With Super Mario Galaxy 2 just out in the US, reviewers all over the place have apparently been dusting off their Wiis to play Nintendo’s latest platforming masterpiece.
Seriously, I’ve noticed this cropping up a number of times lately, and it’s starting to annoy me a little bit. Particularly when it comes from publications and websites who’ve recently awarded high scores to Wii titles like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Trauma Team and No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle.
To an extent, I can understand this much more from those who visit gaming forums for whom a console is worth naught unless it’s getting several big-budget releases per week. But from professionals?
It all helps perpetuate this myth that the Wii has little to nothing of worth to play on it. As if the console is only worth owning for Galaxy 1 and 2. I mean, it IS worth owning purely for Galaxy 1 and 2, but those aren’t the only good games. Heck, the three mentioned above are all terrific, and that’s before you get onto more esoteric fare like Sakura Wars: So Long My Love, or Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies (another game getting rave notices, but apparently not worth dusting off your Wii to play).
I’m not going to claim that the Wii has as many essential games as, say, the 360. But it doesn’t deserve to be treated with derision by those people paid to write about videogames. Particularly when their own statements about the console’s need for a wipe-down prove so hypocritical.
rudderless 
Oh, Wii snobbery is super-annoying. Any sort of console snobbery is super-annoying, in fact. The Wii has some great games. They’re not in HD. BIG DEAL. We lived with non-HD games for a very long time. People are still playing their PS2 and PS1 games. They aren’t HD either. So why should the Wii get a beatdown for it?
The Wii does have a lot of crap available for it, and that’s unfortunately given it a reputation for being, well, crap. However, what people don’t take into account is that there’s a lot of really interesting-looking Wii exclusive games (often point-and-click adventures), too. I can’t name any offhand because they usually have peculiar Engrish titles, but I know that if I didn’t have a mounting Pile of Shame I’d be checking them out as a priority rather than yet another FPS.
TAKE BACK THE WII! TAKE BACK THE WII!
I just think it’s lazy writing. It falls into the same category for me as “[Writer] dons [vaguely related clothes] to review [game].” Or “The graphics are so poor it looks like a bad PS2 game.” It’s clichéd rubbish which is attempting to make some sort of vague point by exaggerating, or simply fabricating, something that doesn’t need to be done.
So when someone writes that they’re “dusting off [their] Wii” to play Mario Galaxy 2, what they’re actually saying is “I’m playing Mario Galaxy 2, and I’m vaguely aware that there’s a common idea that the Wii needs dusting off, and since that’s the first thing that’s come to mind I’m going to attempt to liven up my prose by saying that.”
Shoot it in the head, clearly, but I don’t think it’s indicative of a lack of respect for the Wii. I think it is indicative of a lack of respect for interesting writing, though.