When will the Wii be a retro console?

Balla mentions in the Okami thread that he reckons the 'Wii' part should be taken out of the 'Wii and Wii U' subforum's heading, implying that the Wii is already a retro machine. What do y'all think? Is the Wii retro? If not, at what point in the future will it be so?

Well I think... oh.

Anyway, for me, a console becomes retro when its maker is no longer announcing or producing games for it. That means that, in my eyes, the DS is a retro console too, and has been for a while.

I'm of the persuasion that there is

1. Current gen
   
2. Last gen
   
3. Retro
   

Therefore, when the NX launches, the Wii will become retro. You'll have to buy an old system to play Wii games (assuming NX doesn't play Wii games).

I'm a big last gen gamer - currently playing 360, PC and Wii games. I wouldn't say I'm a retro gamer though unless we're talking about older stuff.

gjones hits the nail on the head for where I stand!

My take has always been this: if you can play the console's games on a current gen machine, then it's not retro. But gjones's definition is even better.

Something along the lines of Zero and G (like what's in space lol) if I had to define it, but for me retro is more of a feeling. I feel like Twilight Princess is Retro, because I got big ol' nostalgia when I played the remake, but Skyward Sword isn't retro yet. They're both Wii Zeldas, though.

Look outside of games for a minute. A model of Volkswagon they stopped building a few years ago isn't retro, but a classic bug is. Retro is a feeling, and aesthetic, a mood. Retro worked in the pre-internet age when things from childhood were half remembered. Kids who Star Wars at the cinema probably didn't have VHS tapes, so it was a long time before they could go back to it. Kids today can google something they used to like and relive it any time, so "retro" doesn't work any more, and we have to try and arbitrarily define it.

That would have made more sense and been more meaningful if I was less ill.

Yeah Retro is definitely a feeling but in terms of systems being retro, the Wii and DS will join the Gamecube and GBA in "The Vault" once the NX drops next year.

Zelda may be a special case as they all feel retro to me, seeing as they replicate a formula running back many years. Twilight Princess is definitely retro though as it's a Gamecube game that received a Wii release, essentially.

I'll give you a bunch of reason why and why not

Retro Collect has Wii and I think DS as well on the site. So it's retro, also a decent collector scene around the system but so does the Wii U already.

Technically it's a 7th gen console just like the PS360, So it's last gen.

Only thing is both of those get games on a fairly regular bases where the Wii gets like one a year now (Just Dance 2017 is coming), so is it due to lack of games coming does that make it Retro?

The other day someone tweeted the Dreamcast Junkyard saying the Dreamcast wasn't retro along with a few other tweets which made it likely a troll, but we talked about it anyway like this now and due it being 6th gen, part from calling it 6th gen what else you going to call it last last gen, so the most universal term agreed on was retro

Now again the Wii is 7th gen, the NX  has been brought up & does really throw a spanner in the works as technically it be a 9th gen system meaning Wii U would be last gen and Wii retro

Power, when the Wii came out and then when the Wii U came out a few people on this old internet said that Nintendo was a generation behind the rest and the Wii U was just catching up with the PS360 and terms of power & that would be right. I do feel Nintendo march to beat of their own drum, and will kill of the Wii U for the NX etc and have this muddled gen as the NX will be less powerful the PS4ONE but a gen after. But my point being due to the power and how people talk about the Wii, is it more on par with the 6th gen which would make it retro.

Nintendo, Nintendo even when they say the DS will be the 3rd pillar they don't mean it as the GBA from a Nintendo out put and same with their other systems as soon as the new one comes out they move right over to the new system and basically killing off the system before hand. Would this make the Wii retro, seeing Nintendo don't support it, ohh also Wii games sort via VC even if its not called that

Buying games, back to the Dreamcast but another reason retro was accepted is where can you buy the game or how do buy the games and the answer is from a independent game shop in the retro section or sites like console passion but the Wii still in GAME to buy now just like the PS360. Now I know Cappa has said in the bargain thread that Wii games have dropped in price and I've seen some GAMEs with the smallest Wii selection you'll see to make room for the other systems and toys, this will of course continue when VR & NX games need room that will likely kill off the Wii in places like GAME.

I'm not sure to me it feels retro as my best times with the Wii was in its sort of first year which was 10 years ago this year but when I look at the PS360, I can look back at games like Tomb Raider, GTAV, TLoU, Bioshock Infinite which were only 3 years ago.

@Zero so the PS3 is retro then

I was just thinking about this last night talking to EofGiz and how were old, when the kids in work talk Pokemon on GBA's and DS's as their first systems. That the Wii for some that will be teenagers in a few years will be looked back on like how we do with the SNES and Mega Drive.

Also if Wii is retro, should we do a Wii game for the retro let's play?

We did talk about doing Red Steel as a let's all play in the NGamer thread.

@mas: I did say that gjones's definition was better than mine. I just mentioned it as the one I used to fall back on; as a primarily Nintendo gamer, it's worked pretty well for the last ten years (nearly).

Yeah I guess so in till the NX kills off the Wii and Wii U being cart based and likely the 3DS not long after as well, as I was thinking NX could play 3DS games like a 2DS but it will only have one screen.

How does DS games work on the Wii U whilst using just the gamepad?

Red Steel wasn't great 10 years ago but seeing it costs less then a McFlurry, I could give it another go.

I'll have you know Red Steel was a slice above.

What Fruit Ninja?

I put Wii games I played in the last retro game you played thread but what really has cemented the Wii and the DS as well to me as retro is the lack of online play available, as this was a feature at launch and no longer is makes them seem like they've been killed off by Nintendo.

Of course some truly retro systems like the Dreamcast still has working online, but I do feel something massive as that makes a big difference as some games like DQX is unplayable now and the fun-parts of Monster Hunter for instance.

To me, the retro style in computer games is the one that you seen in stuff like Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Frogger, Q*Bert and all of that. Stuff that's really concious and reminiscent of a time that was long, long ago. It's a little bit nostalgic, a little bit vintage...in a lot of cases, it's a little bit kitsch too. Stuff like Mario Kart Wii and Animal Crossing: Let's All Go To The City don't feel like all that retro, nostalgic, vintage or all that kitsch to me, unlike, say, Donkey Kong or Defender.

When will Wii be a retro console to me? I'm not sure. I still play it like it's 2007.

Because Games are young as a medium, things feel like they were longer ago than they were. When videogames have been around for 100 years, a nine-year-old game won't be retro.

The first Michael Bay Transformers film came out in 2007- when does that become "retro"?

...perhaps just rename the sub-forum 'Old Consoles'? If we're talking about retro as a 'style', there are GC games that don't feel retro-style to me.

I've only started considering PS2 games as somewhat retro, and even then, later games on the console don't come across as retro to me. I think a 15 year or so timescale usually classifies a game as retro to me.

Dam those games you bring up Cappa and even more retro then retro most people would call them classics or vintage depending on who your are, but if you class them as retro what do you class things in the SNES or PS1 for instance, Cappa.

See the nostalgia thing that Drunka has brought up does work and I get that with the Wii especially when TPHD came around for it's 10th anniversary and I started it up and was like I remember this.

But I get that and Cappa as you say you still play the Wii like it's 2007, you don't get that feeling. That they only real way to decide it is gJones reasoning NX will make Wii U last gen and Wii then will become retro in March 2017.

I don't think retro is a style, yeah some games like a Shovel Knight we will say it's in a retro style / influenced but when talking Wii your talking about the platform and same goes for the DS, is that retro due to the various reasons I've said.

I don't think you get retro films or I never hear people call them that Drunka, they go classic or something like that or I remember watching that when I was a kid.

I'm not sure a time a time period works to be honest like Jay's 15 years as take MGS:PW I'm playing at the moment from 2008, it's part of the retro sale on PSN and feels rather retro to me, also the Dreamcast got a official game in 2007 that's 9 years ago but it's clearly retro due to the platform its on.

I posted what Wii games I've been playing in the retro thread as that's where I feel they need to be, if cappa posts them in the thread in the Wii U section then he posts there and at the end of the day does it matter which thread it's in as we will all likely see it anyway.

masofdas wrote:

I'm not sure a time a time period works to be honest like Jay's 15 years as take MGS:PW I'm playing at the moment from 2008, it's part of the retro sale on PSN and feels rather retro to me, also the Dreamcast got a official game in 2007 that's 9 years ago but it's clearly retro due to the platform its on.

Different strokes - I played Peace Walker last year and it felt very much like a modern title to me. I don't think I could call that retro.

Yeah sure and like I said the Drunka reasoning with nostalgia or gJones with the gens are the best really to go by.

Well Retro Collect have just added the DS to it's dateabase, Wii have been up for ages but I don't know if that makes any of you now consider the DS retro.

Nope. As others have said in this thread, retro's more of a feeling than a classification doled out by a website. Nothing on DS feels retro to me, nor on Wii, really.

An interesting side note to Wii and DS not being considered retro when the NX launches (going against my own definition here), but the technological changes in the past 10 years haven’t been as extreme as before. Remember in N64 Magazine they would have a few pages dedicated to retro games that were about ten years old at the time – N64 Mag running in 1997 through to 2000. But a game from 1988 looked very different to a game from 1998. The same could even be said for the jump between N64 and Wii, or at least between N64 and what was occurring in 2008 on the other consoles.

In 2016 though, a game that’s 10 years old (such as the first Gears of War) still looks great. That long last-generation has obviously influenced this too. Next year Super Mario Galaxy will be ten years old, but I don’t think that will be a retro game either.

Yeah IGN a side-by-side of Gears of War 1 on 360 and Gears of War 4 on ONE. Gears of War 4 does look better but that 10 year difference is the same as a game from 1987 to 1997 to 2007.

Only thing is PS360 by your definition are last gen systems and so is the Wii at the moment but soon as the Switch lands it be last last gen along with the DS which most would consider retro.