A little while ago I purchased a used Wii from a friend. My thoughts on the Wii this generation are a bit mixed. I have at least 1000 hours logged into Smash Bros Brawl with friends, and easily claim it as the best local multiplayer game of all time (in my opinion). However, I always thought the console's 100 million units sold were a bit biased, as it catered so much to the casual gaming fan. Love it or hate it, the Wii was only popular because it appealed to the female, older, and child audience. The core gamer pretty much ignored the console thoughout it's lifetime, choosing either the 360, Ps3, or PC gaming.

However, the Wii can be a great console today for core gamers. I got mine with controllers and everything for under $50, and with gamecube games, it's a fun little console. Smash bros, Mario Galaxy games, Zelda Wii games, and a lot of gamecube games are what I'm playing on it. If you avoid the shovelware that is Wii Fit, Mario/Sonic games, Wii Party/Sports, and the plethora of music based games (just dance, zumba fitness), you can find a lot of core gaming fun. 

Highly recommend purchasing a cheap used Wii if you can find it. It's loads of fun!!!

What is a core gamer?

I agree entirely, if you never had a Wii and you don't want to buy a Wii U right now there's a great lineup of cheap games waiting for you.

Though my favourite local multiplayer game was Mario Strikers Charged. Released in 2007 just after the UK launch of the console, and still a regular "gaming night" fixture because it's just so well balanced. We've had like 10 FIFA games in that time!

Only played Charged a couple times, but I played the gamecube original a lot. Always thought it was an underrated game and as soccer (or footbal, whatever) goes, it's much more fun than Fifa games.

Calling Wii Sports and Wii Fit shovelware... *shakes head*

While I disagree that we should catalogue "games" within "core gamer", let me show ya:

And much more!

A self-appointed title with no value.  

Says me the Summon Spirit of gaming.

Well then the title should be changed! The Wii is a great console for everyone, there is a game for most gamers. It's a shame that those core gamers have such narrow minded tastes!

There are people still in denial here about the success of the Wii, like you for example. Flaming stupid console wars. 

I feel the same way. I bought a Wii late, in 2012, and while I only have 20 or so games for it, they are all amazing games which I want to beat. This is my main driving force for not buying a WiiU.

Plus I save so much money, I paid about $20 for most of my Wii games, if I were to buy a WiiU now, not only is the console $300, games are $60 each. If I just enjoy my Wii for now, and wait for X, WiiU might be $250 by then, and games like Pikmin might be $30-$40. The money I save will pay for the Wii and the games themselves.

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I feel PSP is actually a better example of a cheap system for core gamers. I bought my PSP for $90 in the box over a year ago, and of the 25 games I have I paid between $10-$20 for pretty much every game. PSV cost $200 now, and $40-$50 per game, give it 3 years and it might cost half of that.

Plus with PSP, I modded mine so I can play GBA games I own on a bigger screen, and english translations of Japanese games I imported. Plus PS1 games work fine too, and I think the PS1 is the best Sony console. So no, with that I have maybe 60 portable games to beat, all for about $400 for the console + PSP games (I already owned the PS1/GBA games).

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I'm going to do this exact same thing with the XB One, and pick up the dozen+ exclusives (hopefully) which I will miss out on owning a PC/PS4/WiiU