To Wii Or Not To Wii?: 6 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Wii This Christmas

The Wii has had a hugely successful life. For a time Wii€™s outsold Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 combined and was the must have Christmas purchase. The Wii has also been largely looked down on by the hardcore gaming community and for good reason. There have been very few good games released over the Wii€™s six years and even fewer great games. However, there has been an abundance of dross aimed at a casual gaming market that was created by Nintendo. But I think that now is actually the perfect time for the hardcore gamer to invest in the Wii, just as it reaches the end of the road.

1. Price

The Wii was never expensive, always sticking firmly under the £200 mark (even after a disastrous price rise!) but now you can pick up a brand new console for between £110 and £130 and that is not a sale price. For that price you get at the very least the two Wii Sports Resorts or Mario Kart Wii. You also get the Remote + controller. This is excellent value for money and a really affordable price point. What this also means is you can avoid pricey bundles (with rubbish games) and save your pennies for the good stuff.

2. Back Catalogue

By picking up a console at the end of its life rather than the start, you can take your pick from all the games ever released thanks to a hugely healthy pre-owned market. This means you don€™t have to wait years for the next great Wii game, you can dive straight in and make the most out of your time owning a Wii. There are some great games out on the Wii. The Super Mario Galaxy games, Mario Kart Wii, the Zelda games, and Monster Hunter Tri to name a few. Then there are the good titles like No More Heroes, New Super Mario Bros, Dead Space Extraction, and The Umbrella Chronicles games etc etc. There is more than enough to give you a good couple of years of life out of your new budget priced Wii, especially if you have an Xbox and/or a Playstation as well. The best thing is though some of these games have held their value (anything with Mario in the title is still over £30 new) as time goes on and Wii U comes out, the pre-owned prices will crash. Now while pre-owned does little good for game developers, it is a great way to extend a console€™s life span and keep your gaming cheap.

3. Zelda: Skyward Sword

Is one game enough reason to buy a console? Well if that game is Zelda: Skyward Sword then yes. Skyward Sword is possibly (and in my opinion is) the best Zelda game ever made. It may have taken Ocarina of Time€™s crown even with a 3D makeover. Yes I know, however good Skyward Sword is, it doesn€™t warrant spending £150 to play it. I agree, but this is only one factor. When you add the other great games you can play after Skyward Sword, including the still excellent Twilight Princess you get a more convincing argument towards purchasing a Wii so as not to miss out on one of 2011€™s best games.

4. The Virtual Console

Here is a real bonus for not just the hardcore gamer, but the hardcore gamer hitting 30+. You can download a ton of classic 8bit and 16bit Nintendo games and re-live your childhood. Sweet! For you 20 somethings there are also classic N64 games (including Ocarina of Time for those not 3Ding with Nintendo). So no matter how old you are hardcore gamer, you can get a huge nostalgia bomb. I personally rushed out to purchase the required points to buy Mario Kart 64. I cannot get enough of that frickin game.

5. The Social Console

Of course this is not a new argument in favor of the Wii but it is still important. The Wii is the only console that has a genuinely large range of local multiplayer games, so it encourages social gaming. Social gaming is always the most fun when done with friends in the same room with you. Playing games like Mario Kart can be a genuinely great party experience. As a student I lived in a house where everyone loved Mario Kart (which made 8 of us) and we had some great nights drinking, eating pizza and playing cup after cup of Mario Kart. The Wii brings families and friends together into the living room again, which is an important part of a good social life.

6. It's Actually Good

Here€™s the thing, the Wii is a good console because it does what is meant to do and it does it well. Now that you get the Remote +, you actually get 1:1 motion control and when you play a game like Skyward Sword you can really see just how well it works. Yes the Wii is not a current generation console in terms of power and HD graphics etc etc, but it is the only good motion controlled console available. I€™m sorry, but Playstation Move has yet to have a good game and neither has Kinect. The fact that Kinect is almost as expensive as a Wii and has far fewer games (none even close to being worth a full price purchase) goes even further to proving that if you want an alternate way to play your games it has to be a Wii. Convinced? Well maybe not. Still, I can assure you I am no Nintendo fanboy. In fact I have had many a rant about the Wii and casual gaming and will continue to do so. I don€™t like the trend of producing low budget, poor quality and mindless games targeted at people who are not traditional gamers. Sadly, the Wii is mostly responsible for this and was a success for that very reason. Still, that is just me being a snob really. Thanks to Skyward Sword I am now a proud Wii owner and I look forward to catching up on everything I have missed over the years. Yes I wont get years and years of life out of it but for the price that I payed I think I will get more than my money€™s worth. Do you think the Wii is still a waste of money or will you defend it with your dying breath? Let us know below.