Hey everyone, DarkWish here. I know I vanished from WiiNintendo for a long time, but I’ve been very busy. I’ll be back in full force once the Summer ends, but every now and then I can’t resist writing about something and will make some time to do so. Wii MotionPlus is one such topic. At Nintendo’s E3 conference last year, they unveiled Wii MotionPlus and the stage was set for a whole new level of immersion in video games.
Wii brought motion controls to the table and created a whole new way to play games. The problem is though that the motion control in most Wii games can easily be mapped to buttons or the control stick. It’s essentially “waggle” and doesn’t enhance the experience much, if at all. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy many of Wii’s titles that include motion control. Excitebots: Trick Racing has great use of motion for steering, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 has great controls thanks to the IR in the Wii Remote, and throwing punches at people in Punch-Out!! is great. However, there were times when motion control just made the game frustrating.
Take Red Steel as an example. Okay, so the game has many problems, but one of them was the sword fighting. It just felt very mechanical and repetitive, and there wasn’t much to it. The same could be said of some of the games in Wii Sports. Golf, for example, could sometimes get frustrating when the golf club wouldn’t do what you were doing and would swing when you didn’t want it to or even not swing when it should have. Even games like Cooking Mama: Cook Off and Mario Party 8 were games that could have been great, but most of the motion involved was “waggle” and there just wasn’t anything special about it.
I’m a big fan of Wii and I love many of its games. But there was just something lacking. Nintendo finally addressed that with Wii MotionPlus. It is said to bring true 1:1 control to Wii games and really put you into the game. I think I’ve written a long enough intro already, so let’s get to it. Does it really live up to its hype? I put it to the test and found out…
In short, the answer is yes. Definitely yes. Of course, it can depend on the game, but the potential is definitely there. The device itself is fairly small and easily attaches to the Wii Remote. Once I put it on, it actually felt like it should be a natural part of the Wii Remote. In fact, putting the Wii Remote Jacket on it actually didn’t feel so bad either. One of the questions I had was what if I had Wii MotionPlus plugged into my Wii Remote and I wanted to play an older Wii game that used the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Since the Nunchuk is connected to Wii MotionPlus directly, would it still register? I tried Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 Revolution (which is not Wii MotionPlus compatible of course) and plugged the Nunchuk right into Wii MotionPlus on the Wii Remote and it worked perfectly fine. In other words, you won’t have to keep taking it off to play non-MotionPlus titles (but you will need to take it off for the Wii Zapper, Wii Wheel, and other accessories.
The game that I got is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. Let me just say that I’m not a big fan of golf. Personally, I find it boring to watch and not that much fun to play (though putt putt golf can be fun). And I absolutely hate playing golf in Wii Sports. Not only is it a sport I don’t enjoy much, but the controls annoyed me. So why did I get this game? Well, I had heard many good things about it and I wanted a solid Wii MotionPlus compatible title to play with. I had seen a few videos of the game before and as I played through some tutorials, it was exactly as shown.
I started playing golf and it was actually pretty fun. I couldn’t believe that I was enjoying a golf game. The power and direction of the swing is all under your control. It was pretty impressive. It’s one thing for a company to show off their tech and say that it’s amazing. It’s another thing for you to hear others say it’s fun to play. And it’s a completely different thing for you to actually play it yourself. I was happy to see that Nintendo truly delivered a unique gaming experience and was able to truly immerse the player in the game.
And then I remembered that the game had disc golf in it and I decided to give it a try. The first things that came to mind were “Wow… this is amazing”. I had COMPLETE control over the disc. I moved it side to side, turned it upside down, and even put it behind my back and it all registered on screen. I was literally grinning at that point. It may not be that mindblowing of a game, but at that moment I realized that Wii MotionPlus really does work and all those possibilities I imagined are within reach now. But you want real proof that it works? My Dad enjoyed it and he’s one tough customer.
My Dad doesn’t like video games. He used to play with me during the N64 days on Mario Kart 64, but nowadays he says he can’t play because his eyesight just isn’t as good. Excuses, excuses. He just doesn’t get video games. When I first bought Wii, I thought that this was my chance to get him into video games. I mean, Wii Sports is perfect for newcomers. My Dad did not enjoy it. He played some tennis in Wii Sports and constantly complained that it wasn’t doing what he wanted it to do and was always looking for the realism in the game. After a few minutes, we moved on to another sport. This time, he played bowling.
At first, he seemed okay. But after a few times, he mentioned that it was curving in the direction he wanted to and just didn’t understand it. There was even one point when he took the Wii Remote across the hallway to his room and bowled… and ended up getting a strike. That basically told him that the game just had you pretend to do those sports and that they weren’t anything like the real game. Numerous other attempts have been made on my part to get him to understand why I like video games, including the purchase of Wii Fit. He just still didn’t get it.
But today, I decided to give it another shot and showed him the disc golf part of Tiger Woods. I explained what Wii MotionPlus did and he seemed interested. So, I handed him the Wii Remote and had him play. He wasn’t very good at disc golf, but after a few tries, he started to do okay. He actually didn’t make a single complaint the whole time he was playing which is a record. When he was done playing that, I asked if he wanted to play some golf and he said he would tomorrow, which he normally wouldn’t have said. One thing my Dad loves to tell me is how much of a waste my video game purchases are. But today, as he was leaving the room after using Wii MotionPlus, he asked if I got that today and I said yes. He then said that it was a good purchase. My Dad actually approved of a video game purchase… that is a first.
So does it live up to the hype? Absolutely. Of course the use of Wii MotionPlus differs from game to game, but its functionality is definitely working exactly as Nintendo promised. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is amazing to use with it and even though I could, I don’t think I want to try it without Wii MotionPlus. I’m not a fan of golf, but I’m actually looking forward to playing the game quite a bit after work tomorrow. I feel like I’m in total control of what I’m doing in the game and no amount of button pressing or waggle can truly emulate that. With games like Wii Sports Resort appealing to the mass market and Red Steel 2 for the gamers, Wii MotionPlus is set to truly re-define the way we play games. Quite honestly, no Wii owner can complain about how Wii is all about waggle. Wii MotionPlus has changed that and I’m very excited to see what Nintendo and third parties have to offer.
