What Wii Need - Three points Nintendo have to think about over the next twelve months

• Author: Mike
• Filed under: Articles, Video Games
• Date: Friday, December 22, 2006

Today at work I came across this article on the SMH tech blog. I ended up reading most of the comments and apart from the various fanboi’s talking down the Wii (just do a search for the words “girl”, “kiddie”, “toy” or phrase “younger generation”) many of the thoughts saw the console for what it was, a way to expand the gaming market to a new range of players. Other readers commented that the novelty of the motion sensitive controller has worn off already. Personally, I find myself playing Wii Sports at least half an hour a day simply for the Fitness mode. But Nintendo can’t rely on Wii Sports to keep these casual gamers interested forever. They also can’t also forget about the hardcore gamers, the type who bought the console on launch day and probably bought your opponents machines on launch too. Listed are three points that Nintendo need to consider over the next twelve months for both the casual and hardcore gamer.

1. New games - and a lotta them: Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime told Newsweek that the way to fix the drought of first-party titles would be with the release of Zelda, and the release of brand new Metroid and Mario titles in 2007. I’m sorry Reggie, but that’s not good enough. Personally Nintendo is going to have to release at least seven to eleven first party titles within 2007 to keep the interest up. Those hardcore gamers who got Zelda on launch - they have already finished it and moved on to Gears Of War. I’m not asking for Nintendo to pull out all the stops and release Mario Kart, Smash Brothers and Pokemon all in the one year. But Nintendo need to bring out some original first party titles. In the past these were games like Excitebike, Pilotwings and Unirally. From the look of it, these new first party titles will include Disaster: Day Of Crisis, Project H.A.M.M.E.R and Wii Music but we need to see more announced.

Nintendo also have to make sure that the third party titles keep pumping out in the next year - which really means they need to keep expanding the list of third party developers making games for the system. Midway, EA Games and Ubisoft and THQ will be releasing titles over the next twelve months. However it is no good if these games are just cheap releases that are made to take cash out of players wallets. For both the first and third party titles, Nintendo has to make sure that these are compelling games that keep the hardcore gamer attached to their Wii’s.

2. Pick Up and Play Games: Gaming industry magazine Gamasutra recently awarded Wii Sports as it’s most important game in 2006. If you have played it, it’s not hard to see why. After showing Wii Sports: Bowling to my uncle who used to bowl in his younger days, he was able to be given a remote and master the game within five minutes. If that isn’t good, I don’t know what is. But Wii Sports can’t be the only game to take this approach. My mum used to play my NES many years back, and it would be easy to say that her two favourite games are Dr. Mario and Bubble Bobble. Simple, easy to play games that you can turn on, play for twenty minutes and then return to whatever else you were doing.

If the Nintendo DS has shown anything, it’s that these games have a market. The kind of games you might see on a workmate’s computer in the office or on a flash game website, nothing super fancy with a whole lot of modes, just fun, pick up and go games. From a strategic puzzle game to a basic platformer, Nintendo needs to make sure that these games are released for the Wii throughout 2006. To attract these gamers to get a Wii, it would help if they had a lower price point then your higher end titles which may gain the interest of the person who plays the simple flash games on their PC but was attracted to Wii Sports. Plus you have the bonus of announcing an expanding number of available games for the system, which will become a major selling point come Christmas time 2007.

3. The Right Games for the Wiimote: With that said, it must be a necessity to have games that play well with the Wiimote and Nunchuk released over the next year. It is not enough to port the latest FPS or fighting game to the system. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to Tiger Woods PGA Golf 2007 or the next Burnout game on the Wii. But I’m mainly looking forward to them in anticipation in how they will play with the Wiimote. I tried Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam a few months back at a trade show and after ten minutes of play I found myself wanting an Xbox controller and Project 8 (as bad as it is). The feel of the game just didn’t seem right, especially when I’m used to going from kickflip to grind to olly. If I’m one of those hardcore gamers with a Wii and an Xbox 360 and I have to choose which system I’m going to NBA 2k7 for, I’d probably choose the 360 version. Why? I don’t know how I’d play a basketball game with a Wiimote and Nunchuk. Do you move the player with the digital thumbpad? The analogue stick? Do you shoot by pulling the Wiimote back then quickly forward? How quickly will I get the hang of it compared to the Xbox version which just requires movement of the analogue stick and pressing buttons to shoot?

The Wiimote and Nunchuk are a gift and a curse. Nintendo doesn’t have to rely on third party developers releasing straight ports of their Xbox 360 and PS2/3 titles so the experience will always be something different for these games on the Wii. The downfall to this is that there will be many games that either don’t use the controllers well or feel uncomfortable with the Wii controller layout. Therefore, new games that take advantage of the Wiimote need to be made or ports need to take advantage of what the Wiimote and Nunchuk have to offer. Namco have already announced they are porting their Final Furlong horse racing game to the system - whipping your horse by whipping the Wiimote will be great. Fishing games are coming, cooking games are coming. Games that would never see the light of day on any other system will see it on the Wii, and they will be bought if they use the control scheme properly. If the games are fun and easy like Wii Sports, the casual gamer will make the purchase. If the game offers an experience that can not be replicated on the rival consoles even if it is a port like Madden NFL 2007, the hardcore gamer will make the Wii version their first preference.

The three console manufactures have some interesting times coming ahead in the next twelve months. Right now, it seems that Nintendo may have the upper hand given that it has the most recently released console with all the buzz. But Christmas will come and go and the buzz can fade quite quickly. In a way we are gifted with such a unique control scheme for the Wii, by having Microsoft and Sony dominate the last round of the console wars Nintendo had to innovate to gain gamers interest back and in the process they have grabbed a few new gamers along for the ride. Now it’s up to Nintendo on whether they consider the three above factors listed, as these will determine whether interest is kept or lost on the Wii throughout 2007.