The Wii has many, many crummy games

[Words Of Wisdom]

HappySqurriel said:

Words Of Wisdom said:

HappySqurriel said:

The N64 also had a far better ratio of good games to bad games than the Playstation did ...

Shovelware ends up making up most of the library of consoles that sell a lot of hardware because its entire strategy for existing is dependant on a numbers game; a small percentage of consumers will walk into a videogame store with the intention of buying a game and no paritcular game in mind (they could just be buying a gift), they will see the name "Ninjabread Man" with its awsome boxart and think that it is a good game, see its low price and buy it. A console which has sold twice as many pieces of hardware has twice the population of uninformed consumers who will (potentially) buy your game.

The problem is that this has the effect of making consumers unhappy with their purchases or, even worse, giving uneducated consumers the opinion that ALL Wii games are shovelware.

Honestly, the uneducated buyer who picks up these games probably doesn't realize that these are not good games and/or would not hold it against the Wii ...

If your grandma buys you Ninjabread Man you probably don't hold it against Nintendo that this game exists, and if your neice buys herself Barbie's Horse Adventures she will probably like the game for what it is even though reviewers absolutely hate the game.

Are you kidding?  They know pretty much immediately.  They're the group that won't keep playing a game despite its flaws in the hopes of it having "a good story" or anything else.  They're the ones that will say it's boring and stop playing it. 

Having personally watched an 8 year old, 5 year old, and 4 year old's reactions to games ranging from Cars to EA Sports Playground to Super Mario Galaxy to Brawl, I can tell you that children are not dumb.  Cars was played for one night, beaten, and put on a shelf to rest.  Brawl they play on an almost daily basis.  Children can tell when a game is fun and when it isn't.