Hi, this is the first real post on this blog, and it’s a bit silly, and about something that’s been covered by so many people it might die of asphyxiation, so let’s all consider this a warm-up round! I’m trying to get some stuff up here other than disclaimers (ps: ignore that this is a disclaimer), and I haven’t written anything outside of the Telltale forum and blog pages in months, and I actually wrote this entry back before GDC and then forgot about it, so be gentle. Anyway, without further ado… “The Wii is not ridiculous.”
I’m really glad the Wii remote isn’t totally ridiculous, but I wasn’t at first.
I’m sure that I’m like many other people in that, when the Wii remote was first unveiled, my brain was filled with all sorts of crazy and amazing (yet vague and undefined) ideas about how Nintendo’s new controller would let you do all sorts of never-before-seen things with interactive entertainment. Even the name “Revolution” implied that what we knew as games, as game systems, and as gamers would be turned on their head (and/or ear) and what came out the other side would be totally new.
This mass public dreaming of what Marek recently dubbed “some kind of Molyneuxesque revolution in gaming” played out in a pretty entertaining way.
There were what can only be described as the hardcore traditionalists, seen on every board and discussion group across the net lamenting how every game would become some horrible amalgamation of Brain Age and Animal Crossing that would make your arm fall off after swinging a sword in 3 foot arcs nonstop for weeks.
On the other end there were the anti establishment revolutionary hater types (also seen on every board on the net, but mostly at the Idle Forums) who were already getting out the old bedsheets and paint to craft enormous banners, proudly featuring the tattoo-laden (and already played out) box for Prince of Persia 2 and the latest Madden cover art, surrounded by big “no” symbols, proclaiming the Wii to be the first sign of the coming gaming rapture, where Okamis, Katamaris and Psychonautses will run free while the “normal” games enjoyed by the mud-caked plebes will burn for all eternity in the smoldering fires of video game Hades.
Personally, I didn’t know what to think. I was somewhere in between, with my inner Internet Retard and my inner Cunning Adult dueling it out over what was awesome, what was lame, and what was actually real. I was excited by the potential, and as a very happy DS owner I trusted Nintendo to do it right (whatever that means) but there was a part of me that was still expecting to be thrown a huge curve, to have my mind blown or my perceptions of “what is a game” altered in some way.
This all came to a head when, at last year’s E3, I was assigned by Shacknews to do a writeup of Super Mario Galaxy. This was exciting as all get-out because not only have I been a monstrous Mario fan since as far back as I can remember (actually that’s a lie, I can remember: it began in fourth grade with the announcement and release of Mario 3, catching me up in the hype along with every other 10 year old), but also it’s the Mario game on the Wii! Surely the flagship title for Official Nintendo Mind Blowing!
So, what did I think after sitting down (or rather, standing up, surrounded by pudgy journalists and paid booth wranglers) with the game and discovering that it was actually, more or less, a polished evolution of Mario 64 (with admittedly awesome spheriods)? I was very confused, and apparently agitated.
I don’t know what I was actually expecting, back in the dark recesses of my mind which slowly construct the gigantic stone-chisled fanboy opinions I spend so much time fighting to avoid, but it definitely wasn’t what I was playing. Was I expecting some crazy gesture driven thing where I’d be making Mario do flips by tossing the controller around like a guy making a pizza? I sure as hell hope not, but you never know, and at this point I can’t remember. When I sat down to play Mario Galaxy and was confronted with what was nothing more than, you know, a video game, it made my brain twist inside out and possibly emit some sort of fart noise. It blew my mind, if you will.
Now, after a few months with a Wii in my house, I’m really glad that that my inner Internet Retard was wrong. The Wii obviously does some things that were impossible or just stupid with a traditional controller (like pointer interfaces), and the natural representative and iconic gesture-based controls as showcased so well in Wii Sports are truly amazing and fresh, but in the end we’re still playing video games, and that’s really good!
MELTWIZARD LIVES!
It’s always tempting to imagine new control methods to magically transform every gameplay experience into something over-the-top-awesome. (I may have been swayed by that temptation myself once or twice.)
The pre-launch expectations for the Wii were very similar to those for the DS. When people were talking about “the unique possibilities of the DS”, I think most were referring to the use of the double screens as integral to the gameplay somehow, or weird gesture stuff with the stylus. But design generally isn’t about extremes, it’s about subtleties. The DS did in fact “change everything” but in much less sexy ways.
A game like Nintendogs would not have been such a phenomenon on the GBA because you wouldn’t be able to *touch the dogs*. Brain Training would not have been possible without intuitive touchscreen menus, circling and text recognition, and voice recognition. Even holding the DS vertically like a book is 100% part of why this game works so well. But these are not the things people think are at all significant, or they don’t even come to mind, until the device is actually in people’s hands.
(I mention two Touch! Generations games here because they make such great examples.)
I think there’s a ton of subtleties to the Wii-mote that are yet to be explored. It’s pretty much a swiss army knife controller and I’m expecting the Wii’s killer apps to have many subtle but extremely significant changes in the way they’re played.
Bah, what’s wrong with the paragraph breaks?
Excellent post sir.
I think one main fear or scepticism people had with the Wii controller was that random controls would be added on for the hell of it, instead of because it made it better to do so or just… made sense that way. Whilst this has happened to some degree, mostly it has been avoided, just like it was on the DS: New Super Mario Bros is not a frantic touch screen voice interaction, it’s Mario, Mario Kart is Mario Kart, etc.
As Marek mentions, the DS opened doors for new control experiences that make a lot of sense but also aren’t ridiculous… Trauma centre, Animal Crossing and Metroid Prime are good examples. Hopefully the Wii, once out of its initial Rub rabbits / Wario Ware controller demo mini game phase will continue this trend.
(Paragraph win or lose?)
lose
I’m sure its a css thing. As you may have noticed, comments are unstyled still ¬ ¬
I remember quickly slashing through all the hype about swordplay back when that video suggesting all the different ways you could play with the Wii remote came out, and I congratulate myself for it daily. Unfortunately, some of my crazy ideas about how to use the remote were gutted when it became apparent that the Wii didn’t actually track the remote’s position in 3D coordinates.
Still, the more subtle affordances (affordance! affordance affordance affordance!) offered by the remote are genuinely valuable. And just as importantly, there’s a platform that will last through this next/current generation of hardware offering a viable middle ground between “budget indie” and “We could build Jurassic Park with this money”.
Paragraph failure for the win!
I remember when I tried explaining how the Wii controller worked to you guys over MSN when I got a sneak preview a couple of years ago. I remember failing.
You made a noble attempt… the closest to correct that I can remember. It didn’t prepare me for the thought realigning that occurred when I actually played some games, though.
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding The Wii is not ridiculous | failing to melt a wizard since 2002, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong