It seemed inevitable that Nintendo would capitalize on their motion technology, considering the rampant success of the Wii itself and the reaction to WiiFit and the balance board. Some gamers complain that they dislike waving their arms around and that it doesn’t feel natural, or most of all, they feel stupid. The key is make a person have so much fun playing that they don’t care what they look like — or even cherish photos of themselves looking really goofy as a memory of a great time had.
The Wii MotionPlus could achieve just that. It’s a small white accessory that plugs into the Wiimote at the bottom and allows it to achieve a precise range of movement that directly mirrors your own. Of course, it has a game already planned for it, which was also announced: WiiSports Resort. We saw demonstations of the gameplay that included a frisbee fetch with a ridiculously cute dog, water-skiing, and a lightsaber battle. All three games looked easy and truly engaging — lightsaber battle was my personal favorite, but I’d like to get my hands on all of them.
It seems like button pressing is either reduced to a minimum or elimated altogether, making the act of playing the game no different than performing the action in real life. While I can’t say it will get my lazy ass up off the sofa any more often that the Wii does now, I am curious to try it out, just to see how it works.
I do have one question though — why now? It seems that this is a more advanced version of what the Wiimote already does, and while I’m not trying to sound like a b*tch who’s never happy with anything, I feel this should have been a part of my preexisting Wiimote instead of some thing I have to plug into the bottom of it. What’s your take — timely accessory, or a little late?
