Farewell, "Good For a Wii Game"

When you consider a game, how do you judge it? Maybe you start by considering the genre and whether that fits your tastes? Maybe you consider the value behind the title and its offerings? Perhaps you account for visual flair?

But have you ever asked "Is it good considering the platform?"

Something that I found all too common in the way Wii games were judged in reviews and otherwise was with the phrase "Good for a Wii game". I have to tell you, that phrase made me cringe. Every time.

"Good for a Wii game" implicates some not so flattering things about the Wii. It says that the quality of Wii games, on average, were not all that great. I think we can all agree that implication isn't entirely true, nor entirely false. The Wii had some great titles, but they didn't flow as quickly as on its HD counterparts, thanks both to stronger online communities (and thus more indie titles) and far superior third party support.

I'm not offended by that implication, though. I had fun with many titles on the Wii, but I recognize that the Wii had a quantity issue (quality over quantity, sure, but there's a point when too little quantity is not acceptable) on great titles.

Where the phrase bothers me the most is the implication that this excused games for being sub-par or lackluster. Many titles got away with glaring issues that would never go unpunished in the way they were reviewed or viewed on the PC, PS3, or Xbox 360. It was almost a get out of jail free card to be a half decent game on the Wii. It was acceptance of a lower standard.

If I say nothing else positive about the Wii U, I have to say this; I'm glad to see the phrase "Good for a Wii game" die with it's release. There are a lot of AAA third party titles releasing on the Wii U. Any game will now have to be compared to those titles. No one will say "Good for a Wii U game" because the bar is much higher, with big name titles like Assassin's Creed 3 and Batman Arkham City seeing their own Wii U iterations.

For all the good Wii did, it also brought some quality issues along for the ride. Perhaps now we can move forward and the expanded gaming community can now be more thoroughly introduced to a higher standard. A standard that gravely needs to improve.

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[iamnsuperman]

I think the term good for a Wii U was really meant for the Wii controls or the general graphics for obvious reason but I agree saying a game as a whole is good for a Wii game is a bit of an insult really as I have had some fun on the Wii and there are some solid games there that made me have the same amount of fun as if I was playing on my PS3 games.

[SilentNegotiator]

The game I was especially channeling while writing this was "Conduit".

I constantly read,
"Good multiplayer....for a Wii game"
"Good controls....for a Wii game"

And sure, reviews and sales were lukewarm, but it got considerable attention and praise before and a while after it's release due to the fact that it compared favorably to most Wii games (shooters especially) and not very much by its own merit.

[iamnsuperman]

I can understand in that case because its less about the game being bad (which I hear its not at all) compared to other titles releasing on other systems but they did very well with an less than accurate controller input and a multiplayer option that is limited because of Nintendo's own short sightedness. Saying it is good for a Wii game is because they have done very well for a system that was very much behind the curve compared to the other systems out

[dedicatedtogamers]

"Good...for a WiiU game" is something that you can look forward to if developers continue with shoddy ports like they did on the Wii.

And don't you dare say "but the WiiU is different". Mass Effect 3: WiiU Edition says otherwise.

[Godmars290]

Thing is, in the case of ME3, some reviews are saying the Wii U version isn't par with those already released.

If this kind of thing keeps up when newer consoles show up the term, "Good for a Wii U game" might be something to wish for.

[SilentNegotiator]

I've read quite a few reviews that feel the gamepad interface is slower or annoying to use, too. The problem there is that developers might not feel the need to put a lot of effort into that version's special interface because that's only one system out of 4 or so that they typically port most games to (excluding handhelds).

Plus, there's the obvious issue that you NEED to look toward the controller for special interfaces, and unless you're talking about a very complicated game, the D-pad usually services itself just fine for item management and the like - In which case, you have a faster interface that requires less effort. It makes me think of this great article by Ben Yahtzee where he talks about how the less you have to think and do, the more immersion.

ANYWAY, I'm certainly not saying that the Wii U will have perfect third party support. In fact, I think once the honeymoon is over and much more powerful systems launch in a year or two, third party support will linger, because developers have been complaining about the limitations of the ps3/360 a lot lately, and the Wii U's only main advantage specs-wise seems to be a slightly more powerful GPU (and nearly neglectfully, if launch games, both third and first party have anything to say about it - ps3/360 launch games might not have been amazing compared to today, but they were DEFINITIVELY a generational leap).

[Godmars290]

1) The Wii U's competition for *next* gen is not the current one. The PS3 and 360 shouldn't even be considerations. If such is the case when their successors come around and devs are still building on that level, then all of this pointless BS we've all bought into.

2) Having already bought into the BS of this gen, you really don't notice that "current" has changed little from launch? Where there were changes and improvements from the start of the PS1 era to its end, the same for the PS2 and Xbox1, this time around it was just a difference from between a crippled state to a not as crippled one. We lost and regained features, but to me at least its things were promised, not delivered and we had to settle for something else instead. Mostly FPS.

And right now the Wii U is no different. doesn't really change anything but has a gimmick that might make you forget nothing's changed. Or gotten worse.

[e-p-ayeaH]

Wii U needs to stay strong with japanese games like RPG´s and adventure games if it wants gamers attention.

[TuxedoMoon]

I'd love to see more japanese games in general be released on the wii-u, but looking back at how long it took Nintendo to release The Last Story and Xenoblade,I doubt we'll see a huge up rise of japanese games on the platform (or have any releases in the U.S.).

The wii had some great games, from No more Heroes to TvC. Metroid: Other M was a great game too. When it comes to games, it's mostly due to western tastes. This generation was the FPS/realistic/western domination generation. Few Japanese made games made it in the spot light mainly because COD or some other western game overshadowed it. Japanese devs get discouraged when they release a good game over here just to have it not sell because the west is too busy shooting people in the face or drooling over realistic graphics.

[jessupj]

I think the term will be coming back as soon as the real next gen consoles arrive.

[pixelsword]

All devices have that stigma in one way or another:

This multi-platform game is good for a PS3 game.

The graphics for this exclusive is good for a 360 game.

The title sold well for a PC game.

It's not that any of them are true to the degree that any of those things can be said with any certainty, but when they are repeated by people who don't clarify what they mean when it does matter is what makes such stereotypes stick.

[xeniausen]

I already have Wii sports, wii sports resort, super mario bros, mario super sluggers, wii play,wii party, boom blocks bash party, mario kart, just dance 2, wipeout, order up, tron, band hero, biggest loser, star wars, and mario party 8.
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