The Game Plan 06.01.07: Wii Shall (Not) Overcome (Part 1)

Posted by James McGee on 06.01.2007

Even though it's riding high for now, I think the party won't last for the Wii. Find out more in this week's column.

The Year: 2005
The Place: Tokyo Game Show
The Event: Details on the Nintendo Revolution—renamed "Wii"—are revealed, including the ground-breaking "Wiimote" controller and motion-sensing focus of the system.
My Reaction: "This will be a total disaster, a miserable failure, and a fiasco of the first degree. Nintendo will be lucky to sell 1,000 units of this farce."

Heh…boy, think I missed the mark on that one?

Before I type another word of this column, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I do not hate Nintendo. My fondest video-game memories are of the NES and SNES. I respect everything they have accomplished in the industry, and appreciate all the enjoyment they've offered me as a fan. I do not want the company or any of its products to fail. Unfortunately, I think they will fail, and that kind of breaks my heart. A company that has received a lot of my money has made some very unwise business decisions. A company that resurrected video games like a phoenix from the ashes is now alienating a large portion of the gamers that were there from the beginning and who have stuck with the company all of these years. A company which, at one time, was untouchable in their field is currently perpetuating one of the biggest follies this industry has ever seen. I'm going to tell you why the Wii will fail, and what Nintendo could do to keep their grand experiment afloat. I am James McGee, and here's the Game Plan

I have two words for you: Power Glove. Nintendo has tried this motion control stuff before, and the Glove is still laughed at today. Even though things seem to be going better right now, mark my words: the biggest reason the Wii will fail is the very reason it's such a success right now. Nintendo is offering something gamers can't get on either Xbox 360 or PS3 (at least not to the same extent), and people seem to really enjoy flinging their arms around for now, but Nintendo is going to have to work hard to keep people's interest.

Now, I came down hard on Nintendo for the same reasons when they introduced the DS. Just like the Wii, I thought it was a fad that people would get tired of. I've certainly been proven wrong on that count, because not only is the DS the best selling system in history, critics seem to agree that there are plenty of quality games to be found on the little touch-screen marvel. But, if you notice, some games use that gimmicky second screen pretty sparingly. At least with the DS, developers have a choice, whereas with the Wii, any game released on the system (save games on the Virtual Console, of course), has to incorporate motion-control, no matter how poorly it may fit the game at hand. Rayman Raving Rabbids and Trauma Center: Second Opinion are the types of games the Wiimote was made for. Call of Duty 3 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance (two games I'll be picking on a lot in this series) are not. Take a look at any review site and you'll see that COD3 and MUA scored consistently higher on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 than on the Wii, and what was the number one fault that reviewers found with the Wii version? The controls were awkward and ill-suited for the game. There's already a classic controller attachment for the Wiimote, and the ability to plug old Gamecube controllers into the console—let game makers have the option of setting up a more traditional control scheme. Not only will this alleviate poor control-to-game handling, but it will encourage third-parties to design original games just for the system's motion-sensing capabilities instead of shoe-horning those controls into existing games. They can recoup the cost of multi-platform games with traditional controls while a team focuses all its energy on making games for the Wii that wouldn't work on other systems. As has become apparent, some games are perfectly suited to flailing around like a maniac—but only some.

Graphics don't matter. I've heard that a lot, and even said it myself a few times. Gameplay is what's important above all, otherwise retro gaming wouldn't be as big as it is, and people wouldn't be paying for games from the 1980s on Virtual Console, Xbox Live, and the Playstation Store. The DS is out-selling the Sony PSP in the hand-held battle even at a fraction of the power, because it has the better games and a cheaper price (and besides, the PSP has a reputation for muddy graphics despite its horsepower). But if a hand-held ever comes along that can best the DS in graphics and at least keep up in terms of game quality, Nintendo's portable juggernaut will be in trouble. Likewise, as games on other systems continue to distance themselves graphically from the Wii, things won't be so rosy in Mario Land. When you compare the Wii to the other two consoles, it looks like a 98lb. nerd trying to pick a fight with a couple of jocks—eventually, things are going to turn ugly. People are willing to accept low-end graphics on those older games because they pay very little for them and understand that they're getting an old game. The DS is a handheld system, and again, nothing can match it in terms of quality. But when people start paying over $200 for a home console, they expect a little more under the hood.

But power isn't just about how pretty things look, it's about what a game can actually do, and in time, the Wii will come up short in that regard as well. You'll never see an expansive world like Oblivion on the Wii, because it just couldn't handle it. Ditto a swarm of zombies like Dead Rising. Any kind of "sandbox" style game like the Grand Theft Auto series that depends on an open-ended world and hundreds of environmental interactions is going to have trouble, and compromises made to compensate (decreasing the draw distance of the world, so that scenery pops into existence when you're two feet from it, or reducing the amount/detail/resolution of that scenery) are tricks from the PSOne and N64 age that modern gamers are quickly losing patience with.

I've spent a lot of time talking about the death of exclusives, and how the Wii is one system that isn't really having that problem, but it's a double-edged sword. Pretty soon, we won't have to worry about wonky controls on third-party games, because those games won't be appearing on the Wii at all. They'll be too advanced for Nintendo's little system to handle. This could be a blessing in disguise, as it will force more innovation and fewer lazy ports and reworks, just as I've suggested. Nintendo just has to hope that third-parties will take the time to develop exclusively for the Wii and not just ignore it all together. Unfortunately, this isn't a problem that can be fixed. The Wii is as powerful as its going to get, and unless Nintendo works twice as hard as usual to keep the interest of the public and developers alike, the Wii runs the risk of looking really old really quick.

Next week, I'll wrap up this topic by focusing on what is, for me, the most annoying and infuriating part of this issue: Nintendo's tendency to say one thing while doing another. In the meantime, let me know what you think. I have a couple of friends who are die-hard Wii supporters, and may very well disown me for these columns. I'm sure there are more people out there who disagree with me, and I'm ready to listen. Just keep it friendly, okay?