Nintendo Wii: My waste of $250

I'll start off by saying that really do consider myself a Nintendo fanboy... Seriously, I loved pretty much every minute of my childhood that I spent playing the NES, SNES, N64, and many many hours in college even playing the Gamecube.

Back in 2007, I waited before a Circuit City opened and rushed in to buy a shiny new Nintendo Wii. I bought a couple of nunchucks and an extra Wiimote to go with it, as well as Metroid Prime 3 and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.

For a while, it was great. "How cool is this! Look you actually have to swing the Wiimote to swing the bat!" I played through Metroid Prime 3 and the Zelda game and they were both pretty good (well, except for the wolf parts in Zelda... I hated being the damn wolf).

Since then I've enjoyed quite a few games... But I can't see to make them last more than a couple of weeks. Mario Kart Wii was fun... But considering I'd played about 10,000 hours of Mario Kart Double Dash on the Gamecube there really wasn't much more to do on it. Super Smash Bros. was also fun... But after you get through the rather lengthy and repetitive solo campaign what were you supposed to do? Both of these games had a problem related to what I think is Nintendo's biggest failure on the Wii. Multiplayer.

Seriously, would it kill Nintendo to implement a current-gen multiplayer system? Mario Kart Wii was alright, but I had to wait 2-3 minutes between matches in order to play again... When the matches themselves were only 5 minutes long. I really think that Nintendo needs to take a page out of Microsoft's and Sony's book and implement a damn multiplayer network already.

I then got Super Mario Galaxy, and things were looking up... Amazing gameplay, creative levels... Even the Wiimote gimmicks seemed to be fun, until you beat it. That was the problem. Once you beat Super Mario Galaxy, what were you going to play next? Everything else just seemed lame. So now they are releasing Super Mario Galaxy 2.... Which is the same game with new levels. Really Nintendo? You're going to just build new levels, and then somehow shoe-horn a plot in? Kinda disappointing if you ask me.

The other thing that drives me absolutely nuts is the constant barrage of accessories you see to have to buy for the Wii. Want to play original console games? Gotta get a classic controller (unless you just want to play NES). Want to play Mario Kart Wii like it was supposed to be played? Gotta buy this $10 wheel that the Wiimote sticks in. Want to play Wii-Fit/any of the fitness games that work with the Wii-Fit Board? Gotta have that too. Now they've released the Motion-Plus Controller... So there are now small little attachments that you have to hook up for certain games! Its like I have to build a lego model in order to play a damn game. I hope that you have lots of space, because I know that I had to devote an entire drawer to just holding the various accessories I need to play the Wii.

I don't know, maybe I'm just jaded or I've been spoiled by the experience that I get on my Xbox 360 but I haven't played the Nintendo Wii in probably 8 months. Maybe one of these new games coming out (Metroid: M seems promising) will make me pick it up again, but I gotta say... I think the Wii magic is lost for me.