Why the Wii U Should be the Wii 2

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

- Juilet Cappelletti

Romeo and Juilet

Before any Wii fans protest to the notion that the Wii U should be NAMED the Wii 2, that is neither the thrust nor the theme of this article, I hope you all hang in there to get what this article is all about.

The Wii U possesses the moniker of it's predecessor, which gave a lot fans hope and inspiration for the future: The graphics are updated, Nintendo has came off of a stunning comeback over the last generation, and the base of Nintendo players have expanded exponentially compared to the last two generations of Nintendo's consoles. The future looked bright, brighter than it has been for Nintendo and it's fans for a long time. When The Wii U was revealed, it showed off it's new game, Zombi U, which looked exciting, to say the least. The survival concept seemed very enjoyable, the new aspects of how to play thrilled fans.

Almost.

While the average gamer that loves innovation was enthusiastic about the New controller, most of Nintendo's new fan base weren't lovers of innovation: as a matter of fact, a lot of the fans were very appreciative of the refreshingly simple and dynamic control scheme. A lot of new gamers, especially the more mature gamers, did not grow up to correlate a reflex action to a button push, which essentially alienated them to most forms of gaming. When playing a tennis game, a swinging motion with their arm would be the appropriate response to their experience; with the Wii, this system finally opened a door to many people who, after playing, finally realized why gamers could play games for hours on end. The Wii's controller was probably the most important gaming device since the home console in terms of bringing video gaming to the masses; it bridged the gaming and generation gap between older, inexperienced gamers and seasoned gamers. Watching someone's grandpa game along side of their granddaughter is heartwarming as you see the kid come out of the grandparents and the maturity of the children emerge as they give almost sage-like information to their newfound friend.

That is what made the Wii the most popular console for most of the last generation of consoles, and why that success was not followed up on is the most baffling thing I've ever seen in all of gaming. Not Nintendo, who already had every one of their own fans in their camp; not Sony, who put out the Sony Move in lieu of Nintendo's success; and not Microsoft, who, for some reason, thought people would use Kinect as they would the Wii's controller. This current controller turns most of the games that take advantage of Nintendo's controller offerings into "Game while you game" games; which comes off as confusing at times, even for seasoned gamers.

Although I don't agree with this notion fully, there is no reason why any of the console developers shouldn't put out a higher-powered Wii-like console for cheap and get previous Wii 3rd party developers to develop for them, set aside funds to have an in-house team to make exclusive games, and encourage indie developers to take the "wand" experience to new realms of gaming. It's a shame that such a lucrative opportunity is not fully explored since it's already been proven that the Wii did not significantly impact the sales of the other two non-wand consoles; meaning that kind of console won't under-cut any current consoles that are out already.

Nintendo has some of the brightest and best executives in gaming, period. Nintendo's longevity is a unquestionable testament to their innovation and savvy. To be honest, you don't really see the loyalty Nintendo's executives have in other companies; that being said, Nintendo's fatal flaw is that Nintendo as a company has troubles learning from both their failures and successes. When something fails, they tend to repeat their failures until it works, and when something succeeds, they often immediately attempt to innovate away from their success, sometimes resulting in failure. While I'm all for innovation, you should evolve innovation in small increments, not going too far off just for the sake of having something different than what you had before. For all of the intelligence Nintendo has at their company, they must realize that change is most useful when needed, and The Wii was one great idea that did not need any major changes.

The name Wii U isn't just a name: it was, and still is, a responsibility. A responsibility to all of Nintendo's fans, old and new, to continue hearing and responding to their concerns, a responsibility to the future to put gaming before and above innovation, an responsibility to themselves to uphold and maintain their reputation.

And if they fulfilled the needs of their fans and not their own need to innovate, whether it appears rosy or not to the average proponents of change, would be a breath of fresh air to their newfound fans, Wii-developers, and people who see the innovation and change already accomplished by the Wii itself that still haven't been fully explored...

...and it would also smell sweet.