Are Third-Party Wii Games Finally Coming Into Their Own?

Gravy Monkey writes "It's not too difficult to criticize the quality of many third-party Wii games — whether they're unique titles, bad licenses or lazy ports to the new system. However, will this change as more quality third-party games appear on the Wii? Recently, Wiiware title 'Lost Winds' picked up some great reviews, as did the Blastworks game. The recent review of a new game called Order Up on IGN caught my attention because they praised it as the way all casual games should be made. Is this the beginning of a new era for Wii games where quality casual games from third parties manage to grab the attention of both mainstream and hardcore gamers alike, instead of being a console where only first-party titles sell?"

Give them some time

[CastrTroy]

I would say that any company who tries to put in an honest effort has the ability to release a good game. The problem is, is that a lot of companies would rather just do a quick and dirty job and cash in on the vast numbers of people who bought the Wii. However, there's one reason I have only ever owned a Nintendo console. The games that are good, are really good. Nintendo, and other third party publishers most of the time can throw together a good number of really great games. For any of their consoles, there have probably been about 15 really great games. Which is more games than I've ever owned for any one console. I don't care if there's 938 games for my console, if 930 of them are complete crap, or even just mediocre.

If you have to make a post...

[twoallbeefpatties]

If you have to make a post asking about whether or not third-party games are finally coming into their own... that's a pretty good pointer that you have a problem with third-party games. I don't recall anyone ever asking, "Are the Atari Jaguar third-party games finally coming into their own?!"

I think they'll get better eventually

[alvinrod]

I think developers are still learning how to work with the Wii. Let's not forget that almost all of them were caught with their pants down (hell, even Nintendo didn't expect the success that they've enjoyed) when it came to having content ready for the Wii. At the system launch the only third party that had anything that could be considered a worth-while showing was Ubisoft, and most of those games weren't all that great in my opinion.

Once Wii sales took off for the stratosphere, everyone wanted to get in on the action. The only problem is that a lot of teams had no experience working with the new control system, so this presented a learning curve. It would also take over a year in order to put out something fresh, so old games were ported over to the platform to cash in on its new found success.

Now that developers have had time to see how much of a success the Wii has turned out to be along with becoming accustomed to working with the new controller, I think we'll start to see better games trickle out. Square Enix is still working on the new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals [wikipedia.org] game, which has been in the pipes for a while. I've also been interested in seeing what will come of MadWorld [wikipedia.org], a game by Sega of all developers that has an interesting art style [google.com] to say the least. Note that the linked video contains graphic violence and is probably NSFW, which if nothing else probably ensures that the game will do good among the eighteen-and-under and ultra-violence-lover crowds.

A few other posters have already pointed out how Wii-ware games can be quite excellent as well and I think that it Nintendo more aggressively pursued developers as both Microsoft and Sony have, they could acquire more top-notch indie games on their platform as well. Some of the $10 games that you can find on Xbox Live and Sony's PSN (PlayStation Network) provide more fun and enjoyment than some of the $60 boxed games for the systems. The virtual console is also another potential marketplace where we can relive and enjoy older games, but I wish they'd release more of the games that I wanted to play.

Give us quality, improve online, and more.

[stastuffis]

Focus on quality
It's simple. The developers need to stop hacking together horseshit and make quality games, but there's also a few things Nintendo needs to do.

If you go casual, just add quality.
I'd be down for some good "casual" games as well. For example, it's been a while since I've seen a Jeopardy game. The Wii is perfect for it and with DLC becoming all the craze, we can now ensure that the content stays fresh. The market is out there! Casual can be fun, but it still requires effort from developers. There is a pattern developing here (hint: quality).

To Nintendo: Improve the online
There's a reason the 360 has the highest attachment rate right now: an average of higher quality releases and Live. Make the online experience reliable (a few games have exhibited the potential) and possibly make it more expansive but reliability is required. I won't go into the irritation that are friend codes because most people already know. You come standard with Wi-Fi, take advantage of it. The fact that people are willing to fork over the ridiculous amount of $100 for wireless on the 360 shows that the online arena is a moneymaker. Good online will definitely help increase attachment rates.

To Nintendo: Stop fucking around and give us a solution to the storage issue
I don't care if it's being "worked on". Fix it. Fix it fast. Unfortunately, you stand to make more money. I don't get the hangup.