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Is Anyone Playing Games Like This? By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman Back in 2006 Nintendo baffled the world by releasing a “concept” video showing how the controllers for their new console would work. The game shows no game footage from any game, but rather players doing various tasks with their remote controls. The 2 minute video sparked much intrigue within gamer circles. Many believed that this would open up a whole new style of gaming. Gaming that would take us farther than any bulky virtual reality helmet could ever take us. Gaming that would actually let us “live” our games, rather than just play them. While this concept video was released on Nintendo of Japan’s official site over 2 and a half years ago and the Wii's just on the brink of its 2nd birthday. I have to ask, are we playing games like these people? Not really and in a way I feel as if many, if not most of the Wii gestures are nothing more than substitutes for pressing a button. Take for example Wii Sports Tennis, if you were to swing your arm like that Canto-FOB in the beginning of the film; the only advantage you’d have is the possibility of knocking your opponent out with your flailing Wiimote. As it’s timing and direction, not force and velocity that affects your shots in the game. The only sport game I can think of that may be remotely close to playing the actual sport is Super Swing Golf. Even then I still feel like I’m cheating the game, as shots I attempt with a questionable grip or stroke are registered as perfect “power shots.” But what about action-adventure games can’t you swashbuckle like Link? First off, Link never swashbuckles, the kid sword fights like a freaking spaz. And as everyone knows, you basically do the same with your Wiimote. Even the announcement of the Motion Plus attachment is like Nintendo admitting “Yeah, we really didn’t intend on you doing any sort of lightsabering, sword fighting or even gang brawling with knives on this console. We just wanted to make your roommates think that you had a chronic masturbation problem if they were to ever to glance at you playing this thing.” The only thing I see going right in terms of motion controls and the Wii are shooting and driving games. Mario Kart is really fun with the Wii Wheel and actually works pretty well. The same can be said about Metroid Prime 3 and many other shooters (aside from the wheel part). But focusing on nothing but racers and FPS’s gets stale quickly and would probably lead the Wii down the same primrose path that the TurboGrafx-16 went down with its myriad of shmups. While many of these points are basically rehashes of what the last 2 years of gaming has been telling us, perhaps I can put a different spin on this information. Are we being fed this plethora of casual mini-game collections because the people want them? Or can it be this is all the developers can give us at this point in time? I’m now siding to the latter, as I’m finding even “casual gamers” are looking for something more that they can wrap their heads around. I’m also siding with developer limitations causing the problem because of the discrepancies in quality between MOST recently developed 1st and 3rd party games on the Wii. While, games like Metroid Prime, Mario Kart, and Mario Galaxy work great with the Wii’s controls; most third party games’ controls simply don’t. Even though I’ve heard from many of my friends who are in the game development circle that the Wii is very hard to develop for, the damn system’s been out for 2 years now, there’s pretty much no excuse as to why they’re still having their sub-development studios working on Wii games. Are we ever going to pull away from PS2 ports, shovelware, and mini-game collections? I think we already are. However, at what pace and progress Nintendo is making is really questionable. It’s really like dealing with a bad girlfriend. For every step you make in your relationship, she’s right there doing something else that’s somewhat “WTF?” inducing. For example they announce that they’re working on games that will appeal to the “hardcore” gaming crowd and on the same day they show off a new Wii Sports title and some stupid jam box program. It just doesn’t make any sense. Despite their constant “misdirection,” I honestly see the Wii taking the same turn the DS did. Where it went through a 2-3 year awkward phase upon first being released, but really started becoming a house for great innovative games (both 1st and 3rd party). However, I’m not quite sure how long the Wii’s awkward phase is going to last. As it’s almost 2 years old and the best third party game, in terms of controls is Kororinpa Marble Mania which itself was regarded as bargainware at its release. I have faith Nintendo will make some “hardcore” changes, but when? And if not, when the hell are they going to start making those colored Wiimotes those kids had in that video (I really want a yellow or kelly green Wiimote to play some Rayman Raving Rabbids, Cooking Mama, or some other mini-game collection with)?
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