I like the Nintendo Wii and have 20 games for it. I think it's a good system. But for the past 20 years all I've heard from a lot of gamers is how they didn't like it and it sucked. These sort of people tend to not be all that into gaming. Or they just never liked Nintendo in the first place. Anyway, I always thought it was common knowledge that everyone hated the Wii with the exception of hardcore gamers and Nintendo fans. Was the general population satisfied with the Wii? 

I believe it was the console the industry needed to have.

The technology the Wii brought forth, is still relevant and in use today... I.E. Gyro.
The Wii also showed the industry that you didn't need graphics to make a good game or stay relevant.

IDK. Why are we asking this question to a site filled with "hardcore gamers"? That's like...the exact opposite of the audience of interest lol.

I'm not even sure how we could accurately assess this. It's not like there are polls we can reference. The high software-to-hardware ratio may suggest consumers were overall pleased, alongside the strong commercial performance from 2006 through 2011 (especially during 2006 through 2009, when stock was totally clearing out; WoM may have been a big propeller).

This is something I think is very hard to ascertain, as all we really have to go on is anecdotal evidence, which can be misleading.

Enthusiasts like us who frequent niche forums weren't really the console's primary audience, so sentiments online are unlikely to reflect the real world.

^Well said!

I give it an 8/10

It has some really great games and the Wiimote and Nunchuck worked great with many of them.

Oh that’s interesting. I’ve personally observed that most lay gamers have warm feelings for the system and a lot of self-described “hardcore” or “core” gamers dislike it for upsetting the status quo and/or its deep focus on non-traditional “waggle” controls.

Personally, I love the Wii. I have 79 physical Wii games and a bunch of Virtual Console titles as well. I think it’s one of the best things to happen to the video game industry, exactly because it was so different and disruptive.

It was a cultural phenomenon. The definitive party machine from its launch to sometime around Just Dance 3 to 4. There hasn't really been anything quite like that time period since as far as party gaming goes.

I have over 50 games for it. Someof those are imports most are domestic. I enjoyed it. Gave me Xenoblade. No More Heroes. Tatsunoko vs Caocom. The Last Story. Earth Seeker. Fragile Dreams. Some good SEGA arcade ports and many many many more.

It was the first dedicated home console from Nintendo that felt like an add-one to the other consoles, rather than being able to satisfy me as a core gamer alone. If you were serious about the industry at the time and not just Nintendo, you had to either have a 360 or a PS3. It was just too different, and too weak to run the biggest third party games of its era without the developers having to completely build a new version from the ground up... which hardly any of them did, and when they did do it, the Wii versions sold like crap compared to the proper HD versions.

But as an add-on, it was awesome. At least I thought so. Nothing more fun during that era than having some friends together to play some Wi Sports erc.