After seeing the bowling & pool "mini-games" in HOME, I was wondering if the Wii now "owns" several genres (for this generation anyway). What I mean by this, is that even the most awesome and polished game in this genre on a non-Wiimote controlled console will be skoffed at by everyone (not even considered in the same ballpark, and generally not purchased).

The most obvious example I can come up with is bowling (most of the Wii sports games?). Wii Sports is out there, so a lot of people have seen/played this bowling, and have a pretty good  idea of what it is about.

It may be possible to do something similar with the SIXAXIS?? Although it may feel rather odd(?). But on the 360 (for example), I can't see this happening.

So in short - the Wii will own the *entire* bowling genre for this generation (lawn bowls game anyone??).

Now this is a pretty small and niche genre - so it doesn't matter that much. What other genres could the Wii "own" in a similar fashion, and what genres will it never own (don't suit themselves to the Wiimote - actually play worse)?

...

Some potentials:

 +: Baseball, boxing, swordfighting, light-gun games, golf, tennis, cricket

-: soccer/football(?)

?? (unknown/unproven/either work fine): FPS, adventure, driving 

a lot of sports games will be very rewarding on the wii.

after playing wii golf and then tiger woods i can't imagine myself playing golf again with a classic controller. the same goes for bowling, baseball and tennis. let's see how The Bigs will turn out.

others not even made can be huge. Curling has wiimote all over it; ice hockey; table tennis; water polo; diving; you name it...

curling???  i guess it can be fun doing the sweeping using the wiimote... though making it into a 2 person game seems kind of fun.  no way on earth i'm doing it when i'm by myself.

i'm hoping for wii NHL.  i wonder what that's gonna be like. 

+minigame collections 

+tennis, if somebody finds a good way to move the player.

+racing maybe, i'd like to see a racing simulation that is created for wii and not just a port.

+strategy probably, because the pointer is very useful for that

-i can't tell an exact genre right now, but something that really needs a lot of buttons of course.

but the most important thing is that games like action-adventures and rpgs or platformers can be controlled very well with the wiimote too, just not as good that it feels odd to play it with a normal controller but in my opinion slightly better than with a controller (this opionion is caused on the controls of zelda)

'Sims' style games, I can see these only being released on PC and Wii in future.

Any kind of swordfighting.  Pirates, Jedis, Knights, etc...could make a lot of games right there, provided developers get the Wiimote to play well as a sword.

i said it before, all sports games (including football) are great on the wii, better than the other consoles. if you really like sports games (i love em and am a football whore) then there is no way you cant prefer the new sports games on the wii. there has to be a longing for something more than just move analog stick and press button. its great.

 first person shooters in my opinion hullass on the wii. i guess many dont like the idea of looking by pointing the... pointer. but i reallly like it. and it makes sense. think about the FPS you have played. how many of them have auto-aim? (if the middle sight thing in that you have little control over is near a guy, itll automatically move over them) i bet all of them. name some that dont. (there is probably some, but very extremely few) exactly. why do they have auto aim? becuase there is no way with 2 analog sticks you can have one be control of forward and backward movement, along with strafing, and have the other be in control of turning and looking up and down WHILE ALSO BE IN CHARGE OF AIMING WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING SPECIAL. in all those FPS you must hold a button to make it so you can manually aim. not with the wiimote pointer. you can look left and right, up and down, and aim at the same time without thinking twice about it. i know many say it does not work well. ill tell you why it doesnt, because that person is not used to getting the pointer on the screen. once you get a little practice and expirience, you can easily without thinking or trying, and without delay get the pointer on the screen for any game. once you can (which really doesnt take much practice) then you will see looking by aiming the pointer works just as well as an analog and feels very natural (to point where you want to llook). there will be no unrealistic auto aim in any future wii FPS guaranteed, yet itll be easy to aim than ever before. the pointer is your face. you point it where you want to look and where you want to aim simultaneously. without thinking twice about it. just point and shoot. (kind of like... real life?)

RPG's and Strategy RPG's. :)

The "buttons" issue is valid - any game that *really* does require lots of buttons (and can't be replaced well by gestures) should be a strong candidate for a non-Wii title.

Personally, Im loving the "one-handed" controller thing (or separated hands) at the moment. Its starting to feel very natural to me (not having your hands "glued" together), so even if the Wiimote was exactly like a standard controller - I'd probably prefer it (imagine having two Nunchucks connected together?).

Is Madden *really* better as a Wii title? (I haven't played any of them, and have no real interest in American Football in general...). This along with Soccer/football, even Aussie Rules (AFL) to me seem like games that may be better without the Wiimote.

Fighting games - most non Wiimote?? (see if Mortal Kombat can change people's opinions...).

I wonder if any company will try and do a "Gran Turismo" style game for the Wii - realistic racing games for the GC have bombed in the past. 

I really like FPS' on the Wii though I wouldn't say the Wii will dominate that genre.  It's already divided between the mouse/keyboard crowd and the dual analog crowd so the Wiimote crowd will just be a new  and viable subset.  The Wii should have no trouble with any sports game that mainly involves one player at a time (hard to explain what I mean but bowling, golf, fishing, baseball to an extent, etc.).  Football is already shown to be somewhat better but along with basketball, soccer, and hockey I don't think the benefits of the Wiimote will be enough to make it a genre dominating console. 

Arcade style racing, flight sims, and shootem up games should be easily dominated by the Wii though I think realistic racing and flight games will be more represented across the platforms.  RTS, simulation, and strategy games will probably just about only be seen on the Wii though they aren't major genres for consoles. I think RPG's will be owned by the Wii but not because of the Wiimote.  They would be focused more on the Wii's lower cost, greater install base (primarily in Japan), and DS connectivity. 

I agree the main inhibitor for the Wii is the lack of buttons though I don't know how much of a problem that will really be.  Several games have already reliably mapped functions to motion controls.  Actions like opening doors, reloading, kneeling/standing up don't require a button.