Nintendo Wii Unbiased Review

I bought the Nintendo Wii gaming system the first day it came out. Besides the system itself I bought a second pair of controllers, a classic controller, 2000 download points and the game Wii Play. After a while I added new games to the list including Red Steel, Rayman Raving Rabbits, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz and Korinpa. I purchased games from previous systems including Mario Kart 64 and Mario 64 and played an extensive list of Gamecube games including Resident Evil 4 and Mario Party 7.

I think that I have a good overview of what is currently going on in the Nintendo Wii "world" and would like to describe how I feel about the Nintendo Wii and what I expect of it in the future. I know that some of my friends already sold the Wii again because of the lack of good games following the launch - I personally think that this decision is understandable, the lack of games is obvious at this point.

I do not want to write about the hardware. That has been done before by many sites including respected Nintendo fanboy sites such as GoNintendo or the site Nintendo Wii Fanboy. I would like to concentrate on the games instead. The hardware is excellent and if the games are good the Wii is lots of fun - especially if you play it with at least one friend.

Wii Sports:

This game is the appetizer. It was included in my Wii system and contains five basic sports games that include Tennis, Baseball and Golf. It is a great way of introducing non-gamers to the Nintendo Wii because the games are absolutely easy to learn and easy to master. At least to the point that everyone is able to have success in those games even though he never played games before.

Motivation however does not last that long after the first initial hours of playing Wii Sports. If you are for yourself it becomes boring pretty fast but it is still great if you have a bunch of friends at your house. I personally like Golf the most and hate Boxing.

Wii Play:

Wii Play is a similar collection of mini games for the Nintendo Wii. It provides gamers with games like Table Tennis, basic Fishing and a Tank game. All of those games last only about one minute and are kinda fun if you play them with a friend. I like the Tank game most and hate it that you have only one life in that game.

I bought it mainly because I got the package with a second Wiimote. Great for a few minutes of fun, not more.

Rayman Raving Rabbits: (Recommended)

I was a little bit concerned about this game. Read some mixed reviews about it but as usual I wanted to see and test it for myself. Rayman Raving Rabbits is a fun game that works in my opinion best if you are with at least one other person. It quickly becomes boring playing it alone.

I could not care less about the story of the game. It is basically a collection of mini games that make great use of the Wii's controllers. You have to throw cows around or shoot your way through a level. Most games do not last longer than a few seconds which is great if you play it with friends. We play in turn which is fun. However it is really a shame that you have to complete the single player levels to play them in multiplayer.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz: (Recommended)

If I had to choose one game from all of the games that came out for the Nintendo Wii it would definitely be Super Money Ball from Sega. It makes great use of the controller and is lots of fun to play. It is great in single player and multi player, easy to learn, hard to master.

It sure sounds like a game for children. Apes in a bubble have to roll from one end of the level to another to exit in time. They collect bananas on the way to get an extra life and other goodies. It is trickier than you thought. You do not move the ape directly but change the angles of the level itself with your Wiimote.

This is one of the Wii games that got a good score on many review sites including IGN and Gamespot.

Red Steel:

One would think that the controller of the Nintendo Wii would be excellent for ego shooters. I still think it is but the three shooters that came out until now do not prove it at all. The best of the three is Red Steel in my opinion. If you can live with mediocre graphics and a linear gameplay you may actually enjoy this one.

I'm not saying that Red Steel is a great game. It needed at least a few months of tweaking before Ubi Soft should have released it but it is to late to complain about that. The game had potential to make a great impact and failed miserably. It feels like a b-movie that you paid for and want to see until the end even though you know that it will not get better.

If you can pick this one up for a few bucks do so. It is not that bad but it is not good either. Forget about the other two shooters Far Cry and Call of Duty, they are worse.

Fruity Loops:

Nice game for a few levels. You have to clear levels by combining fruits. The level can be rotated so that the fruit falls down when you do so. It is rather entertaining. Not a great game but good enough for a small break.

Gottlieb Pinball Classics:

A pinball game that does not use the innovative Wii controller? Why do I have to press a button to control the flippers? If you want a pinball game go buy it. If you have to make a decision between this game and another go buy the other.

So much for the games for the Nintendo Wii. I would like to point out that I really enjoy that the Wii is playing Gamecube games. I did not own a Cube and it is a great opportunity to play excellent games such as Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. This is also a great opportunity to play something while you are waiting for new original games for the Wii. Just buy a few Gamecube games that got a good rating and enjoy them. I think I bought about five or six Gamecube games and want to add at least all those party games like Donkey Konga to my collection.

The Virtual Console is a disappointment in my opinion. Sure it has some of the greatest games of all time listed such as Mario Kart or Super Mario World but I have played those games so often that I long for something new. I had hopes that Nintendo would release games that never made it to the US or Europe on the Virtual Console but they apparently have no plans to do so.

I would like to see Shining Force 1 and 2 on the Virtual Console and hope that Nintendo will announce support for Sega Saturn games in the future. Until then I'm disappointed. Might be nice for someone who has not played those classic games excessively.

Conclusion:

I do enjoy the Nintendo Wii. I see it more as a system that you play with friends than one that you would play alone. It has that party factor that makes it great and I hope that Nintendo - and the Third Party Developers - create original games for the Wii. That is in my opinion the only way Nintendo will be able to compete with the powerhouses X360 and PS3.

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