Everything You Know About the Wii is Wrong
Perception is a funny thing. Chances are, if I asked you what your perception was of the Wii software library, you’d respond that it’s made up of heaps of party games, waggly gimmickry, thoughtless shovelware, with only a few standout titles, most of which are published by Nintendo themselves. And yes, that would be fair. And hell, walk through the Wii aisle in any game retailer and that is exactly what you’ll see; countless Petz, Cooking, Barbie, and licensed kid’s games peppered with a few tried-and-true Nintendo franchises. But any gamer with a lick of discerning taste knows that one has to dig a little deeper than the local Wal-Mart to find quality game experiences. Hell, you don’t go to the big boxes to search for obscure albums and films, do you?
It is with that logic in mind that I’m going to make what may seem like a bold statement. Ready? The Wii’s library is just as hardcore as the Dreamcast’s.
*GASP!*
But it’s true! The only difference is that the Dreamcast sold a fraction of the units, thus the quality wasn’t obscured by mountains of shovelware by companies trying to make a quick buck off a hot system. No, you won’t find the big-budget, high-definition first-person-shooter kill-a-thons that populate the other systems’ libraries, but you will find a surprisingly healthy selection of niche titles, specifically geared to gamers whose tastes are perfectly in line with those wonderful Dreamcast classics.
Still don’t believe me? Think I’m insane? Let’s take a look, shall we?
Most people lament the dearth of standout third-party titles on the Wii – or any Nintendo console, really. But that’s only true if you’re looking for the so-called “Big Budget/Triple-A Blockbusters”, a la Call of Duty or any of the other ‘splosion-filled FPS franchises. The reality is that there are tons of quality – and more importantly – unique experiences to be had from third-party publishers. Look at Capcom, for example. They’ve published insanely “hardcore” games like Monster Hunter Tri, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars, Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaro’s Treasure, and the excellent “light gun” shooters based on the Resident Evil series. And while these may not be “proper” entries in this AAA series (you can always get the remake of RE4 fo that), they surely aren’t aimed at the casual market.
Since we’re on light gun games, take a look at Sega’s offerings in this department. We’ve got Ghost Squad, The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, and the absurdly over-the-top (but awesome in every way) House of the Dead: Overkill. Each of these games would have fit in brilliantly in the Dreamcast’s library; and not just because they were published by Sega.
Speaking of whom, Sega’s support of the Wii has been considerable, almost to a fault. Their standout titles (aside from the ones already mentioned) include Tournament of Legends, Sonic & Sega All Star Racing, Jambo! Safari Animal Rescue, Madworld, Virtua Tennis 2009, Samba de Amigo, Sega Superstars Tennis, Sega Bass Fishing, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and Sonic & the Secret Rings. I don’t mean to force my point here, but that’s the majority of the Dreamcast’s first-party lineup right there!
Let’s move on to the genre that is the definition of “hardcore”: the shmup. While the Wii may not have as impressive a shmup lineup as the 360, it’s got a few really great titles that are worth your time. Blast Works, the indie remake, is about as unique a concept as you’ll find. Castle of Shikigami III is the best entry in the series, Geometry Wars: Galaxies is a great take on the arena shooter series, and Ultimate Shooting Collection gives you three really good shmups for under $20.
Rounding out the third-party selections are great titles like A Boy and His Blob, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Red Steel 2, Klonoa, Little King’s Story, Bully: Scholarship Edition, Metal Slug Anthology, Shiren the Wanderer, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Deadly Premonition, Okami, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, and both of the No More Hero titles. Seriously, you don’t get much more “hardcore” than that.
And while we’re having so much fun, let’s take a quick peek at the WiiWare library. Cave Story, Star Soldier R, Excite Bike: World Rally, World of Goo, Adventure Island: The Beginning, Alien Crush Returns, Bit.Trip.Beat/Core/Runner/Void, Blaster Master Overdrive, Castlevania The Adventure/Contra/Gradius ReBirth, Lost Winds, Mega Man 9 & 10, Military Madness: Nectaris, Phoenix Wright, Strong Bad, Swords & Soldiers, Tales of Monkey Island…
Yeah…there are a few games there.
I saved the first-party stuff for last, because we all know there’ll be great Nintendo games on a Nintendo console. But let’s look at it in these terms: three “proper” Mario games, two Metroid titles (four, if you count Primes 1 and 2, included in the Trilogy collection), two Zelda games, Link’s Crossbow Training, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Battalion Wars 2, Wario Land: Shake It, Excite Truck and Excitebots: Trick Racing, Mario Kart Wii, Punch Out!!, and Super Paper Mario. My point is, Nintendo has been busting out the hits on the Wii, and for every casual-friendly, Wii-branded party game there’s a classic Nintendo franchise game to back it up.
My intention with this article was not to bust out the banner for the Wii Defense Force, but to simply point out that the Wii gets a bad rap due to the flood of cash-in, me-too shovelware foisted upon us by shitty, money-grabbing, flash-in-the-pan publishers. But if you clear away the crap and do a little bit of searching, you’ll find some of the most unique, interesting, and daring titles released this generation. And yes, using the ten-year-old Dreamcast as an counterpoint isn’t quite fair as times have changed. But I felt it was important in making the case against the perception of the Dreamcast being the ultimate gamer’s machine while the Wii is just for geriatrics in nursing homes.
And I’m sure I missed some great titles in my little rundown here. Though the idea wasn’t to list every great game for the Wii, feel free to list any of those you feel deserve mentioning.
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Tags: wii
July 19th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Great article, John…thanks! You hit just about any and every hardcore game for the Wii that I could have come up with. I think it may be worth mentioning the vast array of Virtual Console titles available, as well. I know they aren’t technically “Wii games” in the sense of how you defined it here, but there are quite a few available on the platform and the Wii is well-suited for picking up all of these great, old, hardcore games.
Either way, the Wii is certainly more “hardcore” than the lame-stream media would have you believe.
July 19th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Fun Fact: I have more Wii games than 360 games.
July 19th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Deadly Creatures is a reasonably unique wrapper on a God of War style game, and while flawed, deserved significantly more play than it actually got.
I also really dig Rabbids Go Home as one of the nuttiest games I’ve ever played. Big band music plays while the band rides a soiled mattress through sewer pipes. This is only the cutscene between levels.
Being the guy who had a Gamecube and a PC, I never got the rampant declaration of nintendo consoles being for babies or riddled with nothing but kids games. I had at least a dozen M-rated titles for my Gamecube, if you wanna go teh hardcorez.
Anyway, solid stuff man.
July 19th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
*nerd moment* Treasure isn’t owned by Nintendo so their games can’t be first party.
That is a good lineup of games. It’s a shame that now-a-days gamers are only looking at what games are coming out instead of the whole library of games. It’s easy to point out a 2 or 3 month period and say the Wii sucks because there aren’t any hardcore games coming out, but it still has a bunch of awesome stuff in it’s back catalog or coming out after those 2-3 months that gamers can’t look beyond.
July 19th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
*double-nerd moment* It was published by Nintendo. First-party published.