Why do all the Wii game discs look so damn cheap?

RelentlessRolento

RelentlessRolento

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After getting a few Wii games I'm finally noticing how bland the 2 or 3 tone discs look.

I mean common... at least the PS2 games had full color with them, why taking the cheapo route nintendo? At least shave a few bucks off the retail price.




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This is one of the worst complaints I've heard.

And, for the record, I think most of them look nice. The Zelda disc looks especially sexy.
 
First of all it's "come on" not "common".

The two tone isn't bad. Of the two examples the Twilight Princess one looks pretty spiffy. Monkey ball is less than stellar. But compared to some PSx titles that have a whole paragraph written on them i'll glady take the Wii style more.
 
When it comes to cover art, I'm a minimalist, so I like the look. Except for Monkey Ball - that's pretty weak. But I like Zelda, Fire Emblem, etc.
 
I agree with you OP. I'd rather have full color discs, and only enjoy the minimalist approach when the artist chooses that route, not forced into it. But in the end, it's really no big deal.

An even greater concern for me is that not all of my Wii games came in official Wii cases. Is that common? I never noticed until I looked closely at my last three purchases and saw that each game came in a distinctly different white DVD case.
 
Gamecube discs only had 1 or 2 colors each as well. It's just Cheaper that way.
 
[quote name='Lan_Zer0']I agree with you OP. I'd rather have full color discs, and only enjoy the minimalist approach when the artist chooses that route, not forced into it.[/quote]I don't know about "forced into it", but looking through my games, the only one that uses more than just one colour (discounting white) is Mario Galaxy: it's red and blue. However, I've traded/lent out a good half of my games, so I can't really say about the rest.
[quote name='Lan_Zer0']An even greater concern for me is that not all of my Wii games came in official Wii cases. Is that common? I never noticed until I looked closely at my last three purchases and saw that each game came in a distinctly different white DVD case.[/quote]Curious, curious. What games were these?
 
I never noticed that until you just pointed it out. Also, many of mine have the "rough edges" typically found on Sony-BMG low grade CDs. I am now scarred of laser rot.
 
[quote name='thorbahn3']I'm pretty sure $49.99 instead of $59.99 is shaving a few bucks off.[/quote]

/thread

~HotShotX
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Curious, curious. What games were these?[/quote]

RE:UC, TR: Anniv, Sonic:SR.

None of the cases have the Wii logo inside or the SD card holders (I didn't even know what they were for until I saw that pic). The plastic DVD release in the center is a different design in each case. TR:A has the two swirly pieces that say "PUSH", Sonic is a circle of 5 triangles, and RE:UC has 4 arrows pointing inwards.
 
[quote name='Lan_Zer0']RE:UC, TR: Anniv, Sonic:SR.

None of the cases have the Wii logo inside or the SD card holders (I didn't even know what they were for until I saw that pic). The plastic DVD release in the center is a different design in each case. TR:A has the two swirly pieces that say "PUSH", Sonic is a circle of 5 triangles, and RE:UC has 4 arrows pointing inwards.[/quote]

So that's what those are! I had no idea.

Anyway, yeah, some of the third party games have different cases.
 
yeah, there have been an increasing number of third party games that aren't in "official" wii branded cases. it's not even about the company...

resident evil: umbrella chronicles = not official case
zack and wiki = official case

both capcom games, totally different cases. i haven't quite figured out why it's happening, but yes, it's kinda annoying.

even more annoying... games that don't keep the 'all white' look on their cover art spines... the bigs is all black except for the top that's a little white box with the wii logo, spyro is all dark purple even around the wii logo, lego star wars is all bright yellow even around the wii logo. way to ruin the look.

oh, but as for the discs. yeah, the monkey ball one looks like ass. only a couple other games have that same look though. most of them, even in just a couple colors, look really nice in that minimalist sorta way. vivid colors, crisp logo, nuff said.
 
[quote name='SpazX']So that's what those are! I had no idea.
[/quote]Yeah, you can see it in Rolento's second picture. But you and I both know that's not what they're meant for. They're meant to mangle the edges of your instruction manuals, insuring that the resale value of any and all of your games drops by a whole dollar.

Those bastards.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Yeah, you can see it in Rolento's second picture. But you and I both know that's not what they're meant for. They're meant to mangle the edges of your instruction manuals, insuring that the resale value of any and all of your games drops by a whole dollar.

Those bastards.[/quote]
Yes! I was just about the mention that. My copies of both Mario and Metroid suffered that terrible fate.
 
Meh. Many are kind of bland (i.e. the blue ones like SMB above).

But I really have never cared at all about box art, much less disc art.

All I ever see is the spine sitting on my DVD rack anyway.
 
Those are suppose to be SD card holders? I thought they were snap in things so you can add an extra flap so the case can hold more discs.
 
i buy the game to play the game, not to marvel at how beautiful the disc/dvd artwork is, if its nice its a bonus, if not i'm not going to cry all night
 
Aren't there more important things to bitch about?

I mean, I don't think many people sit around and marvel at how the discs look. I mean, it would be one thing if Nintendo used a permanent marker to draw on the disc art or something but come one...:roll:
 
[quote name='Vinny']
I mean, I don't think many people sit around and marvel at how the discs look. I mean, it would be one thing if Nintendo used a permanent marker to draw on the disc art or something but come one...:roll:[/quote]What, you mean like how some fucker did that to my Eternal Darkness disk?
 
Just on the note of 'generic' Wii cases... it's not just inconsistent with the company, but also with the games.

One of the games that I see cited most often as not having an 'official' Wii case is Sonic and the Secret Rings. Like, 9 out of 10 times, people mention that game. I always found that odd, though, since mine *does* have an official Wii case.

Just thought I'd toss that out there just to show how little consistency there really is in the cases.
 
I was disappointed by this at first, especially with black and white games. It was the same on the Gamecube too right? It doesn't deter me from buying the games or anything, but it makes me appreciate the deep colors and nice artwork on PS3 discs more.
 
lol I said the exact same thing to my brother. Not only the discs look cheap but the case feels cheap too, while my Xbox, GC, and PS case feels sturdy.
 
[quote name='Slayzz']lol I said the exact same thing to my brother. Not only the discs look cheap but the case feels cheap too, while my Xbox, GC, and PS case feels sturdy.[/quote]

GC cases were juggernauts, but the 360 cases, while feeling sturdier, crack easy as hell. I think I've had 3 xbox 360 games shipped to me where the case got cracked on the way (on the top near the inside edge, apparently their achilles' heel) while I've never had a Wii case crack (and definitely not a GC case).
 
gc cases very extremely sturdy, the wii ones tend to be more flexible so theres less chance of crackage, while the xbox ones are NOTORIOUS for cracking up
 
:lol: I think I came off entirely the wrong way due to the way I phrased everything. I'm more slightly annoyed than angry and I'm just curios why this was done. I'm somewhat fine with it, but I at least would think the 1st party games would look a little more classy. Part of my guess is still manufacturing costs and/or the drive that reads the discs.
 
The thing I hate more is the unofficial looking cases, one of mine has the worst plastic I have ever seen and it pisses me off.

And I do like some of the discs, they do look good, but a ton of others look like total shit.
 
[quote name='Aberforth']Those are suppose to be SD card holders? I thought they were snap in things so you can add an extra flap so the case can hold more discs.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I'm pretty sure those are just two-disc cases minus the flap. Go ahead and compare them with other two-disc DVD cases. In fact, the Wii cases seem to have a much more narrow gap than the couple of two-disc cases I looked at in my collection, which wouldn't make sense given the thickness of an SD card. If it were really for an SD card, why not make a completely custom slot for it ala the GCN and DS cases?

Regarding the GCN and DS cases, those are made by Scanavo (though looking at the ones I have nearby, they all now say Clear-Vu and/or Technimark...), who also provided the cases for Blockbuster Video, so they were intended for heavy-duty use and anti-theft. If you ever wondered why there was that little hole at the bottom corner of the GCN cases, that was where the security lock would have been inserted.
 
Its funny when SNK's $15 PS2 releases have better cover art.. It's no big deal though. Likely just a cost saving measure, which is okay with me. I don't need fancy art on the discs. GameCube discs were the same way.
 
[quote name='guyver2077']first mistake: super monkey ball


:)[/quote] Last time I checked Super Monkey Ball was awesome.

I actually kind of like the simple look of just one color on my disk...I believe the gamecube ones were similar.

If you don't like it, it's not that big of a problem since you'll mostly be looking at the case or the game on a screen rather than the disk itself.
 
Does it really lower the cost of manufacture by that much?

My theory is that it might be a design standard set by Nintendo. Much like their white box plastic and "wii" logo placement on the left side of the disc, it may be a standard for all game manufacturers that they have to have two-tone disc art. IMO I think it looks nice and also it seems to match the stylistic visual theme of the Wii.

Unfortunately I cannot test this theory since I don't own a Wii and therefore own no Wii games. Do all games have this two-tone disc art style?

I looked at my xbox and GC games- again they all have a standard format for layout (Xbox lettering on top of each game disc, GC logo and information on bottom of each GC disc) and of the GC games I have, none have more than 2 colors (and if there is 2 colors, one of the two colors is always black).

Ruahrc
 
[quote name='dafunkk12']
Regarding the GCN and DS cases, those are made by Scanavo (though looking at the ones I have nearby, they all now say Clear-Vu and/or Technimark...), who also provided the cases for Blockbuster Video, so they were intended for heavy-duty use and anti-theft. If you ever wondered why there was that little hole at the bottom corner of the GCN cases, that was where the security lock would have been inserted.[/QUOTE]

And in fact when Gamerush/Blockbuster sells used Gamecube games they use their standard case locks to lock the original GC games up. They have to put PS2 and Xbox games in plastic security holders. I never knew the same company made them though. Off topic and trivial as hell, but it fascinates me ;).

As for Wii cases, I too have noticed some non-standard ones. That would be fine except for the fact that some are not so easy to get the discs out of and that is always a potential problem.

I've noticed 360 cases have a big problem with the manual holder tabs breaking off, even while still sealed.
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']I'm more slightly annoyed than angry[/quote]

But, you used the red frowny face. That certainly conveys anger where I come from.

On another note, I had no idea that there were some games that used non-official Wii cases. I got scared and had to check my Zack and Wiki, luckily official case.
 
well, my SMG copy's in full color. Does that help? Yeah, my sonic and the secret rings also has that "fake" cover, and i never knew your supposed to use those edges for sd cards. What a Genius.
 
[quote name='Rocko']God damn. Next thing you know, people will be bitching about box art.

Wait...[/quote]

I think boxart is a little more understandable than this. I remember what boxart looks like because I tend to look at it more often where as I can't remember any disc cover art save for what has been brought to my attention in this thread.
 
[quote name='thorbahn3']I'm pretty sure $49.99 instead of $59.99 is shaving a few bucks off.[/QUOTE]

Well Wii is considerably cheaper to develop for compared to PS3 or Xbox 360. I read somewhere(forgot where but if you're interested look it up) that Wii's development cost are half of Xbox 360 or PS3.

[quote name='Rocko']God damn. Next thing you know, people will be bitching about box art.
Wait...[/QUOTE]

This is a discussion forum. Don't like the topic, don't click on it.
 
[quote name='Slayzz']This is a discussion forum. Don't like the topic, don't click on it.[/quote]

I'm discussing the fact that I think this is a ridiculous thing to be bothered by. I will admit that box art is more understandable as you actually have to look at that from time to time. However, if you'd like to preach to me more, go right on ahead. It's sort of cute.
 
Sometimes I'll stare at my PS3 discs for 20-30 minutes before playing it, so obviously this is a very important feature to me. Something the Wii is lacking.
 
true they do look rather dull.... lol but however all you do is put the disk in the console so why go to all that trouble of making the disk look really cool.
 
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