Wii Mini Disappoints

[Grabehn]

Compatibility was the only thing I expected from the original Wii, since there was always the possibility that my GC stopped working (just a week ago my 64 died on my), aside from the "revolutionary gameplay and rather slick look (black and blue that they announced at first)but other than that, I didn't even wanted it, then my fathe bought it and it was decent. Now comes this, that has even worse resolution and no retroactive compatibility?

What a huge amount to pay for a paperweight then. It doesn't even look good! it just sounds to me as the 5 versions of the DS, which didn't add anything at all and had no interesting features added, and I still have my original electric blue DS.

 

[xptn40S]

Heh, cant help but think that alot of these complaints are from people who werent even going to buy a mini any way. Please stop and get off your high horse. A bit of reading and research would probably give you enough of an idea as to why they have gutted the wii mini in the first place.

The internet capabilities of the wii were central to softmodding the console and external HDD are used to store ripped games. I'm not surprised they did it but I am surprised they thought it would sell well.

Sooo, what you're saying is that they got rid of a bunch of stuff on it because: Pirates?! Oh no!

...or alternatively (if one feels cynical), it could have been because they wanted to strip it of as many features as possible to lower the production-costs, and then sell it for a "cheaper" price, which is something that I certainly wouldn't mind, but they've certainly taken away a bit too many features, on top of making the console itself look less appealing.

Now do tell me, which one of these scenarios do you find to be more likely to happen? Because if it's the former then all I can say is that they just might be five years too late to take Piracy into consideration, seeing how, y'know, the standard model Wii still exists, so that excuse would go out of the window.

 

[Drauger]

@xptn40S: ehhh...... i think it's a mix of both, seriously rememebr how many versions of wii we got everyone was supposed to be less hackeable thant the previous , so yes i think they took both things , piracy and ripping of as much money as they can into consideration.

Ontopic: Got a wii once , the one that came with mario kart? onlye game i played and liked, eventually i gave it as a present to my brother, and heck he plays more old gamecube games than wii....

 

[Arcadian Legend]

please tell me this was a joke.

what did you expect, nintendo was nintendon't for the last 10 years, you want them to actually do something good for a change?

Huh? I can undetrstand the Wii, but what exactly did the Gamecube do wrong?

 

[Piorn]

Weird. You'd think they'd manage to cram the same hardware into about half the space by now. And for a reasonably low price, I'd even get one.
This just makes me care even less about Nintendo.

 

[Strazdas]

please tell me this was a joke.

what did you expect, nintendo was nintendon't for the last 10 years, you want them to actually do something good for a change?

Huh? I can undetrstand the Wii, but what exactly did the Gamecube do wrong?

Gamecube was fine, Gamecube games on the other hand....

 

[saleem]

Sooo, what you're saying is that they got rid of a bunch of stuff on it because: Pirates?! Oh no!

...or alternatively (if one feels cynical), it could have been because they wanted to strip it of as many features as possible to lower the production-costs, and then sell it for a "cheaper" price, which is something that I certainly wouldn't mind, but they've certainly taken away a bit too many features, on top of making the console itself look less appealing.

Now do tell me, which one of these scenarios do you find to be more likely to happen? Because if it's the former then all I can say is that they just might be five years too late to take Piracy into consideration, seeing how, y'know, the standard model Wii still exists, so that excuse would go out of the window.

Oh please enough with the faux indignation you probably were never going to buy it in the first place, also as the guy after you mentioned its very likely that it would have at least been part of the reason for it a long with providing a cheap platform. It is also possible that with the improvements made to the Wii U's internet infrastructure the Wii is no longer compatible 100%

Having a Wii I can tell you that the existing infrastructure supporting it is rather weak, its slow and prone to dropping. Even when it comes to streaming media its rather sub par compared to what the Xbox and PS3 offer. So the Mini doesnt have net access anymore, big whoop! Additionally anyone who bought one to play cube games probably did so years ago.

Seriously all this drama over nothing is pathetic

 

[Jfswift]

This will probably turn into a collectors item down the road. I think it looks cool anyway.

 

[DonTsetsi]

Wow, interlaced graphics, I guess the Wii Mini is only useful for games with little to no rapid motion.

 

[xptn40S]

Oh please enough with the faux indignation you probably were never going to buy it in the first place,

Seeing how there's already two regular Wiis in the apartment I live in, that would be correct.

also as the guy after you mentioned its very likely that it would have at least been part of the reason for it a long with providing a cheap platform.

I wouldn't deny that that could be the case, but I was just saying that it seemed less likely that Nintento would make a new version of the Wii just to combat piracy (as you seemed to imply in your previous post) than it would for Nintendo to take out a few functions from an already somewhat lacking console to sell it for a cheaper price.

But yes, a mix of both could very well be possible.

Having a Wii I can tell you that the existing infrastructure supporting it is rather weak, its slow and prone to dropping. Even when it comes to streaming media its rather sub par compared to what the Xbox and PS3 offer. So the Mini doesnt have net access anymore, big whoop!

As much as I agree that the infrastructure for the Wii's network was rather weak, and for how few games actually used it, it was at least something.

And also, wasn't the Virtual Console channel on the Wii one of the Wii's greatest selling-points? Wouldn't the lack of an internet-connection remove this selling-point?

Seriously all this drama over nothing is pathetic

...isn't it sort of hypocritical to complain about people complaining about trivial things?

I mean, I would never inherently complain about Nintendo making a new version of their existing console (the 360 and PS3 did this as well, and the idea of them doing so bothers me as little now as it did back then), but now that I think about it, it seems detrimental to them to remove the internet-access so that in the process, they remove one of the Wii's major selling-points (the Virtual Console Channel).

I'm just keeping a critical eye on things is all, and so are probably many others doing here in this thread.

 

[praetor_alpha]

Same name as something popular? check.
Cheap? check.
Shitty hardware? check.
Shitty feature set? double check.

Everything points to this being an absolute success. I wouldn't bet against it.

 

[Frezzato]

Component only with no Internet? Dd I get that right, not even wi if? No reason to own. No wii ware and virtual arcade. Ugh.

Actually, it's not even component. It's composite-only according to the article. Component would take the res up to 480p and the Wii Mini will only do 480i.

 

[Jumwa]

I really don't know what kind of crowd Nintendo was trying to appeal to with this.

Not us, that's really about all that needs to be said.

This is obviously targeted at a demographic that does not include or overlap with gamers.

In an interview they listed it as a cheap gaming device marketed at the "cottage crowd", for something to shove in your cottage to pass some time now and then. Or for the very young kids, stripping out the internet and making it "more safe" for them.

Regardless, I don't know why everyone gets so upset over Nintendo's every new model of anything. The outrage and disgust that was expressed when the DSi XL was first announced still rings in my ears.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. As was pointed out, the basic Wii is fairly cheap as is still, so gamers have affordable options. And the fact that this thing was only released in a test market should hint at something.

 

[DirgeNovak]

I will buy a Wii sometime next year when they're about 50$, but I want GameCube support and the Virtual Console too.
I can't figure out who is this thing's target audience.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"might just be the first time Ninty's missed the mark."
Virtual Boy anyone? Plus their many attempts at a good online service over decades?

But how is this news?
Already read about all the limitations and omisions last week on Ars. :\

 

[Epona]

Component only with no Internet? Dd I get that right, not even wi if? No reason to own. No wii ware and virtual arcade. Ugh.

please tell me this was a joke.

what did you expect, nintendo was nintendon't for the last 10 years, you want them to actually do something good for a change?

Huh? I can undetrstand the Wii, but what exactly did the Gamecube do wrong?

Gamecube was fine, Gamecube games on the other hand....

1) 480i only, not 480p so I am guess that means it still uses the component cables (the PS2 did for 480i).

2) ...were amazing compared to Wii games. The Thousand Year Door vs Super Paper Mario, Wind Waker vs Skyward Sword, Pikmin 2 vs Stuck in development hell, I even prefer the island setting of Mario Sunshine to the disjointed setting of planetoids in Galaxy, Mario Party games on Gamecube vs Mario Party games on the Wii, etc...

The Wii was a major letdown both in the hardware area and in the software area. The Gamecube had great hardware and great first party games. It was lacking in third party games but so was the Wii.

 

[Epona]

Component only with no Internet? Dd I get that right, not even wi if? No reason to own. No wii ware and virtual arcade. Ugh.

please tell me this was a joke.

what did you expect, nintendo was nintendon't for the last 10 years, you want them to actually do something good for a change?

Huh? I can undetrstand the Wii, but what exactly did the Gamecube do wrong?

Gamecube was fine, Gamecube games on the other hand....

1) 480i only, not 480p so I am guess that means it still uses the component cables (the PS2 did for 480i).

2) ...were amazing compared to Wii games. The Thousand Year Door vs Super Paper Mario, Wind Waker vs Skyward Sword, Pikmin 2 vs Stuck in development hell, I even prefer the island setting of Mario Sunshine to the disjointed setting of planetoids in Galaxy, Mario Party games on Gamecube vs Mario Party games on the Wii, etc...

The Wii was a major letdown both in the hardware area and in the software area. The Gamecube had great hardware and great first party games. It was lacking in third party games but so was the Wii.

Really? I actually think Wii games were an improvement over GC ones. SS has way better gameplay than Windwaker. Galaxy is by far better than Sunshine. Wii also has ports of Metroid games, so it has all three, Pikmin too. Then we had the awesome Donkey Kong country returns and a new way of playing FPS and party games.

As a owner of both CG and Wii I prefer the Wii by far, even considering GC had my beloved 007 Nightfire (but it wasn't exclusive). Except for design, Game Cube is the most beautiful console ever made.

I could understand you liking Galaxy better than Sunshine but saying Skyward Sword is better than Wind Waker is complete nonsense. Counting ports seems pretty dishonest so let's not.

As for sexy consoles, I am going to say something VERY unpopular. The NA SNES is sexy to me, always has been.

Escapist: I had to refresh about 20 times to get a captcha that wasn't an advertisement. I refuse to type ad slogans. It's insulting enough to have to put up with captchas just to post, no other forum that I visit does this.

 

[Rednog]

Hey it's the same colors as a previous Nintendo console.

Oh god...
I guess that explains a lot.

 

[Epona]

Component only with no Internet? Dd I get that right, not even wi if? No reason to own. No wii ware and virtual arcade. Ugh.

please tell me this was a joke.

what did you expect, nintendo was nintendon't for the last 10 years, you want them to actually do something good for a change?

Huh? I can undetrstand the Wii, but what exactly did the Gamecube do wrong?

Gamecube was fine, Gamecube games on the other hand....

1) 480i only, not 480p so I am guess that means it still uses the component cables (the PS2 did for 480i).

2) ...were amazing compared to Wii games. The Thousand Year Door vs Super Paper Mario, Wind Waker vs Skyward Sword, Pikmin 2 vs Stuck in development hell, I even prefer the island setting of Mario Sunshine to the disjointed setting of planetoids in Galaxy, Mario Party games on Gamecube vs Mario Party games on the Wii, etc...

The Wii was a major letdown both in the hardware area and in the software area. The Gamecube had great hardware and great first party games. It was lacking in third party games but so was the Wii.

Really? I actually think Wii games were an improvement over GC ones. SS has way better gameplay than Windwaker. Galaxy is by far better than Sunshine. Wii also has ports of Metroid games, so it has all three, Pikmin too. Then we had the awesome Donkey Kong country returns and a new way of playing FPS and party games.

As a owner of both CG and Wii I prefer the Wii by far, even considering GC had my beloved 007 Nightfire (but it wasn't exclusive). Except for design, Game Cube is the most beautiful console ever made.

I could understand you liking Galaxy better than Sunshine but saying Skyward Sword is better than Wind Waker is complete nonsense. Counting ports seems pretty dishonest so let's not.

As for sexy consoles, I am going to say something VERY unpopular. The NA SNES is sexy to me, always has been.

Escapist: I had to refresh about 20 times to get a captcha that wasn't an advertisement. I refuse to type ad slogans. It's insulting enough to have to put up with captchas just to post, no other forum that I visit does this.

Well, I played WW after SS and I found it that was going a step backwards. If ports doesn't count, you still have Metroid prime 3, and the other metroid not very well liked...

You have Metroid Prime 1 and 2 on the Gamecube and Other M is certainly not better than any Metroid game on the Gamecube. What about Wind Waker feels like a step back?

 

[SoulSalmon]

Wow, I usually stick up for Nintendo cos they get a lot of unwarranted hate... But I don't even know what they were thinking here.
No wi-fi wasn't a dealbreaker for the lowered price, this thing just isn't worth it though.

This coming from someone who reckons his DSiXL was a huge improvement from his DSlite, owns two Wiis and generally thinks Nintendo is still doing well.