Once upon a time, the Wii was born...

Nintendo Wii 2 Years On

Nintendo have decimated the competition in the Wii's first two years, when many had thought it would be yet another flop and fad. Not I though.

When I saw the Wii for the first time, I knew it was clearly made with the intention of resurrecting a old spirit, and that made me very happy. Japanese companies, especially traditional companies such as Nintendo, according to Shinto beliefs imbue all products with spirit. Nintendo for me let a old spirit rise again in the form of the Wii, the old spirit I talk of is the NES. That console was all about great software, with games that live long in the memory and set a standard that still resonates to this very day. I am very confident the Wii will have many such games of this kind, far more that the NES because of the nature and the improvements we see in the industry today.

The Wii in fact had an amazing first year, simply look at the debut years of others console in contrast and you will see much that cannot be contested. The Wii had beaten the sales the 360 accumulated in 2 years, in less than one, 9 months to be exact, and this with hardware shortages and distribution problems. It also had a distinct lack of quality software support from the big houses. On the flip side, owners got a AAA title in the first year, and it could have been so easily two if Nintendo choose not to space out it's major releases. It was a fantastic first year, however, this current second year has not been on par with that first, which is easily commendable.

For me, and many others, 2008 has been a woeful year for the console. There may well be some awesome titles in the works and great games due to hit in early 09, but a consoles year must be judged on what it actually delivers to the players, not the promise of great games, but the very games themselves. I think 2008 will I think be the worst year that the Nintendo Wii will ever have in it's life, but despite that I am very hopeful for the future.

Nintendo have done a good job behind the scenes rallying up support from 3rd parties post Gamecube and within the consoles first year, sadly, the product of this has not been seen in this year, but then how could it?. Even the finest 1st string teams could not create the games we would want in less than a year. Nintendo had a immense task after the damage that the Gamecube created among the development community. It severely effected initial support for the console, that was clear to see I think. The support it did receive eventually simply came too late, and when it was in place, it was in a weak in a wait and see form. That is why we see so many of what are essentially test games and ports of PS2 games. This has led many to believe Nintendo are having the same problems as before. These people are wrong.

In comparison to 360 and PS3 the list of initial developers for Wii was minuscule. Nintendo Wii surely missed out on quality games because of this. The development community steered clear, but Nintendo have pro-actively been trying to change that. They have worked hard to do so, after understanding the mistakes of the GC and the overall past. There is proof of them reaching out to all manner developers for all to see. From the low cost of dev kits like LiveMove and other support software, to Wii Ware, and all that entails.

The most important factor is the most obvious one, success. Nintendo has made their platform successful, it now has the user base in place for developers to take advantage of. Nintendo have expanded the audience just like they said they would do. It's great that developers now seem to be getting serious about Wii by shifting the better teams to work on games to produce a better quality of product. It's going to get far better from here on in. Nintendo Wii third party games, games you and I have no idea about will be coming to the fore by the Q3-Q4 09, and they are being made by better teams within their respective development houses. Some will in due course put some of their best teams on Wii because it will be more profitable to do so. Quality will always breed quality, it will be all that the Wii needs. A quality game on the Wii platform has a user base in place that is likely to make far more money by the end of next year than any other platform. Especially if Wii sales remain in the currently astonishing trend. 

I have had distinctly awesome experiences via my Wii already, moments where I have genuinely thought, fuck me this awesome!. Like when I played Gusty Garden Galaxy for the first time. It's magical moments like that which other companies seem incapable of replicating. That's what I want Nintendo to do within this coming year, to create games with that in mind.  I want them to play to their strengths and imbue games with that same magic. It really does not have anything at all to do with graphics, it's something else, something that Nintendo fans constantly search for. There will be far less searching next year, you can be absolutely sure of that. Nintendo have their market now, and mark my words they are going to shower it with awesome games.


Happy 2nd Birthday Wii, you are a going to have another special one in 2009, but with one a far greater substance. I know you will come good with an array of great games that will live long in the memory.