Looking back, was the Wii mote too ahead of its time?

[themistermanguy]

Some people thought the Wii Mote was nothing more than a broken gimmick. A last ditch effort by Nintendo to get back afloat. True, so many Wii games had gimmicky waggle shoehorned in just to use it. But there were also a lot of Wii games that showed the potential of the device. The majority of those however, were released by Nintendo. It isn't so much third party developers didn't want to develop for it, its just that most didn't know how. So this begs the question, was the Wii Remote too ahead of its time?

Yes, we didn't get the "1:1 motion" right out of the gate, but Nintendo never once told us the Wii mote would promise 1:1 motion, thank Red Steel for making us believe that. But it wasn't because they were lazy, it was because they didn't have the tech to implement it yet. Which leads me to believe Nintendo was probably thinking too far into the future with motion control.

I think the main reason the Wii didn't get too much real third party support was due to developers not knowing the strengths and weaknesses of this new control scheme. They thought it would make every game better when it clearly wasn't the case. Eventually, we began to see more and more Wii games offering classic controller support and even Gamecube controller support because the Wii mote wouldn't be ideal for every game, and some people prefer button control.

Sure you could argue that developers didn't know what to do with the DS at first. But one, Nintendo quickly released a game that truly showed the systems capabilities a year later. And two, the DS's touch screen was a bit easier to figure out than the Wii mote.

I like the Wii mote, its a good controller that shouldn't die just yet, especially the Wii remote plus. But it isn't ideal for EVERY genre, and I feel its a controller that should've been introduced slowly. Have the gamepad be the Wii control mechanism, THEN introduce the Wii mote. That way, developers get a good understanding of how the most basic motion control works, and then are ready to take to the next level.

 

[Lovecrafts Sunny Day]

Released in 2006, yet still no groin adapter available even 8 years later.

Come on Nintendo, think of the Japanese market, what on earth are you playing at?

 

[josemlopes]

Probably, but that is entirely their fault, Kinect was and still is ahead of its time and its even a lot more interesting then the Wii mote, but what is the point of releasing something that isnt working properly, that was the mistake that the Virtual Boy was, we certainly expect that the Oculus Rift is that technology done right with tech powerfull enough to do the job right.

 

[StriderShinryu]

The Wii-mote is very good at what it does. The problem is that the list of what it does well is very short. I don't really see it as being ahead of it's time (well, outside of the tech it lacked and later received via add-on) since it already did hit it's stride basically immediately at launch. Even Nintendo realized how limited it was in it's usefulness when they started rather quickly moving away from requiring it.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Ahahahahahahaah- Oh, wait, you're serious?

The wii-mote has to be one of the most balls controllers i've ever used to play a game. The damn thing just doesn't work. Not even for games it was meant for. It single handedly made Skyward sword fairly unbearable on top of a dead world and Fi, or better known as Captain Obvious.

Even with wii-motion plus, the damn thing still couldn't follow half of your movements accurately. Trying to play conduit or red steel 2 was a very painful day in my life that I just didn't care for.

I think the only games that did it halfway decent that I played was the resident evil chronicle series. But that at least gave me infinite ammo and did the moving for me.

So, in short, no. It wasn't that it was ahead of it's time. (It wasn't.) It was just bad and fairly useless.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I'm more friendly to the Wii-mote than most. Most of Nintendo's games used them well even before Wii-motion Plus, and I played a few third-party games that even improved on some of the things Nintendo did, most notably swordplay. It was certainly a decent method of control that was used poorly by too many developers, but at the same time, I'd imagine the Wii's technological limitations and lack of good online support is ultimately what brought it down post-Brawl.

Still, even with my love for the Wii-mote, I wouldn't say it was ahead of its time. To me, for something to fail because it was ahead of its time would indicate that it either required supporting technology that wasn't readily available for most people or that it cost so much to make at the time that it simply wasn't economically viable. The Wii-mote wasn't trying to be anything most consumers weren't ready for at the time and it was certainly sold at a good price point. Its high sales numbers perfectly show that. Unfortunately, though, a lot of third parties abused it and the technology otherwise wasn't that great, and as a result, it ended up a failed idea, at least from a gameplay standpoint, to most gamers.

 

[themistermanguy]

Ahahahahahahaah- Oh, wait, you're serious?

The wii-mote has to be one of the most balls controllers i've ever used to play a game. The damn thing just doesn't work. Not even for games it was meant for. It single handedly made Skyward sword fairly unbearable on top of a dead world and Fi, or better known as Captain Obvious.

Even with wii-motion plus, the damn thing still couldn't follow half of your movements accurately. Trying to play conduit or red steel 2 was a very painful day in my life that I just didn't care for.

I think the only games that did it halfway decent that I played was the resident evil chronicle series. But that at least gave me infinite ammo and did the moving for me.

So, in short, no. It wasn't that it was ahead of it's time. (It wasn't.) It was just bad and fairly useless.

Your just exagerating. The Wii mote worked fine with most of the games I played. In fact, some games couldn't have been done without it.

 

[gorfias]

Yahtzee said it best. Having to motion to make things happen in a game is less immerssive than simply thinking a thing and having that happen. That on a normal controller, you must move your finger a fraction of an inch is the closest thing we have to that.

Wii Motes were great for party games. That's about the only time my Wii gets use. I stopped using it for regular gaming when I decided I was really liking Mad World, except for the controller.

Now I have a Wii U. The tablet is fun. I can use the Wii Mote for parties. And I can use this inexpensive item:

 

[lapan]

It just was barely used right. It's the perfect control form for lightgun shooters for example, as its function is really similar and it requires little more than aiming and shooting.

The more you have to involve your body to control something with the wiimote, the less accurate it will get and the more people get annoyed at it.

 

[lechat]

maybe but 99% of wii games had a control scheme along the lines of "lift controller up to jump, waggle to attack" sorry, fucking what? A to jump and B to attack has been working for decades wii motion adds nothing to that.

 

[BrotherRool]

I think if you've had 8 years of development for the second best selling console of all time and you've still failed to consistently produce games that justify your controller... then it was probably a really cruddy controller.

I mean how many reviews of games like Smash Bros or Mario Kart did I read where they said 'This is an awesome game, but it's even better if you plug in a gamecube controller'.

The Wiimote was really good at getting friends to stand up and look stupid which made it incredible as a controller for party games. However we have loooooooong ago dispelled the idea that it creates more compelling gameplay experiences or builds immersion. It does the opposite, it puts a barrier between you and the character on screen. Instead of being Dante, I'm the person waggling a stick that makes Dante move.


I mean how long are we willing to wait? If it's not found it's place now, do we have to wait another decade and see if this is the Wii motes time then?

 

[Flammablezeus]

Yahtzee said it best. Having to motion to make things happen in a game is less immerssive than simply thinking a thing and having that happen. That on a normal controller, you must move your finger a fraction of an inch is the closest thing we have to that.

Wii Motes were great for party games. That's about the only time my Wii gets use. I stopped using it for regular gaming when I decided I was really liking Mad World, except for the controller.

Now I have a Wii U. The tablet is fun. I can use the Wii Mote for parties. And I can use this inexpensive item:

How is it less immersive? Thinking something and then having it magically happen isn't at all immersive. Sorcery for PS Move was certainly the most immersed I've ever been in any magic game. It's an incredible feeling to perform a gesture and have a specific spell erupt from your wand because of it.

Metroid Prime 3 is another example. Not only is it faster and more fluid than using a regular controller, it's far more immersive. It's all about implementation.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

The WiiMote was fun to an extent. However, there's only so much you can do with the ability to copy the movements of the hands, and often games didn't even do that. When you have to do an action for an unrelated result, that's a button but worse. The bonus of motion control is having your input mirrored on screen, which is better than buttons. It also doesn't necessarily help that it's Nintendo, which comes with it a certain kind of game.

 

[MrBaskerville]

It worked for some games, but i can't mention any game where i wouldn't prefer a standard controller, i even thought that Monkey Island on Ps3 had excellent controls while Sam and Max on Wii is a bit bothersome and unprecise. Trauma Center is one of the few where it adds something to the game. One of the problems is that the entire idea of 1:1 controls is kinda broken, i'm a shitty swordfighter so 1:1 sword fighting would be kinda awful and awkward, but if they make an interesting combat system like in a fighting game, it would suddenly be kinda awesome and 1:1 controls would be redundant. I just can't imagine any scenario where 1:1 would be better than an actual gameplay system, it's the lazy solution and it most often breaks when things get stressful.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

As much as I absolutely hate the wiimote as a piece of existing tech and how it affected the industry at the time, I think the concept had, and still does have potential. If the oculus rift and project Morpheus catch on, a controller like that done right will have extremely high market value.

 

[mindfaQ]

Considering the big selling numbers, I think the time was ready for the WiiMote back then

 

[krazykidd]

Have we come full circle and talking about immersion again? Trying to remember what's next.

OT: The wiimote had potential, that's why it sold so much. The idea of motion control , and what was promissed lead to wii outselling it's competitiors. However what we got was less than stellar. So yes, it was ahead of it's time. However, everything is ahead of it's time until it works perfectly.

 

[Nazulu]

It was ahead of it's time in that it wasn't perfected before hand. So yes, I agree.

Have the gamepad be the Wii control mechanism, THEN introduce the Wii mote. That way, developers get a good understanding of how the most basic motion control works, and then are ready to take to the next level.

And I %100 agree with this. The Wii-mote never would have bothered me either if I didn't have to use it so often. Unfortunately, Nintendo will be stubborn and will push these different devices into the centre.

 

[Guffe]

So, in short, no. It wasn't that it was ahead of it's time. (It wasn't.) It was just bad and fairly useless.

Your just exagerating. The Wii mote worked fine with most of the games I played. In fact, some games couldn't have been done without it.

Got to agree with ManGuy here.
Many people who said the wiimote is useless and doesn't work were actually the ones who used it wrong.
I saw many people who never knew how to be positioned when playing it (there's a sensor), there are settings to be installed, where the sensor is (if you choose "above TV" it shall not be beside or below it) and last and most importantly, trying to swing the wiimote with the same speed as Trunks when he slices up Frieza doesn't work.

It worked well for me, sure there was a wrong sensed movement now and then, but those were few and far in between.
Counting games like RedSteel, Sports, Zelda, Metroid Prime and StarWars, all worked just fine.

On Topic:

Could be, who knows what better technology and a inventful mind will bring to gaming one day!