Wii: 2007′s Most Wanted

*Gasp* Definitely time for a holiday. Apologies for the strap-line pun. Bramwell insisted. I suggested it should be ‘Something for the Weak End’ to kick of the comments thread but then, it doesn’t really work and it isn’t really true…

Of all Nintendo’s various achievements, surely its most consistent is in simultaneously pissing off and delighting its faithful European customers.

For twenty-five years the company has wowed us with innovative technology and wonderfully robust and inventive games, filling reservoirs of consumer goodwill in a way few other multinationals manage. In tension with this, interminable localisation delays, sloppy, bordered conversions and,- most heart-breakingly – an ever-slim line-up of releases has made it clear that Europe is literally the least of the Japanese company’s global concerns.

Never has the conflict been so obvious as it is with Wii in 2007. On the one hand the decision to bypass the HD race and instead invest in new ways to allow people to interact with their televisions is cause for celebration. But the months of waiting for titles like Paper Mario or Trauma Centre to make it from America to the UK is simply unacceptable at a time when simultaneous worldwide releases are commonplace on other systems.

Most Wanted lists like those featured in this series bring out the worst in a readership (as 300-odd furious comments in our previous two articles demonstrate with car-crash appeal). For many gamers who own just one of the three main players, defending their chosen machine is not just about fighting for its honour but also about justifying their own wisdom as a consumer.

Gamers who have eschewed Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for a Wii may well fight with similar (also pointless) vigour, but with so few games in the Wii’s catalogue, they certainly have a lot less ammunition. Newfound gaming grannies and mainstream press column inches don’t pack quite the same punch as a Halo 3 or Metal Gear Solid 4 in the playground debates.

You can see the full list with observations over at Eurogamer here.