Getting a Feel for Wii Games, Part 1 : Feeling Up The Wii
After playing a number of games on the Wii over the course of several days, a few things became clear.
First, the responsiveness and accuracy of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck controller have as much to do with a particular game's design as it does with Nintendo's motion sensor technology. Nintendo's own titles - surprise - appear to work much better with the new controller scheme than games from third-party developers. I'm sure it will take time for developers and publishers to master the process of optimizing games for the Wii. And one of the great things about the Wii is that developers say the cost of creating games for the console is significantly less than making games for the other next-generation platforms, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Second, games that lend themselves to natural movement like sports and racing titles are a lot more enjoyable than first-person shooters. Using the Wii Remote to guide your point of view is difficult - either the controller is too sensitive to slight motions and moves too quickly, as is the case with Call of Duty 3; or, in the case of Red Steel, the controller doesn't move smoothly enough. So it's going to take some time to find the right balance for FPS titles on the Wii. Given the renewed interest in Nintendo from the developer community, I have no doubt that we'll get there soon - but we're just not there yet.
Nevertheless, it didn't take long for the Wii to prove its worth to me and other folks here in the THG office. It all started with Wii Sports. We fired up the Wii soon after our bundle of joy arrived, and dove right into Wii Sports. It was a big hit, especially boxing and golf. I hate the actual sport of golf, and I don't really much care for golf video games. But my loathing of the golf genre hasn't stopped me from loving Golden Tee. I could be in the worst puke-stained dive bar in the world, like something out of "Airplane," and as long as there was a Golden Tee in the place, I could spend hours there.
Wii Sports Golf isn't Golden Tee, obviously; it's better. You simply use the Wii Remote as if it were an actual club and swing away. Swing too hard and you slice it; swing too weakly and your co-workers ridicule you for the rest of the day. Wii Sports is the perfect game to showcase Nintendo's new controller scheme. The motion sensors work great with golf swings, baseball throws and swings, and of course, punches. Boxing will definitely tax your arms, so if you're looking for sport that will give you more sustained game play, golf is it. But Wii Sports boxing is pretty entertaining experience, even though you can get tired quickly and the graphics are laughably bad. I suppose that's the whole point. You can't take this too seriously, because you look absolutely ridiculous flailing your arms about and shadow-boxing with a television screen. But hey, it sure makes for a fun day at the office.
The same cannot be said, unfortunately, for Red Steel. I didn't care so much that the graphics are so-so. What bothers me is that the game play is clunky and frustrating. We played through a couple levels here at the office, and the Wii Remote and Nunchuck took some getting used to when it came to directing the first-person perspective and targeting firearms. But where Red Steel really fails is with its swordplay - it's bloody awful. Players' movements with the Wii Remote don't seem to translate well into the game, and the sword movements on screen are entirely ungraceful. I'm not sure if it's poor game design from Ubisoft or early issues with the Wii's motion sensor capabilities. Hopefully, it's the former.
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