wii's next big hit. what will it be?

[ilovetogame]

just want to point out that bundling has nothing to do with it. wii play only sells like it does because of the controller, so yes thats due to the bundle. wii sports would have probably sold at least 20 million by now on its own (it has over 3 million in japan alone!). wii fit doesn't sell cuz its bundled it sells cuz its a fitness game and tons of people are interested in a competent fitness game and it is the first of those ever. and mario kart just happens to have a wheel bundled with it because its a fun new way to play the game, but the wheel is in no way driving sales. its sales are being driven because its, a) mario kart!!!, b) very very fun, c) arguably the best multiplayer and easily the best online game on the wii, d) appeals hugely to both traditional gamers and casuals alike.



personally i don't think any game is gonna get the sales that wii fit and mario kart have. but, i would guess it would need to have great multiplayer, have good online play, a solid single player experience too, and be fun and challenging enough for all gamers to enjoy but at the same time simple enough to understand the basics for casuals to enjoy. and most likely it will either have to be in the "wii" series or a main nintendo franchise.

since punchout is just a remake of the original i don't think its got what it takes, they'd have to add in a lot of new stuff to hit the criteria above. star fox could be possible but it would have to be THE PERFECT star fox, and perfection is pretty hard to come by, also flying games i don't think are as universally appealing or as easy to pick up as racing games like mario kart.


i can only think of two games. one would be a masterful pokemon wii game. one that not only gets all the millions of current pokemon fans to buy it (and the wii if they don't have one) but also it needs to be a serious enough rpg to get all the older rpg fans to buy it too. it would have to be a highly critically acclaimed AAA GOTY type game to get all the older rpg fans on board i think.

the other game i think would be a 2D mario: super mario bros 4! return to the classic gameplay of smb3 and smw but with lots of new ideas picked up from the 3D games. it would need to have superb presentation in graphics, art style, sound, music, and controls. it would need to use the motion controls in some clever and useful way. need to have a 2 player mode (maybe even 4 player) with luigi and mario and other characters at the same time. also make the multiplayer game online too. difficulty settings ranging from easy for casuals to very hard for people who miss the challenge that the 3D mario games just don't have. also more enemies for when playing with more than one person. it would also need to have modes like time attack and other ones that i can't think of right now for each level and they would need to be up to 4-players as well. just plenty of multiplayer stuff so casuals can have fun playing it in groups. also it would have to be the most badass mario ever! basically a 2D mario games that takes the best elements from every entry in the series with great local and online multiplayer modes added in and the game would have to completely redefine what 2D platforming is all about in the same way that mario 64 defined what 3D is all about. every nintendo/mario fan would buy this, and lots of casuals would buy this too for both the easy to pick up and fun single player and multiplayer game and the various fun multiplayer modes. ooh, also there would need to be an option to have your mii be your onscreen character. i say take mario galaxy sales and double them and thats what this game could do.