Wii Love

Photo by KeiWorld at deviantart.com

I love my Wii. As much as it's possible for a grown man to love an inanimate object such as a sleek, white video game console, I love my Wii.

Super Mario Galaxy ROCKS! 'Nuff Said.

Obtaining a Wii has been on my "to do" list since 2006 when the system launched but I was never able to buy one because I didn't have an extra $250 laying around so I was just content with picking up PS2 and DS games when I could. When I got my tax returns back from 2009, I was finally able to get one. Even better, the Wii was only $199 at this point. I bought my Wii at the end of March in 2010 and it has been providing me with hours of entertainment since day one.

Shoot and never ask questions in House of the Dead: Overkill.

People often say there's nothing to play on the Wii and it's an argument I've never been able to understand. Maybe it's because I jumped into next generation console gaming some three years later than most gamers did, but I've never had a problem finding games to play on the Wii. There are both old and new games for the system that catch my eye. I've got fellow forumites over at the Shoryuken.com forums that have owned a Wii since launch along with a PS3 and 360 and the Wii is the system they play the most out of the three and have the most games for. Like any system made by Nintendo, the first party software is nothing short of amazing. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Punch-Out!!, Kirby's Epic Yarn, all fine games. However, if you look beyond the first party stuff, you'll find No More Heroes, House of the Dead: Overkill, Murasama: The Demon Blade, Red Steel 2, Mad World, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and a slew of other great picks. And those are just the disc-based Wii games. That "only a handful of good games for the Wii" line is garbage. If you can't find games to play on the Wii, you either aren't looking hard enough or you're one very picky gamer.

Rondo of Blood, a super hard Castlevania game that I absolutely love.

Being a huge old-school gamer, the Virtual Console is a God-send. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have some of my favorite NES, SNES, and Genesis titles all in one place. Many times I don't feel like screwing with my old NES (anyone that owns or has owned one knows how troublesome it can be to get one of these to work). With the Virtual Console, all the NES games boot up and work just fine.

Believe it or not, Devil's Crush is the best pinball game ever created.

You don't fly a ship but Lords of Thunder is still a spectacular shooter.

I never owned a TurboGrafx/PC Engine. In fact, I was largely unaware of the console(s) existence in the 1990s because I was preoccupied with the SNES and Genesis. When I lived in Ohio, I wanted to pick one up but never got around to it. The Wii's Virtual Console took care of the need to even pick one up and I now see how many awesome titles I missed out on. I've never been the biggest pinball fan but bot Alien Crush and Devil's Crush made me feel like a pinball addict. Blazing Lasers, (a game that feels very similar to the Aleste games) gets my pick for one of the best shooters you can download among the Virtual Console's huge supply of SHMUPs.

Depending on what part of the planet Earth you reside, you'll have to fork over an extra buck for import titles, but considering some of the best Virtual Console titles are imports, I really don't have a problem with that. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is easily one of the hardest Castlevania games I've ever played but it's nice to be able to experience the whole game, even if it isn't in English. DoReMi Fantasy, a fun platformer staring the same Milon from Milon's Secret Castle is easily the better of the two Milon games.

Forget Milon's Secret Castle. Just pick up DoReMe Fantasy. You can thank me later.

Now despite all the Wii has going for it, critics are still quick to slam the system. Among the most common of criticisms is the Wii's technical specifications. "The Wii's visuals pale in comparison to the PS3 and 360!" It's no secret that the Wii is just slightly more powerful than the GameCube. To this I say, so? The PS2, from a tech standpoint was the weakest console last generation and yet it still dominated the market. I know it feels like I'm beating a dead horse but if graphics were everything, by all accounts the 3DO should have slaughtered the competition in the 1990s and we all know how that turned out. It's all about the games. Your system can have the most impressive specs in the universe and it won't mean a thing unless you've got some quality titles. Do you think all those fancy visuals are free? It costs money to make games and those jaw dropping visuals do not come cheap. The Wii was developed with cost in mind and not every developer has the funds to put out a game as pretty as Bayonetta.

Pulseman is as fun as it is visual stunning.

Another frequent complaint is that the Wii has a ton of shovel ware, which is valid. Again, I bring up the PS2. Being the most successful of the consoles last generation, for all the amazing titles it offered, the PS2 had a copious amount of crappy games and shovel ware, too. It was the exact same case with the original PlayStation. Even Nintendo's Game Boy Color was a dumping ground for sub par titles. Sadly, that's just the way it when your system is top dog.

I'm not saying the Wii is perfect, because it certainly isn't. Just a little over 500 MB of internal system memory is a joke, there's the aforementioned shovel ware and at times the motion controls on games can be cumbersome, but there's so much good on the Wii that I can't help but love it. Now if you'll excuse me, the Virtual Console is calling.