My Operamotion lotion
Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:35:28 AM
Wii Motion+ has finally arrived. We can all mutter about whether or not it should have been in the Wii remote from the start, but no one's listening.
It's here now and so are a couple of games. As it stands I've only played EA's Grand Slam Tennis. I did want Virtua Tennis, for after all, I am a Sega fanboy *clenched fist on heart* Unfortunately it wasn't too be, I had a credit note for Gamestation and they only had Virtua Tennis with 2 plastic racket add-ons for £50. this is without adding on the Motion+, which would have been another tenner at least. Why am I telling you this? We'll come to that in a bit.
To follow the 2 competing tennis games we've also got Tiger Woods 10. The talk from across the pond is that this is brilliant. Personally I'm not a big golf fan so it's hard to get excited about it, but a good games a good game. After that Nintendo join the action with Wii Sports Resort, a collection of light-sport games. It looks good, I'm not knocking it.
I've heard that Tiger Woods uses the Motion+ to the best effect, having not played it I can't really argue, but I will offer a counter suggestion. Wii Sports Resort offers more than just traditional sports games, certainly not everything involves some sort of stick. Tiger Woods and the two tennis games try to recreate the swinging mechanic required, which is fine, but it doesn't really show what the technology can do.
I'm not complaining that they don't push the technology, who cares so long as what they do is fun. However what they show is limited. The sheer variety of sports in Sports Resort (basketball, fencing, sky diving) means the remote is used in a more involved way. Fencing would be a prime example of this.
Now, those rackets I mentioned before. One of the issues I've got with Grand Slam Tennis is that it's not always clear how the motion+ is affecting the game. I quite like the controls so this isn't a massive complaint, but it was only thanks to a loading screen that I clocked that it was the side of the remote that represented the racket face. Cheap plastic peripherals, assuming they match the game, would have given me a real world guide.
What you need is something more explicit. Rather than a puny girly-boy tennis racket, why not a big fuck off sword? It's a bad example, but the Soul Calibur Legends game that came out on the Wii a few years back, something along the lines of that (except better), where the remote allowed you to parry and counter, so that what you were doing in the real world could be easily seen on screen. And that's the point, it must be easily seen. Surely that's more impressive, and what I liked about Sony's press conference.
Perhaps my opinion will change as I play more of Grand Slam Tennis, a game I genuinely do like, but it really doesn't feel like the most impressive demonstration of Motion+. If you want people to be impressed then make what you're doing explicit, as it stands it just feels like standard remote doing what it's supposed to do.
Remove the smoke and mirrors, leave the Magic Circle, let us see all the work that goes into making an elephant disappear. I for one would be more impressed
It's here now and so are a couple of games. As it stands I've only played EA's Grand Slam Tennis. I did want Virtua Tennis, for after all, I am a Sega fanboy *clenched fist on heart* Unfortunately it wasn't too be, I had a credit note for Gamestation and they only had Virtua Tennis with 2 plastic racket add-ons for £50. this is without adding on the Motion+, which would have been another tenner at least. Why am I telling you this? We'll come to that in a bit.
To follow the 2 competing tennis games we've also got Tiger Woods 10. The talk from across the pond is that this is brilliant. Personally I'm not a big golf fan so it's hard to get excited about it, but a good games a good game. After that Nintendo join the action with Wii Sports Resort, a collection of light-sport games. It looks good, I'm not knocking it.
I've heard that Tiger Woods uses the Motion+ to the best effect, having not played it I can't really argue, but I will offer a counter suggestion. Wii Sports Resort offers more than just traditional sports games, certainly not everything involves some sort of stick. Tiger Woods and the two tennis games try to recreate the swinging mechanic required, which is fine, but it doesn't really show what the technology can do.
I'm not complaining that they don't push the technology, who cares so long as what they do is fun. However what they show is limited. The sheer variety of sports in Sports Resort (basketball, fencing, sky diving) means the remote is used in a more involved way. Fencing would be a prime example of this.
Now, those rackets I mentioned before. One of the issues I've got with Grand Slam Tennis is that it's not always clear how the motion+ is affecting the game. I quite like the controls so this isn't a massive complaint, but it was only thanks to a loading screen that I clocked that it was the side of the remote that represented the racket face. Cheap plastic peripherals, assuming they match the game, would have given me a real world guide.
What you need is something more explicit. Rather than a puny girly-boy tennis racket, why not a big fuck off sword? It's a bad example, but the Soul Calibur Legends game that came out on the Wii a few years back, something along the lines of that (except better), where the remote allowed you to parry and counter, so that what you were doing in the real world could be easily seen on screen. And that's the point, it must be easily seen. Surely that's more impressive, and what I liked about Sony's press conference.
Perhaps my opinion will change as I play more of Grand Slam Tennis, a game I genuinely do like, but it really doesn't feel like the most impressive demonstration of Motion+. If you want people to be impressed then make what you're doing explicit, as it stands it just feels like standard remote doing what it's supposed to do.
Remove the smoke and mirrors, leave the Magic Circle, let us see all the work that goes into making an elephant disappear. I for one would be more impressed
