fooflexible on 02 March 2007
catofellow said: I still believe that Nintendo is essentially selling a console with a toy as a controller and the novelty will wear off.
First off don't listen to Kwaad, he's a guy that doesn't seem to ever play his Wii, and I'm starting to doubt that he ever bought one. I have one along with a X360 so far I've played my 360 for 42 hours and my Wii for a 110 hours(if your wondering how I know this it's because I have entire spreadsheet on the break down of cost per hour, hours played, averages and the whole 9 yards, and yes I know I'm insane.) I don't see how anyone can think Nintendo's console is simply a novel toy, first off not every game is played with the drastic amount of motion required in Wii Sports. So let me break down the the different control groupings.
Wii-mote Only:
Wii Sports, Warioware...titles like this are full blown motion and they are simply amazing. They shine alot of hope for future sports and party game titles. Now a gimmick or novelty would have been if a motion substituted the pressing of the button. In these titles(in alot of the content anyway) that is not the case. It detects speed, force, spin, theres is a lot of wonderful potential for nuance of motions that can never be replaced by a button. You really need to play Wii sports for yourself to see this.
Wii-mote and Nunchuck titles:
Here are titles that have more complex movements involved like Zelda, or Red Steel. After investing 40 hours into Zelda I can tell you I do prefer this control over the old one. The prescision of actually aiming something on screen is amazing. Remember too these controls have a rumble function, analog stick and buttons on them, yet motions can substitute these moves adding another level of dimension to the game. With that said, yes, swinging the remote without a one-for-one like motion does cheapen the wiimote a bit in Zelda, nonetheless it gets to the point of feeling very natural to want to act out the motion as opposed to pressing the button.
Now for FPS titles I think this control scheme is the best. Red Steel is not a great game by any stretch yet it has become my favorite FPS of the new generation, simply because I hate aiming with analog sticks, I hate it so much that I haven't bought Gears of War, haven't thought of buying Halo 3 and can care less about Resistance. Now these new controls are not perfect yet, but after playing 2 hours of red steel I wanted to cry trying to aim with my analog stick again. After playing Zelda with two seperate units(nunchuk and wiimote) it was more more natural for hand positioning, I really wanted to rip my other controllers in half. These controllers are simply put superior and anyone who thinks otherwise should get used to it, because next generation without a doubt it will be a standard of all three systems(if there is still 3)
I've also played SSX Blur with the new controls for some 4 hours lately and I love it, using the analog stick to turn and the motion to carve is brilliant and natural to my hands, it's amazingly inuitive.
Classic & Gamecube Controls
Don't forget many games too like fighting games also support the classic controller(played Dragon Ball Z with the classic for 7 hours so far it's quite nice), and gamecube controller, if that's your preference for certain titles, you have the option of using it.
Plus you say you prefer Nintendo, so do I and I can't imagine skipping out on Zelda: TP(best game ever in my opinion), Mario, Smash Bros. and such.
The cons to the controls that I'll mention, as cool as it sounds to use the Wiimote to drive, I personally can't get it, I've played Excite Truck and Cars, and in both cases I've been frustrated with the controls(yet the same controls work well for me in Tony Hawk: DownHill Jam) so that is a drawback, if it affects you.(or it might just be those two games, I don't know)
With that said you also have to answer what you think of graphics, online feature and potentially missing out on other big franchises. The other two systems offer these features and they are nothing to shirk at. I feel the best setup is getting a Wii with one of the other two consoles also.
