Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros. Wii could be better, but the Wii's too weak
Look, it's no secret that the Wii is comparatively weak. It always has been, and unless some magical, unicorn-approved firmware update hits in the near future, it always will be. The Big N's Shigeru Miyamoto sat down at E3 this year with GameDaily and confessed as much, stating that he "would like to use Wii Speak more, but [in Super Mario Bros. Wii], the Wii processor is already being taxed." He added that this was all "part of being a developer to work with the tools you have to create new and interesting projects," but it certainly makes us wonder just how much more awesome this console could be with a specifications list fit for this millennium. Ah well, maybe we can actually look forward to native 1080p games from Nintendo next decade... if we're lucky.
























How dare you only want games to be fun. That's not what being a hardcore gaming is all about.
It's time you took a real strong look at your gaming habits and shape up mister. You must fly right with caring only about graphics, how kiddy or core a game looks. Never fully finishing your games, they don't matter, only talk of the next big thing you'll forget about a week after it's release.
Go out and insult those who like stuff you don't, tell them how they are supporting communists (or America if it's Soviet Russia) or are killing kittens. That's the true gamer of today way.
Games that are fun. What do you think this is? Toys meant to have fun with? No, this is war.
Nintendo was on its last leg when the Wii came out. Every analyst known to man predicted the exact opposite order for the console race than what shook out. No one, including Nintendo, believed that the Wii would be half as successful as it is. If they'd known, they'd have taken a bigger chance and upped the capabilities of the hardware. Unfortunately, now that the Wii is so successful, it really ties their hands when it comes to putting out the next system and Ninty is known for stretching a console well beyond the point of obsolescence.
Are you dense man?
Last leg? Pfft.
First off...just one word clears that up...Handheld.
Nintendo has NEVER had competition in handheld sector, even with the PSP...they still didn't. Nintendo is a true gaming company (unlike the other two being just division of a larger company). This is their specialty. They were built years ago to make games. They know what they're doing.
And secondly...Gamecube was the ONLY system to turn a profit from day one until end! They never lost any money. So this "last leg" thing you're talking about...I dont get it. =/
You're right, Nintendo's handheld division was and is still going strong and they wouldn't have gone under, so to speak, had the Wii failed horribly. They likely would've left the home console market though and started releasing games for other systems, ala Sega, had that happened which was mostly my point. Most people wondered why Nintendo even bothered to make another home console after two epic failures not six to nine months before it was released. You have to admit that.
With the exception of the N64, Nintendo has never put out a high-spec'd system for its time. The original NES did well because of lack of competition. Most people never upgraded their Atari 2600s after the market totally got flooded with too many console choices. The tech was two years old before we ever saw it. SNES came out in late 1991, two years after the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and was better but not by that much. N64 had good specs but was ruined by the not switching to a disc based system not to mention coming out a good year after the PSX (I think). I doubt I have to talk about the Game Cube or Wii in reguards to this. Maybe my opinion is squewed a bit since they tended to release their consoles in America a year or two late. I've heard that they always made a profit on their hardware sales from day one though. Maybe I heard wrong.
Just so you know frogboy, last generation consoles spec wise went xbox>gamecube>ps2. I don't really know where this whole myth that the gamecube had the worst graphics/specs last generation came from. All you need is 5 minutes to look up the specs of all last gen consoles and it's pretty easy to tell the line up. The gamecube was more then capable of holding it's own last gen.
I'm aware of that, Link. SNES was more powerful than the Genesis/Megadrive also. It came out in America a full two years later and wasn't good enough to justify the wait. If Sega didn't shoot itself in the foot by shifting focus from the Genesis to newer higher end consoles, they likely would've won that round. A lot of people waited the extra year or more to get an N64 over a Playstation and were sorely disappointed because it was an inferior machine despite the better specs. Not sure why anyone bothered buying a Game Cube. By the time it came out, there were two better options. One with lots of games and one with lots of features.
Nintendo was very fortunate to be able to stay in the console business long enough to make the Wii. I wouldn't say that they know what they're doing in this area. Handheld gaming? Yeah, they know exactly what they're doing and Sony hasn't figured it out yet so no worries there. IMO, luck, gimmics and people who can't live without Mario have kept Nintendo in the home console business. Next time around, they're just as likely to fall flat on their face as they are to carry over their success, at least in America...we have no brand loyaly over here.
And I'm not bashing Nintendo in any way. I just don't think that they really know how to maintain consistant success in this area. At least they are good at designing new gaming tech that people want (modern game pad layout [SNES], analog sticks [N64] and motion control [Wii]). I certainly thank them for that.
Don't expect Nintendo to update the Wii anytime soon. It's a known fact they prefer to go about 5 or 7 years between hardare udpates.
I could go the rest of my life and be very happy to never see yet another game featuring Mario. Now, if they could make a game where you can use the wireless controllers to beat him up - maybe a "Mario Torture" game... then I'd be interested.
A lot of people seem to still have hope that the Wii might get better.
"Maybe they'll ditch friend codes"
"Maybe they'll implement something like xbox live"
The truth is we're not going to get anything new or interesting from the Wii unless it comes from the Home Brew scene.
http://hackmii.com/2009/02/why-the-wii-will-never-get-any-better/
Nice read.. what better way to learn about the limitations of Wii's architecture than reading a "hacker's" findings. Shame on Nintendo... The architecture is opposite to their innovation slogan.
That doesn't mean I'll enjoy less my current Wii games, or the upcoming games I'm buying. I just feel somewhat depressed at the general idea of the lack of evolution possible during the Wii cycle.
This just makes me wish that Nintendo took the time off R&D to really bring some new efficient and powerful architecture next generation.
..... sighs
Nintendo is still at least a 1-2 years away from starting to talk about details of the Wii's follow-up, and even so, won't release it until they are ready and have games to back it up. Say what you will about the Wii and it's power, but Nintendo made the right choice for this generation of hardware.
Next gen Nintendo needs
--Certainly better graphics, sound and processing capabilities.
--Mainstream developer support. A balance between the cute niche games, and those that appeal to the PS and Xbox players.
No, it doesn't need bluray. In a few years, when wii2 does finally land, anybody who wants one will already have a bluray player already.
Let this be the death of consoles. I'm so fuckin' tired of Idiot consumers who keep repeating bad buying habits. Learn to update your PC hardware.
250-300 every five years buying a console versus probably close to a grand (if not more) in pc upgrades (graphics, memory, cpu, etc) over the same period of time? Console will win every time.
I'm so fucking tired of idiot people who think they're too l33t for everyone else, but have no substance to back it up. Gaming is more than just the WoW you spend hours of your life on everyday.
Wow the Wii is taxed with the new super mario bros? It's a friggen side scrolling game. It's like the DS game but in 480p. If that's all it takes to tax the Wii CPU, then wow, the Wii is much less powerful than I thought!
The developers working on Super Mario Bros. Wii probably can't optimize their code much. I can't believe how they can pull off something like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, yet fail to do much with a side-scroller.
*probably -don't know- how to optimize their code much.
There it is. I think they are letting the cat out of the bag. Nintendo let Doofus 1 (Microsoft) and Doofus 2 (Sony) do all the heavy lifting by helping push sales of HDTVs. Meanwhile Nintendo knew that HD was sort of a niche market in a sense, not enough penetration worldwide to make a significant invest in high res graphics technology. Well, it's been almost 4 years since the 360 came out, 3 since the PS3 and a lot of flat panels have been sold. They are in the perfect position to launch a true next gen system with vastly improved graphics capability as well as motion control, I would also not be surprised if a real DS refresh is in the works, Doofus 2 did the heavy lifting on that.
Well, good that he admitted that. So maybe we would see a Wii2 with 1080p next year?
i zapped my wii with the "all spark", it now pleasures itself.