Done properly I think the motion controls create a fun experience. Most developers found it wasn't easy to do fun and proper motion controls. Hey, I picked up a Classic Controller and bought the Metal Slug collection (which doesn't frikkin work with the Classic, dammit) and the Samurai Shodown collection. Both fantastic and better than the ports for other systems. Very limited/hardcore audience appeal as well. The ability to use GC controllers and games is also a plus, meaning my GC can sit in the other room doing nothing. Also picked up a VC copy of Dracula X.
I admit I don't often play the motion games, and I only own a couple, but some of the modes in Wii Sports Resort are lots of fun. I love Frisbee Golf. I can play that for a while any time. Sure, the motion controls aren't perfect, but they're damn good enough. I'm a lot better at FG on the Wii than in real life. Given how early to the market Nintendo was with motion controls I think they did a fantastic job of them. Nintendo clearly had a handle on how to use them, but most other developers didn't, as should be expected. Innovative control schemes are very hard to work with. Still, even if most of the games on the Wii didn't have a lot of staying power, Nintendo moved a ton of systems and made lots of money. And the few games that did have sticking power were excellent. If that's a failure, I sure wish my bank accounts failed as well as Nintendo's did with the Wii.
So I guess what it comes down to, as always, is that every system has something to love, and for some people there's more to love and for others there's less. Ark clearly sees less to love in the Wii. That's cool. We have enough questions about his own tastes in games ; ) My faves are the NES, the PCE, the Saturn, and the Dreamcast. We've oddly left the DC out of the debate on failed systems in this thread. The DC actually did really well in the US up until Japan pulled the plug. It was the Japanese market that had the most trouble with the DC, and there were actually some really interested games programmed by US and EU developers. This is largely a reversal of the problems with the PCE and Saturn, both of which did well in Japan and less well in the US and were dominated by Japanese developers in terms of the higher-quality output.
