Codemasters to continue Wii's mini-game doldrums with Emergency Mayhem

Sorry Fernando, but when junk like "Carnival Games" with a Metacritic rating of 56 sells 500,000 copies, it only confirms that the Wii is a dumping ground for mini-games and other casual fare.

Because, given the production values depicted by this screen shot, they won't need to sell more than 50k copies to turn a marginal profit.

Making "good games" is much harder than you think it is. "Good Production Values" cost a lot more than this, and in the current environment of Wii third party games, this is a better bet for any profit at all.

Oh, I don't know. If it combines the action of Crazy Taxi with some fun, destination-based minigames, it could work.

Of course, the quality isn't going to be there, so it will suck. Now, ware is my shovel?

I see what you did there.

Fernando, do you mind telling me how Okami sold? Hm, ok. How about Psychonauts? Ah, alright. Well, surely Viva Pinata? Oh, ok.

No, I'm sure those are just exceptions. Your equation of:

GUD PRODUKTIN VALUS + GUD GAMPLAYE = PROFET

has to be correct.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure a blow job is supposed to go somewhere into that equation.

Those games all lacked one very important thing, MARKETING.

Seriously, some of the budget for games needs to go into marketing.

Something else more entertaining than this game. (but not the above video- that's classic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UONERY6zD8

edit: current

I don't see what suggests that. The PS2 was the hot toy for christmas in years past. How is the Wii different?

The PS2 had a much larger libary of good games, infact, it STILL does.

The Wii has, well it has "Emergency Mayhem"

When the PS2 was the hottest christmas item, its game library was HORRIBLE. Seriously, look back at its first year. Absolutely terrible. The Wii has a better library so far.

Tsk tsk mr. Nimblewick, don't you know? The PS2 was born with its entire library complete!

yup, it's not like we're getting the first NiGHTS game in 11 years

No, that isn't true at all

Its called 'Nights: Journey of Dreams' for a reason;
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

You can insult the Wii, but will NOT insult NiGHTS on my watch, buddy.

And by my watch, I mean "I'm so terribly bored at the moment."

GTA IV: Automatically amazing, huh?

Damn you, sir.

Damn you right to hell.

List those minigames. Go on, list them. See if they make a "glut".

Name another type of game on the Wii, save platforming.

Um.. First person shooter? First person adventure? Adventure? Surgery? Racing? Ever hear of these things?

Wii Sports
Wii Play
Links Crossbow Somethingorother
Monkey Ball
WarioWare
Raving Rabbids
Trauma Center
Carnival Games
Bomberman Land
Cooking Mama
Chicken Shoot
EA Playground
Emergency Mayhem
Game Party...

I've only hit G in the alphabetical list of Wii games on Wikipedia, but I'm already bored and think I've made the point.

Except Links crossbow training, Monkeyball, and Trauma Center don't belong on that list. Wiisports doesn't really belong on the list either, unless you consider real bowling, tennis, and golf to be "minigames".

Might as well add Bioshock to the list of 360 mini-game collections because it has a hacker minigame, or Mass Effect because it has an unlocker minigame.

This list should be:

Wii Play
WarioWare
Raving Rabbids
Carnival Games
Chicken Shoot
EA Playground
Game Party...

I'm not trying to bash on the Wii... in fact, I love my Wii (nightly, with lube).

But Links Crossbow Training is most certainly a minigame collection: it didn't have a single central gameplay mechanic, instead opting to alternate between three different types of games that most people would refer to as "mini". Wii Sports even more so... none of those games would stand on their own as a retail game without significant additions.

Monkeyball is arguable, since the minigames are in addition to a full game. Plus, it wasn't anything new to the Wii: they've been doing minigames in monkeyball since day one.

I've never played Trauma Center, but from everything I've seen it looks like a clever metagame wrapped around a minigame collection. I might be wrong here.

I'm not trying to argue semantics here: lets remove all three of these from the list. That still leaves 11 games on the list just off the top of my head and up through the letter G on Wikipedia. Point is, designers are so giddy about having a new control device that many of them are coming up with loads of gimmicks that end up getting piled up into a minigame collection, while never getting fleshed out into a full working game.

I just hope this fad passes soon.

When you put a little more thought into it, a minigame collection really is one of the first attempts to wrap their designers minds around a new form of control. How many mini-games came out for PC when the mouse first started making market penetration? Tons. How many mini-games for the DS? Also tons.

I still say: Give it time. This will pass. And from the sounds of this game, this is the least minigame-ish of all the minigame collections.

Something else to keep in mind. People were developing software for 360 and PS3 months before either console launched. Wii didn't get 3rd party support (starting development) until months AFTER launch. [patcher]2008 will be a year with lots of 3rd party software that isn't minigames.[/patcher]

"When you put a little more thought into it, a minigame collection really is one of the first attempts to wrap their designers minds around a new form of control. How many mini-games came out for PC when the mouse first started making market penetration? Tons. How many mini-games for the DS? Also tons."

That isn't called thought, you vapid fanboy. That's called "Making crap up to validate one's own point."

Also known as: denial.

Early computer games that used the mouse weren't minigames at the time. They were full fledged games by the standards of those times.

"I still say: Give it time. This will pass. And from the sounds of this game, this is the least minigame-ish of all the minigame collections."

We're all going to give it time, because there's nothing else we CAN give it. Frankly, if you twist things right, I'm still giving my Saturn time to rise and surprise me again, aren't I? The difference is that most of us will just play other things while we wait for the Wii to validate itself.

"Something else to keep in mind. People were developing software for 360 and PS3 months before either console launched. Wii didn't get 3rd party support (starting development) until months AFTER launch. [patcher]2008 will be a year with lots of 3rd party software that isn't minigames."

I'm actually pretty sure that it did. There was this amazing beta Wii called the Gamecube that developers had for years before the Wii hit shelves...

Dave, point is that most of the "minigames" are cash ins from developers who got caught with their pants down. They had no budget or plan for wii games until the wii started selling like gangbusters.

Some of you have to realize that some people like minigames. I enjoy the occasional minigame. I bet you have as well. They aren't the scourge you make them out to be to have a talking point against the Wii.

I do agree, however, that a lot of minigame collections are poor quality, but really, most games are poor quality.

We'll see, Crono.

The upcoming release list isn't quite as bright as I'd hoped when I bought in. I'm just really sick of the apologists. I suppose enough Kool Aid and I'd start to think that the Wii's library was competitive too.

Fair point. I wish all towns where named after what the city designers had in mind when they created them. I can imagine the Google Map:

Turn left to 'Can't Be Arsed', go straight through 'Pay The Bills', pass 'Dont Know What I Had In Mind', and you'll eventually arrive in 'Someone Had To Do It'.

umm... anything in a Wii box?
no, wait, wait,
the Wii's top selling genre?
wait, I change my answer.
Something only drunk or old people play?

Any game in a white box where you spend more than 70% of your time waggling.

Oh please, people, Viva Pinata: Party Animals is being released on the 360, and I'll give you three guesses what genre it is.

Anyway, a minigame compilation: I would describe it as a series of games that are meant for quick bursts of play that have little or no connection to each other, often without a plot to follow either.

wow, you guys are so awesome

(goes off to play Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn)

@mr kahn

and dont forget funny.

(goes off to play something that doesnt look like a gamecube game)

Wow, cold school, you are awesome because you don't like the Wii. Let me give you two hypocrite badges for your work.