Well, backwards compatibility is a valid point, indeed. You have not only the gamecube games working 100% with the Wii(partly due to the hardware only being a re-vamp) and the list of Virtual Console games.. it's quite cool. But does that really make the Wii a good console? What about the Wii's software architecture? Do you know how horrible it is? Or as to WHY Nintendo only releases security patches that erase the game saves? Partly the reason is because they're lazy. Another reason is because they simply can't. I'll elaborate.
The 360 and PS3 can both offer new updates to the games expanding their features. They even tie in the OS(dashboard for the 360, xmb for the PS3) with the game which is awesome because you can do stuff such as achievements, or you could sit in a party talking to your friends while playing a game. The reason why the Wii isn't capable of doing stuff such as this is because of not having some form of shared code. If you were to look at this in a kernel hackers perspective you'd look at that as taking a step back to operating systems before Unix was even around. Do you know about I/O OS? Every Wii game runs on a separate I/O OS. The I/O OS is a very low-level OS that passes on device drivers and what have you so that your game can have direct access to the hardware. Let's say that Twilight Princess runs on I/O OS version 1 and version 9 was released today. Well, Twilight Princess wouldn't be able to use I/O OS version 9 so any security flaws or new features wouldn't be able to be utilized. The 360 had a huge revamp that we know as NXE. Changed the menu setup and dropped the blade system and I believe it added the party system (I didn't own a 360 before NXE, so I don't know if the party system existed before it). The Wii Photo Channel is a good example of why the software stack in the Wii sucks ass. Just to add one little feature they had to completely update the channel with a brand new I/O OS just to be able to utilize it whatever feature (USB Keyboard support is a good example, mind you.). They were only able to make the update possible because they were able to have direct access to the software. Do you think the Wii's disc drive has writing capabilities on the optical discs? Or if the optical discs were re-writable, for that matter? You would think that you would be able to download a new executable of the game and pass it from your internal storage to the game, but no that's not possible. In fact, having all of the I/O OS's stored on your internal storage isn't really fun either. I don't understand with what they were thinking when they decided to slap on a 512MB flash memory. Why not have some sort of SSD variant that you can plug into the Wii? Oh, wait, you have the SD cards for that. You're only able to boot stream virtual console games from the SD card, though(to my knowledge). I can understand if Nintendo was trying to make a very basic system.. but this was all half-assed. Why do you think homebrew channel can sit there and be fine while you update to System Menu 4.0? Hell, I literally did try my luck with updating to 4.0 and it worked fine. Ran snes9x and played my Terranigma >_>. The update isn't really even worth it except the SD card storage for Virtual Console games. That should've been a feature from the very start. Why did they wait this long to add it? Why half-ass the software architecture and suffocate the gamers from extra features that get added on in later updates? Why make the Wii only a minor upgrade to the GameCube?
The gaming library is another story. In fact, I'm completely excluding all Virtual Console and Gamecube games from the Wii's game library because I can play them on their original systems just fine. "Well... I want to play Zelda Wind Waker! I guess I'll go turn on my Gamecube and start playing it." The only thing I see good about the Wii staying so true to its older brother is that with homebrew, I was able to burn a pirated copy of Zelda Wind Waker and play it for the first time because my parents never bought me that game when I was younger. "UHUHHUUHUHUHUUUU... I WANT TO PLAY STAR FOX! Damn.. it's not on Virtual Console." See, this is why we have emulators these days. It's not so hard to download the whole entire SNES, NES, Genesis, Mega Drive, etc. game library via bit torrent. I'm not saying you have to, I'm just pointing out how easy it is to get access to these games and boot them up in your emulator.
Alright, the game library is really a joke. There's a couple games that catch my eye "No More Heroes", "Twilight Princess", "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", and "Metroid Prime 3 Corruption" just to name a few. Are there any more good games you might ask? Well, let's see here.... the game library from both the 3rd party and 1st party game developers betrayed their loyal fanbase and decided to go completely mainstream on us. I wouldn't mind if it was like what the 360 has going on where it was both mainstream and staying true to their "loyal fans". But seriously, cmon... would I rather play "Touch the dot!" instead of "Star Wars Unleashed" on my 360? Oh, wait, it's on the Wii.. but the control scheme sucks. Waggle.. WAGGLE CMON GUYS! Twilight Princess isn't waggle on the Wii.. why is more than half of the native games for the Wii half-assed with their control scheme? I was really excited to actually get a little interactive with my games. But HEY! Let's just do masturbating gestures with my Wiimote while I am scoring 100% on my game! Yes, I literally did try that at one time and it worked..
I'm not saying that you have to be completely non-mainstream. In fact, I don't mind having main stream gamers. The 360 has a couple of games that might appeal to the main stream audience. Anyone remember back in October - December when Microsoft had that holiday bundle? Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda for the 360 in one case came. I never played it because I don't really care for either. I'm sure other people did, though.
Not every system is perfect. The 360 had the red ring of death issue, and isn't 100% perfect with XBOX emulation. The PS3 is overpriced; blu-ray technology was still too young at the time of its release so games use your internal storage to increase load times.. But, the Wii... I just listed a whole entire page of flaws. The only THING it seems to be good at is backwards compatibility. I'm not a PS3 fan, and I'm not too crazy about Microsoft.. Nintendo has been lacking their vibe that they had back when the Gamecube came out, or when even the 64 came out. They just don't care anymore and I don't believe they will anytime soon seeing as how the lol DSi just came out. The DSi is a portable equivalent to the Wii. A very slight upgrade to its predecessor. I remember reading somewhere that the older DS games can't utilize the RAM or the faster processor speeds the DSi has. So I guess that means that the DSi will have its own gaming library because of that. If that's the case, then WHY even bother making it a slight upgrade like that? Meh.
On second thought, I think I made my point.
EDIT: Hoffy, I know you're just posting your opinion
. I figured it'd be nice to follow the trend and post my thoughts, too. I guess this thread sorta turned into a "share your thoughts on a current-gen console".
