playing Buzz with family as we speak.

Why are you on the internet

it's a quiz game, I am on my latop.

Are you CHEATING!?

Our values would clearly be very different

I'm losing badly, i know nothing about music.

Yeah but uh... thep ps3 had good reason to be destroyed or ingonred in early to mid 07.

It sold like crap and very few people liked it.

The problem isn't that they're being really negative... it's that their negativity isn't really tied to reality.

When talking about an industry one should have a wide view of things.

That's why someone like Roger Ebert can give thumbs up to movies in genres he doesn't even really enjoy, or how a food critic can rate food anywhere... even though he may have a prefrence for some food to others.   Critics should be self aware of their own interests and mostly isolate their own interests versus the interests of the general population in order to give a judgement and opinion on the situation that rings true in general.

@68soul.

In an attempt to keep this civil, I would have to respectfully disagree with at least half of your points. Fact, and I will agree with Mario Kart's sales, best IR-controlled as it's the only console that does it, same for gesture controlled, tilt controlled games for the most part. Funny enough, rag doll kung-fu does a comparable job and in many instances better (and yes, it is a SSBB ripoff, but hey, at least it's done well lol). SSBB highest selling fighting game but faaaaaar from what you would call a serious fighter (i know this is going off topic as you didn't say anything other than facts on this). Is it fun? yes. But true and serious fighting games will have much more depth. The Last Blade 1 and 2 from neo geo, the KoF series, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, SF3 third strike. Even SF 4 has immense depth thanks to the various uses of the focus attack system. There are several others but too many to list (guilty gear anyone? Kauki clash?).

Anyways back on topic, "best sports games"? This is a touchy and delicate subject mainly because it's highly subjective. Most Wii sports titles will fall into the category of party games as opposed to serious sports games, such as the NBA2K series, MLB, etc. Now if you go to Europe, South America and certain parts of Africa they will throw rocks at you and mention FIFA, as soccer (football to the rest of the world) is strong everywhere. Best platforming, honestly in a matter of PERSONAL preferance, I would stick it out more for SMB3 (my favorite in the series), but I would go for Ratchet and Clank, and to an extent UC2 as it has ALOT of platforming (then again puzzles and some TPS, wtf is the category of this damn game heeelp lol). In all honesty they got lazy with NSMBW mainly because they have the talent, the money/resources and definitely had the time to do something slightly different. To a SMALL degree each character could have played somewhat differently. I know I will get Wii fanboy hate but it's the truth. Is NSMBW a great game? The answer is an easy yes. But to me, making each character unique would have been completely mindblowing yet simple. It's been a loooooooooong time since I played it but didn't they do something like that in SMB2 american? They had the right idea but ruined the platforming a little bit. SMB2 characters on SMB3 platform would have probably made it the best Mario game ever.

Best party games, AGAIN it's highly subjective. I personally will agree with you on this, but other people will come and say "oh but we can have 7 people on bomberman ultra on the PS3 playing in the same room and it's more fun" (I haven't tried this but it caught my eye), then you will have those that will wanna play split screen FPS games and that will be their party game. I see you are a HUUUUUUUUGE ninty fan and as such, I am pretty sure you remember playing Golden Eye and Perfect Dark with your friends, cuz I know I did, and I enjoyed the hell outta those games.

Best excercise games...I honestly dunno what to say, I probably get a better work out taking a shower......nah lol j/k. I think that was a smart thing for the Wii to do, although for my personal life it's pointless since I do calisthenics 4 -5 days a week and hit the gym about 3 of those. But for people that don't have access to a gym (or live somewhere where the nearest gym is 30 miles away), it's a good alternative. It still makes me wonder what people did before this came along though (wait, I am on to something here, maybe we will have less fat people YAY!!! :P ).

Best backwards compatability. This is a wierd one because I have been able to play every PS1 and PS2 game on my PS3 (80gb, MGS4 bundle). Games I have played range anywhere from xenogears, VP1, VP2, SOTC, parasite eve, xenosaga trilogy, breath of fire dragon quarter, legend of legaia, legend of dragoon, all the way to SOTC, Dark Cloud 1 and 2, etc. So as far as the "better" option, I would say it's in my specific model. the PS1 was known to have the truly OMG games as well as the PS2 (perhaps why they were so successful). Granted, I would still like to play Blaster Master and River City Ransom as those 2 are probably in my favorites list for the NES. Luckily the PS1 has the NES FF remakes, so that's also a win situation for me :).

Best ports and remakes.....hmm I loved RE4 on the Wii, it is perhaps my favorite game for that system along with No More Heroes, TP and Masamune. The God of War collection however brought me back into the GOW3 hype which is huge because I am not one to get hyped up (didn't get hyped for FFXIII nor KZ2). It seems that there are also team ICO updated versions or upgraded ports coming. Meh who knows, just gimme a remake of River City Ransom, Blaster Master, hell even Bad Dudes ("i'm bad!!!").

Brain training games, those are all scattered across all 3 systems, 1 vs 100 is a good example so this one would be inconclusive.

RPG's, you got ME1(not a fan), DA:O, Demon's Souls, SO4 (personally not a fan of this one), LO, ToV, Valkyria Chronicles (personal fav along with demon's souls). Coming soon for Wii a very promising Zelda game and another No More Heroes. Coming soon for the other systems, FFXIII, WKC, Resonance of Fate, The Last Rebellion, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Ar Tonelico 3, ME2, The Last Guardian (adventure/rpg type it seems), FF vs XIII. The list seems to be looking like it is full of some heavy hitters and I doubt every one will fail.

As for Zombie games, it is also highly subjective. I cannot praise RE4 enough on the Wii, and it is perhaps the best zombie game that system has to offer. With that being said, L4D and L4D2 easily surpass any zombie game for several reasons. Single player campaign is fairly fast paced and noone can forget the first time they encountered a witch, or the first time a tank smashed them with a car. The single player aspect alone competes with ANY zombie game on the Wii, but then you have co-op for all campaigns which just adds to the fun. Finally you have the vs multiplayer aspect which is just LOADS of fun. Not knowing if that next corner will have a Boomer pop out and spit at you and your party, blinding everyone and having 100+ zombies ambush you. Jumping from window to window thinking you finally can leave that building behind you, only to be dragged back by a Smoker. Who doesn't hate it when you're the last hope for your team to have at least 1 guy make it to the safe room, only to have a Hunter pounce on you as your hopes die. These are just the bare basics of that game, not counting the teamwork elements involved on both sides. And don't get me started on scavenger in L4D2. Truth is, there is plenty of game to cover on each L4D game along with high replayability value with several options. Alot of people take for granted how great L4D actually is, for what it is: A zombie game that offers soooo much more than 1 or 2 simple playthroughs. RE4 after infinite rockets, it just got meh.

The later levels sprinkle in some new twists/abilities, most notably the ability to "triple-jump" (for lack of a better term).

Wait, I'm gonna stop you riiiiight there. The lag is ABSOLUTELY no excuse for NSMBW not to have an online component. If some of the Wii's other games have it why can't NSMBW. If much more demanding games period, can have online there is NO reason NSMBW can't. The lack of communication may pose some problem. But to me that is another thing Ninty failed to implement in their system. Does it break them? No, as sales prove otherwise, but having something simple added as a headset would definitely add to the experience for the existing fanbase. But going back to the lag part, it is absolutely no excuse if you bothered playing other Wii games online (unless of course you live in PA and somehow end up playing with someone in Japan).

There is only one of two possibilities with the wii.

Either (A)The wii isn't directly competing with the PS360. It intentionally is a side step to target a different market, and has little to do with the original gaming market that the PS360 attempt to continue to tap like conventional consoles in the past.

or (B) The wii is attempting to directly compete with the PS360. It tries to have it's cake and eat it too. It wants the new market of freshly inducted "for fun" gamers that don't take it too seriously, and also is trying to get the traditional gamer that listens to Videogame podcasts and has more than one Videogame website in their bookmarks to check regularly, and will spend more of their money and time on gaming than the former group.

If it's (A) then the wii is a smashing success. But the loyal Nintendo fans don't want to hear it called this, unless it is in the most praising glowing terms of Nintendo's Genius and various maelstrom colloquialisms on Nintendo's daring and foresight. Should some one say it's a great system for kids, and grandma, and something you break out for parties and collects dust the rest of the time, it is a condescending travesty and trolling. Even though the expanded market is kids and older adults, and new people who don't invest that much time or money in gaming.

If A is true, then it is no wonder the enthusiast press is very sour on it, they are not the market for it. And just like a food critic is under no professional obligation to praise McDonalds up and down for it's populace appeal, salty and fatty meals that many find tasty, and their competitive marketing to poor minorities, the enthusiast press is under no obligation to praise Nintendo up and down for taking alot of shortcuts, adding no frills, overcharging for a cheap product, and marketing it to people that don't play many videogames just because it's a success at doing that. The general populace can be satisfied with it and the enthusiast press can still call them out for them making an extreme profit with business savvy at the expense of the inexperienced, non enthusiast consumer. There is no wrong doing there, they are not forced to pander to enthusiast gamers who are also extreme Nintendo loyalists. And the new market isn't reading their website, and don't even know IGN exists.

If (B) is true then Nintendo has just done an atrocious job, and they should rightly be called out on it. If the wii is meant to compete with the PS360, then it is only fair to directly compare it to the other two, in which case it is overpriced, underpowered, and is missing a ton of functionality. The PS360 will both have motion control in some fashion next year, the wii won't have the same online functionality, horsepower, streamlined multimedia functions, ect. If (B) is true, it's not a different experience, it's a lesser experience. Even if you personally don't mind inputting a 12 digit friend code for every person in each game individually, and can't tell who's playing what without popping in different games, or calling them first to co-ordinate you gaming, the other systems offer something drastically better in their online functionality. If (B) is true then there is no wrongdoing on the part of the press because they are perfectly justified on calling Nintendo out on apathetically offering an inferior system.

IGN is calling it like it sees it. The ones complaining are largely just Nintendo loyalists that would rather have them cup Nintendo's balls while they are working the shaft. That's not how it works. They called the 360 out for it's terrible hardware, they've panned the PS3 for it's atrocious launch, PSN's constant game of catch up to LIVE , it's inferior ports, and stupid failures such as "HOME". It's not isolated to just the problems the wii has. I have a wii, I love my wii for what it is, but I acknowledge it has it's abundance of faults. I listen to Nintendo Voice Chat every week, and I didn't hear anything this week that I disagree with. Trying to say that the enthusiasts press's view of the wii is totally unjustified is just putting fanboy blinders on. It's a good system for children and grandma's to pull out every few months, but for people that actually play games (IE the people that go to discuss them on websites) it's got a host of problems that shouldn't be ignored. I can buy No More Heroes 2 on day 1, and still say that the wii has god awful online functionality, and is missing alot of features for the price it sells at. That doesn't make me or the gamers at IGN raging trolls.