So do you guys think Nintendo's little white console will deliver in 2009?
Or will it be just all of the same?

I don't think we'll ever again see on the Wii a rush of games like we did when Galaxy, Prime, etc. were all coming back one after the other, but I don't think Nintendo has completely written off its long-time fans just yet. The big games like Zelda and Mario take more than a year to develop, so it could be that we'll be seeing one or two big ones this year. Nintendo's new policy of staying tight-lipped about games in development until they're ready for release is probably for the best so there isn't another disappointment like Twilight Princess, but it is worrisome not to have heard about any big games in such a long time.

I think we'll get one or two unexpected titles like Punch-out and Excite Bots, Wii Sports Resort will come out later in the year, and we'll get one good game from a long-running franchise like F-Zero, Star Fox, or (though not so old) Pikmin. Star Fox would probably be the better choice to get long time gamers excited come holiday season since it's been so long since there was a universally praised Star Fox title.

There's no telling with Nintendo nowadays though. They might be more focused on DSi for the year, dreaming up weird camera games. Who knows.

I think it will be more interesting, particularly with more original titles this year. I doubt it'll be the same, with the recession and all. Publishers and their developers need to be more careful with their games on all consoles, let alone the Wii. Sega seem to be doing a good job so far, publishing more hardcore games and EA could be ones to look out for on the Wii, with their new attitude towards the console.

Yes! especially with Muramasa, Punch Out and Motion Plus on the horizon

Not really. I mean not if the third party developers start making better games for the wii. Nintendo is making some quality titles but it doesn't matter because of all of the games released by third party developers with little to no quality. Whenever I walk into Gamestop I look at the Wii shelf and see rackloads of crappy titles and maybe a few titles that are actually any good. I think any year could be a great one for the Wii and Nintendo as a whole if they get better games. On a side note I really wish that Nintendo would make friend codes optional (they're really annoying). I am looking forward to games like Klonoa, The Conduit, and Marumasa The Demon Blade.

I think will see more quality 3rd party games on the Wii: Madworld , No More Heroes and Okami are already quality titles from 3rd party developpers and Klonoa, Muramasa, the Conduit looks promising

There's already enough games I'm interested in that I could buy a title a month and be set for the rest of the year; I'm sure there will be other stuff announced as well, so I'm going to have to make some hard decisions!

Muramasa! How do I keep forgetting this stuff?
Even if we don't get many good first-party games, Sin & Punishment 2 + Muramasa should be great. Conduit and Klonoa look at least decent. I've never played Klonoa before, so don't burn me at the stake, but it looks rather slow and easy, not too exciting in the videos I've seen.

This game is gonna be a LOT better than last year. One site described the Wii as being a "powerhouse" this year and with all the things coming out, I can see why that is the case.

It all matters, though, if you're in the loop or not because if you're not familiar with third-party games that are coming out, then you'll just ignorantly conclude that the Wii won't be any better this year which isn't true.

I agree with Adam.
We will probably never again see a rush of 3 heavy hitters like we did in 06/07
It takes Nintendo a while to make Mario, Zelda and Metroid games, so im hoping for news of new games at E3.

Im wondering about new IPS, or if NA would get Disaster DoC.

I doubt we will see a wii Zelda title this year, but its really the 3rd parties that have started to deliver, Sega being an obvious example, but it really needs a traditional style RPG, and though Crystal Bearers looks like it could be a great game, its not really your traditional turn based RPG, we may have to wait for Dragon Quest 10 for that, but I'm guessing that is about 2 years away, so hopefully someone has a traditional style RPG in the works, and has just been secretive about it, at least I hope so anyway, it also lacks decent platform games, other than Mario and Wario I can't think of any must have platform games for wii, Sonic hasn't been up to much on wii, I imagine Nintendo will continue to fill its software gap with more GC games given the wiimote treatment, hopefully Wind Waker will be amongst those.

I hope not. Most people preferred Twilight Princess's GC version, so why tack on some waggle to Wind Waker? I don't think the NPC titles will keep coming throughout the year; at least, I hope not.

The Wii could use a good RPG, but I think developers see RPGs as belong on the DS now -- for whatever reason. I hate playing long, extensive games on handhelds. It would be great if the Wii got a real knock-out RPG that cut out at least a niche audience for the genre on Wii, but I don't see that happening.

Arc Rise Fantasia doesn't look like a knock-out to you?

I'm going to wait till June to see what Nintendo announces before writing it off.

I don't know. I plan to try it out, but I haven't played the series before. But I am considering knock-out as something huge like FFXIII. That is going to be a massive system seller, at least in Japan. I haven't heard much hype about Fantasia, so I can't imagine it having the same effect. Is this expected to be a big seller, or is it just a big name to those who have been following the series? I don't know nearly enough about the game to answer this question, but if it does become a big seller, that would be great. I would love for a game to prove that RPGs can sell well on Wii. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

EDIT: I've now looked into the game, and it indeed looks fantastic. How are the portable entries in the series? I was under the impression they were pretty average from glances at reviews elsewhere.

I honestly didn't know Arc Rise was a series. I don't play the portable systems (don't even own a DS, just a GB Micro for the odd plane trip). It does look like a solid turn-based RPG and I'm at a point in my gaming life where I'm finding that quite appealing; much moreso than realtime combat in RPGs. It's definitely getting some attention on the forums I read due to the visuals and epic look of the story; Marvellous seem to have enough faith in it to promote release overseas as well so I hope it turns a lot of heads and does enough numbers for other RPGs to start showing up and getting some worldwide distribution.

I'd really like to see Square-Enix resurrect some tactical properties or do another Front Mission game as well.

And let's not forget the typical development cycle is 1-2 years, so 2010 could potentially be bigger than this year is turning out to be for 3rd party releases.

That would be great. I never played Front Mission, but I love their tactical / strategy RPGs. Final Fantasy Tactics, despite being much too hard for me, is still easily my favorite FF game (not that I'm a huge fan, but I did enjoy 4 and 6 quite a bit).

I had hoped since Radiant Dawn came out pretty early in Wii's life cycle that Nintendo might do another Fire Emblem on Wii, too, but unfortunately it looks like they're back to portables. I don't have a DS either, as much as I'd like to play Shadow Dragon or whatever it's called.

I don't think 2009 is looking bad, at least for third parties, but you're right; 2010 might be even better ... though we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

I only played Front Mission Alternative which actually got released outside of Japan for the Playstation; it was the only turn-based RPG I actually played through to the end. I think the fact that it was mechas rather than a fantasy theme is what drew me in (I did play Parasite Eve, but gave up on the final boss -- not as much fun when you have only one character!).