I’ve played quite a few online-enabled Wii games in all their varying degrees. Elebits with its basic WiiConnect24 features; Mario Strikers Charged, which is perhaps one of the most underrated Wii games, especially online; Medal of Honor Heroes 2 which lovingly bypasses friend codes like other EA games; Metroid Prime 3 (kidding); Guitar Hero 3; and most recently, Super Smash Bros. Brawl which suffers from some pesky lag and inability to currently “Play With Anyone,” but is still a giggle fest when playing friend matches.
So far, Guitar Hero 3 has been the best online Wii game in my opinion. Only the ditching of friend codes (or better yet, a universal ID like PSN and Live) and VOIP would make it a better experience. Here’s why: Guitar Hero 3 doesn’t make you connect and reconnect to Wi-Fi like Brawl does, rather it maintains a constant connect. But the gravy is receiving friend invite alerts much like Xbox Live at anytime you have the game fired on. Brawl and others are sorely missing this smart feature.
Guitar Hero 3 is far from being online perfect, but more publishers, including Nintendo, should look to it as starting inspiration of what can be done on Wii. Nintendo clearly has little idea of what constitutes a compelling online system — I can only suspect they are too prideful to admit they need help and then ask for it.
Would you agree?