Written by Ashley Coomer

Competition leads to improvements. It's a statement that's often touted around the games industry, and for good reason; if games developer A comes up with a great original IP, developer B is unlikely to bury its head in the sand and hope for the best. Instead, it will strive to conjure up an even better IP in what is known as 'not bottling it'. Take this for example: if it weren't for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, Nintendo wouldn't have had to launch the Wii; it could have stuck with the GameCube safe in the knowledge that consumers had no other choice. Granted, that logic sucks! The point is though, it's only when a company goes out full speed that its rivals take notice � at least, that's what an uneducated guess would have you believe. Nintendo has often been branded the leader of innovation, which is rather fitting for a company that typically adopts technology later than the rest of the pack.

As production costs rise and technology advances, a company such as Nintendo could well be left wondering what to do. While Microsoft wanted to be at the forefront of this console generation and Sony busied itself incorporating Blu-ray into the PS3, Nintendo's goal was different. Neglecting to go down the same route as everyone else, it decided to favour innovative controls and accessibility over high definition visuals. Let's put it this way: the Wii doesn't even have a DVD player inside its casing! Not that it matters though � it has the Wii Remote instead. Now, before you leave and assume this is an extremely outdated article about Nintendo's brand new console, well, don't! We're telling you these things because despite offering an arguably better experience overall combined with a heap of innovation, we're beginning to realise there's plenty of room for more. Chances are you've bought into the Wii because of the promise that comes with the motion sensing (or you simply don't like spending, or can't spend much money), and you have to ask yourself the million dollar question: are developers really using the tools at their disposal?

Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition has proved that ports can be successful on the Wii if the controls work and it's visually superior to its predecessor.

In short, no, they're not. The Wii has done wonderful things for certain existing franchises, and has introduced some great new ideas as well, but it seems a pattern is beginning to emerge � for every game that does something original, there are two that stick to tried and tested formulas. The end result is we're not getting the bold ideas we were once promised. What can developers do to combat this problem? Simply put, they need to go back to the drawing board. Granted, it's easier said than done; you can't lock a few developers in a room, tell them to come up with something original and hope for good results. But that said, we feel there's too much emphasis on visuals of late, and not enough focus on the actual gameplay. Take Resident Evil 4 for example: it's widely accepted as one of the, if not the, best GameCube games to date, and porting it to the Wii has shown us all a tremendous amount of positivity where classics are concerned. Capcom didn't need to add more than a slight bit of gloss to the graphics to help the game fly off the shelves. That's that base covered, then!

What about games of the future however? We all know people are happy to buy really old games through the Virtual Console, but (wait for it!) there will come a time when people realise they're not keeping up-to-date with the games of now. Shock horror! One way in which developers are able to up their game (pun not intended) is to offer extra content in a way that's more accessible for the average gamer. While X360 and PS3 owners are used to heading to their service's online store and downloading game content with a few button presses, for some unforeseen reason this functionality isn't in full swing on WiiConnect24, as evidenced by Rock Band having its downloadable content distributed on discs as opposed to being downloadable. If this is a direct result of a lack of storage space on the Wii's internal memory, then only Nintendo is to blame. Think of it as a family tree of sorts � developers are unable to offer consumers certain options if they can't branch off Nintendo in the first place. Shame.

Banana Blitz hasn't revolutionised the way we play Super Monkey Ball games, but it's almost built entirely with the Wii Remote in mind.

Having established that, there's still room for improvement. It's also in the most obvious place � controls� they are what this 'revolution' is marketed on after all. In our collective opinion, there have been few Wii games to make use of the unique controls on offer. Resi 4 Wii Edition, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii and WarioWare: Smooth Moves make up most of the truly standout titles when it comes to controls. That's pretty telling in our book. How developers can work out new control methods is another matter entirely � we're not paid to think of these things (come to think of it, we're not even paid... dammit!) but for those who are, how hard can it be? We realise we're running the risk of coming across as being simple by saying this, but again, that's not the point; look at how Banana Blitz makes use of the Wii Remote's tilt functionality � it's genius! Similarly, WarioWare makes no end of innovations with its controls. We'd love to see developers really get to grips with the Wii Remote into the latter parts of 2008 and beyond, but we're just going to have to wait and see...

Before this so-called next-gen, company executives would regularly be wheeled out for interviews and they'd often repeat the same line, "The [console name goes here] will mark the dawn of user-generated content". We've searched long and hard through the rain and dark (that's an outright lie, but still!) and we don't see any. Well, funnily enough, that's kind of unfair to say � at the time of writing WiiWare has just been launched in the US of A, and if ever there was an opportunity for indie developers to create games and effectively put them on the market, this would be it! It seems strange to imagine it, but a whole new world of user-generated content could be about to open up if the uptake is good enough. Frankly we'd be more surprised if everyone left WiiWare development alone than if they leapt at the opportunity... with an installed base of millions upon millions, there's never been a better way for ambitious individuals to get their games out there!

Mario Kart Wii is at a great advantage because it's online-enabled... but the Wii Wheel control scheme is also damn good!

It's all well and good us saying these things, but unless something is done about the current state of the games industry we'll continue to be 'treated' to yearly updates and unoriginal rehashes of games we've already played. To go back on what we said at the beginning, it's competition that leads to change, and with the future of all things Wii looking so bright, Microsoft and Sony are going to have to put up one hell of a fight. Not that it means Nintendo can sleep easy, that is!