Ok, I know people are going to flame the F out of me, after this post, but oh well, it will be fun. "Flame Suit Engaged"
The best launch lineup ever? Are you fucking kidding me? Not only is this not the best launch lineup ever, it's probably one of the worst ever. First off, just because there is quanitiy, doesn't mean that any of these games are actually worth the full pop that they are going to be asking for them. Having a ton of GameCube games, ported to the Wii with some Wii-mote functionality added at the last minute, does not a good launch make. You guys are so fucking desperate for Nintendo to be a relevent again, that you are considering buying games like Far Cry and Tony Hawks Downhill Jam. Give me a freaking break!! I'm guessing that Far Cry for Xbox 1 will be vastly superior, and that Tony Hawk will be nothing more than a GameCube game with some tilt control added on top.
Even if you look at supposedly the two best games for launch, Zelda and Metroid, both games have some serious issues. Zelda will surely be a great game, but there really isn't any reason to be buying a Wii for this game. It's basically a Cube game through and through, and doing some fishing or firing some arrows isn't going to change that. If you have a Cube, and you are getting a Wii just to play Zelda, then you are fooling yourself that the experience is going to be vastly different, when it isn't. It would be one thing if you were buying a Wii for a bunch of other games, and because you are getting a Wii anyways, you might as well get the Wii version of Zelda instead of the Cube version, but I seriously doubt there is any other "really" compelling software to push you into buying a Wii. As for Metroid, again, we have basically a GameCube game, except this time, it's using a control scheme that is going to make the gameplay worse instead of better. The whole idea of moving your Wii-mote around inside a box within a box, is just dumb to me. I played Metroid Prime on the Cube and enjoyed it, but that was years and years ago. This game is basically the same graphically, yet with a control scheme that will likely make the gameplay worse.
And those are the two biggest games for the Wii! I'm not even going to get into all the other quickie ports that are coming to this thing to cash in on the hype. I will talk about Red Steel for a second though. Here is game that looked really good, when we first saw it in Game Informer magazine, when the pics first hit the net. Of course, it turns out that the graphics are way less advanced looking. But much worse than the downgraded graphics, is the fact that the control scheme is horrible. Don't ask me about it, ask EGM or Game Informer or IGN or anybody that has actually had hands on time with Red Steel. The gist of their takes is that the control scheme needs to be complete overhauled and revamped prior to launch, and I just don't seem them achieving that in such a short period of time.
Metal Slug Anthology has been mentioned, and I don't understand why anybody is really hyped on this game. This game has no logical purpose for being on the Wii, other than to cash in on the overblown Wii launch hype. I'm sure it's a good game and all, but what benefit does it have with being on the Wii? Isn't this game already on the Xbox or PS2 or Cube? Why pay for it again, just to play it with a controller that isn't suited to it? And I know that you just turn the controller sideways, but I'm guessing it's not as comfortable as a dual shock or controller S or a Cube controller, when used that way. The reason that Metal Slug is getting so much hype with the Wii launch is because everybody knows that it's going to be a game that's impossible to fuck up. They know it's going to be solid, at least, and not a dud, so they are saying, "Well at least I know Metal Slug will be a good game, so I can always play that some when I get bored of Wii Sports." But if you're really honest with yourself, there isn't any real reason to get this on the Wii, when it's available on other consoles for cheaper, and probably with a better playing controller.
I'm sorry to come off as such an asshole with this post, but the amount of Myopia going on in here is just amazing! People are basically trying to convince themselves that this Wii lineup is going to be outstanding, when in actuality it's a bunch of quantity, a bunch of Cube ports, a bunch of tacked on at the last second Wii-mote functionality, crap.
You might think I'm anti-Nintendo or something, and that I'm a Sony or MS fanboy or something, but that isn't the case. I'm not a fanboy of anybody. In fact, if the Wii is $199 or less, I'm buying one on day one. The one game that I'll buy is Wii sports. All the other games can go to hell as far as I'm concerned, because I'm not interested in Cube ports with tacked on Wii-mote functionality. I'm very excited about the possibilities of the Wii, but I'm not going to convince myself that this launch lineup is anything other than a bunch of crap to capitalize on the Wii hype machine started by about 10,000 Nintendo fanboys at E3. Will I rent ExciteTruck or some of the other games, sure, but let's calm down a little bit and think rationally about this launch lineup. There really isn't one single game that could be considered a killer app. You simply can't consider a Cube port to be a killer app, no matter how good of a Cube game it is. Maybe it's a killer app for the Cube, but a new system should have a killer app that's built for it, from the ground up, using all the capabilities of that system, from the video to the audio to the controller functionality. The closest thing to a killer app is Wii Sports, and that's the game that I'm going to get, because I'm sure it's going to be a ton of mindless fun.
Let the flaming begin