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[Wii] Would Like to Play: The Wii Appreciation Thread

Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley...Registered User regular
edited July 2021 in Games and Technology
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So with the news that Just Dance is not doing a 2021 version for the Wii, it is official that after nearly fifteen years of releases, the console is finally done for. I have wanted to do this thread for a very long time as I wanted to reminisce about one of my favorite consoles to come out of Nintendo.

The Wii has always held a special place in my heart as it was the console that brought me back to Nintendo. When the 32/64 bit era started, I decided to buy a Playstation instead of the N64. Then I did the same thing the next generation when I moved on to the PS2. So I never owned a N64 or Gamecube. I was fully in the Sony ecosystem. Then came the Nintendo Wii. The console intrigued me. I loved the idea of motion controls, Wii Sports looked amazing. I saw this console as a neat way to game with my daughter and I loved the idea of a social system where we could have get togethers with friends and enjoy games of Tennis and Bowling. So I pre-ordered the system.

When we got it, I fell in love. And even though it wasn't as powerful as the other systems and motion controls ended up being shoehorned into some games in annoying ways, to this day it continues to be one of my favorite consoles ever and has a fantastic and unique game libraries. The Wii is full of lower budget hidden gems that you might or might not have ever heard of. The Virtual Console and WiiWare produced some amazing games that unfortunately are lost to time now that the Wii Shop is closed. Miis were cute little avatars that allowed everyone to personalize their Wii experience. The creativity people had in making Miis with the limited Mii Maker still amazes me.

So let us remember fondly the amazing little system that was able to hold its own against the HD Twins. Every couple days I'll be posting up a new game that I love and explain why.
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First up: Wii Sports

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How could I not start with the game that sold the system to everyone? From little kids to nursing homes and everyone in between, this game was huge. It was such a smart decision to pack this game in with the system. The motion controls were easy to learn and intuitive. Tennis and Bowling in particular were the stars of many Wii parties I threw over the years. My family still pulls it out to play to this day. Everyone had this game and it was the perfect introduction into what Nintendo was trying to accomplish with the Wii.

Iwata knew that it was a losing battle to try and compete directly with Microsoft and Sony going into the HD era. So he took a gamble to not try to match them in power, but instead change the way people played. Wii Sports was the crowning jewel of this philosophy. Truly a timeless masterpiece.

Second: One of my personal favorite games on the system. Punch Out!

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When this came out, there hadn't been a new Punch Out on console since the SNES. The return of this franchise was amazing! Next Level games put so much personality in the boxers and brought Little Mac back in a big way. The game had a mix of old fighters from the original and Super, plus added a new boxer with Disco Kid. The game was fast and just as exciting as the old games. You work your way through career mode and then once completed, you unlock Title Defense mode. In this mode you work your way through the fighters again, but they have added new moves and defenses (for example, in Title Defense mode, King Hippo has taped a manhole cover on his stomach as a protection lol). Then when you complete Title Defense, you unlock endurance, where you fight an endless series of random boxers. One of the boxers you can fight in this mode only is Donkey Kong.

The game is fantastic in every way! If you have a Wii or Wii U, it would be worth finding a copy.

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Posts

  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    I still have mine set up and soft-modded to heck. I really should get a HDMI mod or converter for it, but NES and SNES games are great on it as is.
    And I have a WaveBird for Gamecube games running from the external hard drive. :)

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  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    I still have my (soft modded) Wii set up, and my daughter occasionally will play it (she has almost all of the Just Dance games). There are some games for it that I'm still impressed by and like to play occasionally, like Go Vacation and Endless Ocean 1&2. My only real complaint I ever had with the system was the games that forced waggle upon you. I think towards the later half of its lifespan, they kind of stopped doing that. It can be fun, but most of the time I just want to sit and play something, not wave my arms around like an idiot.

    The Wii was the only thing I ever camped out for, getting it a week before Christmas 2006. It wasn't that I really wanted one, but that I knew my closest Best Buy was getting some and I had never camped out for anything and just wanted to experience it. Thankfully it was a Texas Christmas, so the low was like 60 that night.

  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    Motion controls were funny during that time because some I feel ended up being nearly second nature and some were stupid intrusive. Mario Galaxy for example I enjoyed the small shake to do that little spin and it became second nature that I didn't even think about it when I did it. Playing it on the Switch took some getting used to because I was so used to the shake move.

    Then some licensed games just added 'shake like mad' to do any of the attacks.

    Then you have some cases like the Pikmin games and Metroid Prime that the IR pointing capabilities and motion controls were straight up better and made the games more fun.

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  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I had the Homebrew Channel on my Wii and WiiU so I could play imports.

  • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
    PunchOut on the wii was a great game, and also pretty hard. I never got around to finishing it.

    I get pretty tired of people hating on motion controls just because some of the early games didn't handle it very well. There have been plenty of games with bad controls but no one ever blamed 'Button Controls'.

    Other excellent Wii games to remember: ExciteTruck, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. Motion controls!!

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  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    It is weird to see the remnants of a dead Miiverse when you boot up.

  • homogenizedhomogenized Registered User regular
    I get pretty tired of people hating on motion controls just because some of the early games didn't handle it very well. There have been plenty of games with bad controls but no one ever blamed 'Button Controls'.

    Reminds me back in the day on some board where someone tried to dismissively reduce motion controls to something like, "waving a stick around for half an hour doesn't sound like a lot of fun", to which I retorted:

    "Pushing buttons for half an hour doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
    Moving a ball around for half an hour doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
    Looking at a moving picture for half an hour doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
    Rubbing a body part for half an hour doesn't sound like a lot of fun."

  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    Wii dragged out the Wii during the pandemic because we wanted to play some stuff together. I have it soft modded. Beat Twilight Princess for the first time, played a ton of Rock Band 3; I had forgotten how much fun this stuff was.

    We play it on our older HDTV using component cables; I got an HDMI adapter but our TV (Hisense H9G) couldn't really do Rock Band even in game mode (it either lagged too much or looked like garbage). I honestly considered getting a used WiiU just for the HDMI.

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  • -Loki--Loki- Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining. Registered User regular
    I really miss the websites that tracked all of the mishaps people had with flying Wiimotes.

  • DirtyDirty Registered User regular
    I get pretty tired of people hating on motion controls just because some of the early games didn't handle it very well.
    To be fair, even quite a few 1st-party Nintendo games used a random shake to replace a button press. Losing the right stick was awful too.
    -Loki- wrote: »
    I really miss the websites that tracked all of the mishaps people had with flying Wiimotes.
    LCD panel manufacturers were loving those early Wii days.

  • Cameron_TalleyCameron_Talley Registered User regular
    My Wii's graphics card died and I haven't bothered to fix it. I can play all the games through the Wii U (though I guess I'll lose all my saves).

    Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
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  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    I’ve got my Wii in at the moment playing Eternal Darkness.

    Looking at my slim collection of Wii games I held on to, outside of the obvious Marios and Zeldas I have No More Heroes 1&2 and then these two lesser known gems:

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    Wario was a gorgeous 2D platformer that looked like a cartoon you could control. I seem to remember it being on the short side if you blast through but having slightly sonic-esque speed run challenges where you try and keep your shoulder charge going as long as possible to tear through the levels.

    And Zack and Wicki was a pretty unique combo of 3D adventure and 2D point and click puzzler. Slightly trial and error at times which could frustrate but it really spoke to me and I loved it.

    Tempted to bust both out while I have the console connected.

    Jam Warrior on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    Zack and Wiki was dope. I wish we could have more of those.

  • DirtyDirty Registered User regular
    The sequel, Zack and Wiki Make a Porno was a bit unexpected though.

  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    Yea, Zack and Wiki was fantastic. It's one I don't have actually.

    Warioland was so good that I'm really sad we haven't had one since. :(

    Speaking of: This is my current Wii collection. Nothing crazy. I've downsized a few that I got for other systems like Xenoblade and Mario Galaxy.


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    A few that I'm hoping to grab at some point soon are ExciteTruck and The Munchables.

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  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
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    Today's game spotlight is Mario Strikers Charged!

    Fantastic, if not one of the best Mario sports games. It was super fun with a ton of playable characters. Each had their own special. The game was strangely gritty and X-Treme for a Mario sports game. I mean, look at this intro!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBinxNwAN5s&ab_channel=NintendoMovies

    Plus the online worked nearly flawlessly, which on the Wii was an accomplishment.

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  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    I no longer have my Wii. It bricked a few months before the Wii U was going to release, and because the Wii U was going to be backwards compatible, I never replaced it.

    Still, I have some fond memories of the thing. Not least was release day where I went out to the shops that wet and dreary morning and discovered they were all sold out. I also remember running into this one other guy over and over again who was clearly on the same doomed errand I was.

  • Cameron_TalleyCameron_Talley Registered User regular
    One of my favorite things was coming home and seeing the blue light glowing, meaning there was a message. That was so cool. I don't know why Nintendo hasn't enabled that feature on the switch (the right Joycon has a light around the home button, I think).

    Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
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  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I keep forgetting that it could play GameCube games.

  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    Yea, I didn't use the Gamecube functions much personally. I ended up selling all of my gamecube games during the pandemic to pay for medical related stuff for my wife. It wasn't a huge loss as I have no nostalgia for the Gamecube games. The ones I liked the most, Mario Sunshine, Pikmin 1 & 2 and the Metroid Prime games, I have on the Switch and Wii respectively.

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  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    It actually provides some additional hardware that can play GameCube games. That helps when the GameCubes start breaking down.

  • DirtyDirty Registered User regular
    I'm still pretty shocked that New Super Mario Bros. Wii isn't on the Switch. I think it's the best of the 4 "New" games, and deserves the HD treatment.

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    I can no longer play mine because my Wii Remote died.

    Which leads me to ask: Anyone have experience with 3rd party Wii remotes? I've seen a few on Amazon but i'm a bit wary.

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