Does It Make Me a Bad Game Journo to Not Play My Wii?

Written by Mike D Saturday, 30 April 2011 05:00

My lovely wife and I purchased our first home together in February of this year.  One of the things I was excited about was having a big area to set up my 47" TV along with all my gaming consoles.  Quickly I set up the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, along with the PS Move, and Xbox Kinect.  The Wii, however, sat there in its box, getting no love.  Controllers, games, all sat in their box until about a week ago when I had a slight urge to play some House of the Dead: OverKill.  Only then, did I remove the white box from its sarcophagus, set up the sensor bar, and shoot the living you-know-what out of some pixilated living dead.

However, I quickly turned it off after about an hour, and played some Gears of War 2 instead.  Since then, I've maybe contemplated playing Super Mario Bros Wii, for about 5 seconds; and that was only after giving up a 3 run lead in MLB The Show 11.

So really, I don't use the Wii that much.  I could tell you my entire Wii lineup: Wii Sports, Mario Kart, House of the Dead, MadWorld, Super Mario Bros Wii, and House of the Dead 2 and 3.  That's pretty much it.  I've goozex'd countless other titles like: No More Heroes, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Baseball, and many many more.

Still, I just seem to give absolutely no love to my Wii.  Why should I?  I can play Home Run derby on my PS3, with PS Move.  The Bigs 2 didn't offer the same awesome abilities, as it was laggy as all sin.  I can move my interface alot smoother with Kinect then I can with a Wii Mote.  I get 1080p rather than a (sit down for this) 480p component set up out of the Wii, whose graphic abilities may rival the PS1 at best.

Sure, Ive heard the rumblings of a new Nintendo console.  The Wiiii!!! as I believe they should call it.  But what will this have?  Multiplayer?  Online capabilities?  Audio chat?  CHEEVOS?!?!?!  Games that aren't tailored for my 13 yr old brother?  Heck I can't even watch a DVD on the Wii, what makes you think I'd wanna watch Netflix on it?

Part of me, being an aspiring game journalist, feels bad that I don't give the Wii more credit. Sure, it brought gaming to major league baseball players, and grandma's across the globe.  It gave the media a "good" gaming focus.  It changed the definition of a controller, before Microsoft revolutionized it.  It was the closest thing I'll ever have to a sword fight (see: No More Heroes).

However, even after all of that, the Wii and I just don't see eye-to-eye.  Maybe the Wii 2 will change that, maybe it won't.  Maybe I've just never understood the Wii.  Maybe, deep down, I'm a really terrible person who hates good things.

I'm open to being told differently, but Mike D, ladies and gentlemen, even after all this time, isn't sold on Nintendo anymore...

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