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When Does a Console Pay For Itself?

Posted by Nadia Oxford

Mr Cole Stryker and I share similar opinions on Nintendo's Wii. I do not believe it's going to kill the industry, nor do I think Nintendo is going to recruit hardcore gamers through a Super Smash Bros Brawl tournament and grind them into sustenance for casuals.

But after listening to the complaints about how little the Wii has to offer, I've come to wonder how gamers gauge their satisfaction with a system. When do you lean back, pat your belly and declare that a game console has wholly proved its worth?

I don't play with my Wii all hours of the day (huh huh), but I'm honestly puzzled by people who say, “I'm a long-time Nintendo fan, but I sold my Wii because there's nothing on it.” I'm going to assume that a “Nintendo fan” fought to the point of collapse during the bitter droughts that struck the N64 and GameCube. I owned both systems, and both earned me gasps from peers. “Jesus Christ, why?” they would wail.

Franchises like Mario and Zelda are in fact why I bought the N64, the GameCube and the Wii. My Playstation saw a lot more action than my N64, but declaring a console a flop once the dust on its casing reaches a certain level is deceiving. When The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released, that dust layer was wiped off my N64 with one pass of a paper towel and I spent the next several weeks immersed in one of the best action titles to hit the industry. Repeat wipe-and-play for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Super Mario 64, Paper Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, Wave Race 64, and Super Smash Bros.

I had a handful of quality exclusives that I thoroughly enjoyed, without even including Goldeneye, a title that made the N64 a must-own for thousands. The GameCube was another console that's considered woefully short on software, but again, it could be counted on for Zelda, Mario and Metroid. All I really need are a few high-caliber games before I feel happy with my system purchase, but I wonder if I'm just huddling on a sparsely-populated set of bleachers.

I loved Super Mario Galaxy. I enjoyed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess because it improved on many of the things I loved about Ocarina of Time. I am happy for No More Heroes. I use Wii Fit almost daily. I am champing and stamping for the new Mario and Zelda titles we've been promised, to say nothing of Cave Story, Punch Out!! and Dragon Quest X.

I don't think the Wii has done a bad job entertaining me for the $250 I spent on it, but it's possible I ask too little of my consoles. Or maybe I've just seen what comes of passion and haste. The recent lean months have brought in a hardcore Wii-returning ritual that's intended to “stick it” to Nintendo for abandoning core gamers. I wonder how many sheepish faces I'm going to see buying back used Wiis in EB Games over the next year or two.

Related Links:

The Wii Is Not Killing Video Games
The Wii's Feats of Strength and its Disappointments
What Do You Want from "Wii HD?"

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Posted Jan 21 2009, 11:03 PM

Filed under: wii, gamecube, Playstation, n64, nadia oxford

Comments

Roto13 said:

Mine gets the job done.

January 22, 2009 6:02 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

I love all of my Nintendo systems and have never felt dissatisfied with their libraries, but I'm also not the type of person that MUST be fed something new the moment I've finished consuming the last game. I think it's an attitude of impatience, a sort of Gamer ADD that may have something to do with what you're talking about. I savor the games I play, I play them over and over rather than selling them off and I don't need a brand new distraction the next moment. Also, this isn't a new phenomenon caused by a busy schedule. Even before I had a backlog piling up I was fine with waiting for releases.

January 22, 2009 9:45 PM

Roto13 said:

I think you're right about that gamer ADD to a large extent, Amber. There are people out there who can't stand for a week to go by without buying a new game, whether they've finished any of the last dozen games they've bought or not.

I think it's been too long since there was a must-have Wii game, though. My big problem with the Wii's current situation is that the only big Wii games over the holidays were Wii Music (which is for a much different audience than the one I belong to) and Animal Crossing Wild World +. I ended up getting Tales of Symphonia 2 because I was such a huge fan of the first one, but it's really not very good. (If not for the cameos from other Tales characters, I'd probably hate this game.)

I'm not one of those people who does their best to ignore the good-to-great Wii games that had been coming out until around mid-fall. (There was no reason to ignore Wario Land: Shake It.) There are quite a few cool Wii games coming out in the near future and beyond so I'm definitely not disappointed with my Wii, but if I didn't have a PS3 I probably would have had a very sad Christmas.

January 23, 2009 1:04 AM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.