(2018) A Verii Merii Christmas: Wii (2006) Review and Retrospective

   NOTE: This review was originally posted to Wattpad on December 20, 2018, and has been reposted here for archival purposes. It may not reflect recent events or my current opinions.

So, the holidays are here again, and I kind of figured I would discuss one of my personal favorite systems, and one of my personal favorite holiday memories. A few months ago, I discussed my thoughts on the Wii U, and while it wasn't a perfect system by any means and can't really blame Nintendo for ditching it in favor of the Switch, I still am happy for what it was, and I do think it had a solid library of exclusives that you really couldn't get anywhere else at least until the Switch hit the market. But let's go back one more generation, and take a look at the Nintendo Wii.

Now, I think it's safe to say that the Nintendo Wii is a fairly polarizing system among the gaming community. Some people love it due to it's great library, citing games that could be argued to be among the best of their respective series (namely Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2), but others weren't very fond of the overall gimmicky nature and Nintendo focusing in on a different audience during the generation. Admittedly, I didn't really play it until pretty late into it's lifespan. By that, I mean 2011. By then, the 3DS was on the market and the Wii U had just been announced, but I had first played the Wii at my grandfather's house over summer vacation, starting off with New Super Mario Bros Wii and then playing games like Mario Super Sluggers, Mario Sports Mix and Mario Party 8 (yeah all mario games), and I actually remember having a lot of fun with it, to the point where it became my most wanted Christmas gift of that year. I'll just say this, once I got back from my grandfather's house, I immediately created a Christmas wish list with the Wii being the number one gift on it.

Keep in mind I just said I was there over summer vacation.

So yeah.

It was a... really long wait. All I could think about during that entire fall/winter season of 2011 was the Wii. Pretty much all my classmates and most of the people I talked to online had one, and I definitely wanted to get my hands on one. I'll just describe the experience.

"OH MAI GAWD NEW SUPER MARIO BROS WII IS LIKE SUPER MARIO BROS 3 ON STEROIDS"

"OH MAI GAWD SUPER MARIO GALAXY = MARIO IN SPACE????"

"OH MAI GAWD MARIO SUPER SLUGGERS MADE ME ENJOY SPORTS FOR ONCE"

"SKYWARD SWORD IS COMING OUT SOON AHHHHHHH"

So, yeah, it was a long wait, and it felt like aside from all my DS games and my brother's Xbox 360 (which is clearly an overrated inferior console), I had... nothing to play until I got a Wii, and it was basically all that I was hoping for.

So, after what seemed like decades to 10 year old me, Christmas Day finally came. As per usual, I always got up at 6 in the morning on that day to see if Karl Marx-Claus had fit his fat ass through his chimney and left me presents. And sure enough, there was a box under the tree that literally looked like the exact proportions of a Wii box would look like, but I still had to wait another 3 or 4 hours for my damn family, particularly my dad, to get up. Let's just say it felt like literal torture. Even when my mom got up, my lazy ass father was still in bed, and I was just like "come oooon i want to play the wiiiiiii" as my mother and brother kept telling me that it was a pair of shoes in that box, and finally he woke up. I was able to unwrap my gift, and... it was a pair of shoes.

Jk it was a wii lol

It was a Black Wii bundle, one that came with New Super Mario Bros Wii and the soundtrack to Super Mario Galaxy, and speaking of Super Mario Galaxy, I ended up getting that in addition to everything else. And after arguing with my dad trying to set it up (turns out I didn't plug the Wii Motion Bar in all the way), it turned out to be a great gift and just what I was hoping for. Unfortunately I would learn the hard way that it was the Family Edition that couldn't play Gamecube games for some stupid fucking reason, but otherwise I did have a lot of fun with it.

From there, my Wii basically became my preferred console of... well, what was left of the 7th generation. Of course, my brother had an Xbox 360, but it was never really a console I was able to get into, just didn't really have much of the types of games I liked at the time. But the Wii was a different story. Keep in mind that 2011 was basically the beginning of my peak hipster/retro gamer phase and so of course I was into Nintendo games more than anything. As all my classmates were talking about the latest Carl on Duty games and my brother and his friends were just talking about that new "Skyrim" game whatever it was (sounds like a game by a company that would port it to 420 different consoles), I was all about Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

But let's hold on and freeze for a second and talk about the actual system.

Like I said, the Wii was definitely where Nintendo wanted to focus more on a general, family audience, and the system itself definitely sort of screams that. If you don't know, the Wii was primarily focused on motion controls, and while today it's looked back on as a gimmicky feature that only served to pave the way for VR, at the time of the Wii's release, motion controls were still a new technology. There were other motion control accessories made for previous systems, namely the Eyetoy for PlayStation 2, but the Wii was pretty much the first system to make it mainstream and streamline motion controls... at least enough to make it a prominent feature for gaming. This is pretty much where most of the polarization of the Wii comes from, especially now that the motion control fad as basically just came and went, especially with Sony and Microsoft trying to get into it with the PS Move and Kinect, but once it died down, so did the general reputation of the Wii. It didn't help either that compared to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the Wii was significantly underpowered for that generation. I've noticed some people describe the Wii as basically an overclocked Gamecube, and for what it's worth... yeah that's basically what it is. Apparently at one point, the Wii was actually supposed to be an addon for the Gamecube, but seeing as the Gamecube wasn't Nintendo's most successful system, it basically became it's own system, but built off the Gamecube's architecture. It continued with the PowerPC line of CPUs as well as the ATI graphics. So basically, this makes the Wii part of the AMD master race. Somewhat. But as a result of underpowered hardware, the Wii ended up missing out on a lot of third party support, especially as it's life went on. If you were any sort of hardcore gamer and wanted to play games like Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, any of the Battlefield games and so on... you were definitely out of luck with the Wii. I actually have to admit that I sort of missed out on Sonic Generations until I got it on Steam 3 years later, and was also disappointed to see that Sonic 4: Episode 2 wasn't going to be released either. But it was whatever to me, as I was still happy with the kinds of games I played.

That leads into the controller for the Wii, starting with none other than the WiiMote. This is definitely where most of the polarization over the Wii comes from. While Motion Controls were a neat innovation for their time, one that the Wii had perfected moreso than other systems, it's largely looked back on as a gimmick these days and for a lot of people it really ruined the overall experience of the Wii. Not to mention there were two variants of the WiiMote, the standard that came with the system for most of it's life, and the Wii Remote Plus, which I own, with what was originally an extra accessory for the WiiMote titled "Wii Motion Plus" was now programmed into the regular thing, this time with improved sensor bar capabilities and gyroscope to improve the motion control experience. A lot of games required the use of the Nunchuk, an accessory that typically came with the Wii (at least after launch) that featured an analog stick and two buttons. Now, I will admit that I personally don't mind the WiiMote much itself. In games like New Super Mario Bros Wii, it works pretty well as a horizontal controller that has a similar button layout to the original NES controllers, and can actually be fairly comfortable to hold. That said, in 3D games, typically the ones that used the Nunchuk... were definitely more motion heavy and if you felt that got in the way, I can understand. But, when playing, say, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, I really didn't mind it too much. It actually did feel pretty good in my hands, although there were definitely times where trying to get a higher jump felt a little awkward to me, but not necessarily enough to disrupt the entire experience. But I will say that when the option was there, I definitely preferred the Wii Classic Controller, specifically the Classic Controller Pro. I haven't actually used the original/standard classic controller, but I will say that the Classic Controller Pro is a surprisingly good controller that feels pretty good in my hands, and probably one of the most underrated controllers out there. It takes on a similar layout to the PlayStation Dualshock controllers, and is overall a pretty standard controller, but one that actually works pretty well for the games that utilize it. It was always my controller of choice when playing games like Sonic Colors, Klonoa and Nights: Journey of Dreams as a few examples. If you have the original model of the Wii (which most people do), you can also use the Gamecube controller if you prefer that, but since I'll probably be doing a Gamecube review in the future, I won't go too in depth with that.

Going back to my Christmas, I mentioned the games I got that Christmas were Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the latter of which being the first Wii game I ever played. New Super Mario Bros Wii, admittedly, isn't anything special when compared to other Mario games. New Super Mario Bros for the DS was a game I got not too long after getting a DS, and for what it is I actually feel like it did stand out as the first 2D Mario game since Super Mario Land 2, but New Super Mario Bros Wii was, for a lot people, where the games started getting repetitive and stale. It wasn't so bad when it first came out, but when Nintendo ended up releasing 5 New Super Mario Bros games over the span of 7 years, all with the same 8 world themes... yeah. But for what it is, I can't deny that I've always had a lot of fun with New Super Mario Bros Wii. Yeah, it obviously isn't the most original Mario game and I'd still take Super Mario World over it any day, but as a more casual Mario game, I still think it was a lot of fun for what it was. It still at least managed to improve upon the DS game while still having a lot of it's own twist... namely four player multiplayer (which sounds good in theory but not so much in practice) and some interesting new power ups. Like I said, it's really nothing too special as a Mario game, and kind of signaled how repetitive the subseries would get, but I still found it to be a fun for what it was. Maybe it's the nostalgia speaking, but... whatever.

Of course, Super Mario Galaxy is often considered one of the best Mario games and even one of the best Nintendo games of all time, and I kind of find myself jumping on the bandwagon with this one. I wouldn't call it my favorite Mario game of all time (that'll probably always be Super Mario World followed by Yoshi's Island), but damn is it a good game. The gameplay is probably the most fun I've had with a 3D Mario game, the levels tend to be extremely creative on Nintendo's part, the level design itself is great, the graphics definitely show the Wii's capability and... the soundtrack.

Just

The soundtrack.

Of course, Super Mario Galaxy would also get a sequel in 2010, appropriately titled Super Mario Galaxy 2, and while some may debate which one is better, I think both of these are just about on par as far as quality and great gameplay go, with Super Mario Galaxy 2 definitely improving some things here and there, but both are definitely great Mario titles and honestly I've always found myself having trouble picking my favorite out of either of these games. Quite frankly, if you haven't played either of these games before... just do it. They are both great experiences and showcase probably the best of 3D Mario in my eyes.

What was even better was that a day later my family took me to GameStop so I got the chance to spend some Christmas money on some Wii games. One of them was Super Mario All-Stars. Like I said, 2011 was pretty much the beginning of my peak retro gamer phase and Super Mario All-Stars was something I played constantly on emulators and such, so having an actual copy of it I could play on my Wii was amazing.

Looking back... it was definitely a very cheap cashgrab. Literally all Nintendo did during Mario's 25th anniversary was take a ROM of Super Mario All-Stars and slap it on a 4.7GB disc and then initially package it with a bunch of stuff. Yeah.... it was definitely very lazy of them, the least they could've done was use the version that came with Super Mario World. And it makes it even sadder considering just two years after this version of Super Mario All-Stars came out they released Kirby's Dream Collection which was honestly a far better compilation, having all the original games up from Kirby's Dream Land up to Kirby 64 as well as having a showcase of history of the franchise, episodes of "Kirby: Right Back at Ya!," and challenge stages based on ones found in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, basically putting Super Mario All-Stars to shame.

But, I still can't deny that I had a lot of fun with Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii. I loved playing the original Mario games especially in their SNES remade versions, and having Super Mario All-Stars was just a neat little surprise in my Wii collection. I... just wish they did more with Mario's 25th anniversary rather than just slap a SNES rom on a Wii disc. Oh well, at least Super Mario Maker was a great anniversary titles.

And also like I said, there were also some Sonic games released for the system as well. Sonic and the Secret Rings was one of them, and I can't really say much about it since I never played it but it just seems like the alpha version of Sonic Dash with a really cheesy story to me. Sonic and the Black Knight was moreorless the sequel to Secret Rings, and this one I did play... and I couldn't get into it. I know there are some people in the Sonic fanbase that absolutely love Black Knight... but I can't say I'm one of them, I always found the gameplay just to be extremely gimmicky and I also noticed the framerate was just... not very good, which as a PC gamer and therefore framerate purist... yeah. I bought it for $8 at my local retro game store a couple years ago, played it for about half an hour then just never picked it up again. Maybe I'll go back to it someday, but... whatever.

On the plus side, the Wii also got Sonic Colors, which is definitely the best Sonic game on the system. This was a game I reviewed a little while ago, and a lot of what I said then still stands, it's definitely one of my favorite games in the series with it's interesting levels and great presentation. It's not perfect, some of the platforming can definitely feel kind of outdated and blocky, but overall it's a game I still enjoy playing and returning to every so often.

Sonic Unleashed is kind of an interesting case for the Wii. Unfortunately, due to the Wii's lack of power, the HD version of Unleashed couldn't be ported directly to the Wii and because of that I ended up missing out on the HD version of Unleashed, so I settled for the Wii version and while it wasn't the glorious HD version, I still had fun with it for what it is. The stages definitely feel very fast paced, Sonic's moveset is fun to play and I even find myself having fun with the Werehog stages. It's a game I plan on reviewing sometime soon, but if you don't have a 360 or PS3, the Wii version of Unleashed is still a fun time for what it is.

The Wii also got some of the other multiplats like Sonic 4: Episode 1 (which is extremely bland) and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (which is a decent racing game albeit kind of challenging in my experiences), but it also got some other Sega games as well. One of them was Nights: Journey of Dreams, a sequel to the 1996 game "Nights into Dreams." This game got fairly mixed reception when it came out, but from what I played, I actually found myself enjoying it. Granted I played it with the Classic Controller Pro, but either way it's not a bad game by any means. It probably doesn't have the same impact that the original Sega Saturn game does, but it's still a solid sequel and can be found for pretty cheap these days.

Of course, if Nintendo exclusives are your favorite part about Nintendo systems, then the Wii definitely has a lot of good stuff. In addition to the Mario titles I mentioned, there's also a number of Mario spinoff titles. Of course, the most prominent is definitely Mario Kart Wii, which ended up being the second best selling title on the Wii and is probably the most infamous for it's Motion Control Steering Wheel feature. I... can't really say I ever got into this game as much as the other Mario titles. Don't get me wrong, I definitely had fun with it, but compared to how much time I spent with Mario Kart DS, 8 and even Mario Kart 7... I often just felt this game had way too much of an emphasis on chaos and it felt like whenever I wanted to play the game I would always get spammed with items from the AI. And that's just from the singleplayer mode, I barely even played Mario Kart Wii online so I can't imagine what that was like. I have gone back to the game in recent times, and I actually found myself having more fun with it than I expected, but I feel like I'm way too late in the game to really fall in love with it the same way I have with other Mario Kart titles as well as, of course, Crash Team Racing.

The Paper Mario series got it's third entry on the Wii, that being Super Paper Mario, which drastically changed the formula of the series from it's RPG roots in Paper Mario 64 and The Thousand Year Door to an action platformer. I've always kind of seen opinions on this game go pretty back and forth among Paper Mario fans, but this is probably the first Paper Mario game I really played and I gotta say that I did get a lot of enjoyment from what I played. I can't say I've ever been much of an RPG person, so the shift in genre actually made me feel more immersed within the game, and the story and characters which tend to be the main selling point of the game were definitely entertaining to me.

There were also a sleuth of Mario sports and Mario Party games, Mario Super Sluggers being one in particular that I played the shit out of, but those aren't really interesting enough to say much about, so I might as well move on.

The Legend of Zelda is obviously one of if not the most loved series in gaming, and so it would be a crime to not talk about it as a part of this. I'm... not the biggest Zelda fan either, it was always a series I was more into for the lore and watching my brother play than play myself, but Twilight Princess was always one of my brother's favorite games in the series, being either that or Link to the Past, and from what I've noticed it tends to be one of the fan favorite Zelda games out there, with some arguing that it definitely fleshed out and improved what Ocarina of Time had set the standard 8 years before this game came out. I didn't really play much of it, so I can't really speak much about how I feel about it, but it does seem like one of the Wii's best titles (although it was also released on the Gamecube). In 2011, the Wii got it's own exclusive Zelda game, Skyward Sword. This one... didn't quite get the same amount of positive reception Twilight Princess got, with from what I've noticed a lot of people not caring for the focus around motion controls and also having some strange design choices, especially to the combat that people didn't really seem to care for. I actually still don't have this game, so again I really can't speak much for it, but despite it's problems it still seems like a solid Zelda title for what it is even if it's not the best one out there.

The Donkey Kong Country series was one that made a comeback on the Wii after being dormant for over a decade, with the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns. While not quite on par with Donkey Kong Country 1 or 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns still manages to be a fun, challenging platformer on it's own.

Metroid also got some love on the Wii, with the release of Metroid Prime 3, following Metroid Prime 1 and 2 on the Gamecube. Admittedly I haven't played much of it, but it does seem like a neat FPS, and it's one case where I actually feel the motion controls improve the experience, as the game actually manages to control pretty well with the WiiMote and Nunchuk, moreso than a standard controller that most FPS games of the 7th gen used. I'll still take my keyboard and mouse setup for FPS games, but for consoles, the WiiMote and Nunchuk aren't too bad. A couple years later, Nintendo released Metroid Prime Trilogy, a compilation of the three Metroid games that gives the first 2 games the ability to use the motion control setup to play, and from what I've noticed, it's generally considered the best way of playing the Metroid Prime games... assuming you can get your hands on it since it does seem to be on the more rare side of Wii games. Then again, you can get it on the Wii U eShop for a good price so I guess it's no big deal.

Of course, then there was Metroid: Other M.

Let's just say pretty much every Metroid fan I know hates it.

In addition to these, there are of course other great Nintendo first party titles, namely Super Smash Bros Brawl, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Xenoblade Chronicles, and probably others I'm forgetting.

But I did want to touch upon the Wii's third party support. Like I said, the Wii didn't get much of the big AAA releases like Bethesda's RPGs and whatnot, but it did get it's share of third party support, and offered some niche games that actually fit the audience of the Wii pretty well. Of course, surprisingly Activision released the Call of Duty series on the Wii, and aside for Modern Warfare 2, you could actually get every Call of Duty game between Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on the system. The ports were largely gimped compared to their PC, 360 and PS3 counterparts, but... you could play Call of Duty on the Wii. And it's even more surprising since it actually did pretty well too. Activision would continue releasing Call of Duty games on the Wii U... until they just stopped after Call of Duty Ghosts since sales were not doing so well.

But like I was saying, there is some pretty niche stuff on the Wii from what it had as far as third party support went. I mentioned all the Sonic games released for the system, but there was also NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. The game got pretty mixed reviews when it came out, and is largely not as remembered as it's Sega Saturn predecessor, but from what I played... I would actually say it's a decent game and solid sequel to the original. Do I think it's as good? Probably not, but still does have the same elements and has a pretty interesting story, even if the game's a bit on the short side. The game's pretty cheap nowadays (actually found my copy for $4 at a thrift store) so if you enjoyed the Sega Saturn title, I think it's worth checking out this one, and if you don't care for it, it's not a huge loss.

One of my personal favorite games on the system is definitely Klonoa, a modern port of the PS1 game 'Klonoa: Door to Phantomile.' It's typically debated on what version of the game is better, but seeing how the original is the price of an arm and a leg these days and that this version has better and more updated graphics and visuals, I would definitely go with the Wii version. Of course, the Wii version is starting to climb in price too so... maybe get it while you can. Either way, it's a really good 2D platformer and probably my favorite of those on the system, and it's made even better since the title character of the game is a cute furry, and I'll always enjoy those.

Another game I have is Boom Blox, a pretty interesting physics-based puzzle game involving... blocks. The gameplay isn't really deep enough to give much of an evaluation on it, but it is a pretty fun puzzle game for what it is, and you can create your own levels which is neat.

Other third party games that may seem interesting include of Okami, No More Heroes, Red Steel 2, Rayman Origins, the Harvest Moon games, MadWorld and Epic Mickey. I still have yet to play any of those, but it does show that the Wii did have a pretty niche library of third party games even if it wasn't up to snuff with the biggest AAA titles of the generation. That said, even with it's share of good third party games, the Wii did attract a fuckton of shovelware, which is on common complaint I've seen about the system. I mean, I can walk into any game store (at least one that still sells Wii games) and there's just a big wall of Wii games which I'm fairly certain 90% is just crap made by some obscure company based off some sort of obscure cartoon or product. M&M's Kart Racing is pretty much the biggest example of this sort of thing, and at one point was deemed the worst Kart Racer of all time. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I mean after all I'm not sure I want to play a Kart Racer starring M&Ms (though I will admit 'APPROACHING SOUND BARRIER' will never not kill my sides).

I will say that, though, probably my favorite feature of the Wii and one that kept me coming back to it was the Virtual Console. Like I said, me getting the Wii was a part of my retro gaming/hipster phase, and the Virtual Console had a pretty good selection of retro games from different systems, coming from the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, Neo Geo and even the fucking Commodore 64 (at least until it was delisted in August 2013). I bought a crap ton of games on here, and while by now I've basically collected every one of the respective systems, it was a great introduction to a lot of retro games, and I still occasionally like to go back and boot up whatever was part of my Virtual Console library. Unfortunately, the Wii Shop Channel will be discontinued on January 31, 2019 and even then you aren't able to purchase any Wii points... so if you want to check out this feature, I guess just mod your system and add emulators.

Conclusion:

So... I can understand a lot of people's problems with the Wii. Yes, it was too reliant on motion controls. Yes, it's lack of power made it lag behind big name games that were released on the PS3, 360 and PC. And I'll even admit that while it was a successful system, a lot of that was just due to appealing to a casual audience over the motion control gimmick that's pretty much universally seen as outdated now. But to be honest, the Wii means a lot to me. It was pretty much the first game system I could call my own and to this day I still spend a lot of time playing it and enjoying all the different games I come across. It has a lot of my personal favorite titles in certain series (namely Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 and Sonic Colors) and is one that I still get a kick out of to this day.

Would I recommend it in 2018 if you don't already have it? Well... maybe. If you're able to pick up the Wii U, that can obviously play Wii games, but Wii systems themselves are fairly cheap to come across these days. There's plenty of them out there, and it's not quite old enough for those who grew up with it to go back and rebuild their collections. If you like the sound of a lot of these games, I would recommend it, but if you're kind of weary about the motion controls, then maybe look for something else. Either way, the Wii is still one of my personal favorite systems, and one that I continue to have fun times with even as we approach 2019.

So, I guess this is it. I kind of figured that I would tie this review and retrospective with my memories of getting the Wii for Christmas, which is kind of why I decided to write this around this time. So, with that all said, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, whatever you celebrate - Happy Holidays.

What's that? You're offended by Happy Holidays?

Well, in that case, here's a new saying - Happy shut the fuck up.