The Wii is considered Casual Central by most hardcore gamers and industry insiders. With the exception of whatever games that Nintendo publishes, most hardcore games languish and die on the Wii, while plenty of sub-par shovelware flourishes, much to our chagrin. Before its release, I had pegged Epic Mickey as a game that would be the metaphorical canary in a coal mine regarding the ability of the Wii to have success with non-Nintendo hardcore games.
The result, to my great surprise, is that the canary lived. According to the L.A. Times, who unlike us, has access to NPD data still, Warren Spector’s camera-challenged adventure/platformer sold 1.3 million units. Frankly, I’m stunned and a little bit annoyed. Epic Mickey got mixed reviews, though with a 72 Metacritic score, they are mostly positive. Having reviewed it for GamerSushi and finding it to be severely lacking, I am frustrated that a game that, in my opinion, doesn’t deserve this kind of success finds it on the Wii, while other, more deserving games fail.
What do you think about this? Are you surprised at all? Does this validate the Wii’s hardcore credentials for you or is the jury still out?
Verdict?
Source: L.A. Times
I’m not really surprised at this at all I figured a mom and her kid are gonna head into a gamestop(target,walmart,etc.) and the kid will tell his mom he wants the mickey mouse game and the rest as they say is history.
This wont validate the wiis hardcore credentials based on the point I just made, but maybe The Last Story will who know, but to me it doesn’t really matter as long as Nintendo releases those great 1st party games I’ll play them.
It’s a Disney game therefore I’m surprised it didn’t sell better. I don’t think this is any true indication as to whether or not hardcore gameers are buying it.
Zelda may be a more telling example.