RCBH928 wrote:Wii's advantage was motion control. Releasing ACIII, Mass Effect, and Arkham City bombed because they are a worse version than their PS4/X1 counterparts so why get a Wii U? The idea of a tablet controller is nice but I don't know why it didn't pickup or been utilized better.
My opinion: motion control succeeded on the Wii because it can be a very intuitive form of control for the kind of software that Nintendo sold the console to new audiences on. Second screen control, on the other hand, often adds complexity or means looking away from the action. Jets or race cars aren't moving vital information into the pilot's lap, they're putting them on a HUD.
That said, Nintendo did probably look at the use patterns and realized that a personal screen for gaming
was something people valued, leading to the Switch.
Otherwise, sure, the early ports weren't perfect. They were generally comparable to PS3/360 versions (though sometimes a little better), but a number also came out late. I just mentioned them to illustrate that Nintendo did continue to try catering to the core audience too (and continued to, publishing
Bayonetta 2 for example).
PS3/360 implementation of motion control totally sucked with expensive controller add-ons and I don't think the kinect worked well not to mention the later on constant camera recording you. That being said I see a 0 reason that Wii "family" games can't be implemented on 360/PS3. In fact that is a nice library of it like Just Dance, Rockband, Sonic/Crash kart racers, modnation, LBP, Portal, World of Goo, You don't know Jack, and Buzz.
There's nothing really preventing all ages, couch multiplayer style games from being on MS or Sony platforms, sure. As you mentioned, there are a number present on the systems, and some of them did sell well. Functionally, motion control stuff on them was fine...but it was introduced later, only supported by select games, and wasn't cheap.
The Wii, on the other hand, had the focus and marketing for it out of the gate. Want to play video game tennis by waving the familiar-looking remote at the TV, instead of trying to figure out that button-laden boomerang? Buy the Nintendo. Similar thing with
Wii Fit and the like later. Motion control wasn't a feature-add, but a core part of the system's identity. The DS, a year or so earlier, was a similar sell. Use a stylus, play things like
Nintendogs or
Brain Age. Obviously, it has a stellar library for core gamers too, but a lot of people didn't buy them for that. My mom was the first in my family to get a DS, for puzzle games. None of us sold her on it, Nintendo's advertising did.
It would be interesting to see if Wii's library is actually the more unique between it, PS3, and 360. Maybe PS3/360 had more but overshadowed by the big titles. But I must say when it comes to uniqueness the Wii must be the most different given most games probably had the motion controls on it and many were probably exclusive. Are they good or are they just enjoyed by the person that likes obscurities just because...that is another question and to each his own.
All three have unique titles, and it'd likely depend on what exactly you want - the PS3, once it got going, got a lot more JRPGs for instance. The Wii just got very unique because it differed so much in specs from MS/Sony that cross-porting to it was rarely feasible. In the same way that a lot of GBA games are kinda-sorta what continued SNES games would have been, the Wii (setting aside motion control), is kind of what continued PS2 development would have seen. Lots of variety in what was basically the last SD console. There are plenty of legit good games on it, among the shovelware.
