Pre-E3 2008 Thoughts
--A.D. Olson, June 20th, 2008
With E3 2008 just around the corner, now would be as good a time as any to make a fool of myself.
As you may know, I've not reviewed any Wii games recently. I've gone on record elsewhere on the 'net to explain why, but I haven't officially posted anything here. Well, time to break the silence...
I bought a PS3. Yes, that's right, me, Wii fanboy extraordinaire, succumbed to the sweet seductions of the hi-definition market, picked up an LCD TV late last year, and a Playstation 3 earlier this year. And while my eyes and ears are not worse for the wear, my Wii has suffered a fate of loneliness.
I've played a few WiiWare titles, but nothing longer than a couple hours, tops. It's sad, but it's not only because the games on the PS3 are so good and so pretty, but also because there hasn't been anything that I've been interested in that released for the Wii. I've never liked the Mario Kart or Smash Bros. franchises, and so 2008, so far, has had very little for me since the first month or two. Wii Fit? No thanks. Pushups weren't fun before, and I highly doubt that having a pasty white figure replicating my movements on my TV screen will suddenly make it joyful. Neither Nintendo nor third-parties have released any games that even come close to approaching either Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or Super Mario Galaxy since... Well, since Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Super Mario Galaxy. Boom Blox is great fun, IF you're playing with another person or three... But I don't have company over very often, and so, I am looking for a deeper solo experience, but it's just not there.
How did I fall so far away from my first love, of the Wii? Well, I guess I realized that, while I term myself as a softcore gamer, I really need more meatier games. The Wii just has nothing that comes close to Oblivion, Metal Gear Solid 4, Burnout Paradise, Battlefield: Bad Company, and many other games that have sucked the hours from my life. I was foolish before, to think that the Wii alone could satisfy me. I ignored the people who said that the Wii couldnt' suffice. Boy, was I wrong.
If you like your Wii, and want to stay that way, let me give you some advice based on my experience. Stick to a CRT television, or if you upgrade, go with a plasma. The Wii looks terrible on an LCD TV, unless you have a really good upscaler... Don't even try a PS3 at a friend's place. Avoid all temptation, and you can remain blissfully ignorant. This is the only way.
So, now that I've explained my position on the Wii right now, let me get to the point of this article - what can Nintendo do at E3 to win me back, and give my Wii some new love?
Kid Icarus
We all know it's coming, but we don't know anything about it. I'm sure it's being done by Factor 5, and I hope they can make the Wii sing. I was a huge fan of Kid Icarus as a kid, and I'm one of the few people who seems to realize that Pit died at the end of the second game. YES, there was a second Kid Icarus game! It was on the GameBoy, in glorious four shades of creamy spinach. And it was good. It's time to revive the franchise, but I'd prefer it be more adult-like, and drop the "Kid" portion of the name. Make it epic, and I will fork over my monies.
Online Presence and Stupid Friend Codes
Why Nintendo chose to revert to the stone age with the Wii's online system is beyond me. The PS3 online system may not be perfect, but it's at least modern. Why can't I see if my friends are online on the Wii? I don't even NEED to know what game they're playing, just if they're online or not... Maybe add INSTANT messaging, not receive-5-to-10-minutes-later-if-you're-lucky messaging. It has been done in Mario Kart, to a degree, so that's one good step. But why does every game require it's own channel? And it's own friend code? This is all so archaic, and people who are fine with it boggle my mind. This could all be fixed with a firmware update. I doubt Nintendo will do it, but you never know - Sony announced Home for the PS3, and nobody really was expecting that.
Voice Chat
This is pretty much related to the previous point, but really, honestly, Nintendo, why can't we have voice chat for online games? Or even outside of games? The DS has a headset, so I think this will happen, and E3 is the prime time to announce a new peripheral that will make everyone happy.
Storage Expansion
Call me a "geek" or "otaku" all you want, but it's not helping anything. Nintendo seems to be getting arrogant (moreso than usual) and shunning the people who got them where they are today. In any case, whatever Nintendo's opinion on the matter, we need a storage solution. 512MB onboard, half of which is user-writable, is NOT enough. I have purchased WAY too many Virtual Console and WiiWare games, and I'm taking a stand. Nintendo won't see another dime from me until I can store my purchases on my console, either via SD card (ideally), or by a standard USB drive. Though I wouldn't buy it, I'd be happy with a proprietary drive too, because the problem is for everyone, not just me, and many people would buy it. Either way, whoever came up with the idea to limit the storage is very, very, very short-sighted. And insulting your user-base is even moreso. E3 is their chance to make up for it.
More Exclusive Core Games
Of course, the main reason we all buy consoles is to play games. And the Wii has too few for me to care about right now. They need to show a montage of games coming in the future - and not games that will get shelved or canned, like last time. Drop the corny people-hiding-behind-the-couch and crap like that, and just be straight-up "here are these cool games we have been hiding." As I said, there has been pretty much nothing outside of WiiWare that interested me so far this year. The last I checked, the PS3 was being marketed as a multimedia device which happens to play games, and the Wii was a game system that can't even play a DVD movie or an audio CD... So why is it that I spend more time and have more fun playing my PS3? Because there are more core GAMES for the multimedia console that appeal to me, a more traditional video gamer. There is no reason that the Wii couldn't have more. Multiplatform games will almost always be better on the PS3 due to the true hi-definition audio and video experience. This is why Nintendo needs to announce new exclusive core games at E3. If I can't get the next amazing RPG and FPS and RTS on any other platform, then there is nothing to compare them to, and money will go to the Wii. Will Nintendo and other third-parties start showing their cards to the core gamers? Or will they continue trotting on their path, blazing the trail, making inroads into the casual and non-gamer audience? I'm sure it makes more sense for them to do the latter, but that doesn't appeal to me, and if you remember, this article is about what Nintendo needs to do to pull my DualShock 3 out of my hands.
E3 is about games, and last year was a massive disappointment for me. If this year is a reprise of what happened in 2007, I will be very put out. We don't need ANOTHER peripheral for casual gamers. We need games that take advantage of the Wii controller, and that really hasn't happened much.
Nintendo has some proving to do, to me at least. I'm not convinced that their initial audience - the core gamers - really matter anymore to them. And if they're happy with that, then this E3 will show it, and I'll give selling my Wii another thought (I've resisted so far). But I'm hoping that they change their stance on "Wii is for everyone," from meaning "Wii is for everyone to play together," and make it more like "Wii has lots of games for every kind of gamer." Because right now, there's no way I could part with my PS3. So, are Nintendo abandoning traditional, or core, gamers? We'll have a good idea of the answer to that within the next few weeks.
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A.D.