Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich asks again: If your videogame-illiterate (and ficticious) Aunt Sheila walked into a store and bought you a Wii game, what are the chances that it would be a quality title?
From the Wii's launch through 2008, four percent of Wii games, or 12 games, have rated over 85 percent on average. Fifty-four percent of Wii games, or 155 titles, have rated below 65 percent.
This rate compares less favorably to the Xbox 360's and PS3's libraries, which laid claim to 48 and 36 85 percent-plus games, respectively. (See EEDAR charts for those consoles here and here.)
There may be a few explanations for the Wii's lower marks. First, the hardware is fundamentally more accessible for game makers. It lowers the barrier for game development, but at the same time allows for more lower-quality games to crowd the shelves, typically from studios looking to make a quick buck on the back of the Wii's wild success. This dilutes the library.
Secondly, developers, even the ones with strong track records, have had a considerable learning curve in Wii development. Sure, programming a game isn't as complicated as the Xbox 360 or PS3, but dialing in strong game mechanics that play to the Wii Remote's motion-sensing features and resonate with the Wii's audience (and game reviewers) is difficult. Even Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime recently suggested that third parties don't quite "get it" when it comes to Wii development. They didn't "get" the DS when it first came out, but they caught on, eventually.
Lastly, the old chestnut of whether or not game reviews really matter is perhaps most interesting when talking about a product like the Wii and its software. This is essentially a casual-focused device aimed at a wide demographic,
many of whom wouldn't know the difference between Edge the magazine and The Edge from U2. (
)
Former EA Casual head Kathy Vrabeck said in 2007, "I get less concerned about game reviews because the casual gamers don’t read any of those things." To an extent, she's right.
But the games that keep people coming back to Nintendo are those quality (albeit significantly outnumbered) first-party games--Mario, Zelda, Metroid and even new franchises like Wii Fit--are reason enough to own a Nintendo console.