I'll say this right out, so don't mistake me.  I don't think that the Wii is dead.  It's been on the market for, what is it now, three years?  Conventional wisdom says it will last at least two more before Nintendo releases a new console.

But I can't help but be frustrated with my Wii.  No doubt, the Wii remote is a great new tool that has brought in millions of new gamers who otherwise would never pick up any game controller.  Simplicity over complexity is obviously the way to go to revive what many thought was a dying brand.  

But if the Wii is really so amazing, why hasn't Nintendo been able to attract developers who will put out killer titles?  How many party games does the Wii need?  I don't have the numbers, but I'm willing to bet there are a lot more party games currently available for the Wii than the XBox360 and the PS3.  I wouldn't think that the dropoff in hardware from the 360 and PS3 to the Wii would really be enough to drive away all the big names.  But it must be.  If I were a developer, I look at the Wii remote and think, 'Ooh, I bet we can do all sorts of cool stuff with that!'  But then I think about the hardware restrictions and figure it's not worth the time and effort.  

So as it turns out, the Wii remote is nothing but a handy tool for minigames?  That's what it looks like.  There haven't been many titles made available for the 'hardcore' gamer.  It's disappointing, and disheartening.  If Nintendo doesn't start to turn this around, I don't know what I'll do.  I'm not about to put down the money to be a multi-console player (not in this economy!), so I'll stick with just one.  I'm a huge fanboy for Nintendo's big titles, but they don't put out anything else worth buying!  Sigh.  Maybe all we can do at this point is look forward to the next generation, where Nintendo can take the best of the Wii and start making games for all players.  Imagine Wii point 2 with it's huge fanbase, but the hardware that attracts hardcore developers too.  It's a nice thought, but I don't expect it to happen.

So was it a revolution?  Maybe for the people that didn't play games before, but not the rest of us.  Not yet, at least.  Let's call it wasted potential, for the time being.

I don't really get it. The Wii is seeing a lot of games put out. But is it seeing a lot of top-notch quality games? No. It's seeing a lot of minigame collections. Don't get me wrong, those can be a lot of fun, if they're well-done. But where is the love for the "hardcore" single-player games?

I've made peace with the fact that the Wii will never see the likes of games like Halo, Resistance, Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid, because they need greater hardware specs than what the guys at Nintendo have put into the Wii. Again, don't get me wrong here. I love the Marios, Zeldas and Metroids of the world. I have said on more than one occasion and I still stand by it, that I would continue to buy Nintendo consoles if they released nothing but Zelda titles for the rest of our lives. But come on! Why is it that no outside developers are putting out killer titles for the Wii?! It can't be that difficult to map out a control scheme for the Wiimote. What's going on here?

Here's what I'm talking about. These are the Wii games I own that are primarily single-player games, and the scores I personally give them:

Super Mario Galaxy - 9.5/10

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - 9.5/10

Okami - 9.5/10

Medal of Honor: Heroes - 7/10

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles - 7/10

No More Heroes - 4/10

(I know this isn't supposed to be about No More Heroes, but I know plenty of people are going to look at that score and think I'm insane. If we want, we can have a whole other blog about that at a later time. In short, I think the game has ugly graphics, simplistic controls, an inane plot, and completely unlikable characters. I'll admit that I've played that game for only about an hour, but that's where I stand right now.

Also, the reason you don't see Zelda: Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 up there is because I have them for GameCube and didn't see a reason to buy them again.)

In short, there isn't much going on here because I'm not given many options. There have been other titles out there like Red Steel and Alone in the Dark, but they've gotten such low professional scores that I don't think they're worth looking into. Sigh. What's a Nintendo fanboy to do when his console of choice keeps getting the short end of the stick?

I guess I know where this rant is coming from. It all started when I found out that two of my favorite GameCube-era titles are getting new entries on the current-gen consoles not called Wii. Those would be Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil. (I know PoP is getting an entry on the DS, but that just won't be the same, and you know it.) Why can't we see these games on the Wii? Didn't their GameCube predecessors sell well enough? They're not going to be asking for too much from the technical standpoint. It makes me sad. If only I had something else to look forward to, like a new Zelda...