With an install base that’s getting bigger by the day, VR feels like a no-brainer venue to host a Wii revival that also allows more developers to get their hands dirty with redesigning and reworking games for VR. As I mentioned before, Boom Blox is a great example of a game that would be incredible in VR and it would give EA a cheaper option to invest in the market than developing an entire game from scratch. This also gives bigger companies low-risk opportunities to dip their toes into VR. But it's fairly solitary and sterile, whereas part of Wii Sports' charm is its goofy personality. To me, Beat Saber's the closest we've gotten it makes sense almost immediately and trades in familiar, popular music. Instead, I think VR needs a game that's as intuitive and social as handing a Wii Remote to your tech-illiterate grandpa and watching things click as he beats you at tennis. There are plenty here from excellent simulation-leaning Football games like NFL Sports Era II to the ever-charming, slapsticky What The Bat?. I'm also not arguing that VR doesn't have any good sports games. That kind of involvement and immersion gives VR games the necessary leg up to follow through on the Wii’s vision. But VR’s form factor lessens the need for that level of smoke and mirrors it’s easier to believe that there’s a baseball bat in your hand when you look down and see it rather than a detached avatar moving in unison on your TV. Of course, not everyone can just replicate that effusive, lightning-in-a-bottle magic. You can play Wii Sports sitting down, swinging the remote lackadaisically as you sink into the couch or you can plant your feet on the ground and step up to your coffee table like it’s home plate as its charming vibes wash over you, encouraging you to swing the remote like it’s an actual baseball bat. As a mass-market game designed to get everyone playing, its legacy has little to do with gameplay in itself, especially compared to the tricks it played on you. Wii Sports had and continues to have immutable appeal. Instead, headsets like the Meta Quest 3 or Apple Vision Pro need something bigger a game that might not be as artistically impactful, but a much bigger cultural juggernaut. In other words, VR’s already had its Mario 64 - probably a few times at this point. All while being near-universally appealing experiences for the gaming audience at the same time. And for the most part, they’re right all of these games offer clever genre and medium-defining takes on VR that push gaming in VR forward. For many, it’s coupled with the assertion that VR needs a "Mario 64 Moment," which is an argument I’ve run into dozens of times from people arguing why VR hasn’t taken off.īut tell that to any regular VR user and they’ll tell you that Asgard’s Wrath 2, Half-Life Alyx, Astrobot Rescue Mission, Moss, or any number of the other fantastic VR games we’ve been able to experience over the last ten years fills that role. Outside of the hardest-of-hardcore VR users, there seems to be a common sentiment among people in the broader gaming space that VR hasn’t had a breakthrough yet. And VR would benefit from the same kind of appeal. Plus, so many people who don’t play video games still have a Wii to hit the links in Wii Sports here and there. As Gen Z ages, our nostalgia will be a powerful force to capitalize on in the gaming space, as we’ve already seen with revivals from that era on other gaming platforms. Thanks to its mass adoption right alongside the explosion of the internet and meme culture, even tertiary aspects of the console, like the Miis, have maintained an iconic status on the internet take the hilarious Mii Maker Speedrun community, for example. WiiWare games like World of Goo, Fluidity, and Cubello would all be excellent in VR or AR.Ī lot of hardcore gamers don’t look fondly on Nintendo’s Blue Ocean console or its legacy, but the Wii’s popularity looms large in the cultural zeitgeist. And like its contemporaries, the Wii was a gold mine for downloadable games. Thankfully, the Wii's first-party library is only the tip of the iceberg! The Wii hosted some spectacular third-party games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Mad World that would make for really cool VR games. But Nintendo's probably not going to license its games out to other gaming platforms any time soon aside from special cases like porting Super Mario Galaxy to the NVIDIA Shield in China. If you're anything like me, you probably think of Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, or Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess when you think of Wii games.
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