Now, since the release of the Wii there has been various reactions to the console, ranging from “Oh wow, amazing, motion sensors!” to “this *cough* is *cough*” and similar. So it’s time to investigate the Wii – fun, or junk?
Let’s start with a couple of the games from release day, way back when. Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, for example. Twilight Princess was a great game which continued the excellent legacy of The Legend of Zelda series – the plot was great, the graphics quite good, gameplay excellent – although the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii seemed lost as an afterthought, barely scraping a job controlling your sword (and only barely controlling that) and your projectile weaponry. Where, we thought, were the features the Wii was built for? The complete control over your sword where you invent your own moves, the upswing of your shield as you bring your Nunchuk up to stop a blow. Where was it?
The answer: it was in Wii Sports. Wii Sports, so far, is the only game that we feel actually makes full use of the Wii’s capabilities – swinging your Wiimote from side to side in tennis, making a good drive in golf (although it must be said, other golf games work better), or bowling with a curved shot. These are the subtleties that the Wii was designed for.
Now, let me show you a brief pattern emerging:
Legend Of Zelda – does not make use of the Wii
Wii Sports – does
Lego Indiana Jones – does not
Tiger Woods PGA Tour – does
Celebrity Sports Showdown – does
Tomb Raider Underworld – does not
Facebreaker KO Party – does
Even with just seven games, some of you at least should see that the sports games are dominating the Wii. What shocked me, was Super Smash Bros. Brawl, designed for the Wii and the Wii alone, there was no use whatsoever of motion control. Not even to wave that little hand cursor thing about on menus. Nothing. This doesn’t make Super Smash Bros a bad game, far from it. I’d even hazard that it’s better for skipping the motion control – but the real attraction for the Wii is just that. Motion control. Without that, no one would buy the Wii and there’d be a lot more PS and Xbox supporters out there. So what are Nintendo doing?
I can’t claim to know what’s in their minds. I’m not even going to try to guess. So instead, let’s take a brief look at what games have worked for the Wii so far:
WiiSports/Play – Made full use of the motion sensing capabilities in everything
Kung Fu Panda – I hate to say it, but this movie tie-in actually made a good effort to incorporate Wii-detection into it. Don’t buy it though, that’s the only good feature.
Red Steel – Not much of a game otherwise, but the Wii is very good for shooting games due to the realistic accuracy provided by the Wiimote. Quite enjoyable, if a little repetitive.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – Very entertaining to smash enemies into walls and throw things about with the Force. At times not always fun, but still good use of the Wii’s strengths.
So, what of the Wii for the future? At Nometet.com we hope that game developers will wise up to what’s good about the Wii, and make a game where you can wave your Wiimote about and make your own moves, where you can use the balance board to shift the centre of gravity of your character, leading to a sweet game not unlike Mirror’s Edge only a lot more advanced. We predict said game will arrive at the same time as the nuclear apolocalypse. Or when people stop worrying about Sarah Palin. The apolocalypse will probably come first.
