Wii. The bad stuff (Steve)

OK. Everyone know the Wii is AN AMAZING SUCCESS, and rightly so. It gets a lot right. Small, quiet, great controller, some nice games and some interesting features.

BUT. All is not well in the world of Wii. Nagging doubts hinder my initial joy.

1. The Wii Remote is superb. But it doesn't work properly all the time. The sensor in the remote that detects its position in relation to the "sensor bar" cannot cope with a third source of infra-red... the F**KING SUN! Alas my living room back wall is a huge great sheet of glass. Afternoon gaming on a sunny day (if you require the pointing features of the remote) is out.

2. The Virtual Console is flawed. The shop itself is slow and clunky - it needs to be a proper client application rather than web-based. And it is overpriced. Heinously.

3. The games aren't fulfilling the potential of the controller, yet. Wii Sports is genius, and possibly the most important launch game since Halo, but that aside we're not really seeing much that feels really new. This is probably a short term problem, but disappointing nontheless

4. The online stuff is crap. Friend codes, no online games (again, yet), poor support for online gaming. It feels tacked on. An afterthought. I still don't think Nintendo care.

5. Zelda needs a refresh. Seriously, I've had enough now.


However, to countenance the misery, these are reasons why I think the Wii rocks. It's beautifully designed, Wii Sports is amazing, the Remote is a joy to use, Zelda is still a great great game despite it's... reluctance to move on. I'm glad Nintendo did their own thing (not that they really had a choice). I certainly can't see me buying the broken one or the gimped one just yet.