Nintendo, Wii Have A Big Problem
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Nintendo, we need to talk about something of a grand importance. It is about the Nintendo Wii and its future. Yes, right now, you probably have sold two million Nintendo Wii's worldwide and everyone is hooked on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and other Wii launch titles. However, you and I well know that at some point very soon, these hungry gamers are going to start to look around for something new to play. I know it is a very hard concept to understand; you screwed it up for two generations straight. However, with a little luck (Oh who I am kidding? A crap-load of luck), you may just be able to continue the hype train and keep those sales very high.
Let’s take a nice look at the Nintendo Wii and the first six months of 2007. In January, Wii gamers have Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. It is not a big title by any means but it is a solid one to start off the year with. In February, there is Wii Play. It is not a killer app and really it’s not even a release worth noting considering its package is even more bare-bones than Wii Sports. On the plus side, the $50 purchase comes with a Wiimote and considering those are going $40 a pop anyway, gamers looking to purchase an additional controller are better off waiting for this release. If we are extremely lucky, we will see Sonic and the Secret Rings sometime late February or early March. The same can be easily said for Cooking Mama: Cook Off, which may or may not debut at the same time.
  
Ports, ports, and DS remakes make-up the Wii lineup of early 2007! YAY!! ^_^
What about the rest of the stuff? Well, there is not too much else to list. Bust a Move: Bash shows up in early February but it is looking to be, more or less, a port of a port of a port of a port of a game you probably bought/played several years back. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII may show up in early March but considering Ubisoft’s pretty craptastic Wii efforts so far, there is not a single soul who can confidently say that the game will end up alright. The same can be easily said of Prince of Persia for the Nintendo Wii, which many people have pointed out to be an enhanced port from the PSP. What about Mortal Kombat Armageddon? Well, it sucked on the other home-consoles so with motion controls or not, it is going to suck on the Nintendo Wii as well.
The lineup, to be fairly honest, is about as bad as the Nintendo GameCube's when it first started off. Anything that was coming out was pretty lackluster for the most part and anything remotely decent was more than likely to get a price-drop not too far from its release. What is the issue here is that the Nintendo Wii has fallen into a software drought that print media and websites are going to exploit and talk the living hell out of for a long time to come. But, that is not really the problem here. Nine times out of ten, every console goes through a software drought after launch. The issue here is the Nintendo Wii's lineup in general. The initial games that are coming out of the gates for the first half of next year are either party based titles or their core gameplay is comprised of mini games. Conventional games, like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess or Excite Truck, are nowhere to be seen. That is unless you count the mediocre PlayStation 2 ports that are flooding the Wii market.
What is now your cup holder was a dust collector back in its post-launch days. Who wants to relive that?
Speaking of which, it seems third parties all over the globe are having their fun porting out their games to the Nintendo Wii with slapped on motion controls. For every nice exclusive like Elebits or Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, the platform receives a smorgasbord of shoddy ports from last-generation systems. Rampage: Total Destruction, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, GT Pro Series, Monster 4X4 World Circuit, Far Cry: Vengeance, etc. Let’s also not forget the crap-load of licensed based kiddy titles that makes up over half of the Nintendo Wii's library. It is really quite depressing but there is some logic behind it. Why spend millions upon millions of dollars developing a game exclusively for the platform, when I can spend next to nothing porting the title out to the platform instead and make, roughly, the same amount of money overall? That is the logic hitting the scenes and it is really making the platform look awfully pathetic. Eventually, gamers are going to catch on that the games they are playing on their Nintendo Wii can be found rather easily on their PlayStation 2's, or god forbid, GameCube.
Every single console goes through what I like to call a "porting phase". That is when third parties create "enhanced" ports for next-generation systems. However, never have I seen so many ports appearing on a console all at once. Western publishers have not announced any unique exclusives for the system at all and the Japanese publishers are giving the platform the good old "wait and see" approach. Although I'll give the Japanese some credit, they have at least been generous enough to give the platform one exclusive. What makes this really ugly? Publishers are announcing ports for the system all the way to the end of 2007 and more of these announcements are coming out daily. Unless gamers stay away from them, publishers are not going to get the clue that these kind of games need to stay off the platform.
GT Pro Series is a 3+ year old GameCube port? NOOOOOOOO!!! *Sniffle*
Not a big deal, right? As long as Nintendo delivers the goods, you'll be content? That in itself may be a problem as well. As of right now, their three major killer apps are all targeting a late 2007 release. Those games happen to be Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Mario Galaxy. Certainly, Nintendo will announce other games down the line and give them a release date but as of right now, those are the only big exclusives hitting the platform in 2007. Honestly, would it kill Nintendo to space out their releases for once? Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was a launch title for crying out loud, they should be releasing that one during the spring. That would certainly give the platform an extra boost of energy. Super Mario Galaxy was far along in development and was playable at E3 2006. That game should be released during July or August. As for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a November release would be just fine for the final killer app.
All Nintendo would have to do then is have all their minor titles come out and fill in the gaps between those releases and the Nintendo Wii would be kicking butt and taking names all year long. But no, as of right now, those three games are going to cannibalize and compete with each-other for what small money your average gamer would have to spend. Let me put it bluntly, that is one stupid business decision. They could be sitting here and make the PlayStation 3 look like a slug all throughout the year. Instead, we're going to have the Nintendo Wii be at the same pathetic pace as the PlayStation 3 and it really is quite sad.
If they can space-out titles like below throughout 2007, the Wii will OWN! If not, it WILL suck.
However, this mistake can be fixed. Nintendo has some time to pull this kind of strategy off and kick the PlayStation 3 where it hurts. Until they do that, they are going to be stuck in a hole for the first six months and the only thing to keep it alive will be an age-old GameCube port and third party moochers. Considering Microsoft's lineup for the Xbox 360 next year now is not the time to be screwing around.
Jason Giles - Staff Writer
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