I love my wii, but man, the shovelware is getting deep

[mike_intellivision]

Shovelware has been around almost as long as the industry.

A quarter century ago, it caused the "Great Crash." Those of you too young to have lived through that period when video games appeared to be dead forever because of too much bad software can read about it in technology history books. Basically, every movie and half the food companies in the US were out to games for the Atari 2600.

IMHO, Shovelware referes to any game that is not done well and not meant to be done well. They generally do not have any redeeming quality and are reviewed poorly. It can be original or a port. It is usually cheaper but occassionally is more than bargain price. Movie tie-ins (Balls of Fury) games are almost always shovelware.

However, being a port (RE4) or being really cheap (Mercury Meltdown, which is also a port) does not make a game automatically shovelware. Nor does bad reviews (Carnival Games) because some games just have a life of their own.

Finally, there are some companies to shy away from (generally). These include DSI, Destineer, Conspiracy, UFO, Bethasda Softworks, etc.

I own one piece of shovelware for the Wii -- Spy Games: Elevator Mission. I own it because Best Buy sold it for $10 new. I own some less than stellar games as well. I also am only lacking Guitar Hero from the Million Sellers list (I am waiting for a real stereo version). So I have a lot of Wii games (and a lot of games period).

Mike from Morgantown