this is an interesting thread! there’s obviously love out there for the Wii but it is bizarre how a console so popular and with such a huge library feels like an anomaly in the vid games canon. I’m looking over at my Wii collection (which is one shelf) and it’s “games that would be better on the DS”, “games I wish were on the PS2”, “Nintendos”, Dreamcast/arcade ports with Fragile Dreams/No More Heroes being the only real standouts.
Other people have already explained the issue with a lot of the third party support but even if we choose to define the console by the “Nintendos” the Wii represents their least endearing design era to me. You could argue this started earlier but when I think of Wii games I think of clinical white dentist waiting room backgrounds, compromised ugly aesthetics where it’s still cartoony “but for grown ups too!”, rectangles reminding me to take breaks and where the A button is. The hot Mario and Zeldas of today ran screaming in the opposite direction of the Galaxys/Skyward Swords of the world to the point where they’re deliberate subversions as opposed to evolutions which usually informs Nintendo sequels.
Also one of the gamey games I associate with the Wii the most is Donkey Kong Country Returns; a game where it is physically impossible to praise anything about it without ending the sentence with “shame the game makes you shake the Wii mote to slap the ground tho”
Thinking about while typing, I feel the real reason why the Wii seems irrelevant now is the trophy for penetrating the mainstream with “simple games that anyone can play” was swiped by mobile games and they ran so far with it that grandma playing Wii bowling at Christmas feels like a relic of the past now. Also, if anyone’s played that new Clubhouse Games on Switch - the bowling on it sucks! What happened! It’s like Nintendo don’t even remember they made the Wii.
Motion Plus was dope tho, Wii Sports Resort is my fav Wii game and it’s not even close, we would be having a different conversation if they had believed in t!
