Wii Sports Games: It's Time to Evolve Again

[RaychelSnr]

Sports video games in the United States make up a strong subculture in the gaming community. In general, video games were able to sustain sales, and even grow during 2008. While video games may not be recession-proof, they do provide a fun and alternative form of entertainment while being financially safe. Most of the video-game growth in 2008 came from the Nintendo Wii, which just so happens to be the cheapest home console as well.

People are reluctant to go out and spend $10 on a movie ticket when they can stay at home and rent something in HD On Demand; or better yet, get together with the family and friends and play some Mario Kart Wii during a cold winter night.

The Wii has been dominating Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 in the sales department. Nintendo has dominated because developers have created games that people of all skill levels can easily handle, the console is cheaper, and it is marketed as a console for the whole family.

Read More - Wii Sports Games: It's Time to Evolve Again

[nikkiwii]

Could, but wont. NBA Live 09 is a prime example of what we will be getting. Dumbed down, no features, no buys.

[ehh]

I hate this phrase, but the Wii is what it is. It has no reason to change, especially something as insignificant to the platform as sports games.

[rudyjuly2]

The Wii may dominate the casual gaming sales but it will always suck as a sports gaming system. Tiger Woods may be the only one that can do well because of the swing. As for football, baseball, basketball or hockey, I see the Nintendo controller as a hindrance to what can be done on the 360 or PS3. Plus the graphics pale in comparison. The Wii was never designed for sports gamers and the sales in that department will always be last.

[yamabushi]

Your Wiis a party game machine. get over it.

[e0820]

If they want to make a Wii sports game that really involves movement they need to make a dance pad type floor device that would allow you to do movements like jukes and pivots.

[Dondadda]

As soon as I heard about the balance board, I dreamed of balance board integration into baseball (true batting stance), golf (body weight shift), and hockey (control your skating with your feet, and have "realistic" control over both of your player's hands with the Wiimote and Nunchuk). Of course, skiing / snowboarding / skateboarding has already been explored. Even boxing and MMA games can incorporate the balance board for footwork.

Come on developers, get off your lazy asses and innovate!!! Cut the "me too" junk. I'm hoping that this stuff is already in the pipeline.

[CarryTheWeight]

Some Wii sports titles aren't as bad as people think. Tiger Woods 09, despite a clunky putting interface, was a pretty fun game. PES2008 was extremely innovative last year and a blast to play (here's hoping 2009's the same).

But for every two great sports titles on Wii, there's twenty-two worthless pieces of shovelware. 2K Sports extensively campaigned for NHL 2K9 this year on Wii and the final product was unlike anything their developers announced. It was not an experience that made me want to forget playing the 360 version...sure, its controls were fun but its audio/visual quality was simply ABYSMAL. I'm not expecting wonders with Wii's graphics, but at least give me something that holds up and doesn't make me want to turn on the 360. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros Brawl and The Conduit do it, so why not the average sports title on Wii? Perplexing...

EA Sports is one of the guiltiest parties on Wii. Not only does it port its last-gen graphics, gameplay and physics engines over to Wii, but somewhere in-between, the graphical quality actually declines. NCAA Football 09 All-Play is the biggest culprit here, as its player models actually looked worse than past NCAA Football titles on PS2 and Xbox. Isn't the Wii hardware supposed to have equal or superior graphical quality over those systems? It's really inexcusable when NCAA Football 2005 is lightyears ahead of NCAA Football 09 All-Play. I mean, the game doesn't even have authentic stadiums (disc space is no issue since Wii Optical Discs hold as much as the Xbox 360 DVD-9's). Just because it uses a control scheme that emphasizes first-time players doesn't mean it needs a graphics scheme designed for people who haven't played video games since hearing "Separate Ways" play off a tape deck in the Journey arcade machine.

Tiger Woods, Nintendo sports games and PES are the leaders of the pack on Wii. Why can't we get quality over quantity one of these days? It pains me to see that instead of 20 solid, fun and intuitive sports games, we get 200 lame pieces of shovelware destined to rot for years in the bargain bin at CVS. And don't tell me casual gamers buy all that stuff, because it's not true...I think if Wii gets a solid sports title, enough word of mouth will build (essentially what happened to PES2008).