[It’s time for another Monthly Musing — the monthly community blog theme that provides readers with a chance to get their articles and discussions printed on the frontpage. — CTZ]
Think back to early 2006. Nintendo, the darling of the industry that had a rough couple of generations came out and said they were going to revolutionize the industry. We would have a new way to play games, one that would simultaneously be simpler and allow for more precision and immersion. Like many others who have owned almost every Nintendo system in its history (I sadly/fortunately missed out on the Virtual Boy), I was convinced. This would be the future of gaming.
Fast forward to November 2006. The Wii launched, and there were shortages everywhere. And it was no surprise; after popping in Wii Sports, we all got to taste what the future gaming would be like. And it tasted good. Tennis was easy to pick up, yet nuanced enough that one would have to spend some time to truly master it. Bowling felt fantastic, especially once the player learned to curve the ball just right to hit between the 1 and the 3 pins. Oh yes, it tasted good.
But the problem is, tastes are all we’ve gotten so far. We’ve gotten snippets of gameplay that feel great on their own, but we haven’t been given very many full games that justify motion control. After Wii Sports, we played Twilight Princess, and everybody (except Anthony Burch) thought it was pretty great. But was it great because it was controlled with a Wiimote, or was it great simply because it was a standard Zelda game, which are by default great (Philips CD-i entries notwithstanding)? In hindsight, most would agree the latter to be true.
Still, these were two launch titles. I remember comforting myself about my purchase by recalling my experience with the DS. I bought an original DS on launch day, and I grabbed Super Mario 64 DS and Feel the Magic XY/XX to go with it. Needless to say, I was disappointed in what were supposed to be the two best launch games for the system. Were it not for my obsessive compulsion to collect things, I probably would have taken the thing back and never thought about it again.
But I’m glad that didn’t happen, because not long after launch, developers got a handle on how to work things, and we got to see games that not only used the DS’s unique features well, but did so in such a way that they would not be possible on other systems. The game that showed me the DS was a worthwhile purchase was Kirby Canvas Curse. It was familiar enough, with the pink ball of fluff we all know and love, but the gameplay required quick, precise drawing motions, something that could only be accomplished on a system with a touch screen. And the result, a platforming game unlike any other I had ever played, and unlike any I have played since. It really seemed as though Nintendo delivered on a unique way to experience games.
More recently, I have been playing is Big Bang Mini on the DS. At first glance, it is a shmup with a gimmick: all control is relegated to the touch screen. In practice though, that one design decision spawned a game that is truly different from any other shmup out there. Because both movement and shooting are controlled with the touch screen, the player can only do one or the other at any given time, requiring him to have to mentally switch between evasion and attack. It took an old genre and made it feel completely new, all because of the touch screen on the DS.
New input generating new gameplay experiences. This is what I personally expected from the Wii. Yeah, Twilight Princess could have just as easily relegated the sword slash to a button press, but it was a launch game. Certainly in time, we would see something that truly justified the existence of the Wiimote.
Eventually such a game did come around. In late 2007, the indisputable all-time best Wii game ever, Zack & Wiki: the Quest for Barbaros’ [sic] Treasure, was released. As a point-and-click adventure game, it has some insanely clever puzzles — and some frustratingly unfair puzzles as well. But the real beauty of Zack & Wiki came not from the story, characters, artwork, or the general puzzle layout. Zack & Wiki is such a fantastic piece of software specifically because of how the player interacts with in-game items.
The items have such tactile consequence in them; at times, the player will truly feel the immersion and be tricked into thinking he is actually holding the item in question. One of the more famous examples is the umbrella, which is introduced in the opening level, featuring a 2 button to open it, in a corresponding position to the Wiimote’s own 2 button. Neat idea, for sure, but the brilliance of the umbrella comes in the first boss stage, where the player can hold onto it in its closed state, and then flip it upside down and use the hooked handle to slide down a rope. It was at that realization that I started to fall in love with the game, but it wasn’t until near the end that I decided (indisputably, if I may remind you) that it is the best Wii game ever, and it truly would not work on any other console.
Allow me to set the stage. Zack comes across a lighter, and has to set a torch on fire. When the player selects it, a first person view comes up with Zack holding a Zippo-esque lighter in its closed position. Thinking for a moment of how to open a Zippo, I gave my wrist a flick, and to my delight it opened. But then, instinctively and without hesitation, I pressed down on the D-pad to spin the flint wheel and ignite the lighter. The moment I realized what had just happened — that I knew exactly what to do with the Wiimote simply because of how Zack was holding the lighter and how it felt in my hand — a huge smile spread across my face that persisted for several minutes.
But Zack & Wiki is almost two years old now, and we haven’t seen anything since that truly justifies the Wiimote’s motion control. The pointer functionality has opened up new avenues for first-person shooters, but where are the new gameplay experiences we expected? Where are the Kirby Canvas Curses and Big Bang Minis of the Wii? Why is it that nearly three years after the Wii’s launch, I can come up with a grand total of one game that feels new and different?
With Nintendo’s Wii MotionPlus, Microsoft’s Project Natal, and Sony’s glowy wand things coming up, we’re going to be getting an upgrade to motion control as a whole. But is it even warranted? Can developers come up with ideas to warrant their existence? Or are we stuck crashing into buildings in Burnout, and apathetically waggling our wrists to simulate sword swings because developers cannot seem to go further than the idea of shoehorning existing gameplay into different control? Will we ever see something new with it?
