With the Wii U on the radar of every Nintendo fan, it is time to step back and take a look at the Wii. I am not going to look at all the pleasure the Wii has brought me over the years. No, I am going to talk about the top five disappointments and let downs the Wii has given me.

1. Wii Balance Board

How many of you had high hopes for the Wii Balance Board when it was first announced? How many of you had dreams of using it for a FPS and leaning around a corner… by actually leaning on the board? I sure know I did! When the Balance Board came out I was a poor college student working at a construction site trying to make money. I remember rushing to Wal-mart at 6:30 am before work, to purchase my balance board. All day I was excited to leave work to try out my skills of balance. Let’s fast-forward about 2 months. About a dozen Wii Fit sessions and a Wii Ski game later; my balance board sits collecting dust to this day, to only come out when I wanted to show it off to women I was interested in.

2. Wii Channels

I am not sure exactly what Nintendo had planed for the Wii Channels. For about the first year or two Nintendo had me excited teasing me with new channels and promises of better and mind-blowing things to come. Maybe I was naive in my ways, but I expect something more. Yes, we had the news and weather channels that worked about half the time. Then Nintendo did come out with a Mii voting channel and other channels that seemed interesting at first but fell short in keeping my ADD attention. The Nintendo channel, which came out years later, was probably the most useful of all the channels. Wii Shop Channel aside.

3. Wii Zapper

In my young mind, of five plus years ago, when I was thinking about the Wii-mote I always dreamed of using it as an awesome gun. When the Wii Zapper was shown off the excitement began to rise-up again. Taking a line from the movie “The Wizard.” The Wii Zapper…is so badass. That badassness only lasted through two games of the bundled Zelda shooter, and a quick use of it during a Resident Evil playing scenario. To this day I still have not found or heard of anyone using the Wii Zapper religiously for his or her shooter games.

4. Wii Speak

First I want to start out and say out off all the things I have listed, Wii Speak worked the best. It really was a nice piece of technology that fell short on support. Some big name games supported Wii Speak, Conduit, COD and Animal Crossing but excitement for it seemed to lack. Maybe it had something to do with its lack of a headphone accessory. The open room communication was nice, for party games, but seemed too much for a personal play time. I used it a little when playing the Conduit but felt uncomfortable sharing my conversations with the rest of my house. No, they were not that type of conversations; get your mind out of the gutter. What seemed the biggest strike against Wii Speak was Nintendo themselves. After Animal Crossing and Endless Ocean 2, Nintendo seemed to forget about Wii Speak. (Those are the only two games we found). If the creators of a device do not seem to support their own product, why should a 3rd party?

5. Wii Online

Nintendo decided not to go HD with the Wii but instead touted an online that featured sending each other messages, an Internet browser, and up-to-dated news and weather. Not to mention online games for the first time on a Nintendo homes console. One Gamecube game aside, but who really used that.

I am sure everyone will agree with me when I say none of the features were as cool as we hoped.. Sending messages was cool until you quickly realized you didn’t have a lot of friends..codes..to share message with. The only friend code that you may have had, was that creepy person down the street who always stared at you with wanting eyes. The news and weather channels never stayed up-to-date enough to make it worth checking everyday. Finally the games online…That can be saved for a whole other rant.