Competition ends at 5pm on Friday, March 5th. Winners will be contacted privately.
NOTE: This competition is only open to Australian residents.
15/02/2010
By Ben Salter
Gaming gets bad press in mainstream media. Take gaming media out of the equation, and you’ll be hard pressed to find something good written or broadcast about games anywhere.
Advertising for the likes of Wii Fit helps to remove the couch potato stigma, but overall the non-gaming community is being overloaded with bad press about videogames. Think about it: If you were a parent, with a very limited knowledge about games, what would you think about them? We hear that games, TV and Facebook are to blame for our kids getting fat. Fact of the matter is it’s much easier to blame these things than to admit you’re a bad parent. Then Michael Atkinson comes along, says something about games being the devil’s work, and all of a sudden the non-gaming community truly believes videogames should be outlawed.
Last month I said I was going to try and stop complaining about Mr. Atkinson. I think over 30 days without a word is pretty good, especially seeing how he made such an ass of himself ahead of the South Australian State election. If you didn’t read about it, next month South Aussies will be voting for the new and improved State Government. Mr. Atkinson thought it would be a good idea to ban anonymity ahead of that. He believed one gentlemen posting comments on news.com.au was an alias created by his enemies and decided everyone needed to post their full name and postcode when commenting or blogging on anything to do with the election. As it turned out the man did exist, and lived just 500 meters from Atkinson’s office. The public also didn’t take too kindly to him prohibiting free speech, in a sense, as it’s our right to post on the Internet using an avatar. Long story short he was forced to retract his laws, or at least ensure us they would not be enforced, and yet seems to have as many followers as ever. He continues to tell us that an R18+ rating for games is not required; this is the man the non-gaming community actually listens to and, even worse, trusts.
Australian pirate James Burt has contributed to the bad press this week by costing Nintendo millions when he pirated New Super Mario Bros. Wii in November last year. He’s since reached an out of court settlement to the tune of $1.5 million and given Australian gaming a bad name internationally. Not only does it look bad to the non-gamers here, it makes us look bad to the gaming communities overseas. Sure, this type of thing happens all the time, but New Super Mario Bros. Wii was one of the few games Australia received before any other region (at least on the Wii). Doesn’t look like that’ll happen again.
”VIDEO games could be influencing teenagers to drive recklessly, one of the country's top police officers has said.” That’s the sub-headline parents are reading with breakfast each morning. Apparently the youth of today are unable to distinguish between the real and the reset button on their PlayStation. Seeing how that’s the case, may as well start car jacking and throwing frag grenades at old ladies. It’s all the same, right officer?
Those are three major stories in the mainstream media in the past fortnight. Every one of them paints gaming in the worst possible light. I would love to see some good news, but chances are we’ll continue to hear about one kid playing too much COD and going on a rampage in the US, and then all of a sudden all first person shooters will be frowned upon once again.
13/02/2010
By Ben Salter
In a few short hours it’ll be 2010, and we’ll be waving goodbye to the decade that was the 2000s or the Naughties as it came to be known. Technology has changed a great deal in that time. Videogames developed a long way, texting, social networking and the iPod all came along and changed how we interact with each other and experience entertainment.
Facebook
Believe it or not but the three major social networking sites have all played a different role in our lives during the 2000s. Facebook may well and truly be the most popular now, but it was not always that way. Once upon a time it was for Harvard students to keep in contact, and now is used by over 300 million people. Facebook is great for keeping in contact with old school and work mates, but it’s also used as a day-to-day communication tool and for its events system. Gone are the days of hand mailing invites, simply make it on Facebook!
iPod
We’re really talking MP3 players in general here, but the iPod has run away with the title. In fact I’m sure there’re thousands of users out there that aren’t even aware that there are competing devices. The iPod launched in 2001 with 5GB of memory capable of storing 1000 songs. It is now in its 6th generation and holds up to 160GB of music and video.
Twitter
Launching in 2006 Twitter is the fun-sized social networking site. Each “tweet” allows only 140 characters. Users can follow anybody and re-tweet status, as a result it has become popular with fans to follow celebrity movements and for websites to promote their content.
MySpace
Launching in 2003 MySpace is largely credited as the social networking site that started the mass appeal. Nowadays it’s often considered to be dead by many Facebook adopters. However, it’s still largely popular with independent bands getting their music out there.
Texting & language
SMS has been around in concept since the mid-80s but didn’t break out into the mainstream until the late 90s. Even then it was considered an extra and nobody could predict the dominance it would have in the mobile phone market. It broke out further in the Naughties with the development of MMS and became the most used form of data communication on the planet. It’s also been apart of many scandals in the 2000s. It’s too damn easy to accidentally send a text to the wrong person!
The txt talk language was developed in the 2000s, and is the reason most of our youth can no longer write a coherent sentence. Im g8 kkthnxbai!
The Wii
Say what you want about the Wii, but it’s done more for the expansion of gaming than almost anything before it. After its release in 2006 nobody saw Nintendo’s dominance coming. They’ve managed to get millions of people playing games who may have loathed the concept before at the expense of their loyal fans in some regards. While there has still be some great games for us it’s fair to say there hasn’t been as many. Was it worth it?
The Xbox 360
While online gaming was around on consoles last generation Microsoft changed the way we play online with Xbox Live. Sure it costs money, but it set the path that PSN has tried to follow and continues to rival PC gaming for the best quality online.
The PlayStation 3 & Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray probably won because of the PS3. It ended up with a commanding lead over HD-DVD, but the PS3’s ability to play the next generation movie format went along way to helping it win the format war. It’s also considerably slowed piracy on the platform while Nintendo and Microsoft struggle.
Wikipedia
Until it was outlawed by schools it was the number one location for assignment research. A user-contributed encyclopaedia was a stroke of genius and Web.20 at its finest. It’s a fantastic source when you want to know random information, and don’t need it to have the accuracy of a scholarly article, like when you want to know how old Matt Damon is. He’s 39 for those of you playing at home.
YouTube
YouTube was created in 2005 and sold off to Google for a record USD 1.6 Billion in 2006. Not bad for a year’s work. It’s gone on to be a Web 2.0 sensation as web users around the world have been sharing their videos. It’s been great for fun, serious short films and sending messages back to the media and the government.
Digital Distribution
While it’s still coming for Australia in a lot of ways, it’s far more successful overseas. The CD is a dying breed and you’ll struggle to find a single on sale in a store, due to the success of iTunes and other online music stores. Movies on demand are slowly making their way into Aussie homes, but it feels a few years off before it’ll catch up to the same level as music.
Reality TV
As we leave the 2000s reality TV is thankfully dying off, but it has been in full force during the past ten years. While we may loathe them now Australians used to love the likes of Big Brother and Australian Idol.
The let me Google that for you culture
Google has been around since 1998, but the idea of “let me google that for you” has come about in the Naughties. Whenever you or a friend is unsure about something we head straight to Google.
Apps
The iPhone has had a lot to do with the idea of apps (applications). The idea is that mini-programs can be uploaded to an existing device, such as an iPhone, for a very small cost or often free. The inspirations are endless and there’s almost an iPhone app for everything these days.
Digital Cameras
Remember the days of taking your film to be developed, and even storing them in the fridge to prolong their life if you didn’t have time? These days everyone has a digital camera, or at the very least a camera on their phone. Facebook and sites like Photobucket come into the mix as digital photo albums. The physical album may be long gone, but now hundreds of your friends can see your pictures online instantly. Kids, here a hot tip: Don’t add add your parents on Facebook if you don’t want them to know what you get up to on the weekends.
That’s just a handful of ways that technicality has changed us in the past decade. Social networking and texting has changed how we communicate while advances in the Internet has made life so much faster that it was last decade.
31/12/2009
Get your Wii on this festive season.
By Ben Salter
It’s Christmas day. The one day you’re compelled to spend making small, yet deep, talk with extended family. The beauty of the Wii is its social ability. It brings together generations. Grandparents with children, cousins, and even that really creepy uncle that may not actually be related to you,- at least you hope. The Media, we here at MyMedia, and a large majority of gamers, spend a great deal of time bagging the Wii for its many flaws, but credit where it’s due. The Wii is possibly the greatest social gaming device ever created, and Christmas is the prefect time to put it to the test.
Perhaps this is what makes the Wii almost the perfect Christmas gift. Anyone can use it. Older family members have a tendency to feel the need to test out the dang fangled ‘machines’ that they youngins get from Santa. With a Wii not only can they test it out, they can get involved, actually enjoy themselves and do it with their younger relatives. Last Christmas everyone had a go using my Wii, whether it be at Christmas lunch or during the surrounding days of the chaotic disaster that is the festive season. My step-uncle and aunty really got into it, despite being almost 70. Even with a severe knee injury my step-aunty pulled off a nice jig in celebration of beating her Scottish husband in Wii bowling. He was none too happy. Next up she versed my 8-year-cousin, whom she had never met or spoken to. He dominated the match, suggesting he’d been training hard on his newly acquired console that morning. It closed the generation gap perfectly. Without it at most they would have had an awkward greeting, as you do with young children, and conversed little throughout the remainder of the long day, perhaps in part due to her confusing accent that leaves you staring blank, nodding and replying ‘yes’. However, now they had something to talk about. They had a purpose, a rivalry, and by the end of the day were ready for the highly anticipated rematch!
Wii Sports started it all, and was followed up nicely by Wii Sports Resort earlier this year. We recommend that you start the gaming festivities there. Getting in early, well before you stuff your face with Christmas pudding, would be the strategic way to play it, but hey each to their own. If you’re a serious gamer you probably have your Wii, and other consoles, hooked up to a totally pimped out home entertainment system located away from the living room. If this is the case we recommended moving it, especially if you’re young and it normally resides in your bedroom, as the under 21-year-old smell can be fatal to the elderly.
You’ll want to ensure that all controllers, 4 if possible, are charged and ready to go and that all games on the agenda are in plain view. Wii Sports is the perfect way to start, and if the whole family joins in it’ll be more than enough for an afternoon’s fun. However, if the kids hog it for hours on end they’ll be after some variety. We recommend Mario Kart for a bit of easy fun, and Super Smash Bros Brawl for any aggressive kids. The latter is a little too confusing for non-gamers, so we suggest only pulling that one out when the veterans arrive, and we mean gaming veterans, just to be clear.
We don't suggest Wii Fit for this reason.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii should be the new addition that you smack into your console when 4 people of a similar skill level come together. While it’s been designed to cater for a range of different players, NSMBW really needs to be played by players that are all at the same level. Go find the biggest ‘noob’ on Christmas day and ask them to play and you’ll see what I mean; by the end of it you’ll rather slice your own nipples off than play again.
After a few drinks this will all start sounding a little complicated to the technological challenged, and for some reason all they’ll want to do is sing really out of pitch, and play charades (you’re on your own there). That’s where Guitar Hero comes in. Try and pass off the microphone to the most talented out of the lot, and then proceed to assign instruments based on the levels of awareness. If someone’s not quite with it best not give them the drums, for example, or you’ll have an interesting time trying to explain that Aunty Nora’s broken nose is not a result of domestic abuse.
That covers basic play, racing, fighting, platforming and music simulation. There’s heaps of puzzle games, like Rabbids Go Home, which may be worth a look, but if you have an audience that seriously wants to play and/or watch them Wii Play will probably suffice. If you’re after an FPS we suggest looking into an Xbox 360 as the centre of your gaming festivities. It too has some great family and social titles, but it doesn’t quite have the same draw appeal that comes with the Wii; perhaps that’ll all change with Natal.
Now, once you’ve got everyone playing Wii, and having a jolly old time, you’ll have to work on subtly getting them to leave. After all, you want your Wii back for the great new games Santa brought with him. If all else fails you can try yelling “GTFO” but expect some confused and confusing looks in return, then an awkward silence. The batteries going flat is a god send at this point in time, but only if you have spares that nobody else knows about. We also suggest recruiting people to help with various tasks, such as washing up or entertaining children. If everything’s taking too long you can drug the spouses of those stealing your Wii and pass it off as falling asleep after eating too much turkey, but that may carry some minor consequences.
Once you’ve finally got your Wii back to yourself prepare for a night of solid post-Christmas gaming! While it may have been used as a social aid throughout the day, Christmas night is all about the solo gaming experience. Grab some red bull, the quality left overs, and a Wii Remote, then prepare to spend all boxing day sleeping in. Unless you have to be up to do it all again for the cricket, of course!
Merry Christmas shopping! (I figured it was too early)
14/12/2009
By Ben Salter
Let me start off by saying New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks awesome, and is close to the top of my most wanted list. However, I’m still not sold on the super guide feature. I’m worried that Nintendo are trying to cater too much for casual players and, even worse, they are not trying to develop them into more skilled gamers. Essentially they are breeding an army of gaming noobs.
The super guide feature is a fancy name for auto play. If you fail a level 8 times a green box will appear when you respawn. You can chose to ignore it or smash the portly plumber’s head into it to active super guide for that level. If you do so the main character will switch to Luigi and play through the level for you in real time. At anytime you can chose to take over, but the game will still display being in help mode.
I have a whole list of problems with this. Sure I could just ignore it, but what are Nintendo doing to other, less frequent, gamers? Surely the Wii Sport type of player isn't going to improve their gaming skills if the computer takes over during all the hard bits. Isn’t that why we have easy, medium and hard settings? Developers realise gamers have different skill levels, but none of them have ever told the player to give up so it can do it for them; it’s almost insulting.
I’m sure we’ve all used a walkthrough for a game at some point or another, and to an extent it’s quite shameful for a proud gamer. It’s easy to jump onto the net and find a tip for that frustrating level you just can’t beat, but actually having that in the game is going too far. At least with a walkthrough you have to go through the shame of looking it up, and then following instructions to get past the level. At the end of the day you’re still playing the game yourself, with a little assistance. Super guide in New Super Mario Bros. Wii makes you redundant by doing everything itself. It’s like having the answers right next to a test. Actually no, it’s worse than that. It’s like having a teacher sitting next to you with a pen willing to do anything you give up on.
I’m worried about the future generations of gamers if they come to expect games to auto play when they get stuck. Sticking with Nintendo, how are they going to play through Metroid or Zelda if not only are they getting stuck in a Mario platformer, but the game is finishing off levels for them? What if they move over to one of the more adult friendly platforms? Fallout 3 isn’t going to hold their hand the entire way.
At first I didn’t think it would affect more seasoned gamers, but I’m beginning to think otherwise. With the rise of the casual gamer there are more and more titles for them and their skill level. If super guide is an overwhelming success will more games adopt the auto play feature to help out the “noobs” (as the Internet has labelled them)? Will it become standard for the game to cheat for us? You don’t even have to cheat yourself anymore!
On the other hand this could actually be good news for Nintendo fans. Maybe, just maybe, this will allow them to make harder games. We won’t know if that’s the case until we’ve finished NSMBW, but auto play could give Nintendo a license to make hard games that less skilled gamers will still buy and be able to complete.
I realise it’s a bit different doing this to a platformer, than say an FPS or action/adventure. But if it’s successful who’s to say it won’t make it into Super Mario Galaxy 2, or even Metroid: Other M? It would be an absolute disgrace if these games had anything close to a built-in walkthrough, let alone auto play. They’re meant to be challenging, you’re not meant to figure out every puzzle straight away; I just hope Nintendo know where to draw the line and don’t get too carried away.
What do you think? Are Nintendo training us to be “gaming noobs”, are they putting themselves in a position to make harder games that everyone will be able to play (computer included) or do you like the auto playing super guide feature?
21/10/2009
It's been a rather slow week in the gaming world, giving you all a chance to catch up on those games you haven't finished before the end of year season is upon us.
Many of you have already finished this title, but Batman: Arkham Asylum has kept me rather busy the past week. I've really enjoyed my time on Arkham, and this is a surprise hit title for me! Still sitting on the fence after playing the demo? Why not read our feature review? Batman: Arkham Asylum.
I was one of the many lucky folks who snagged a Uncharted 2 beta code last week from EB Games Twitter give-away so I'll be waiting to get into that this Tuesday! Those who pre-order the game from EB also get access to the beta so if you can't wait to get online with this game, head down to your local EB today.
This weekend I got the chance to go through the paces of the DLC pack for F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin. Reborn runs a story parallel to that of the main game, and while it doesn't do anything to expand the story or the universe, it's a decent addition to the already great game. If you already own F.E.A.R 2 and want to extend it another 2-4 hours, then check out our review here.
So now I'm just counting down the days till Scribblenauts, Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2!
What are you guys and girls looking forward to playing?
14/09/2009
So I've decided to retire the Heller's Desk segment, mainly due to the fact I was getting hard pressed to find good desk pics! So welcome to Heller's Den, a chance for me to throw out what I've been researching, playing and looking forward to.
As many of you will know, Batman Arkham Asylum is the hot topic right now, and rightly so! It's a fantastic game and I'm only a few hours into it!. Tano is busy working on the featured review, but until then, why not check out Batman's Greatest Gaming Moments.
While I wait patiently for Uncharted 2 to be released for the PS3 I've started to play Killzone 2 online quite a bit recently. It's a little harder than your average shooter, but it is so in-depth and is a great change of pace!
On the Wii front I've been getting into a lot of Wii Sports Resort, The Conduit, Punch Out!! and I've been getting back into some Grand Slam Tennis which is great fun for local multiplayer!
So we have a huge few months coming up, with such games as Modern Warfare 2, Scribblenaughts, Guitar Hero 5, Rock Band Beatles the list is growing every day!
What are you guys and girls looking forward to playing?
04/09/2009
Written By Stephen Heller
It’s inevitable that each year we hit some form of games drought, but it seems to be a much longer and harsher drought in 2009. Maybe it’s due to the lack of quality releases early in the year, perhaps the endless delay messages we are hearing on larger titles, pushing them back into 2010. Whatever it is we have completed this guide to help you survive the harsh drought until the pre-christmas rush is upon us.
Time To Catch Up
The gaming drought is a perfect time to finish up all those loose ends that you have left over from busier periods in the year. Never got to the end of Mirrors Edge? Still stuck on that infernal puzzle in Braid? Well now you have times on your hands to finish off those games you never quite finished. I know when I look at my shelf I have a good five or six games I still have to finish!
Nostalgia Strikes Again
While you are waiting for that next big game to hit perhaps now would be a good time to get back to your roots and kick it old school. Dig out that N64 or SNES and play some of your favourite classics. You’ll be surprised at how challenging they are after so many years, and might even be surprised at just how well they have held up against the hands of time.
Live Dangerously
Are you one of those gamers who stick to one format only? Perhaps you are a racing nut? FPS are your bread and butter? Now is the perfect time to live dangerously and try something new. Had a game on your mind you’d like to try but just never had the time? Go do some research and pickup something you normally wouldn’t play. It could really pay off and open yourself up to a great adventure.
DLC
There are plenty of great games that are cheap and easy to download from the PSN, Xbox Live or Wii Ware services. Some of these games are rated higher than full fledged games and offer some great gameplay experiences. Do some research and choose a game that suits your needs. Some outstanding titles that come to mind are Braid, Bionic Commando: Re-Armed, World of Goo and The Dishwasher.
Hopefully this guide will help you stay afloat with quality gaming until the drought is lifted for the pre-christmas rush. What are your plans to survive these tough times?
27/07/2009
By Ben Salter
Watch as Wii Sports Resort becomes the game to knock off Wii Fit and take the top spot as the best selling game in Australia for an extended period. There’s no doubting the primary purpose of Wii Sports Resort is to show off Nintendo’s MotionPlus attachment; it is another tech demo. We must then ask, why is it the price of a full retail game? Surely Nintendo could have lowered the RRP to help their quest to get as many MotionPlus units into Wii homes as possible.
Fortunately Nintendo know it’ll appeal to the large market of Wii Sports fans out there. If the Wii is to be a serious Motion console in the coming years MotionPlus must become standard and be implemented in as many games as possible. If everyone buys a copy of Wii Sports Resort now with a ‘free’ MotionPlus unit the transition, or forced controller upgrade, will be a lot smoother for Nintendo, or at least they hope. In that regard it’s in their best interest that anyone and everyone that owns a Wii goes out and buys a copy of Wii Sports Resort. On top of that most people aren’t going to play Wii Sports Resort alone, so they are going to be forced to fork out for additional MotionPlus’.
Wii Play + a Wii Remote has been one of the best selling games for almost 3 years by being offered for $10 more than a Wii Remote on its own. If Nintendo charged a little more than MotionPlus by itself - maybe an RRP of $50 rather than $30 - Wii Sports Resort would all of a sudden be much more appealing to everyone. It would easily fly off shelves if this were the case, although I predict it will none the less.
Wii Sports Resort does its job very well. It is great as a tech demo and tutorial for Wii MotionPlus, as the original Wii Sports was for the Wii Remote in general. As a sequel, and game on its own right, Wii Sports Resort is certainly lacking. The end result is a complication of mini-games that most people are either going to buy for MotionPlus, or for the social aspect of the original title. Don’t get me wrong, the game is far more in depth than Wii Play, but it’s not at the standard we would expect from a full retail release.
Some people were surprised that the game was not released on its own, without MotionPlus, but that would defeat the purpose. Wii Sports at its core is a multiplayer title. If you didn’t already own a MotionPlus unit you’re going to have to purchase one, if not three, more for the complete multiplayer and Wii Sports experience. Lets face it, who would buy Wii Sports for the single player component? Taking that into consideration Nintendo would easily have made a bucket load of cash off of extra MotionPlus unit sales if the game had a reduced RRP. Sure, they’ll still get that but surely they are going to upset some fans. What about poor old dad who bought a Wii for his kids, and now has to folk out $200 for Wii Sports Resort that can be enjoyed by 4 people?
The Wii is meant to be a social experience, and Wii Sports is what started that trend. It came free, and is one of the leading factors to the Wii’s sudden rise to fame and tremendous success. If Nintendo really wanted MotionPlus to have the same success with a majority of existing Wii owners, then they should have started Wii Sports Resort at a reduced RRP. If they seriously want to compete with Sony and Microsoft when it comes to motion gaming over the course of the coming years MotionPlus is going to be a requirement. Wii Sports Resort could have sneakily introduced multiple MotionPlus units into each Wii household if it were cheaper. I fear, for now at least, many Wii Sports Resort adopters will make do with just one or two MotionPlus’ and in the process reduce the social experience of Wii gaming.
We’ll have our review of Wii Sports Resort up in the next few days.
26/07/2009