Nintendo reveals Wii Party, jumps on own bandwagon

In the years since Wii rocketed to console superstardom, we've seen an alarming increase in motion-controlled party games. This glut of shovelware tossed the word "party" around so much it started to lose all meaning, and on top of the games beingmostly shit, this has led to a general fear and revulsion to anything on Wii with "party" in the title.


Above: Plenty more where this came from

That hasn't stopped Nintendo from announcing Wii Party, which is slated to be the company's next big "Wii Something" title during the next fiscal year. This family of titles includes nothing but hits, ranging from pack-ins like Wii Sports and now Wii Sports Resort, to Wii Fit, Wii Playand Wii Music.


Above: Get ready to lean and/or balance!

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata called out Mario Party 8 as a blueprint for Wii Party, saying he hoped to recapture the appeal that drove the game to sell more than seven million units worldwide. We'd argue that Mario had something to do with it, and excising him and his supporting cast in favor of Miis could actually hurt its chances.


Above: Take your Mii on a global party walkabout

Then again, all our negative associations with "party" haven't prevented each and every one of those budget waggle-fests from raking in the dough, so Nintendo's totally in the right to put its official stamp on the genre. Let's just hope this isn't the biggest thing it has to show at E3 next month - we're still expecting more on thatmysterious Zelda, after all.


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Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.