How would you fix the Wii?

[Joeshie]

The Wii needs more mature games for it's library.

No, I'm not talking about Gears of War mature games in the sense that a game must have tons of blood on screen at all times. I'm talking about complexity in the plot, gameplay, level design, etc. One of the biggest signals of maturity in any form of media is a higher amount of complexity and/or emotional depth that comes with it. Be it music, movies, books, plays, art, etc.

Unfortunately, the Wii seriously lacks games in those departments. In order to keep it's library family friendly, Nintendo has never released any mature games on the system and third-party developers are largely hesitant to develop for the system in fear that there just aren't enough core gamers to buy the mature games that they release.

Also, as someone who has never really been a huge fan of Nintendo's past titles, I would much rather see them branch out into more mature media rather than falling back on another Mario or Zelda game. Try something different, but not different in the sense that you release crap like Wii Fit or Wii Music.

The Wii also needs more higher quality games overall. If you take a look at the Metacritic scores of the Wii library and compare it to the library of the PS3/360, the Wii is sorely lacking in terms of quality games. It's quite sad really.

 

[MsDevin92]

I'd make some new, colorful, and most of all fun games. So far, the only thing apart from Mario, Samus, and Zelda I've heard of seems to be some new Nintendo game released in Japan called 'Captain Rainbow', which has my interest just by the title. The system needs new lifeblood that not only makes good use of the controls, but also sucks people in by refreshing the video game rosters.

 

[Crazybuddha56]

I actually read an interesting article in Game Informer on the subject. They suggested creating games that actually use the peripherals in an interesting way. For example, the wii fit board could be used for the player to simulate running in a game. The player would need to run in place to move forward, or preform another action to jump. The wiimote and numchuck could be used for a right and left hand. With it, the players movements could be tracked and used by the character. You would have to actually reach out to grab something or actually run to run, which is really what the wii should have done all along. Imagine a game like oblivion or fallout where you held your sword in the right hand (Wiimote) shield in the left (Numchuck) and had to actually sword fight, and not the stupid wrist flick for premade animation crap like in zelda, but a system that made it feel like the wiimote was the actual hilt of the sword with advanced motion tracking. I would buy that, and it would do what the wii was meant to do.
I also agree that the wiis library sucks.

 

[Joos]

Right, the Wii is a good concept of a console. However, the wiimote only made it halfway, the processor is too slow to be of any use and the GPU is more or less useless. So first of all, I would revamp the hardware, something like this:

http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=consoleyj4.jpg

The CPU/RAM/GPU setup is inspired by the Xbox concept, only updated with more relevant hardware. If the CPU should be IBM/Cell based or some sort of intel i7 derivate I don't know.

But what I do want, is:
Full HDMI output (some legacy connections for n00bs, but full HD is important for me).
Built in hard drive, fully interchangeable ala PS3
Fully functional Bluray for movies and games ala PS3
Fully 3D gyroscopic Wii-motes connected via bluetooth
Proper joypad connectivity via bluetooth/USB ala PS3
Gigabit ethernet and wireless N protocol.

I want a seamless integration with the online community
I want to be able to rent/stream HD movies online
I want to be able to download small arcade games

I want the console to be portable
I want the console to be durable

I want more mature games
I want the funky wii-mote games with better integration
I want the leisure and exercise games
I want a mouse and a keyboard

This isn't too much to ask, is it?

(this would be my dream console, I dont care if the brand says MS, Sony or Nintendo)

 

[mark_n_b]

Me, I'd use a screwdriver, maybe some compressed air...

 

[Signa]

@ Joos

sounds like you want a PC.

I think that as a console, the Wii is perfect. The concept is perfect, and the hardware is perfect. Advanced CPUs and GPUs don't make games better, in fact I think they make them worse. Too much time is spent making a game act and look cool, that they neglect the game itself. Every time I pick up Metroid Prime 1 and 2, I just ask myself, "Why do I need better graphics than this?" Not only that, but it's also driving up the costs for the end consumer, so we are getting even less bang for our buck. I say, bring back the old ways: the 4 player split screen and the games that you could sit all day playing with your friends on the couch next to you. I certainly wouldn't mind HD for the 4 player games, as 1/4 SD resolution is too small.

 

[Retrofraction]

I wish they had put the exspantion port on one of the big flat sides, so they could just make a wii exspantion that doubles for a dual core proccessing and a HD grpahic card ( maby a hard drive )

that way I wouldn't need to buy a new system in a few years.

 

[Retrofraction]

Right, the Wii is a good concept of a console. However, the wiimote only made it halfway, the processor is too slow to be of any use and the GPU is more or less useless. So first of all, I would revamp the hardware, something like this:

http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=consoleyj4.jpg

The CPU/RAM/GPU setup is inspired by the Xbox concept, only updated with more relevant hardware. If the CPU should be IBM/Cell based or some sort of intel i7 derivate I don't know.

But what I do want, is:
Full HDMI output (some legacy connections for n00bs, but full HD is important for me).
Built in hard drive, fully interchangeable ala PS3
Fully functional Bluray for movies and games ala PS3
Fully 3D gyroscopic Wii-motes connected via bluetooth
Proper joypad connectivity via bluetooth/USB ala PS3
Gigabit ethernet and wireless N protocol.

I want a seamless integration with the online community
I want to be able to rent/stream HD movies online
I want to be able to download small arcade games

I want the console to be portable
I want the console to be durable

I want more mature games
I want the funky wii-mote games with better integration
I want the leisure and exercise games
I want a mouse and a keyboard

This isn't too much to ask, is it?

(this would be my dream console, I dont care if the brand says MS, Sony or Nintendo)

looks good, but do you really need the quad core tech since they haven't really supported it yet?

I wouldn't share the ram if you want it to run the next gen games( by the way do they make DDR5 now?)

is it totaly nessasary to have a Blue ray drive? since it has an Hard drive couldn't we just put it on multiple disks and cut costs?

sounds cool, I agree we need somthing that can do at least 1080P next generation or else microsoft is going to shank nintendo.

Microsoft is currently working on motion controls for their next system, unless the next wii does not have the horse power they will kill nintendo without shame.

hard drive seems good, but if you plan to do DDR5 wouldn't you get more out it if you did RAID?

 

[Joos]

Retrofaction,

The unreal 3 engine supports multi threading on both current xbox 360 and PS3, so adding a few more cores will most propably help in the long run. And thats just one game engine. Hell, GTAIV for PC loads up three cores to the max on quad cores currently, so I guess I should change the graph above to six cores.

About DDR5, it is currently in use on Ati's 4870 series of graphics cards. It offers twice the bandwidth over DDR3. This allows for massive performance that you will need when you render at Full HD (1920x1080).

The unified memory structure on the xbox 360 is really clever. It makes sure you don't have to store data in two places at the same time as you have to in a classic PC setup, where the textures in RAM is mirrored onto the GPU. Shared is better since there is no waste.

I want a bluray drive. I don't need it. The format war is over and bluray won, so why go with an old medium if you don't have to? Bluray it is!

Raid RAM? I think you are confused. You don't RAID ram, you RAID hard drives. And RAID hardrives doesn't have anything to do in a console.

Signa, as most console engineers do, I take the good stuff from the PC world when I drafted this dream console, but no, I do not want another PC. For example, I want the tight system integration you get from custom OS for a feature specific machine with full support for exotic things like wii motes etc. Lovely!

 

[The Wooster]

Anti ailising. The jaggies make the thing unplayable on LCD TVs. Oh some more good games would be nice too.

 

[Jumpman]

with a sledge hammer and some battery acid? seriously though, even though I would probably never buy one, I cant deny its sales record. It doesnt need to be fixed, its doing really well. sure the games are mostly regurgitated nintendo garbage and they look like a screensaver from windows 95, but they're drawing in lots of people who had never before given videogames the time of day. thats good in my book, assuming everyone doesnt start copying them and leaving the actual gamers out to dry, which seems unlikely at this point.