Last night I setup a monitor in the 12yo’s room for his Android media box and his Nintendo Switch. He told me not to bother setting up the Wii. And I was kinda sad.
We became a Nintendo house in 2005 with my US purchase of the original DS for the 6yo. This September he started college. In that time we have bought DS Lites, DSis and 3DSes. And some of them are still in intermittent use from the 18yo down to the 11yo.
Our first Wii was bought in 2007 and it was an instant hit. Those controllers were amazing. We got a second Wii a year or two later and of course we got the Wii Fit board.
We’ve had 10 years of almost continuous use of the Wiis as they migrated from child to child. Despite the crappy graphics and 480p resolution, the gameplay brought the kids back time and again. I always thought the hardcore gaming guys on the likes of Engadget and Gizmodo showed their limited worldview by describing the Wii as gimmicky. They had clearly forgotten what it was like to be a small kid.
The Wii-U was an obvious mis-fire which we avoided. The Switch, purchased this year, has been a big success. The dual-mode approach really seems to have nailed how kids like to play nowadays.
As for the older kids, the XBOX One has gone from mainstay to barely-used and has been completely supplanted by Steam on PC. But for nostalgia, they took down the original pre-360 XBOX this year and have been loving some of the ancient games on that.
So the Wii goes up into the attic. Still much loved and an integral part of their childhood. I hope when the smallies hit 18 or so, they bring it back down, pop some batteries into the Wiimotes and remember the good old days.