Nintendo Wii Component Cables

[Wing Commander MAD]

Does anyone with a Wii happen to own the component cables? If so how much of a difference does it really make? I understand its not a huge step from 480i to 480p, but after HD gaming on Xbox360 and gaming at 1600x1200 on the PC, I notice the suckiness of the standard output of the Wii quite easily. Especially on my tv, a 32 inch Westinghouse Flatpanel HD (one of the SK series, but I am not sure which). I suppose the question, is it really worth it? I play mainly 1st-party Nintendo titles, like the Zelda and Mario which obviously have reletively high production values compared to some of the 3rd-party shit that undoubtedly gets published since the Wii is more a casual system. I am in the U.S. for the record.

Also, if there are any good games for the Wii that you'd recommend by all means do so, just note what genre it falls under, as any potential future expansions to my library of Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and SMB: Brawl would be welcome(technically I have Red Steel too, but view it as the metaphoracle mutant redheaded step child that is kept locked in the basement that no one knows about) as it has sat relatively unused due to lack of software.

[Stark]

Ironically it makes it worse in my opinion. Since they cut things like 'filtering' and 'texture memory' to make Wii's $25 cheaper, with 480p cables every game is a cacophony of jaggies. Every hard edge and pixel outline is sharp and clear on the screen. It's like playing a NES game fullscreen with no filtering. It's still better than the A/V cables as it's less muddy, but it really shows how terrible the graphics are without blurring to hide it.

And BWii is cool. It's short and the multi sucks because Nintendo is retarded, but it's such a fabulously fun game, control system and setting.

[Starglider]

We have these. It actually looks ok on my parent's 720p DLP screen, because the upscaler softens the jaggies, but it's kinda sucky on my 1080p projector.

Frankly the only Wii games I can recommend are party games. My wife has spent about 200 hours playing Endless Ocean on it, which is pretty but probably of niche appeal. I played through about a quarter of Metroid Prime 3 on a friend's Wii and it struck me as a fairly well made shooter, but given the plethora of excellent FPS games for the 360 I didn't bother buying a copy myself.

[General Zod]

No More Heroes is pretty fun, although not worth much on the replay value.

[LMSx]

I bought a pair last year from Best Buy to test out, then decided they weren't worth the cost and returned them. (I think it was ~$40) The game I mostly tested against was Twilight Princess, and then tried a few GameCube games for kicks. Peeling off the fuzz has an immediate flashy impact when you load menus or look at the HUD, but then you start looking at the overall design and realizing that it also detracts because game artists weren't really counting on you seeing their designs so clearly. I stuck with the normal cables. I'd pay maybe 10 dollars for the component cables.

So yeah, kind of what Stark said.

I haven't bought any Wii games since Brawl. I stopped paying attention to the release schedule about 6 months ago when it started looking like I was supposed to be super jazzed for Wii Music.

[Stark]

Why do you hate Nintendo's metronome simualtor?

[Vympel]

I haven't bought any Wii games since Brawl. I stopped paying attention to the release schedule about 6 months ago when it started looking like I was supposed to be super jazzed for Wii Music.

I'm just surprised Nintendo is even bothering to maintain even the pretense of caring about anything but party/ kiddy games.

[Stark]

It's a shame too because there were actually some decent 'proper' games around that just needed a bit of tweaking or design work to be really smashingly good. Oh well.

[Bounty]

I got the component cables because a, they were cheap as piss, and b, they leave the AV cables open for the DVD player. What Stark says is right, they just make every jaggy stand out (though it sorta kinda looks like they have better colour too). Ironically the first thing I did after plugging the cables in was to bump up the blur on the TV.

Battalion Wars is really cool gameplay-wise but the game never takes the training wheels off (DO OBJECTIVE A B C NO STRAYING!) and there's no offline skirmish mode which it just screams for. MadWorld is pretty fun but try it out first because parts of the control system are broken. If you want a decent FPS, MOH: Heroes 2 is pretty good and should be cheap now, plus it doubles as a lightgun shooter.

[DaveJB]

It really depends on the quality of your upscaler. On my parents' 37" 1080p screen Wii games look really great, with nary a jaggy in sight - but on my 19" 1080i screen it looks absolutely dreadful in terms of jaggies if you're sat anywhere near the TV. It really depends if you're the kind of person who appreciates the increased clarity from the component connection, or one who is driven absolutely insane by the slightest unsmooth edge.

[Vendetta]

I'm just surprised Nintendo is even bothering to maintain even the pretense of caring about anything but party/ kiddy games.

They pretty much aren't.

Even when they have a game with a reasonably good following, which would work really well on the Wii like Fatal Frame it's all a bit too much effort for them to translate it for a US/Europe release. (Nintendo is the publisher for it, and they've basically said they can't be arsed).

[Darth Wong]

Frankly, component cables have always been a big waste of time for 480p. Even on DVD, it makes very little difference, so why would it make a big difference on something where everything looks like a cartoon?

We have a Wii and we just use the regular composite video cable. And yes, it's pretty much for party games and kid games. That's the niche they aimed for, and we have kids.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Thanks for the response guys, not surprisingly I'll avoid them (unless I seem them at yard sell for $5 or something). I'll have to make a point to look into the games mentioned. Maybe Nintendo will start trying again if last week's event of the PS3 and PSP outselling them in Japan in the console and handheld markets continues. How I long for the good ol days of Nintendo vs Sega.

[Lord Woodlouse]

The Conduit is due out in July, and from the sound of it could be easily the best FPS on the Wii (with what looks like some pretty intuitive controls, decent graphics, a fun single player and a multiplayer with plenty of interesting modes). This is basically the only full price game l'm planning on buying this year that l'm not asking for as a gift.

l'm also pretty excited about the games due to make use of the Wii MotionPlus (yes, l probably do sound like a Wii fanboy). l plan on getting Grand Slam Tennis (or maybe Virtua Tennis 09) and Tiger Woods 10 for either birthday or Christmas presents.

Oh, and if you're into football (proper football, with the feet on ball action) games there's Pro Evolution Soccer 09, for which the Wii is arguably the best platform for due to the tactical aspects afforded via the Wii Remote. lf not for hideous other expenses right now, l'd own it already.

[Darth Onasi]

And BWii is cool. It's short and the multi sucks because Nintendo is retarded, but it's such a fabulously fun game, control system and setting.

Whoever decided to not include a custom map/sandbox mode in BWii should be shot without trial.