Thoughts about the Wii

Personally, I love this system. I'm going to buy one the day it's released, but I have some worries. Nintendo is putting all these awsome features into the Wii, but I'm afraid they won't be used. Take the GameCube and DS for example. The Broadband adapter for the GCN was used only once (I think), and that was for that Phantasy Star Online game. The same goes for a few other tools for the GCN. With the DS, you only use the microphone two times that I'm aware of... in Nintendogs and WarioWare.

I'm really starting to think people will be let down by the Wii Connect24. Yeah, it has wireless internet, great, that's awsome, but it won't mean jack you-know-what if the online features stink. I hated the Friend Code system for WiFi on the DS, and Nintendo said they would be porting that to the Wii. I would love to just jump into a multiplayer game with tons of people just like that, similar to Matchmaking on Xbox Live, not have to get someones 12 digit code, put it in, and use that.

Downloadable content also scares me. Nintendo creates all this hype about this stuff, but Japan gets all the goods. I played my DS on WiFi for months, and there's hardly any updates from Nintendo. Now I know they won't put much into a handheld compared to a next-gen console, but it could become a habit.

However, the virtual console seems very promising. Paying $4-9 to buy my favorite retro games like Super Smash Brothers, Super Mario 64, the LOZ games, ect... plus it has backwards compatibility for the GCN.

Currently, we don't know the status of having a DVD player in the Wii. It would be nice because the Wii is so small, but I don't think it's needed. I think it's good that Nintendo is just focusing on the console. They are doing there best to keep price point down. DVD is not a necessity but certaintly nice for certain people in certain situations. The problem with the Xbox version is that it was (somewhat) costly since not only did you need to pay the license cost, but you also were buying a bad remote. With the Wii, I am hoping for a very small plugin device on the back that is essentially the decryptor on a chip with a connector. Even better would be a pure software solution that takes up 10 or 20mb of your internal memory.

The odd thing is the system doesn't have an optical out. Which would suggest that movies (if they do add a DVD player) won't be in Dolby Digital unless they release some additional hardware to enable that.

I think it's really targeted at dorm rooms and kids rooms. If a kid has a small 19 inch TV with 1 composite video input it's cheaper to spend 20 bucks for a Wii add-on than it is to buy a 30 dollar DVD player and composite splitter. Not to mentioned easier for the kid to use.

Internal memory... 512 MB seems like nothing, but it could go pretty far. BUT... if you want to load up your Wii, it will be nothing. Say you download Legend of Zelda: OOT and Majora's Mask. BAM! You just used up 66 MB. Add Conker's Bad Fur Day to that? 102 MB, which leaves you left with 410 MB and all you did was download three games. Nintendo 64 games are usually around 10-15 MB, SNES is around <1-2 MB, and NES would be a few KBs, but we don't know anything about gamesaves yet. For the GameCube, a 69 block memory card is about 4 MB, a 251 block memory card is equal to 16 MB, ect... Some games were too big for the 69 block, and that was for just one save. Imagine you have 10 or more saves for that game. There goes 40 MB. We've used up 142 MB so far and we've only had the console for a day. This is all based on GameCube saves. I'm willing to bet Next-gen Wii gamesaves will be much bigger, but we'll have to wait and see.

I'm very satisfied with the price. If it's $250 in Japan, it will be around $199-225 here in the States (just an estimate). I also think the launch titles are awsome and will bring in a nice crowd of gamers.

What do you guys think about it?

You really forgot to mention the other, bigger things about the Wii, such as the FREAKING MOTION SENSING CONTROLLER. The other features don't really matter as much, IMO, because the controller is what makes the games good.

( Edited on 23.06.2006 01:59 by MasterStyl )

Only if it can be incorperated into the game and still flow smoothly.

!!MasterStyl said:
You really forgot to mention the other, bigger things about the Wii, such as the FREAKING MOTION SENSING CONTROLLER. The other features dont really matter as much, IMO, because the controller is what makes the games good. ( Edited on 23.06.2006 01:59 by MasterStyl )

Only if it can be incorperated into the game and still flow smoothly.

I think it's really targeted at dorm rooms and kids rooms. If a kid has a small 19 inch TV with 1 composite video input it's cheaper to spend 20 bucks for a Wii add-on than it is to buy a 30 dollar DVD player and composite splitter. Not to mentioned easier for the kid to use.

Nah, the Wii is aimed at the living rooms of trendy people who work in media and have wireless routers. As far as Nintendo are concerned, if you don't have a wireless router you can fuck off. Cunts.

Conker's Bad Fur Day

As long as Nintendo sort their online gaming service out, I'm really not too fussed. The console seems fantastic other than that.

Der SegaHund said:

Conkers Bad Fur Day

Not happening, ever.

Just an example buddy. Keep your panties on.

I have no experience with the DS Download services but I think that one of the reasons why there would be so few is because all of the downloads are stored on the Game Card which has a limited size. With the Wii this problem won't exist as much due to a much bigger hard drive therefore Nintendo can pump out more updates. Also don't forget that other developers can add thier content to the Download service therefore even if Nintendo don't offer lots of downloads other companies still can.

I think that the HDD of the Wii is very limiting. As you mentioned before it can't store very much. Over the lifetime of the Wii, I think that many people will exceed this limit. There are few ways to expand the HDD, you can use SD Cards to store of downloads, games ect. or hopefully it may be possible to use the USB port and have an external hard drive. Another possiblilty that Nintendo mentioned about a year ago is to store the files on a computer through the wireless network, not much has been said about this so I don't know if it is still happening.

The DVD player also concerns me but I think a lot of people will probably not use the Wii very often for playing DVD's. I am hoping for some optical outputs for Dolby Digital.

I share some the corerns with you but I am probably a bit more optimistic. I would wait until all details aboyut the console have been announced, that way any possible problems can be official recongised.

Well, I'm guessing that all of us know now that with the virtual console, Nintendo probably won't allow storage on a network because the files could be pirated. I'm starting to have the same feeling with any other memory device, unless they use a new file system or encryption method, people are going to be freely distributing the files all over.

Same thing if the virtual console reads original rom files.

Actually Der SegaHund, Nintendo has announced a USB to Ethernet adapter for people who don't have Wi-Fi. As for how I feel about the Wii, I can't wait for it. I have always been a Nintendo fan but I don't think I ever anticipated any of their consoles quite as much as this one. I plan to be in line to grab it on the first day.

I thought you couldn't save Gamecube stuff on Wii?? Wasn't that the whole point of adding the expansion on the side? So there's a place for the controller AND the memory card?

Everything things right with Wii. It is shaping up to be one heck of a console. To tell you the truth my only worry is the lack of cinematic feel due to restrictive specs, but zelda seems to do that well enough.

This is all based on GameCube saves. I'm willing to bet Next-gen Wii gamesaves will be much bigger, but we'll have to wait and see.

The GameCube games will probably use GC memory cards to save games. Unless the person doesn't have any, then they will probably need touse the internal memory.

I will get a USB hardrive for my Wii.

GreyAtom said:
Currently, we don't know the status of having a DVD player in the Wii.

Megadanxzero said:

GreyAtom said:Currently, we dont know the status of having a DVD player in the Wii.

Yeah we do... It will...

Well it will in a way, Ninty said there'll be an add-on.

darthcupcake said:
Actually Der SegaHund, Nintendo has announced a USB to Ethernet adapter for people who dont have Wi-Fi.

No, they hinted at it and it's still shit anyway. Force the majority of people to buy expensive additional bits just to get online, that makes sense. Plus USB uses much more system resources than ethernet. It's pure lunacy, admit it.

Internal memory... 512 MB seems like nothing, but it could go pretty far.

Still, it was only sports games that took up huge amounts of space on memory cards, so that shouldn't really be a problem.

fenno2001 said:

Internal memory... 512 MB seems like nothing, but it could go pretty far.

Im sure Nintendo could push to 1GB if they feel they need to (and hopefully they will!).Still, it was only sports games that took up huge amounts of space on memory cards, so that shouldnt really be a problem.

Let's rephrase that, it was only EA sport games that took up loads of room.

I don't know... I had alot of games that wern't EA that took up TONS of memory... Animal Crossing filled up a whole 69, and I had a few others that K.O.'d a 251.

I'd say AC was the worst 1st party game, but I suppose certain countries got a free mem card with it.

We didn't

U.S. did. That's the best game ever...

what r u lot on about. as far as the dvd part goes their will be an add on probably a dongle to allow access to that feature. wii is set up to allow people who dont have computers to access the internet not just to play games over the net. the 512mb, same as 360 and ps3, internal memory is not used to store games etc its for processing.on top of that they have edram on the lsichips as well as 1tsram. it does have gamecube memory slots under a flap on the front, not like the ps3 no ps2 slots, and u will have to buy a wii sd memory card to save your games. it is currently expected that nintendo is working in the area of 1 gig and up for the sd memory. what u shouls worry about is ifnintendo will let us keep our vc games or just lease them for a period they haven't decided yet. this is more important at the moment.

also i believe that it will use the friend codes system but wi9th a community at your fingertips it nwill probably be easier to use than through the ds. i think it will probably turn out like mp:h with the whole rivals thing that selects automatically. the friends codes are to make sure that it is safe for the kids, nintendo is a family comapany and parents dont wnt their kids playing games with some pedophile or some swearing teen. it makes sense. they r trying to please all and the rival thing will probably do the job for nintendo.

*breaths*