My History With The Original Wii And Why I Like The Wii U More
Emily Rogers makes it abundantly clear that she adores the Wii and the Gamecube, but not the Wii U as much. She cites the games and compares each generation's equivalents, and it makes sense, but from a personal standpoint, I gotta say I like the Wii U a whole lot more than the Wii? Why? Join me on an epic journey through time and space.
It's the holiday-season in the year 2006, and the hype for Wii is at a fever-pitch. At the time, I thought I could go into a store and purchase one whenever I wanted to. I had done so for the Gamecube the day after Christmas at Toys "R" Us, and that was only one generation (five years) earlier. Nope. Everywhere it was sold out, in B&M stores and online. When Super Paper Mario was moved from the Gamecube to the Wii, I was pissed. During late April or May of 2007, I had had enough. I needed to jump into the next generation, so what did I buy? An Xbox 360. Yeah. Had I been able to find a Wii, I might never have bought one. Maybe it was for the best. I did have some great experiences on it, although in the long run, very few were truly exclusive (like Blue Dragon), many were timed exclusives (like Mass Effect), and most were multiplatform (Ninja Gaiden 2), but hey; I was able to experience console-gaming at its technically best, right?
Subconsciously, I resented Nintendo for not being able to supply something that I wanted so badly, having been a big fan and supporter of the Gamecube, which was my most-played system of its generation. When was I finally able to find a Wii on a store-shelf? Q1 2008. It was either January, or February, and just in time for Brawl to come out in NA (March). It was another normal day at Target casually looking around as usual, when I spotted a sole Wii in the glass-display; I freaked out. I hurried over to get some help, and after some confusion, I realized that it was a unit placed there to indicate that they had more in stock behind the counter.
Getting a Wii in Q1 2008 was not the same as getting one at launch. I missed all the initial hype that the early adopters got to experience. My first time playing Wii Sports was at a friend's apartment, and his excitement for the thing had passed. I was swinging the Wii Remote for the first time, and I was smiling, but that joy was not reciprocated by anyone else in the room, so I felt pressured to not smile; it was not an enjoyable experience. When Metroid Prime 3 came out, I got Blue Dragon instead. My first time playing Super Mario Galaxy was at a Gamestop with an angry kid looking over my shoulder impatiently waiting for his turn to play.
If I had not gotten a 360, I would not have been exposed firsthand to the graphical-fidelity it was capable of, and maybe I would have accepted the Wii's horsepower more, but the fact is that I had a 360 first and thus the graphics on Wii seemed a lot worse than it might have seemed if I had the Wii first. It looked blurry on LCDs (the Wii looks far better on CRTs). I also didn't have an income when the Wii was out. I was still forcing myself through college with as few credits per semester as I was required to do, and so I couldn't purchase many games.
Contrast that with the Wii U, which I purchased very easily at a Best Buy in Q1 of 2013, just one financial quarter after the Wii U's launch. I quit law-school shortly after (for unrelated reasons), started working for my parents who gave me a small income, and now I could afford to buy any and all Wii U games I wanted. The first few months of owning the Wii U felt almost like the first few months of owning the Gamecube. The graphics were a giant step over the previous console, and there was some third-party support.
Although third-party support dropped off, first-party support revved on. When people say that the Wii U is underrated, they are comparing it to Xbox One and PS4, the sales of all three, and compared to the sales, Wii U is underrated. But I see Emily Rogers's point. When she compares game to game in each franchise, Gamecube and Wii wins over Wii U, but I still love my Wii U. I love it hard; I love it to death.
It's the holiday-season in the year 2006, and the hype for Wii is at a fever-pitch. At the time, I thought I could go into a store and purchase one whenever I wanted to. I had done so for the Gamecube the day after Christmas at Toys "R" Us, and that was only one generation (five years) earlier. Nope. Everywhere it was sold out, in B&M stores and online. When Super Paper Mario was moved from the Gamecube to the Wii, I was pissed. During late April or May of 2007, I had had enough. I needed to jump into the next generation, so what did I buy? An Xbox 360. Yeah. Had I been able to find a Wii, I might never have bought one. Maybe it was for the best. I did have some great experiences on it, although in the long run, very few were truly exclusive (like Blue Dragon), many were timed exclusives (like Mass Effect), and most were multiplatform (Ninja Gaiden 2), but hey; I was able to experience console-gaming at its technically best, right?
Subconsciously, I resented Nintendo for not being able to supply something that I wanted so badly, having been a big fan and supporter of the Gamecube, which was my most-played system of its generation. When was I finally able to find a Wii on a store-shelf? Q1 2008. It was either January, or February, and just in time for Brawl to come out in NA (March). It was another normal day at Target casually looking around as usual, when I spotted a sole Wii in the glass-display; I freaked out. I hurried over to get some help, and after some confusion, I realized that it was a unit placed there to indicate that they had more in stock behind the counter.
Getting a Wii in Q1 2008 was not the same as getting one at launch. I missed all the initial hype that the early adopters got to experience. My first time playing Wii Sports was at a friend's apartment, and his excitement for the thing had passed. I was swinging the Wii Remote for the first time, and I was smiling, but that joy was not reciprocated by anyone else in the room, so I felt pressured to not smile; it was not an enjoyable experience. When Metroid Prime 3 came out, I got Blue Dragon instead. My first time playing Super Mario Galaxy was at a Gamestop with an angry kid looking over my shoulder impatiently waiting for his turn to play.
If I had not gotten a 360, I would not have been exposed firsthand to the graphical-fidelity it was capable of, and maybe I would have accepted the Wii's horsepower more, but the fact is that I had a 360 first and thus the graphics on Wii seemed a lot worse than it might have seemed if I had the Wii first. It looked blurry on LCDs (the Wii looks far better on CRTs). I also didn't have an income when the Wii was out. I was still forcing myself through college with as few credits per semester as I was required to do, and so I couldn't purchase many games.
Contrast that with the Wii U, which I purchased very easily at a Best Buy in Q1 of 2013, just one financial quarter after the Wii U's launch. I quit law-school shortly after (for unrelated reasons), started working for my parents who gave me a small income, and now I could afford to buy any and all Wii U games I wanted. The first few months of owning the Wii U felt almost like the first few months of owning the Gamecube. The graphics were a giant step over the previous console, and there was some third-party support.
Although third-party support dropped off, first-party support revved on. When people say that the Wii U is underrated, they are comparing it to Xbox One and PS4, the sales of all three, and compared to the sales, Wii U is underrated. But I see Emily Rogers's point. When she compares game to game in each franchise, Gamecube and Wii wins over Wii U, but I still love my Wii U. I love it hard; I love it to death.
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