Played Twilight Princess at xmas 2006... on the GC. (Glad I got that version now.
) I had my first proper job in the summer of 2007 so at the end of it I decided to treat myself and buy a new Wii with Wii Sports. I remember being extremely underwhelmed at first.
But not too long after I'd accumulated a few more remotes and took the console with me back to my shared house and the console began to see hundreds of man-hours of playtime. Got Mario Kart 64 on VC and with four GC controllers in, and for the first year or so it was pretty much just those two games, played almost universally with four players. It was ace.
The Super Mario Galaxy games are the pinnacle of the Wii. In my opinion, the two finest games ever. Skyward Sword I didn't much get on with (reasons outlined in the link in my sig) and I've only recently played Metroid Prime Trilogy, which is wonderful, but outside of the Galaxies there wasn't such a wide range of fantastic first-party software. Brawl was great but sedate; I love it for its depth of content and endless celebration of the games of my youth, but it simply didn't have the same impact as Melee. Mario Kart Wii is the worst Mario Kart. Super Paper Mario didn't deserve to have the words 'Paper Mario' in its title. Wario Ware neither had the freshness of the GBA original nor the multiplayer brilliance of the GC version. Mario & Sonic was basically Track and Field except more colourful and less polished.
For all those 'big hitters' that missed, there were other first-party games that were criticised that I came to love. People who disliked Wii Music seemed to be missing the point IMO; it was just
fun, which is what a game should be. And even now, it's fun - and funny - to look back at the 'recorded' videos of my friends and I with our incredible/horrendous takes on basic songs. Some of which I have no recollection of so I assume we were drunk. Wii Party made every Mario Party game ever redundant by bringing the time required way down (while still having the option for a several-hours-long-sesh) and by personalising the experience, whilst also being far fairer to non-gamers than any of the N64 or GC Mario Party games ever were.
It was a third party franchise that dominated the later years of my multiplayer experiences on the Wii. Given that the console was our party machine of choice, it made sense that I'd get Rock Band for this console and not my Xbox. I might have missed out on online, HD, achievements, etc. but I don't regret it. Outstanding fun.
I'm not sure I actually understand what 'waggle' is or was or what the problem with it is, it's an absolutely straightforward controller to use for almost every game I played (MotionPlus got a bit hairy but the regular Wiimote never caused any problems for me or anyone else I know). I think a lot of people like to blame 'waggle' for games that they just plain didn't like but don't have a justifiable reason for not doing so other than their opinion (which is fine! But just say so!)
What else did I play on the Wii? Loads of stuff. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Boom Street, Link's Crossbow Training, Bit Trip - all of which I still have. Boom Blox, Super Monkey Ball BB, Samba de Amigo, Excite Truck, Rhythm Heaven - all of which were perfectly playable, just that I don't think I'll ever play again. Pro Evo, MadWorld, Red Steel, SSX Blur, Wii Play - all of which I didn't think were much good. I also downloaded a couple of games - but TV Show King
is the only one to have lasted the distance.
So by itself, the Wii isn't really overwhelming in terms of software - or at least
exclusive software. There are more timeless classics from that generation
not available on the Wii than are
only available on the Wii. But the two Mario Galaxy games are just so, so good, and the Wii is so cheap now, that there's absolutely no excuse not to play them (I'm looking at you, jawafour). And, of course, you've got all that lovely VC content, plus backwards compatibility with the GC, and suddenly we've got a different picture. We're no longer looking at one generation, we're looking at every generation before it. And it means there are more timeless classics playable on the Wii than there are
not playable. Add to that the undeniable fact that the Wii has had an impact on the world gaming market not seen since (and arguably more defining than) the original PlayStation, and before that the NES, and you can start to understand why it's held in such high esteem.
Allowing for backwards compatibility, not including a gaming PC with pirated software, the Wii is the only logical choice if you could only ever have one console. A plethora of all-time SP classics and the best local MP laughs you'll ever have.