Want A Wii For Christmas?? rant/advice

Emanon

This is a rant/advice thread.

First the rant, the lady friend wants a Wii for Christmas. The Wii has been out since since 2006 and millions have been sold. The local Best Buy has stacks of XBOX & PS3s but no Wii's WTF!! Can't find any online unless I want to pay the extortion fee. Whateva...


Anyways, on to the advice needed about the Wii. The lady is not a hard core gamer and likes the casual games like Guitar Hero. What games should I get for her? I'm the hardcore PC gamer that plays BF2, Crysis and RTS games. What Wii games do you recommend for me? What do you recommend for the both of us?

Figgy

For the lady:

Super Mario Galaxy (Beautiful and very fun platformer. Very "cutesy" too.)
Trauma Center (either of them will do) (Addicting surgery simulator, where you use the controller to perform different surgeries. There's a bit of a storyline, but it's mostly about using the controller accurately and scoring higher and higher each time -- unlocking the top rank)
Cooking Mama (either of them will do) (Same notion as the above, but you're cooking instead. This one is more "cutesy" but it's fun. If she likes casual games, this might be a good one)
Endless Ocean (Absolutely relaxing. It's just about swimming around in the ocean and taking it easy. The very extreme of a casual game.)
Boom Blox (Great game. I recommend this one to anyone with a Wii. Singleplayer is fun. Multiplayer is incredible. Tons of modes and endless replay value. Think Jenga but with critters, explosions, and the occassional round of 'throw shit at your enemy's castle')

For yourself:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Very fun fighter. Tons of modes, unlocks, etc.)

To be honest, if you're into games like Crysis, you won't like the FPS titles out on the Wii. They're fun, but the graphics are generally terrible... so you'll likely be holding them up against what you're used to seeing on the beefier consoles/PC. If you're still interested, check out the new Call of Duty or Medal of Honour: Heroes for the interesting single player and the super fun online.

Emanon

I have a Gamecube and just learned the Wii is backwards compatible. Does the Wii make the old games look any better at 480p?

METAzraeL

do you have a craig's list in your area? You might be able to do better there than ebay.

Brainiac 8

Get Wii Fit, she would love it.

Get Wii Play...for the extra controller

Saddler

Any of the Rayman: Raving Rabbids games. I have the second one and my girlfriend loves it. These are fun party games you can play together and it doesn't require a lot of video game skill training.

Also, Animal Crossing is really cute and undemanding.

VThornheart

Use http://www.cheapassgamer.com 's boards to track when stores are going to get new shipments. They usually get insider info about which companies (Best Buy, Circuit City, Toys R Us etc...) are going to get restocked with Wiis and when ahead of time, so you can just sail over there early when they first open the day of restocking and get it. You have to browse through their deals subforum though to find it, as that restocking information isn't generally put up on the main page.

JonnyRotten

I just want my Wii repaired for Christmas.
=-(

angrylinuxgeek

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

Barrakketh

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

GH:WT and RB2 for the Wii support DLC, so what's missing from those two games that would warrant using a 360 assuming you didn't have one to begin with?

PMAvers

Barrakketh wrote: »

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

GH:WT and RB2 for the Wii support DLC, so what's missing from those two games that would warrant using a 360 assuming you didn't have one to begin with?

Space to store said DLC? (Was under the impression that the Wii was limited to a 2 GB memory card, which you'll probably fill up quite quick. Plus, you can't do the whole "pull all the RB1 songs off the disk and use them in RB2" thing which is nifty. Assuming the same is true for the ACDC pack.)

angrylinuxgeek

Barrakketh wrote: »

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

GH:WT and RB2 for the Wii support DLC, so what's missing from those two games that would warrant using a 360 assuming you didn't have one to begin with?

I'd be a little cautious about buying it after the first forays onto the Wii were so terrible. Besides, where are you going to put all that DLC? On an SD card?

troublebrewing

Animal Crossing : City Folk has me playing my Wii again, Mario Kart is an obvious one as well.. I kind of forgot about it until I started using the Wii again.

KalTorak

PMAvers wrote: »

Barrakketh wrote: »

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

GH:WT and RB2 for the Wii support DLC, so what's missing from those two games that would warrant using a 360 assuming you didn't have one to begin with?

Space to store said DLC? (Was under the impression that the Wii was limited to a 2 GB memory card, which you'll probably fill up quite quick. Plus, you can't do the whole "pull all the RB1 songs off the disk and use them in RB2" thing which is nifty. Assuming the same is true for the ACDC pack.)

This is the main reason I'm getting a 360 to complement my Wii.

Lunker

With GHWT and RB2, there's pretty good rhythm-game parity between Wii and PS3/360. The other consoles do get an edge, but really, most people aren't going to fill a 2GB SD card with DLC, seeing as how individual songs are about 40 to 60 MB on average. I mean, I have 4.7 gigs, but I am not the average user.

I wouldn't let that decide your system choice nowadays. That said, if you're looking for a Wii, you should come to NYC. We pave the roads with them up here.

tsmvengy

Figgy wrote: »

For the lady:

Super Mario Galaxy (Beautiful and very fun platformer. Very "cutesy" too.)
Trauma Center (either of them will do) (Addicting surgery simulator, where you use the controller to perform different surgeries. There's a bit of a storyline, but it's mostly about using the controller accurately and scoring higher and higher each time -- unlocking the top rank)
Cooking Mama (either of them will do) (Same notion as the above, but you're cooking instead. This one is more "cutesy" but it's fun. If she likes casual games, this might be a good one)
Endless Ocean (Absolutely relaxing. It's just about swimming around in the ocean and taking it easy. The very extreme of a casual game.)
Boom Blox (Great game. I recommend this one to anyone with a Wii. Singleplayer is fun. Multiplayer is incredible. Tons of modes and endless replay value. Think Jenga but with critters, explosions, and the occassional round of 'throw shit at your enemy's castle')

For yourself:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Very fun fighter. Tons of modes, unlocks, etc.)

To be honest, if you're into games like Crysis, you won't like the FPS titles out on the Wii. They're fun, but the graphics are generally terrible... so you'll likely be holding them up against what you're used to seeing on the beefier consoles/PC. If you're still interested, check out the new Call of Duty or Medal of Honour: Heroes for the interesting single player and the super fun online.

The Trauma Center games are good - I'm not sure I would count them as "casual," but I think anybody could get into them. As for Cooking Mama, a friend of mine has this and I think it is boring as fuck. And I love cooking. Mario Galaxy is friggin' amazing.

Other games you should consider:

MarioKart - everybody loves MarioKart!
Resident Evil 4 Wii - you don't say if you have other consoles so I don't know if you've played it, but the Wii controls added a lot I thought.
Metroid Prime 3 - FPS/Adventure/Exploration
Zack & Wiki - a cool puzzle game (sort of like old point-and-click adventure games but there isn't really a plot)
On WiiWare get World of Goo and Tetris Party, I've had fun with those.

Dirty Drawers

Wii is also coming out with Punch Out in 2009, in case you're an 80s kid that grew up playing Mike Tyson's Punch Out.

Needless to say, the Wii is like a 1980s Mike Tyson right now with the way sales are going.

Daedalus

Metroid Prime 3 is a much better FPS than that Medal of Honor game.

In fact, I think it's one of the better games for the system.

Darlan

Daedalus wrote: »

Metroid Prime 3 is a much better FPS than that Medal of Honor game.

In fact, I think it's one of the better games for the system.

I'd agree that MP3 is a better game, but the actual shooting and combat in the Prime games really isn't too impressive or deep. I'm still waiting for a really good FPS game on the Wii, hopefully the Conduit will fill that void.

It's looking awfully generic, tough...D:

Barrakketh

PMAvers wrote: »

Barrakketh wrote: »

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

GH:WT and RB2 for the Wii support DLC, so what's missing from those two games that would warrant using a 360 assuming you didn't have one to begin with?

Space to store said DLC? (Was under the impression that the Wii was limited to a 2 GB memory card, which you'll probably fill up quite quick)

The Homebrew Channel added support for SDHC cards, so I imagine that Nintendo might add support for them in the update that is supposed to come out early next year with the other enhancements to make WiiWare/VC channels less cumbersome to use with SD cards since it isn't a hardware limitation.

Figgy

Daedalus wrote: »

Metroid Prime 3 is a much better FPS than that Medal of Honor game.

In fact, I think it's one of the better games for the system.

I don't think so.. I could never get into MP3, and I goozex'd it eventually. While there is a lot to the game, I hate the visual style and setting. Everything is just goopy and droopy.. and shiny..

I'd much rather have a "realistic" style.

slash000

Good games for "casual" gamers:

Mario Kart Wii
Rock Band 2
Boom Blox
WarioWare Smooth Moves
Excite Truck
Rayman Raving Rabbids (dunno which of the 3 is the best..)
Mario & Sonic
Endless Ocean
possibly Elebits
World of Goo
Bomberman Blast
Dr. Mario Online
StrongBad Series
WiiFit
possibly De Blob



Good for a "core/traditional" gamer:

Legend of Zelda TP
Smash Bros Brawl
Mario Galaxy
No More Heroes
Wario Shake It
Mario Kart Wii
Resident Evil 4 Wii Editn
Metroid Prime 3 Corruptoin
Zack and Wiki
Rock Band 2
Super Paper Mario (if you like lighthearted RPGs)
De Blob
Blast Works
Bully Se
Trauma Center SO and New Blood
GeoWars Galaxies
BWii
Fire Emblem RD
Godfather BHE
Okami
RE:UC
Metal Slug Antology
Guilty Gear XX AC
MEdal Of Honor Heroes 2
House of the Dead 2/3
Ghost Squad
Shiki 3
Sam & Max
Mega Man 9
World of Goo
Bomberman Blast
Dr Mario online
Strong Bad
Lost Winds




Games both a core/traditional and casual gamer can play together:

Super Mario Galaxy
Smash Bros Brawl
Mario Kart Wii
Boom Blox
Wario Ware
Mario Strikers Charged
Excite Truck maybe
World of Goo
Bomberman
Dr Mario

Maybe do 2 player on the lightgun shooters is another possibility.

Peewi

If you get a Wii and like 2D platformers at all, you need to get Wario Land: Shake It!/The Shake Dimension.

Aoi

Are these still hard to find? Just this past weekend I saw a waist high stack of the systems at my local Micro Center, and quite a few at Best Buy as well. I figured the drought was finally done with.

slash000

Aoi wrote: »

Are these still hard to find? Just this past weekend I saw a waist high stack of the systems at my local Micro Center, and quite a few at Best Buy as well. I figured the drought was finally done with.

Well, Nintendo started pumping out 2.4M of the things a month a few months ago, and so what most stores did is they held onto stock for the Xmas season, in particular Black Friday and thereafter. The reason is that stores want to have more in stock and available during November and December.

So that's probably the reason there were plenty when you went and saw, because Nintendo and the retailers have been making an active effort to supply demand this holiday season.


That said, are they still hard to find? I have no idea. All I know is that lots and lots and lots of them are selling. But I dunno if they're all still selling out completely though.

FyreWulff

Emanon wrote: »

I have a Gamecube and just learned the Wii is backwards compatible. Does the Wii make the old games look any better at 480p?

It runs them exactly as if they were on a Gamecube. The game had to have a 480p mode to make it do 480p on a Wii.

FyreWulff

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

Barrakketh wrote: »

angrylinuxgeek wrote: »

if she likes music games she would be better off with a 360.

GH:WT and RB2 for the Wii support DLC, so what's missing from those two games that would warrant using a 360 assuming you didn't have one to begin with?

I'd be a little cautious about buying it after the first forays onto the Wii were so terrible. Besides, where are you going to put all that DLC? On an SD card?

Uh, every review says it's full featured, all that's missing is the tatoo editor (which nobody ever puts on anyway because you can't see them)

If you're just starting into the music genre, there's no reason to get 360 RB2 over Wii RB2 now. They're the same game.

And it also streams your songs off the SD card.

slash000

Yep, reviews show that Rock Band 2 Wii is the same game with all the features (minus tattoos) as the other versions, and that it even looks and runs great.

So I guess you would only want the 360 version over the Wii version if you really felt like it was a dealbreaker that the highly stylized exaggerated look of the band/stage in the background behind the note charts had to look much better and in HD. For me personally I could care less. I only care about presentation and organization, and that the note charts run smooth and are clean and clear and easy to read. it does that so there's no issue.

The only other reason would be I guess if you planned on buying more than 4 gigs worth of songs.

PikaPuff

Lips is on the 360.

Big Dookie

I just wanted to jump in here and state that I bought Boom Blox last weekend, and it is awesome.

Daedalus

slash000 wrote: »

Yep, reviews show that Rock Band 2 Wii is the same game with all the features (minus tattoos) as the other versions, and that it even looks and runs great.

So I guess you would only want the 360 version over the Wii version if you really felt like it was a dealbreaker that the highly stylized exaggerated look of the band/stage in the background behind the note charts had to look much better and in HD. For me personally I could care less. I only care about presentation and organization, and that the note charts run smooth and are clean and clear and easy to read. it does that so there's no issue.

The only other reason would be I guess if you planned on buying more than 4 gigs worth of songs.

2 gigs. The Wii's maximum SD card size is two gigabytes.

edit: Also, apparently Nintendo won't let developers sell songs in packs. Or at least, they didn't let Activision do it for GH:WT. Honestly, if you have both systems, get the game for the 360; there's no reason not to.

edit 2: Also, the Wii version of Rock Band 2 can't import the songs from Rock Band 1.

FyreWulff

It's possible to have a bigger than 2GB card. There won't be enough songs at the start to fill one up, anyway.

And while RB1 exporting is awesome, there's various reasons why they can't do exporting. Namely, Nintendo doesn't allow patches. In theory they could just sell a Wiiware channel for 500points that reads the RB1 disc and exports it to the SD card but that would make too much sense

Daedalus

all essentially supporting my point that if you have the opportunity to get the 360 version, you should prefer that.

I mean, at least it's not blatantly half-assed anymore, sure, but to say it's a near-perfect port of the lead console versions isn't quite true either.

But hey, Nintendo's consoles have never really been "about" the cross-platform games. The Wii just more so than usual.

slash000

Daedalus wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

Yep, reviews show that Rock Band 2 Wii is the same game with all the features (minus tattoos) as the other versions, and that it even looks and runs great.

So I guess you would only want the 360 version over the Wii version if you really felt like it was a dealbreaker that the highly stylized exaggerated look of the band/stage in the background behind the note charts had to look much better and in HD. For me personally I could care less. I only care about presentation and organization, and that the note charts run smooth and are clean and clear and easy to read. it does that so there's no issue.

The only other reason would be I guess if you planned on buying more than 4 gigs worth of songs.

2 gigs. The Wii's maximum SD card size is two gigabytes.

Not if you use the 4 gig trick

edit: Also, apparently Nintendo won't let developers sell songs in packs. Or at least, they didn't let Activision do it for GH:WT. Honestly, if you have both systems, get the game for the 360; there's no reason not to.

If you have both systems, definitely get the 360 version. I was assuming the choice here was either get the Wii version, or Get a 360 and the 360 version. If it's a choice between a $190 game versus a $190 game and a $200-$300 system, I'd say the former. But if a person has a 360 and a Wii, then yeah, get the 360 version, no question about it.

edit 2: Also, the Wii version of Rock Band 2 can't import the songs from Rock Band 1.

that's true

Daedalus

Yeah, if all you have is a Wii, you're better off getting RB2 than not getting Rock Band at all.

slash000

Daedalus wrote: »

Yeah, if all you have is a Wii, you're better off getting RB2 than not getting Rock Band at all.

Of course. And the Wii version's not even gimped any more. So if a person is all about the Wii and Wii games, but also is a fan of rock band, then I'd say it's a better suggestion to get the Wii and the Wii Rock Band 2, rather than a 360, Rock Band 2 360, and a Wii, and Wii games.

If a person is only buying a console for just Rock Band 2, then get the 360. But it looks to me like the person asking for advice here is asking about Wii advice. It should be noted that the 360 version has its advantages, but if someone's going to get a Wii for someone who wants Wii games, and also wants Rock Band 2, then I'd say the better advice is to get the Wii, the wii games they want, and RB2 Wii; rather than getting them a 360 and RB2 and.. nothing else, when they're mostly interested in the Wii games.

Daedalus

Well, there's a growing number of people that decided to go with a Wii and a 360, since they both have good games and there's not a lot of overlap between them, and I was just saying that if you happen to have both consoles, the 360 port is the better one.

But yeah, the Wii port of RB2 certainly isn't the half-assed bullshit that the RB1 port was.