Wii releases for the week of May 28th

Well, the two games I WOULD HAVE bought this week (MKA, MP8) I will not buy because Nintendo dropped the ball. Both of these titles should have included online play. Without it there is no way I will buy either of these. Same thing goes for Virtual Console titles. Mario Kart 64? With online play I would have bought it and played it into the ground by now. Without it I have no interest whatsoever. It's so painful to say that Microsoft, MICROSOFT of all companies got it right. The first time ever for them they realized that online play was the future and boy were they spot on. It's almost enough to go out an buy an Xbox for. Almost.

You know.. I understand the appeal of online play, but I absolutely have no understanding on how it's a deal breaker. Maybe because I've played games without online play for over 25 years. Maybe it's because last generation was barely online at all (and I never had my console online) or maybe it's because I'm not that interested in playing games against strangers (none of my friends have Wiis)... but online is just a nice bonus for me.. not a necessicity(sp?).

Why has it become such a big deal for everyone else this last year?

i grabbed mortal kombat on friday at the best buy here in NYC. it's a lot of fun.....i don't have xbox or ps2/3, so the game is new to me. i love the controls.

plus, i'll be getting mario party this week too.

i agree, it would've been nice for an online version of each game, but seriously? whatever. i know that online play IS coming. i know nintendo WILL do a good job. so far, the wii has exceeded my expectations, so i honestly don't mind waiting a little for more online play games.

besides, i don't know about you guys, but mario party battles at my house usually last for an hour or even 2 hours.....finding 3 other people online that would stay for the duration of 20 turns is asking A LOT.

i still love mario party, as well as mortal kombat, and they'll still get plenty of play here, online or not.

I'll second that Kenneth. Frankly, I hate playing most of my games online as it loses a lot of the appeal. I've played Halo, Madden and Ratchet & Clank online and it's nowhere near the fun as playing with my friends. In fact, it's not really that fun at all.

Think about how lame Mario Party would be online. It would basically be like playing single player against some computers. It would suck.

Half the fun of Mario Party is the fact that you have friends near you joking around.. and having a good time.

@dukemeiser
Since I live in England I can assure you that Mario Strikers is a fine beginning to Nintendos online wii titles, the main plus side is that it's free

Sweet, I can't wait to play Mario Party with my friends!

Wait... what do you mean it's not coming out in the UK yet?

Oh... well, nevermind... i'll just go get Super Paper Mario instead...

that's not out either? really?

Nintendo != getting anymore of my money.

It's important to me because I'm 23, live alone, and don't have friends coming over to my house everyday, especially ones that would play these games with me. But for gamers my age and older, finding people that like to play games can be a challenge, thus online play is critical to multiplayer games like these for me. Sure I can play against the computer, but when is that EVER more fun that a real person?

@Alien - I too am looking forward to Mario Strikers and I will most certainly buy the game BECAUSE it has online play. Otherwise I wouldn't have bought it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgFRKjPNXnQ

@massive_98
And you shared that... why?

Mario Party 8 looks atrocious. Rayman Raving Rabbids ftw!!

Online play these days tends to be ruined by assholes. There's the disconnectors, the glitch abusers and the cheaters mainly, and the stat whores who complain about everyone who's better than them(Mainly seen in games like Counterstrike, where getting a headshot can get you banned from the server for hacking)

Sadly, these people have also already gotten to Mario Strikers Charged.

And if you go Microsoft, prepare to be insulted in many colorful ways by 14 year olds pretending to be home sick.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the occasional bit of online gaming, but it's not a required feature for most games, mainly due to the fact that anonymity turns you into an asshole.

Could you please include European release dates into your "Wii releases..." posts again? Thank you.

I'm getting Mario Party 8 cause right now there's nothing good to play on the Wii.

And online play is fun when you can communicate. Playing with friends at someone's house is more fun (no lag) but then you need a bigger screen because of split screen. And I don't really care about online play (no broadband).

And speaking of online play for Mario Kart 64, why? It's an old game, it wasn't meant to be played online. If you want Mario Kart online, get Mario Kart DS.