Nintendo Waves it in Our Faces
Do you remember the first time you saw or heard about the Nintendo Wii? It was 2006, and those wacky purveyors of Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda were at it again, releasing a new video game system with a weird name. The public was dubious – was Nintendo really betting the bank on a motion controlled system apparently aimed at kids and the elderly? Ha! I say, HA, sir! Surely you jest!
Oh, hindsight.
The Wii was a smash success. It outsold the PlayStation 3 and the XBox 360 straight through 2012, on the strength of a concept so simple it’s staggering nobody thought of it sooner: make the games as simple as possible to play so that more people play them.
I mean, that sounds so obvious it’s ridiculous, but it really was the core of the system’s design principal. Instead of following the trends of the day (faster CPUs, more storage, better graphics, more complicated controllers) Nintendo deliberately went after its goal of doggedly providing a video game system that anyone at all could play.
While Nintendo would go on to release more traditionally complex games, the original lineup with the Wii was based on simple to play games with motion controls. Your grandmother may not be able to memorize the 17 button combination required to have her Street Fighter character shoot across the screen in an orgy of lightning, but she sure can pick up a lightweight plastic baton and wave it around like a tennis racket.
Toss in the ability to create cute little figures that were custom made to resemble members of your family (called Miis), and for the millionth time in its history, Nintendo started up the money printing press.
Of course, nothing lasts forever, and the public’s interest faded (Eventually. One could still buy a version of the Wii at retail as recently as 2017! ). The gamer community reasserted that what it really wanted was bigger, faster, and louder, but not necessarily more fun. Shame.
In the Family Wii
In our house, we got a Wii probably in about 2009 or so. And my wife (who is definitely not a gamer) and I really enjoyed it, for all the reasons above! Mostly, however, it was the ease with which she and our guests could just sit down and start playing (after we’d built them a Mii to interact with… lordy, that was a genius move).
Then, about two months before we became parents, we turned it off for the last time. We’d stopped playing, and had big things to look forward to. Sure enough, after our son came around, the Wii stayed off, went into storage, and we launched ourselves into the exhausting gauntlet that is parenthood in 2012.
Flash forward six years, and suddenly there’s a small human in the house whose friends are getting video games, and darned if he isn’t interested in following that trend!
The Wii represented a perfect opportunity to introduce our kid to video games in a safe, simple way. That there exists a way to have him leap right in with no experience playing video games at all and be able to “compete” with his old man (I don’t let him win, but I make sure I’m not trouncing him, either) is a total win. He feels engaged, and he really only needs to master a couple of intuitive moves. Believe me, this is a boy who knows how to swing a lightsaber, he can master Wii Tennis.
What game is he most interested in? Super Mario Bros. The 1985 classic that just won’t die.
I was further (pleasantly) surprised to find that everything I had last saved into the Wii’s memory in 2012 was still there! I mean, I’ve studied semiconductors and memory technology in my past, so I know the data should still be there, but it was still just a hilarious treat to turn the machine on and discover it remembered all my preferences, purchases, and (most importantly) all those custom Miis! It was a trip straight back in time, when we switched on and found the little toons that we’d built to resemble my brothers, or my wife’s teacher friends. We added a new one for our son (he was delighted) and got straight into playing, just like that.
I can’t overstate how important this is: to get full use out of the Wii, you are first encouraged to build a small, cartoon version of yourself. This is genius design. Talk about a way to establish an emotional connection to your games in one easy step.
All the peripherals still recognized each other, including the wireless sensor bar that reads the Wiimotes. And I’ve got to tell you, when I saw that sensor bar in the box in storage and remembered its use, I immediately worried that I had no recollection at all of how to set it up. Turns out the entire process is this: turn it on.
This is also a bit of a wish fulfillment for me – I can introduce my boy to video games using the same games I grew up with, courtesy of the built-in game store. So what game is he most interested in? Super Mario Bros. The 1985 classic that just won’t die. Oh, and Wii Sports’ swordfighting games. I think he suddenly thinks he really is a Jedi (which, again, aligns neatly with my hopes as a geeky parent).
There’s one other consideration parents with young kids might like – the system encourages activity. Yes, it’s still staring at a screen, you’re still indoors on that beautiful evening when the sun’s finally come out, but your kid is on his feet and moving. That’s an unexpected bonus. I wouldn’t push it so far as to call it exercise, but as an alternative to our modern, hunched-over-our-smartphone postures, playing the Wii is actually pretty invigorating.
What’s Next?
I have to admit, having switched the Wii back on has rekindled a little of the ol’ black magic in me. I’m looking at my copies of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Metroid Prime and trying to decide whether I actually have the time and inclination to play long-form games the way I used to, when I had nothing but disposable time to play with (answer: probably not. These days, most of my gaming is done in 10 minute chunks on my iPhone, a far cry from my multi-hour treks through Hyrule of old. Switching on a console game and feeding it two precious hours of my time is no longer really in the cards.).
But, the Wii was initially built to satisfy casual gamers for half an hour at a time. I’ve still got Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, along with a couple of other more casual types of games. Perfect for that half hour before bed time with a six year old who’s suddenly taken a keen interest in helping a plumber stomp on turtles in the Mushroom Kingdom.
The Bottom Line
This article kind of perfectly encapsulates what I hope The Intermittent Critic will be: a way for me to explore the nerdier stuff in life without worrying about whether it’s current or trending on Twitter (my God, my Wii is older than Twitter!).
Really, this isn’t just about what it’s like to play the Wii. The internet’s chock full of articles about that (although those articles are a bit dusty by now). It’s really about what it’s like, switching a twelve year old game system on for the first time in six years and finding it’s still so much fun. I’m amazed at how truly timeless the system actually is, and how easily it still sucks in new players with its “oh, that’s easier than I thought it would be, let’s play it one more time!” approach. The Wii is still crazy amounts of fun if you’ve found yourself drifting away from video games and are looking for a way back, or if you have a young family member that you’d like to introduce to gaming in a controlled way.
If you still have a Wii in the attic somewhere, or if you manage to find one for a reasonable sum, I highly recommend rediscovering it. This was Nintendo’s magic box that brought gaming to the masses, perhaps better than all its predecessors, and it remains a solidly entertaining gaming machine over a decade after its launch.
The Upsides
- Early Wii games were designed to suck in players of any gender and age, still making it a solid party machine
- Largely kid-friendly, due to Nintendo’s track record of producing software appropriate for children
- Easy, easy, easy setup, especially if you’ve set it up before
- Gets people moving
- It’s FUN
The Downsides
- I may seriously have to take a closer look at that copy of Zelda…
The Intermittent Critic 
Nintendo Wii never gets old. Even though it doesn’t have much game like others. I still love playing this with fam and friends.
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