Top 10 Wii complaints
Top 10 Wii complaints
Nintendo isn't quite the giant it was a million years ago, but the company is still going strong. The Wii represents a wacky new philosophy of a console for everyone, young or old - a Volkswagen of gaming, even. But despite Nintendo's experience and great intentions, the Wii is hardly free of alienating annoyances. In a lot of ways the cute little thing is actually more frustrating and intimidating than any of its predecessors. And the thing is, most of this stuff could have been avoided. Is it just us, or should this kind of stuff not have to be tolerated in this day and age? Here's what gamers have been bitching about...
VC Games Tied to Individual Wiis
Want to play a little Bomberman at your friend's house? He's going to have to buy it, or you're going to have to lug your Wii over. No pop-outable hard drive. No logging on to your account from over there. No iTunes-like keying of your game library to your SD card. We can see wanting to avoid piracy, but the Wii is something Nintendo could update to kill freeloading tricks when and if they came up, and most anyone with that mentality already has all these games for their emulators, anyway. Pretty much the only reason this doesn't rank higher is compared to lugging around any other system moving a Wii is like carrying a memory card.
Getting Online
The Wii's got a great little online backend and interface, but to get on there you have to go wireless. If you're one of those stone age bastards who doesn't have everything from your PC to your coffeemaker linked up through a cloud of magic computer rays, well, tough. You can't plug the little bastard into a wall (the only way is to order a seperate USB to LAN adapter). Seems like if you won't join the wireless age then Nintendo just doesn't want you playing their online games. You know, if they had any.
Being Online
Where the PS3 has a lousy, all-over-the-place online scheme with a handful of games trying to make it work, Nintendo seems to have a potentially great online setup with absolutely no games whatsoever taking advantage of it. For now and the immediate future there just isn't any point to even hooking the thing up other than downloading VC games or trading your Miis around. Which can get old after about the fifteenth Jesus or Michael Jackson wanders into your Mii parade.
20 Hour Battery Life
Yeah, it beeps and shakes and stuff, but still, that's pretty damn short for a wireless controller. Worse, it's the only one this generation that you can't just plug in to a USB port to recharge. You're either going to have to buy a battery charger, or stockpile an assload of AAs. Whee.
Classic Controller
You have to buy one for an awful damn lot of the Virtual Console games. That's fine. In fact, it's such a nice little controller that we rather wish we could use it instead of the GameCube controller for Cube games. Which we freaking can't. What also bugs us is that it's required at all for some of the VC games - there really isn't any reason someone who wanted to skip yet another optional purchase shouldn't be able to play Mario 64 with a Wiimote and 'chuck. Worse, you have to plug the bastard into your Wiimote, further contributing to the flood of AAs going to battery heaven.
No Pack-in Component Cables
At this point we're still just relieved that Wii even supports it, but it's yet another expense on top of an already big pile of stuff. Yeah, the Wii is cheap, but we're getting nickel and dimed to death on stuff that really should have been in the box. We're even less impressed that the ones we already got for the Gamecube don't work.
Not Region Free
We're not just feeling petulant because Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan promised us and we didn't get a pony. Once upon a time this might have been a lot to ask, but after the DS, PSP, PS3 and to some extent the 360 all let us play imports it's something we've come to expect.
Weak Wrist Strap
Considering all the warnings in the user manual and the constant in-game reminders to only use the Wii-mote with the strap lest you accidentally destroy everyone and everything you ever loved, you'd think they'd have made one that wouldn't break if you stare at it too hard.
Short Sensor Bar Cord
This won't be any kind of problem for most. For those with front projection TVs, however, this can amount to a monumental pain in the ass. All you can really do about it is cut the damn thing and splice in an extra length of wire, or maybe you could cobble together something else as a surrogate sensor -- it's just a light emitter, after all. It's just a shame that there isn't a longer cord, a wireless option, or hell, if the thing isn't actually communicating with the Wii why can't we just plug it into the wall?
Mii Shortcomings
They don't have ears! How the hell are we supposed to make unflattering caricatures of the president? Alright, we're just being assholes there. It's actually kind of a compliment that we couldn't think of anything worse.