I’ve recently been known to say that even if no other companies support the Wii, I will be very happy with it. With first and second party titles like Metroid Prime 3, Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Mario Galaxy, a new Super Smash Brothers, a new Mario Cart, a new Fire Emblem, a new Advance Wars, and the prospects of a new F-Zero, Starfox, Pikmin, and Paper Mario, how could I ever be at a loss for great games to play?
After some deep meditation (unless meditation is thinking about nothing, then it probably wasn’t that), I have concluded that while it is true I will always have good games to play on the Wii, the idea of not having a lot of interesting smaller games on the system saddens me. So much so, that I have begun entertaining the idea that I should one day get a PS3 (assuming small developers can even afford to make games for Sony).
 |
You see, ever since I began renting games for my Genesis, exploring the lesser known titles has been an important part of what gaming is to me. Before the internet was widely available, the only way to find out about obscure games was to spend a few bucks and take them home. This is how I discovered Death Duel and Cyborg Justice, two games that are excellent despite sucking. Or the excellent Zero Tolerance that is bashed today for being painfully primitive in its attempt to recreate a first person shooter on hardware that just couldn’t handle it.
Playstation rentals were just as important. In the days before killer aps (minus the periodical blockbuster like Final Fantasy 7 or Metal Gear Solid), every game was a possible winner. RPG series like Wild Arms and Suikoden found a home amongst the Playstations enormous catalog. Random rentals led me to discover Jumping Flash, those Warhammer strategy games, Pandemonium, and even Diablo (I wasn’t much of a PC gamer then…or now).
The PS2 follows suit with its huge catalog of small developer games. Playing its games is only slightly more fun than hunting down and discovering obscure titles like Metropolismania, Ring of Red and Sky Gunner. Who would have expected Metropolismania to be as entertaining as it is? The reviews that call it slightly better than mediocre may be accurate, but the game was a lot of fun for me and worth discovering.
The Gamecube gave us very few opportunities to discover games. After Cubivore, where do I go? I am worried the Wii will face the same problem. Not only will it lack 3rd party titles to play, but the fun task of finding odd games you’d never heard of will be entirely missing. Here’s hoping Nintendo get their act together and get some 3rd party developers on board so I don’t need start saving for a PS3.
"Excellent despite sucking" is a great way to describe Cyborg Justice. For the first 20 minutes you’re thinking, "Oh man, I can rip their head off and use it to restore my health!", then you get bored. I remember the days I used to rent games to find good ones. Good times, but I just don’t have the income for now, especially since it’s $5+ now.
Yea, I’ll say I was foolish and think that only Nintendo needs to make Wii games for me to be happy, but they’re not going to make every kind of game. That’s why I’m so happy to see games like Trauma Center make it, and become somewhat popular. Also, if we see the DS, we see a good helping of 3rd party support, and I can’t see the Wii being much different.