first I releaze there is cross over in those groups people that make game do so because they are (or where) really into them and some things cover both groups.

Nintendo has an image of pushing more family friendly games. This doesn’t fit the image of many hardcore gamers who feel that games should be aimed at them and not kids. and on the developer side they want to focus making games for adults and not kids (fair enough)
in both cases since big N has the rep of beig family friendly those two groups don’t think Nintendo’s systems will be for them (look at Nintendo’s last few systems and it’s clear a group of fans have moved on to the other gaming systems out there to get their games)

Next is the fact that Nintendo has been upfront about making the Wii a system that will reach casaul and before now non gamers. Of course Microsoft and Sony have also tried to do the same thing from the start to some degree or another but it hasn’t worked for them nearly as much as it has for the wii.

there seems to be a bit of a back lash against the system for focusing on nongamer instead of games this may move onto game creators who trying to target the hardcore gamer make games aimed at the on other systems.

Porting games is also an issue it’s easy to have a game made for both the 360 and PS3 because they both have similar controllers but with the wii you have rethink many games

also the specs are lower for the wii when compared to the other system. I think that may stop some developers from wanting to make a wii version when they either going to have completly make a new game or lower the specs of the game so it’s easy to be made on all 3 systems with as look work as possible (ie laziness)

another thing is I don’t think people know what to do on the wii. Maybeit’s te new type of controller.

Maybe it’s the fact that people don’t know what to do on the system. Sad to say many people copy what’s popular. For the wii the thing that is so popular that it’s stuck in everyone’s mind is wii sports and that seems to be what everyone copies when they make wii games. All the wii needs in some mega hits in different game generes and other people will make more games in those genres

and as a freind of mine says haters are going hate and it maybe just be as simple as that.

I was an avid gamer but had slowly fallen out of gaming after the PS2. When the Wii was announced my wife said ‘wow that is cool, we’ll have to get one’. She had always had pretty much zero interest in gaming (other than on Facebook) so the fact that she actually wanted us to get a games console was a huge deal. After much searching we managed to pick up a Wii just a few weeks after launch. She loved Wii Sports and I got Wii Fit for her but other than Zelda and Metroid Prime 3 I didn’t think that there would be too much on the console for me.

Now after 4 years I would have to say that the Wii is possibly the greatest console I have ever owned. I loved my Snes and N64 but I never had so many great games for them as I do for the Wii. People may find that hard to believe but to put it in perspective at the end of the N64’s life I probably had about 30 games. I currently own 48 Wii games and there are very few that I would really class as being ‘casual’, ‘kiddy’ or to be ’shovelware’.

Last year I bit the bullet and bought an Xbox 360. I enjoyed a lot of the games on there and for a while it was getting equal or more play than the Wii. Then the novelty wore off a bit and games like Silent Hill SM (what a great adult game, being a psychological experience instead of the usual run n’ gun bloodfest) and NSMB drew me back to the little white box. Then Monster Hunter Tri and Mario Galaxy 2 hit and the poor 360 has not been touched since; those games are just so addictive that it could be ‘collecting dust’ for some time.

So what makes the Wii so appealing to me? Well it isn’t the motion controls, although a few games do use them very well. I actually find the IR pointer more of a useful innovation than the motions. Like ejamer said though, part of it is all the niche titles that you just wont find on any other console. Games like Trauma Center, Little King’s Story, Muramasa, Pro Evolution Soccer, Red Steel 2 and Zack & Wiki. Then there’s all the Nintendo exclusives that you cannot play anywhere else, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario Kart, SSBB, Zelda, Metroid etc. Finally there’s games that are actually superior on the Wii (yes there are some) such as Tiger Woods 10, Guitar Hero 5, Shaun White Snowboarding or Grand Slam Tennis. The Wii has such a variety of game types that it really can give something for everyone, whether it be a bloody action game like Madworld or some family fun with Wii Sports Resort.

It seemed for a long time that it was ‘big and clever’ to hate on the Wii. I think that times are changing though as many gamers can now see the value of Nintendo’s system. In the past month one friend who was a 360 fanatic and hated Wii motion stuff went out and bought a Wii just for Monster Hunter 3. Since picking it up he hasn’t touched his 360 except to stream movies. Another who was a diehard Sony fan is buying a Wii just for Punch Out! after playing it at my house (we pretty much had to pry the controller out of his hands). With these type of titles there is more than enough to satisfy even the most ‘hardcore’ gamer. Sadly as the article says there is still a huge negative bias in a lot of the gaming press, they mark Wii games lower for not being ‘HD’ and bad mouth the Wii at any opportunity (IGN was a good example). My guess would be that a lot of these journalists are young at heart, or more accurately teenagers at heart, so all they want to see is the games that a teenage boy might wet his pants over, they ooooh and ahhhh over HD guns n’ blood fests and fear anything different (which I believe would eventually kill gaming, given the current oversaturation of FPS). As I said times are changing though and these dinosaurs need to get with the times or get out of the game.

@Laz
I’d agree that the Lego games feel like a better fit on the Wii. I wouldn’t say that the HD consoles were the way to go for The Force Unleashed though. I own the Force Unleashed on the Wii and the Ultimate Sith Edition on the 360. Although the 360 game looks a hundred times better than the Wii game, I actually found the Wii version a lot more enjoyable to play due to the more immersive controls. The Godfather was a similar situation, looked great on 360, looked ok on the Wii, but I just loved the added interaction that I felt with the Wii version (plus it was a great stress reliever to be able to punch and strangle gangsters).

I also think that the more adult-oriented games on wii do not get enough media advertising, and tend to have lower review scores in general. I cannot speak for all reviewers, but those that begin with “dust off your wii” and “good for a wii game” tend to be prejudiced against the wii. Again, speculation

Also, the motion controls are a bonus; it just adds that extra bit of fun to the gameplay. However, for other star wars games like Force Unleashed, realistic graphics are the go on the ps3/360.