If the Wii is a kid, the industry’s a sandbox

Since the days of its inception, the Wii has often been misnomered as a “kiddie” system. The idea that the Wii would thrive as a playground for shovelware from money-hungry third party publishers became commonplace in the world of gaming. Gamers were ready to tag the labels on all of their favorite next-gen systems, with Nintendo continuing its reign of family-friendliness.

After much scrubbing, the labels can be removed.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has worked to give out little letters that tell us who’s hands certain games belong in. Parents, when aware (or sane), can use these ratings as an indicator to tell what games their children can play.

To date, the ESRB has listed 425+ titles that appear on the Wii with ratings of E (Everyone) and E10+ (Everyone age 10 and older). Don’t snicker yet, well over 200 of these listed games are on Nintendo’s Virtual Console, many dating back to the NES.

These Virtual Console titles don’t count when considering the aspect of appearing on the Wii. The mislabel of the Wii as a “kiddie” system amongst others especially comes from the remote-waggling abilities of its motion-sensing features. Since Virtual Console games don’t utilize these features, not to mention they debuted on many previous systems, they don’t appear in this count. And since the data was pulled prior to the North American Wii Ware release, Wii Ware titles aren’t included, either.

Regardless, that leaves us with close to 180 Wii games that are rated E or E10+. Seems like a lot for a young system.

But it is more fun to divide games up by what systems they appear on. All of the titles obviously appear on the Wii, but do they do so exclusively?

So the Wii-exclusive titles and the multi-platform titles need to be divided up:

A total of 61.45% of these “everyone” titles for Wii are non-exclusives. At this point, expect a voice to cry out, “What about the DS? Everyone knows that these E-rated Wii shovelware non-exclusives are just Nintendo exclusives, like Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games!” Fair enough.

Splitting up that 61.45%, we find that only 8.38% are Wii-DS exclusive titles. That means that 53.07% of kiddie Wii games are very multiplatform. In fact, one of the most common systems a Wii game would appear on is the PS2, in fact.

So one thing can be clear; kiddie-shovelware is a multi-platform thing. Companies (like THQ, for instance,) don’t just aim for the Wii to fish for a parent’s unknowing wallet. Publishers try to get more bang for their buck.

Think of the common marketing executives at big-name publishers that still refer to video games as “toys.” In using mediocre games to get money, a marketer will try to make the game appeal to a larger audience (E ratings,) and reach a larger community by spanning multiple platforms. This is assuming that all E-rated games are bad.

Based on our next set of data, that isn’t too far from the truth.

Quantity in games is never as important as quality, all gamers can agree to this. Examining the same data as before, the quality of these games can provide another angle to this issue.

Using GameRankings, a popular site that averages credible review scores in order to help gamers in their purchasing decisions, the average review scores for the E/E10+ rated Wii games helps determine the quality of the Wii titles in question.

What does this tell us? E-rated Wii titles tend to do better when they’re not alone (unless they’re made by Nintendo themselves, who is infamous for developing quality titles).

The worst of the bunch is precisely what would be expected: 3rd-party Wii exclusives. Though only a few percentage points behind the other catagories, games in this section are made by the companies that bring you Action Girlz Racing, Offroad Extreme, Hooked! Real Motion Fishing, and Monster Trux Arenas.

With roughly 3% between Wii exclusives and Non-exclusives, there isn’t much of a difference between the two in terms of quality on Nintendo’s platform. It is mostly a pile of stink. Nintendo proves in their own way that games for “everyone” can be good.

As seen in the data, certain companies are contributing to the exclusive stink. Conspiracy Entertainment are responsible for most of the Wii-exclusive shovelware, accounting for roughly 20% of the games with an average score of 30.92%. Destineer has 16% of the exclusives with an average score of 23.5%. Notably, no other company has put out more than 4 titles for the Wii exclusively. Big players like EA, Konami, Tecmo, and Capcom have put out 1-3 games each, and their average scores are well over 70%. Almost all of these “few gems” are retreads on older IPs as well.

In scouring the databases for game ratings and scores, not every game could have a score accompanying it. The reviewers can’t be blamed for not regarding Cocoto Kart Racer or My French Coach as games worth reviewing. In terms of the data gathered, they simply aren’t accounted for in the ratings spectrum. Interestingly, there were (as of this data being pulled,) four Wii-exclusive games and 11 non-exclusive games that didn’t have review scores.

And roughly all of them will appear in the $9.99 bin at Wal-Mart. Just keep walking, you can save some cash and get the Wii Zapper or some points for the Wii Shop to pick up a brand-new Wii Ware game.

This also begs the question, are kids not as picky about games nowadays? I rocked the Mega Man X games and F-Zero all the time on the Super NES. To be honest, I also spent plenty of time with Ren & Stimpy: Veediots and Hook, both being pretty unforgiving, relatively low-quality platformers. Do kids really like Wing Island?

Overall, the best way to take this data is lightly. If you’re reading this, you may not be into E-rated games regardless of what system they appear on. And if you’re a Wii gamer, know that you don’t have to. More developers are taking risks on the Wii with games like No More Heroes, but publishers need to follow suit. Kids can be risky too (I fell out of many a tree as a youngster, I was a risky one).

And if we want to follow the little kid in all of us, there are plenty of places to find the games that appease that.

No more same ol’ same ol’: No More Heroes delivers

In a market that is drowning in casual titles, Wii owners have little to enjoy when it comes to an authentic and enriching game experience. This, of course, has seemed to be the trend since the Gamecube’s conception, and fans of Nintendo have come to realize that as long as they want to continue seeing their favorite avatars — Mario, Samus, Link, etc. — they will have to wade through the rest of the sub-standard games that third-party developers port to Nintendo consoles. But that’s all changed thanks to the gang at Ubisoft and Suda 51.

Their newest brainchild is No More Heroes for the Wii. The gritty tongue-and-cheek title follows the life of Travis Touchdown as he works at attaining the number one spot as the top assassin in the west coast fictional city of Santa Destroy.

While MyWiiNews’ own Cole “Ilchymis” Jones has previously reviewed No More Heroes, this write-up will feature a look at the inner context and meaning behind this gem, rather than rehash what he has already written.

From the moment players begin the game, they are instantly reminded of the violence and minimalist camera techniques that made Spaghetti Westerns famous in the 1960s. Suda 51’s stylistic and unique cell shading — which saw popularity in the highly-acclaimed Killer 7 — is once again used to give players an anomalous palate of colors to wrap themselves around.

More so than anything, No More Heroes focuses on the day-to-day tribulations of Travis. The anti-hero lives in poverty, purchased his weapon of choice — a beam katana — off an Internet auction site and has a fashion style that lies somewhere between punk and metro-sexual.

But it’s Travis’ personality that is the most compelling. While Travis maintains a cocky and confident aura because of his expertise in killing, he continues to show players that he is just another squirrel trying to get a nut. It is Travis’ day-to-day activities that connect him to the player.

Much like you would see in a Quentin Tarantino movie, the anti-hero is put into circumstances which you wouldn’t expect to see them in. Take Pulp Fiction for example. While Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) live the life of cold-blooded killers, you see them in scenes that do not befit the reputation and stereotypes that accompany that perceived lifestyle.

How many hitmen do you imagine wind up in the suburbs wearing clothes from a gangster-turned domesticated, gourmet coffee drinker, or even further, hitmen that talk about why a dog has more character than a pig over breakfast at a questionable diner?

How about Budd “Sidewinder” (Michael Masden) in Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol.1 and 2? Is the stereotypical contract killer really just an overweight alcoholic who lives in a trailer and is routinely verbally abused by the manager in the strip club that he works at?

It’s this type of dialogue and these types of actions that allow viewers to find a connection with the characters they are watching.

It is no different for Travis.

While players get to see a skilled assassin do what he does best, they also get to watch as he struggles to get money through odd jobs, such as picking up litter and mowing lawns. In fact, the image of Travis mowing a lawn had this writer almost in tears from laughing.

The humor is dark, as a means to reflect the surreal setting and tenebrous characters.

The voice acting is superb and even though the dialogue is littered with sexually mature themes and profanity, none of it seems out of place or forced. Everything is there in balance, with nothing being in excess.

The game’s sandbox style gameplay also lends to Travis’ connection with the player, as well as being a central narrative element in itself.

Much like your average Joe, Travis slowly slips into a routine of looking for odd jobs, training at the gym and perusing the latest fashions at a hip clothing store. All the while, the player — and Travis — is fully aware that this daily grind will eventually lead to some over-the-top and gory sword fighting that will have blood flowing like the fountains at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. It makes collecting coconuts for a street vendor all the more quirky and poignant.

While there are many games on the market that take themselves too seriously, it is refreshing to play a game that is one part daring and one part dark comedy. It’s much like watching an independent film or listening to progressive music. You know what you are watching or listening to is special, but it’s hard to put your finger on what exactly makes it that way.

Suda 51’s Goichi Suda told Gamespot that he is ready to make a sequel to No More Heroes. This was reported to be said one week prior to the game’s US release.

“Actually, I’m really willing to make a sequel version — and right now I’m asking if it can be made,” said Goichi-san in Gamespot’s interview. “I think No More Heroes is a great game. There’s no other action game like it for the Wii. If it was a band, it would be really energetic like the Arctic Monkeys.”

Since it’s release, No More Heroes has received critical acclaim and an 83 percent approval rating on GameRankings.com.

Hopefully, more studios will have the courage of Ubisoft and Suda 51 to make unique titles — like No More Heroes — that stand out in a saturated market of blasé games.