Wii Would Like to Play!

Somewhere in the neighborhood of three years ago, I remember seeing the preliminary plans for Nintendo's next generation video game console (at that time it was called the "Revolution"). They announced that instead of trying to keep up with the Sonys and the Microsofts they were going in a totally different direction: they were developing a box that had less processing power, but would have a totally different controller. One that would have only one or two buttons, and would rely largely on motion sensing to play games. I thought "That's it- this is the final nail in the coffin for Nintendo."

Then, I played the Wii. And holy cow, is it fun. Ramya got me one for my birthday, and we've spent entire days playing tennis (I just made pro, by the way) and bowling. I took it home for Christmas, and the whole family can get into it. This thing is great! See, the point is that the Wii was never really intended to compete with the Xbox and Playstation 3. Although alot of games are on all platforms (like Guitar Hero- but I'll get to that later) the Wii sort of stands alone as a more accessible, easy to use yet ridiculously fun game machine. I remember when Nintendo announced that they wanted to make a game system that anyone could just pick up and play. I thought "No way! I want my deep engrossing games!" Then I go to a friend's house for some Call of Duty or something, and it takes 25 minutes just to set up everyone's characters and pick out all the weapons. Then, God help me as I'm bombarded with enemy fire while being totally confused at the myriad controls and array of buttons. The message here is that I'm getting old.

I totally see the desire for the cutting edge, awesome graphics, multi-media games systems. But you know what? The Wii is hella-fun. I love it. What amazes me now is the deep-seated hatred that Sony and Microsoft fanboys have against the Wii. You've heard them, right? Wii people never go around bashing the Xbox, but people insult the Wii at any chance they get. I'll give you some examples in a minute.

This last weekend I bought Guitar Hero 3 for my Wii. Ramya loved it, and I had enjoyed the few times I tried it. So, now that's where all my free time goes. Anyhow, I wanted to know if they ever planned on releasing the Playstation-only 1980's music edition for Wii, so I went to GuitarHero.com. There's a forum thread about this very topic, but check out what some anti-Wii people replied:

"Listen everyone here's the reason. The Wii is a piece of ****. Good concept but it turned out like ****. u get what paid for anyway like every1 says GH 1, 2 and 80s came out b4 they even thought of it even being released for the Wii cuz it sux. end of story ftw."

"I have to agree with the none wii users. U get what u pay 4. A cheap piece of crap good 4 a few laughs and mild entertainment suitable for my 9 yr old cousin. The PS3 and 360 provide better quality games and of greater entertainment that fit the teenage/young adult such as myself. The Wii is better left to my 9 yr. old cousin who in herself would not play it."

(I like the above comment because his argument is "The Wii is crap because it's not for my demographic." Guess what buddy: Not everyone is a teenager/young adult!)

"Let me know when you can watch a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD on your Wii. Wait you can't even watch a DVD on the Wii. Let me know how the Wii looks in 1080p with the new HDTVs. Wait it will only do 480p you say? What is it that makes that system next gen in any way? Of that's right... the gimicky controls. I'll buy one of those for my mom, she could never figure out what buttons to push to play anything, heck she can't even program the clock on her VCR... What's a VCR you say? Nevermind... Any idiot can play the Wii, I mean any idiot can wave their arm around... PERFECT gift for grandma and grampa, will look good on their old non HDTV, sitting right next to their VCR with the blinking clocking, flashing 12:00 over and over...
Me and my friends? We'll play our games in true 1080p on our HDTV, thru our Dolby Surround sound system. My friends are a little smarter than grandma and grandpa, they can figure out what buttons to push, no need to wave their arms all around and shake the controller in an effort to get something to work on screen..."

Wow. My first thought was "Gee, let's attack a system and people who like it on a totally unrelated thread." Classy. But then again, the internet is full of losers. Which brings me to my second thought: these rants sounded kind of familiar... Extremely defensive? Check. Semi-coherent rambling? Check. Rampant grammar and spelling errors? Double check. You know what? This sounds a lot like anti-hybrid car posts from SUV drivers!

I know it's not a perfect comparison, but the tone is very similar. The only example I can think of is from an old XMFan thread I accidentally took part in. It started with a picture of a wrecked Prius, and quickly degraded into a bunch of SUV morons dancing around because they could play the dubious "safety" card to justify their 8 miles per gallon. I think my favorite retort from the SUV crowd was "It's my planet too. I'll destroy if I want to."

Anyway, you could make the point that SUVers are afraid of hybrids because they signal the end to their way of life. And maybe Playstation and Xbox people just fear the Wii because it's new and different- "rocking the establishment" in a way. In any case, I thought it was interesting.