Playing Fragile Dreams reminds me why I originally liked the Wii and how few adventure games there are for the system.

In the game, you use the Wii Remote to point at the screen and direct your character's flashlight. Every time something of significance is illuminated, it may also make the remote's speakers produce a noise. For example, you spend a lot of time fighting ghosts which you can't see unless you hit them with the flashlight. But before they come into view, the remote speaker starts emitting the sound they make. The game is too lighthearted for it to ever feel scary but its a neat effect which makes you think about just how under-utilized the Wii has been as a real gaming device when it comes to hardcore, single-player adventure games.

Another cool feature is that whenever you want to get advice from your computer companion (the game's theme is desolation and loneliness, yet ironically the story instantly pairs him up with a talkative sentient AI) you can hold the Wii Remote “up to your ear” like a phone (i.e. simply point it up anywhere). This reminded me of No More Heroes, which was the last Wii game I ever played that felt fresh and new.

As the Wii finishes its run its sad to think how few robust adventure games there are like this that play to its strengths. Too many games (such as Mario Galaxy) were just the same as they would've been with a game pad, except they required you to randomly shake the remote instead of press a button. Sometimes there were embedded mini-games that briefly changed the controls to be totally different (a good example with Mario Galaxy were those stages where Mario balanced on top of ball and became controlled by the Wii Remote).

After Monster Hunter became popular and gave credibility to the “classic controller” (one of the most uncomfortable gamepads ever designed) it seemed like games stopped even pretending to use the Wii Remote as intended. No More Heroes 2 for example was ruined when they added compatibility for more traditional controls by removing all the neat touches that made the first game great. Then you also had the legions of games which opted to use only the Wii Remote as if it were a classic controller and added just enough BS that using a real gamepad was impossible (Punch-Out!, New Super Mario Bros, and Metroid : Other M to name a few).

Ironically, one of the best “Wii only” games was the port of Resident Evil 4, which played so well it was as if Nintendo had designed the system around it Mario 64 style.

I think part of the blame is owed to the fact the Wii Remote isn't as accurate as anyone would have liked. I heard the Wii Motion Plus improves it a bit, but what I'd really like whenever I'm playing most games on the Wii is to have an accurate way to point at the screen. Light guns have been around forever which achieve this so its frustrating in that classic Nintendo way what the Wii Remote doesn't. Its too bad that the Wii U is centered around using an over-sized, over-priced controller with a big screen on it (which can only be touched with a stylus) instead of further improving the Wii Remote since the potential of the original was never met.