Retro|Spective 220: The Final Tour of Wii

[Neon Ignition]

Another Nintendo system gets in tie in our spotlight and this time it's one of the companies most successful systems. Having seen their market share decline generation on generation, the systems launch saw interest in their products rocket thanks to the motion controls and low price of the console.

Retro|Spective 220: The Final Tour of Wii

The system without the U in the name had the opposite fortunes to the one with the letter in its name. Nintendo managed to essentially repackage last gen tech in a smaller box and the controller marked the real difference between the system and its predecessor, the Gamecube - the system that was also hidden side for backwards compatibility. The popularity of the system meant that companies flooded the market with new releases and the unique nature of the controllers meant that a solid number of titles were exclusive to the console and remain so today. The casual nature of the machine though also meant that, like the wide appealed PS2, there was a metric ton of shovelware on the system as well.

This time out, we take a look at the remaining exclusives that still require a Wii to play - just the more notable ones though

[Neon Ignition]

Game 01 - Animal Crossing: City Life
Animal Crossing games being exclusively bound to their launch system is no surprise given each entry is largely iterative on the one before meaning there's no need to rerelease them on successor systems. Players could once again visit each others villages whilst this entry was the first in the series to support voice chat. The use of motion controls miced things up for those who had played other entries though the game drew one of the more mixed responses critically due to how little it progressed things.



What did you make of the Wii's entry?

[egparadigm]

I’ve played my Wii quite a bit in the last six months, mainly prompted by having access to CRTs and the right cabling for quality 480i (as opposed to fuzzyness on a flat screen). I’ve been enjoying my time with the system playing Bonsai Barber, Metroid Prime 2 (with added motion), Metroid Other M and a couple Resident Evils via GameCube.

Interestingly, it’s been good to have the sensor bar for Metroid Prime 2. I couldn’t get on with pointer controls on MP1 Remastered on Switch because you have to continually reset the pointer position in the absence of a sensor bar. Playing on Wii was therefore a revelation.

As to Anima Crossing, I haven’t played another since the original GameCube game (ported from N64). I did revisit my village when transferring saves to my Memcard Pro GC and let’s just say it was “overgrown”. 🌱🌿🌼

[Neon Ignition]

Game 02 - Arc Rising Fantasia
Nintendo approached developers wanting an RPG for the Wii and Marvelous responded with this title that involved some staffers from the Tales series. The game scored mixed reviews and sold poorly which led to a planned European release being cancelled.




Did the game ever Rise to the occasion for you?

[Mayhem]

Don’t recall that at all.

As for AC, I think I’d blasted the GC version so much I decided to pass on the Wii release.