The Wii seems to grant game developers and publishers a special license to abandon their senses and create some of the most ludicrous and uninventive titles. It’s like they feel they must capitalize on, and exploit, the successful Wii name in order to help sell a game and identify their product. I can imagine the flow of conversations at companies when discussing titles for new games:
“We have a new game coming out for the Wii. What should we call it?”
“Wii Ski? We Ski?”
“We love it!”
Today, Gamertell’s looking at a few of the Wii game titles that have cashed in, or better yet – sold out, and incorporated “we” or “Wii” into the title in an attempt to be clear or clever.
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again
First, we’re going to begin this list with an example of a Wii game title done right. NIS America has seemingly done the impossible. They’ve created a Wii game which sneaks in the name of the console without being ridiculous. The Phantom Brave Wii port contains the subtitle We Meet Again. It’s classy and subtle, yet still includes a Wii reference. (I wonder if the PS2 version of the game will start being known as Phantom Brave: P.S. To You.)
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
I’m not sure what’s worse, the Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree US title, or the Big Brain Academy for Wii European title. It smacks of laziness. You’d think Nintendo, of all companies, would have a little more creativity when it comes to naming a game. Big Brain Academy alone could have worked. Yes, there’s a DS game by the same name, but it’s pretty much the exact same game. When there’s a game released on both the PS2 and PSP, Sony doesn’t go and add the system name into the title. Of course, Nintendo has a track record of lazy naming when it comes to their Wii games. For example, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Music, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, Wii Play, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. The various Wii _____ games are somewhat tolerable and excusable, but the Mario Wii game names are just plain lazy.
We Love Golf!
We Love Golf! could have been allowed to slip past, if it had been released earlier. But by the time Capcom debuted it in 2008, the market had already been inundated with We _______ Wii games. A year or two earlier, and it would have been clever and perhaps even considered original. Instead, it is grouped in with the likes of We Ski and We Sing. Gamers expect better, especially from a company like Capcom. Of course, they did call the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 Resident Evil: Wii Edition, so perhaps I’m expecting too much.
We Cheer and We Cheer 2
Rather than just contenting myself with mocking the We _________ naming trend in the We Love Golf! entry. But We Cheer deserves special recognition. Not because Namco Bandai dared slack off and call their cheerleading Wii game We Cheer to begin with, but because they decided to go a step further and not waste any precious ounce of creativity by calling the sequel We Cheer 2. How does Namco Bandai do it?
Dancing with the Stars: We Dance!
Ah Activision, there’s a very special place on this list for Dancing with the Stars: We Dance!. The moniker was attached not only to the Wii game, which is appropriate but quite overdone, but also to the DS game, which made no sense. If you’re going to be blatant like that, then at the very least make the DS game something like Dancing with the Stars: Dance Superstars or Dancing with the Stars: Dance Spectacular.
Rapala: We Fish
And the “Let’s State the Obvious” award goes to, Activision for Rapala: We Fish. It’s fairly common knowledge that Rapala is one of the largest fishing equipment manufacturers in the world, but a reference to fishing in the title is helpful to people who don’t take part in the sport. Activision resisted this lazy subtitle for a while, calling its previous Wii Rapala games Rapala: Tournament Fishing and Rapala: Fishing Frenzy. The company could put in effort on its previous Rapala games, it’s a shame it slacked off on the most recent one.
Safar’Wii
The worst offender on this list, Safar’Wii has it all. It not only includes the title of the system, but incorporates it into a word in a convoluted way. I can’t look at it without cringing. It’s a crime against spelling and grammar, and shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Shame on you, Oxygen Games, for this atrocity.
Preach on, sister. Preach on. It's not just the "We-Wii" games, it's equally lazy titles such as Chicken Shoot. Of course, that's a port of a mediocre flash game which is part of a whole 'nother set of problems.
this is pretty hilarious! i haven't really gave a big deal about the wii games title but now that you mentioned it, im laughing my a** off!