Heather Campbell's Assessment of the Wii from Play's 2008 Year in Review.

[Mr Khan]

Soleron said:

BTFeather55 said:

Was the release cycle of the original Nintendo Entertainment System anything like this?  After Super Mario Bros came out, was there a three year period of mini-games and crossword puzzle simulators?  Was everyone embarrased when they went to Toys 'R Us to look for NES games?

 

Um... yes? 90% of the NES's games were pure casual "rubbish" with crud graphics and a budget of £5. The 10% that were gems went on to become the most successful franchises we see today - Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Castlevania, and so on. All of which abandoned Nintendo and went on to be major "hardcore" franchises on other consoles. Maybe we need another NES (the Wii) to fuel the "gem" franchises of the next three console generations.

 

The NES stepped into a vacuum, though. A dead industry. If you wanted to develop a console game, you went to the NES, period. In this case, Nintendo stepped in and changed things that a lot of people didn't want changed, and thus you see the Wii suffer in that regard, of having been almost totally ignored by the big franchises for the first two years of its life, where only now are they starting to come around