| June 07 |
Dave Mirra BMX
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| June 07 | PuzzleBall |
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June 07 |
Shrek the Third |
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Wii: The Beginning | |
Written by James Hobbs |
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| We like controls |
I don’t normally like the kind of retrospective buffoonery that you tend to find on websites at this time of year. There’s prevalence for the kind of horrible
‘Best of’ compilations that Channel 4 seem to pump out on a weekly basis that I find entirely disagreeable. Despite this, I’m going to do it anyway,
which does make me a bit of a hypocrite – in my defense, however, I’m going to limit it to one thing. Wii.
Wii didn’t really have a much of a look-in during 2006, with the emergence of the console coming at the beginning of December. It’s certainly made an
impact, however – the sales figures we’ve seen so far indicate it’s been snapped up with a degree of rapidity that rivals any other desirable goods this
Christmas. Whilst this is a positive sign for Nintendo, I’m not entirely convinced that 2007 is going to be quite the easy ride that Nintendo may hope
it will be. Put simply, I’m not entirely convinced about Wii.
That might sound horribly pessimistic, but I feel entirely justified in my opinion that, whilst Wii is certainly fun in a highly ridiculous manner that is
nothing short of splendid, it’s not quite there yet. The first time I played Wii, at the BBC Good Food Show in London, I did feel slightly let down.
Some of the titles we played there were demos, such as Twilight Princess, but even playing the final version of Wii Sports wasn’t quite the experience
that I’d somehow built it up to be. Months and months of hype may have created an unfulfillable degree of expectance, but even disregarding that,
there doesn’t seem to be quite the level of convergence between movement and on-screen representation that I want.
Obviously Nintendo have gone out of their way to keep things simple – Wii Sports is a good example of their philosophy for the more mainstream titles.
However, as good as Wii Sports is, it still doesn’t seem quite right. There’s something of a haphazard nature to the control systems employed, a vague
feeling that somehow you’re not fully in control. This feeling extends to even the more complex games like Twilight Princess – whilst the aiming for
projectile weapons is very good, simple tasks like moving Link around, riding the horse, and even equipping weapons can result in entirely the wrong
action being performed. These are but brief examples, but if you’ve played Wii for any length of time and you’re capable of ignoring the sheer novelty
and excitement of the damn thing, you’ll understand what I mean.
The games themselves have some way to go before they can scale the heights that the potential of the console hints towards. Twilight Princess,
whilst undoubtedly an epic beast, is easily one of the most flawed games I’ve played recently – it is only thanks to the cinematic genius and elusive
charm possessed by the title that it manages to escape it’s many problems. It certainly isn’t a ‘perfect game,’ if such a thing exists, and anybody
suggesting that it is clearly hasn’t played it enough. It’s repetitive, it doesn’t challenge ‘the formula’ often enough, and I think that Zelda needs to
be taken in more of a new direction before the series becomes utterly stagnant. Some parts of the game are gloriously refreshing, and it is these
areas that should be focussed on.
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| Smash |
Controls and games aside, Wii lets down in other areas too. The Virtual Console, a potentially essential component of the Wii experience, has been
so far underwhelming. There are some ‘classic’ titles on there, but nothing truly essential. Super Mario 64 is far more enjoyable when played with an
N64 pad, and more tempting N64 titles have been so far neglected. Many of the games run in 50hz with borders, which is quite frankly disgusting in this
day and age – European gamers haven’t had to put up with such nonsense for many years. We want our games running at full speed, on a full screen.
It’s utter laziness. This, combined with the fairly slow trickle of games thus far, means that instead of being essential, the Virtual Console is a novelty
that isn’t really worth the money.
Obviously the console is still very young, and as such Nintendo have a chance to address all of these issues and present a console worthy
of the Nintendo label. Wireless internet means that they can deliver console updates to amend or implement features, and hopefully they
will capitalise on this capability and offer downloadable gaming content. The Virtual Console, if treated as the stand-alone experience that
it should be, could become a major part of the Wii experience – enough third party games released frequently should ensure this.
Ulimately, though, the developers need to really get to grips with the console and it’s control system, and find ways to make it really work.
So far most of the controls we’ve seen are little more than functional, and all too often I find myself wishing for a D-Pad option.
The controls need to be so good that you forget you’re even using a controller.
That’s a tall order.
I hope it gets fulfilled.
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