I bought my Wii on the day of its release: November 21, 2006 (Which also happens to be my birthday). Me and a buddy waited in a long line in front of a filthy Wal-Mart on a dreary and freezing night until our turn at about 1 in the morning, when the cashier informed us that there was only one Wii left. My buddy went home empty-handed, and I mocked him joyously for the entire ride.

Those were good times. Along with my Wii I had purchased The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which I enjoyed immensely.  Excite Truck was pretty good too, and of course everyone loves Wii Sports. Over the course of the next two years, I bought plenty of great games, and some "not-so-great" ones. I bought literally dozens of Virtual Console games, which allowed me to experience amazing classics like ActRaiser, Bomberman '93, Battle Lode Runner, Military Madness, and Gain Ground for the very first time. As the world's clocks turned to 2008, only two games were on my radar: Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the new Animal Crossing. Super Smash Bros. met my expectations in all areas but the online modes, but Animal Crossing turned out to be an incredibly lame port of the DS version, subtitled Wild World. They're literally almost the same game. So I only purchased ONE good game for my Wii in 2008.

Luckily, I had purchased an Xbox 360 from a crackhead around September, and since countless of my close friends already owned the console, I got to experience some of the best of the best games that it had to offer through borrowing. I teabagged people in Halo 3, killed a zombie with an umbrella in Dead Rising, broke some guy's high-definition jaw bone in Fight Night Round 3, robbed hundreds of villagers in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, hung another real player online in Left 4 Dead as a Smoker, shoved lots of random people in Assassin's Creed, and killed a hooker in Prince of Persia.

There was no going back.

Around Christmas I got several 360 games (Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Burnout Paradise, The Orange Box, and Tales of Vesperia) and two DS games (N+ and Chrono Trigger). No Wii games were on my wishlist. What Wii games could I possibly want? There haven't been ANY releases for the system since Super Smash Bros. Brawl that would interest me (save for Tales of Symphonia 2, which got bad enough reviews to discourage me from buying, and Mario Kart Wii, which I play quite enough at my girlfriend's house).

Not wanting to write off the system too quickly, I took a look at next year's release calendar. On it I found Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (better on 360), MadWorld (Meh. I'm not a beat-em-up kind of guy), The Conduit (I'm a 360 owner. I have no need for a good FPS), Wii Sports Resort (Great for the family, lame for single-player), Punch-Out (the original isn't really that fun for me, I don't see how this would be), and Sin and Punishment 2 (loved the original but worth $50? I'm not so sure).

Then it hit me. The Wii isn't for me. From this point forward, I won't be interested in any games for it. This isn't because Nintendo has FAILED as a gaming company, but SUCCEEDED. I posted earlier this week about the incredible sales of the quite cruddy game, Wii Play. That, and the success of Wii Fit, among other things, are testaments to the fact that Nintendo has achieved its goal of TOTALLY changing who its users are. No longer are the sweaty, overweight fanboys hardcore Nintendo fans. Now, soccer moms, teenage girls, little kids, hipsters, and middle-aged, middle-class people are Nintendo fans. This is a bad thing for gamers who want hardcore Nintendo experiences, but a great thing for Nintendo itself.

And why should us hardcore gamers care? We can get an Xbox 360 for a great price now, and excellent developers like Rare, Ubisoft, Valve, EA, Namco, etc. will give us so many great titles that we can't find time to play them all! The PS3 is getting more affordable all the time as well, and it has built up a pretty great library itself, thanks to the help of Insomniac, Media Molecule, and all the 3rd party companies that publish games on both HD systems. Who needs a hardcore Nintendo? I say let them do their thing and us hardcore gamers will do ours.

Thus, I urge any hardcore gamer who is still hanging on to his/her Wii to go ahead and sell it now while you have the chance. I'm not saying this with any hint of discontent with Nintendo: I just want to point out that NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL. There will be NO hardcore games in 2009. Just face it everybody. Punch-Out is not the answer to your prayers. Used Wiis are going for around $317 on Amazon right now. That's way more than I paid for mine on launch day. Since MILLIONS just got a Wii for Christmas, demand for games is at a high as well now.



I sold my Wii and about five games to my Uncle a few days ago for $200, and his daughter bought Guitar Hero 3 from me for $50 (it goes for $60 on Amazon). I put up my copies of Okami and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 on my amazon storefront last night and Okami has already sold (for a respectable $29.99). With all this money I've already gotten some great deals on a new office chair, a mini-fridge for my gaming room, and a huge desk with plenty of room to store the 360 and DS games that I have left. My point is that all this and more can be yours if you go ahead and SELL YOUR WII TO THE PEOPLE IT IS NOW TARGETED TOWARDS. Go treat yourself to a 360, and I'll see you on Xbox Live (my gamertag: Baconation).

Comments (22)

Props to you
written by rivershore, January 04, 2009

excellent article Ryan, I couldn't agree more. Perhaps the saddest thing comes to the fact that Nintendo has completely forgotten its hardcore gamers. Back in the day, you couldn't say that Animal Crossing was a hardcore game, rather a more casual approach. Now, it was THE hardcore game of 2008, alongside brawl and mario kart. I had a Wii too, but i sold it when brawl came out, with huge disappointment...

.....
written by Charles, January 04, 2009

I see an article written out of ignorance and bias to try to justify some lame opinion of a console.. Let me do the same thing this moron did.. OK for Christmas on Wii I got Shaun White Snowboarding, COD:W@W and GHWT. Then I look at the 360 release list and realize that cheap POS just isnt for me. Gears of War? It's extremely casual now and looks and plays better on PC, Oh and nothing else at all catches my eye as a hardcore gamer of 30 years. Hmm guess the 360 is complete crap destined to break so how about everyone sale their 360 because it isnt for gamers because I can sit and downplay every single release on the console..09 is shaping up to be the best year for true hardcore gamers(Not Sony era casuals like you that play casual FPS games but think because it has blood its hardcore, when hardcore actually means challenging and hard which 100.00 says any game you own doesnt fit)
What I see in this is a extremely pathetic, low educated fanboy who is feeling desperate to prove his console superior. It is just sad. Not that you dont like the Wii, I can understand that completely. What I dont get is why throw away any cred you had as a writer by posting opinion and doing no fact checking to back up your claims,, You simply act like any fanboy does and play down the release list of the console you have chosen to hate.

Whatever it doesnt matter I wont be back. This site is just more proof that any idiot with internet can spew their uneducated dribble to the world and sadly other people just as uneducated and inbred will back their message of hate and ignorance due to their own lack of knowing anything about the subject.

@Rivershore, Actually most games today are casual.. You talk about "back in the day" but you obviously were not there. Back in the Nes days you had 3 lives and then had to start completely over. Show me that happening in any game you consider "hardcore". Not a single game mode today ofr the 360 or the PS3 is actually hardcore. Anyone can beat any of those games in 10 hours or less.True hardcore games are not about blood, violence, sex. They require months of practice to play and beat. In many ways Animal crossing is a lot more hardcore than any of the games you play today. You cannot beat the game 1 day. There are events in the game for every holiday,season in the game. To get the most out of it you would need to play it for over a year. Name any PS3/ 360 game that you could put a year into and still see something new?

This is not True!!
written by Zero, January 04, 2009

I'm a hardcore gamer and I don't agree with Ryan, I purchase the Wii since 2006 and today I have 45 titles all from third-parties, I play 6 hours everyday and I enjoy them. The faq is, we need to change the thing that only first-party games are the best and the others are shovelware. To make this all the 44 millions of Wii owners must search the game that they want, check screenshoots, previews, reviews, scores and features to determine if these game is a quality game or shovelware. If they do it they discover that there's huge quality third-party games that they enjoy. And not claims that Wii doesn't has good games without investigate or research.

Lol Wut
written by RyanRigney, January 04, 2009

@Rivershore

That's an interesting point that you make about Animal Crossing. I never thought of it that way, but I agree.

@Charles

Of the three games that you got for Christmas, two of them are way better on the 360 or PS3 (CoD:WaW, and GH:WT). Also, "low educated" doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Get off my site.

@Zero

Why in God's name do you spend six hours a day on a game console?

Good read
written by ultima301, January 04, 2009

Hey there (just a random follower from Twitter). Good article, reminds me of one I wrote myself that follows a lot of what you wrote point-for-point, with some interesting extended reasoning. Check it out if you want! http://tablesaltgames.blogspot...y-wii.html

...
written by squeakypants, January 04, 2009

I was agreeing with you almost completely... then I read this:
"Sin and Punishment 2 (loved the original but worth $50? I'm not so sure)."

Then you lost all credibility I thought the original was just okay (though I love Treasure), mainly because of the controls. But that's just it: it's PERFECT for the Wii. I think one of my first thoughts when I saw the "pointer" was "OMG I hope they make S&P for it."

You shouldn't have sold your Wii... at least not until you played through S&P2 a couple dozen times.




...damnit, Treasure! Why do you have to go and make an awesome game to prevent me from selling my Wii???

I just signed up to comment on this.....
written by SomeNintendoGeek, January 04, 2009

Ok, as a gamerNintendo Gamer, I'm forced to look the other way, but i have to say, your article is very true. I have to say, i got on the nintedo-wagon at the end of the GameCube era, and when the wii came out, i sold that little box of wonder to get the NEW box of wonder.

In my group of friends, 4/7 are X-BOX gamers, 2/7 PS3 gamers, and i'm the sole nintendo gamer. Once in a while we get into the "which console is better" debate, and it always ends with "At least they both beat the Wii".
I have 3 third-party games in my library: RockBand 2 and the first 2 Rayman Raiving Rabbids. The other 11 games are Nintendo's. Most of the games i don't ever play (Wii-fit, wii-play, wii-sports, and wii-music (yeah, i bought it, big mistake ). However some games like brawl, Fire Emblem, Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and Corruption gave me exactly what I expected. I already beat all these games and struggle to find something to fill in the void, which animal crossing has been doing recently. I've bought about 5 Shovel-ware games that i've returned, but NON were nintendo's (THE WORST ONE WAS THE "HISTORY CHANNEL'S SEA CREATURES, NEVER GO NEAR IT!")

I find no problems with the Wii because i'm not into the "gruesome violent games", and so, the 360 seems like a bad choice for me. Having said that, i have to tackle this article in some points:

-I love the Legend Of Zelda Series, and Nintendo having "confirmed" another, makes me think it not QUITE yet the time to "abandon ship".
-Animal crossing a port? If you've played the Gamecube version, you'd know that the DS version was a more of a port than the Wii version. I have to say they added WAY more stuff to the Wii version than they added from to the DS one.
-------------
Now, thats all i disagreed with. I'm a patient nintendo loyal, i can wait for Nintendo to re-embrace the hardcore, i understand that some people really can't wait and have "moved on" to the 360. Heck, 3 of the 7 guys i mentined above had a wii before. But i'm not really that ready to leave the company that gave us moments like "Sheik is Zelda" , "Pit, Snake, Sonic and R.O.B are in Brawl?!", or the Famous "WTF Samus is A girl?!?!?!". That last one Just made the game much Better

I have many virtual console games, and they play well, i love the channels, and with Club Nintendo opening for America, i think we might be finally leaving this "dry period". The wii is more of a "trend" now, and like the afro and Boot-leg jeans, all tends must end. Nintendo will come wiggling back to its loyal Hard-Core Gamers, and i think i can wait till then. I might be wrong, but i'm willing to go down with the Ship if it does sink.

I have to congratulate you on this article though, I have never seen such a peice of honest work. Most articles around the web are written by either a Jelous fanboy, or some crazy fan. I have to say, good read, and good luck on where-ever that 360 ship leads you.

...
written by Cheeseknight, January 04, 2009

I see what you're getting at, but I have no reason to sell my Wii. There is no console or handheld left for me to buy (Save my own iPod Touch, but my dad has one that I use fairly regularly), and there is nothing I really need to buy that I could justify selling a system that I own at least 75 games for (That's Wii and Gamecube put together, seeing how my Gamecube is in a closet somewhere collecting dust).

Besides, there is a decent chance we could get Pikmin 3 next year. If not, I won't mind... it's not like I don't have things to do on my other consoles until something good comes for the Wii.

P.S.: Did you get a chance to play World of Goo before you sold your Wii? If not, for shame... though you can download it off Steam.

...
written by RyanRigney, January 04, 2009

@Squeakypants

Haha yeah it'll probably be pretty fun. I'll just play it at a friend's house or something.

@SomeNintendoGeek

That was probably one of the best comments I've ever gotten on this site. If a new Zelda DOES come out on the Wii I'd be a bit desperate to play it, I'll admit. Seeing as there aren't ANY details on the game, and we've already entered 2009, I have the suspicion that the game might wind up being a next-gen release...

@Cheeseknight28

75 games is a LOT of games. Also, I did play World of Goo on the PC.

...
written by Hiltz, January 04, 2009

I think we can all agree that 2008 was a mixed bag for the Wii.

On the bright side, there were several good games from Smash Bros, Mario Kart, No More Heroes and Okami to de Blob, Boom Blox, Rock Band 2,Shaun White and Wiiware titles such as Lost Winds, World of Goo, Space Invaders Get Even and Tetris Party to name a couple. Wario Land was good but it could have been better and Animal Crossing while good, turned out to be a disappointing, lazy rehash an Wii Music, as expected, was a dud.

What it comes down to is not console superiority but personal preference that really matters. Who cares if a console has a lot of features if it doesn't have the kind of games that interest you? Every console naturally has its share of pros and cons.

As for 2009, I don't see how anyone in their right mind would say now is the time to abandon the Wii. The first year where the Wii is getting an overwhelming amount of support from third-parties with a ton of potentially good games. I could easily name 20+ confirmed exclusives titles as well as known projects and TBA titles that I'm personally looking forward to. Best of all, Nintendo hasn't even revealed its full game lineup beyond Wii Sports Resort, GC ports and second-party fan favorite titles, Punch-Out!! and Sin & Punishment 2. There's also Wii Motion Plus (something that will only certainly help make third-parties more interested in the console's capabilities).


So far, during the Wii's life cycle, I bought 2 games in late 2006, 3 games in 2007 and 8 games in 2008. By the way, that's not counting Wiiware and virtual console titles which I have already filled up on my Wii's internal memory and 1 GB SD card. Personally, I own a Wii because I was interested in the new controls and of course, Nintendo's franchise titles.

Here's an idea of the Wii's confirmed, TBA and known projects.

MadWorld
The Conduit
Deadly Creatures
Fragile
Let's Tap
We Ski
Tales of ?
Red Steel 2
Tiger Woods 2010
EA Tennis
Arc Rise Fantasia
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
House of the Dead: Overkill
Kizuna
Fatal Frame 4
Tenchu 4
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Cursed Mountain
Spawn Smasher
Dynamic Slash
Phantom Brave
Rogue Trooper
Sin & Punishment 2
Punch-Out!!
Wii Sports Resort
Rune Factory: Frontier
Little King's Story
Endless Ocean 2
LIT
Overlord: Dark Legend
K.O.R.E. Gang
Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop
Sonic & the Black Knight
Monster Hunter 3
Trace Memory
GameCube Mario Tennis port
GameCube DK Jungle Beat port
GameCube Pikmin port
Pyroblazer
Vertigo
Kororinpa 2
Ready to Rumble Boxing
Sadness
Cosmic Walker
Ghost Busters
Klonoa
Spyborgs
MotoGP
Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers
Final Fantasy: Echoes of Time
Dragon Quest X
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Taiko Drum Master
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Hot Rod Show
Evasive Space
Cave Story
Gravitronix


EA project (includes Boom Blox 2) (confirmed by IGN)
Konami projects (confirmed by IGN)
Ubisoft projects (confirmed by IGN)
Ninja Turtles project (confirmed by IGN)
Monster Games project (confirmed by Nintendo)
possible Retro Studios project
"QJ" project (confirmed by Atari)
Suda 51/EA multi-platform project (confirmed by EA)
No More Heroes 2 (confirmed by Gra*shopper Manufacture)
Renegade Kid projecr (confirmed by Renegade Kid)
Capcom projects (confirmed by Capcom)
Nintendo projects - Pikmin 3, Zelda, Mario (confirmed by Nintendo)

Also some other popular developers have expressed interest in wanting to make Wii games:

Valve - no announcements yet
Hideo Kojima - currently working on 2 projects - platforms not announced
Crytek - no announcements yet

...
written by RyanRigney, January 04, 2009

@Hiltz

You need a blog or something. That way my pages won't become 3 miles long.
Good comment, though, although you did throw in some not-so-awesome games just to fill out your list.

...
written by Hiltz, January 04, 2009

Honestly, I don't see what see what is so great about Ubisoft and Rare.

In my opinion, Ubisoft's games for this generation have been largely disappointing across all platforms. The only reason I'm looking forward to Red Steel 2 is because of MotionPlus. I just want to see more of what it is capable of and if Ubisoft has what it takes to improve on the original title's decent gunplay even though the rest of the game's design fell well below expectations. Other games like a*sa*sin's Creed didn't live up to the hype and the new Prince of Persia game, while it's graphics, art style and music are great, the gameplay can't compare to the previous Prince of Persia titles.

And then there's Rare. What used to be one of the best developers back in the day has yet to make a game in this generation that can match its Snes and N64 titles.Hopefully, it will surprise us all before the 360's life cycle is over.

@hiltz
written by RyanRigney, January 04, 2009

You obviously haven't played Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. That game is one of the most overlooked games this year. I think I'll be reviewing it here at some point or another.

...
written by Hiltz, January 04, 2009

No, I haven't played Nuts & Bolts, but I have read plenty of reviews and other hands-on impressions of it and the overall feeling is that the game is pretty good. I know some people who liked and some who disliked it too but none that thought it was fantastic.

Anyway, I never actually said it was a bad game. The thing is, what I find most disappointing about Rare is that it seems to be okay with just making "pretty good" games and not wanting to make more of an effort to offer even better ones. It just seems to have become a shadow of its former self.

I mean, this is the same developer that made the Donkey Kong Country games as well as Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Blast Corps and Battle Toads.

I had high expectations for Rare going into this generation but they continue to disappoint me in different ways with every new game release. As far as Nuts & Bolts goes, I'm personally not interested in making vehicles especially one what appears to be a weird physics engine and just don't seem all that fun to drive in and the game doesn't seem like it rewards the player with exploration and seemingly boring missions.I was a fan of the original platformer games so that's what I was hoping for. I will say that the game does look great but that's just not enough. Clearly, the game is not meant for everyone.

Rare still has potential and other franchises it can work on like Killer Instinct so there' still hope for it.

...
written by Cheeseknight, January 04, 2009

I loved every minute of Banjo-Kazooie, but then again, for the 160-some challenges (Jinjo included) I did I made a brand new vehicle or remodeled an old for for at least 120 of them. Making a new vehicle to tackle every challenge is just fun for me, even if I never tried to top a leaderboard.

Viva-Pinata was also a very good game, for those that like simulators. The second one, while an improvement over the first, did seem a bit... different, in that all of the annoying parts from the original were simply done for you. It didn't feel like I was truly creating something from nothing, but rather, just messing with another person's work.

Here is hoping for a true sequel to Perfect Dark that captures all the fun of the original. Especially Laptop Guns. If I can't have that, Conker 2 would work as well, as long as 90% of the game was single player and the multiplayer was merely an afterthought.

...
written by RyanRigney, January 05, 2009

It's strange that you would say that, Cheesknight, because a lot of my friends have great memories of Conker 64 multiplayer.

...
written by Cheeseknight, January 05, 2009

I was referring to Live & Reloaded's multiplayer, which while revamped, was overly complicated. I've played both versions and have a preference to the Xbox one mainly for the visuals, but the multiplayer was better on the original. The remake was really underrated, many people hated it because of the mild censoring which I can't understand.

xD
written by Odd, January 07, 2009

You sure got those people angry.



I agree with you, thare really aren't ANY games for hardcore Nintendo fans. But there are some mind-numbing fun you can get for it. I just ppurchased De Blob. Really fun. But I don't think I own any that aren't casual games. Other than SSBB and maybe Mario kart.

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written by SomeNintendoGeek, January 09, 2009

Ok, i thought about what my EXACT position is....

I outlined it here: http://longwebsitenameofnothingimportant.webs.com/
(to save space and bandwidth on this great site)

oh!
written by SomeNintendoGeek, January 09, 2009

I forgot to mention, this (What i wrote on the site above) isn't aimed at you RyanRigney, i already stated my opinion on your excellent article. I just thought i'd share my opinion on EVERY OTHER ARTICLE OUT THERE/

Sorry for not stating it in a single post

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written by BakaTanuki, January 28, 2009

I can see why someone would give up on the Wii, but I love mine. While its been slow, plenty of games have come out to keep me enjoying mine.

Twilight Princess: not the best Zelda, but still a solid game.

Super Mario Galaxy: My favourite 3D Mario and that says a lot.

Super Paper Mario: Fun platformer with creative visual style and the PM series' humor.

Okami: A port, but better than the PS2 version and a fantastic experience.

Metroid Prime 3: Great series; one of the better games in it.

Elebits: Quirky fun time.

Super Smash Bros Brawl: best Smash, in my opinion, though I know there are plenty of reasons for people to not prefer it. Something like Smash should at least justify owning the console though, since its about playing over and over.

There are other games I want, like Radiant Dawn and Zac and Wiki.

Plus upcoming titles, such as Monster Hunter, Sin & Punishment, Muramasa, Arc Rise Fantasia.

My point is that while YOU may not enjoy the system. It seems a bit pretentious to claim that all hardcore gamers should give up on the Wii. You may be a hardcore gamer, but your opinions do not define a hardcore gamer. The Wii has plenty of merits.

That said, I have been reading through your blog and enjoy your posts overall. I'm not just dropping in to rant and leave. I've bookmarked the place and will be coming back.

I don't get it
written by dez, June 01, 2009

Hey,

I just don't get the Wii. I'm obviously not target market. Many of the games remind me of megadrive/SNES games, which makes me wonder why those consoles aren't still around.

I suppose (thinking while typing) the marketing has made Wii appear attractive and less geeky - even my parents want one. I can't say I've played many games on the Wii but I've not been impressed by Wii sports and I can't imagine spending anytime on Wii fit. On the latter, I've noticed "people" saying that it's the answer to their fitness prayers. I'm sorry to say that it may help your motivation in the short term but you won't get fit on a Wii if you just can't commit to exercise.

PS3 is my choice. I like the games, I like the internet surfing, I like the Blu-ray player and I like the fact that it's not Microsoft. Ps3 isn't for everyone I know, but hey ho.

Enough of my rambling. Enjoy yourselves no matter what your tastes and be nice

Dez

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