by doodirock
2old2play gets high on Wii'd for three hours in this in-depth preview of the hardware, games and environment of Nintendo’s new console. So all Wii jokes aside, 2old2play had the opportunity to attend the Wii Ambassador parties in Chicago. Nintendo has been holding these events around the United States for a select group of people. The parties usually consist of non-industry type people who are new to the idea of video games. Luckily a blogger by the name of Tony at endangeredgamer.blogspot.com was nice enough to extend 2old2play an invitation. Thanks Tony!
THE PARTY
Before I get into the details of the hardware and games, let me say that Nintendo knows how to throw a proper party. The extent which they went to keep this little party a secret was borderline extreme. I was told which day the event would take place. With almost nothing else to go by, Nintendo waited a week before the event to send me an email with a number to call. The pre-recorded message told me some of the rules I would have to agree with and that more cryptic messages would arrive soon. Finally, a representative from Nintendo called to let me know, along with my ID, a secret password would be given in order to enter the event. A password? Was this event going to be held at NORAD? Anyway, I wrote down my super secret password (LAMBO) and she told me to wait by the phone around 3:00pm on Friday the 13th of October. So, without so much as a location, she hung up the phone and I went back to waiting.
October 13th rolled around quickly and I sat by the phone the entire day. 3:00pm came and went without as much as a peep from my cell. I started to think this whole thing was a joke and there wasn't a party anywhere in Chicago. Just as I about to give up faith, my phone chimed at 4:25pm. Oddly enough, the meeting place was located at my Alma mater, DePaul University, not 15-feet from the dorm room I stayed in during my past college years. After about 15 minutes of waiting, three unmarked vans, with blacked out windows, pulled up to take us away. Everyone had to give up their cell phones so Nintendo could be sure nobody was leaking photos, although I’m told, photos taken at the event by the Nintendo representatives will be sent to us later. After a quick search with the metal detector wand, we were loaded up on the vans and shipped off.
We were not supposed to know where we were headed, so the van cut through the cities alleyways and into what looked like a Trucking Garage. Unfortunately for Nintendo, I have lived in Chicago for more then eight years and knew exactly where we where. How could I know just by alleys you ask? Ironically, Nintendo decided to throw the party one block from my condo! Essentially, I had driven all the way to DePaul University only to be driven right back to my home.
Once we arrived at the "not so secret location," we were quickly shuffled into a trucking garage to await further instructions. It was here that we were approached by several Nintendo reps who gave us the run down on what we should expect. We were led up a rickety old stair case and onto a roof-top where we crossed into a loft. In the middle of the loft, six Nintendo Wii’s where hooked up to flat screen TVs. A bin full of beer, drinks and, of course, a buffet of Chicago Style Pizza was set in the back of the loft. Now this was gaming! Without as much as thought, I grabbed a beer and headed for console.
The Games
To begin, let us all say hello to the "Jaggies" of previous consoles. That’s right, while Nintendo claims the Wii is at least twice as powerful as the Gamecube, I was finding it hard to see the upgrade. Zelda didn't look like an upgrade at all. Until I become used to the lower level graphics, I found myself distracted from gameplay. Maybe it is because, at this point, I am used to 720p resolution from my Xbox 360 and 1200p from my PC. Either way, the look was jarring and a bit of a let down from what I had heard. In fact, showing the Wii on high definition displays only seemed to enhance the jagged lines on Zelda's Link character rather then increase viewing quality.
Once I adapted to the lower grade graphics, I began to see where the Wii truly shines; gameplay. Each and every game offered a new way to hold and utilize the Wiimote to control the action on screen. After testing all the games, I was able to see how the Wiimote was both a blessing and a nuisance. For instance, games that were created with the express interest of exploiting the Wiimote to its limits seemed to work flawlessly. Games like Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Wii Sports and Elebits all felt natural and easy to control. On the other hand, games that seemed better fit for a controller, felt forced and awkward. Ported games like Madden, Marvel Ultimate Alliance or even first party games like Zelda had the most awkward gameplay experiences. Since I have always played Zelda and Madden with a controller, the Wiimote almost seemed unnatural. I assume this will only be worse for other games that need to be ported to the Wii and its Wiimote structure. Think about it this way, if developers are already worried about making games run well on three systems, how will they respond to creating new controller structures just to fit the Wii? There is definitely a lot of room for error that could leave many games too frustrating to play. If Nintendo can turn out enough niche games to keep consumers happy, this may not be a problem. On the other hand, if you were already a 360 owner would you honestly buy the Wii version of Call of Duty 3 over the 360 counterpart? At this point, I would say better graphics and a control scheme I can understand would make much more sense.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The demo offered two options to choose from: I could run through a level called the “Dungeon” or try my hand at fishing. As much as I love fishing (enter sarcasm here) I decided to attempt the Dungeon. As I stated earlier, the jaggies threw me for a loop when the game initially loaded, but I quickly got over visuals and pushed on to the gameplay aspect. The level started with a small tutorial from your ever present helper fairy, Midna. She teaches you the basics of the Wiimote by having you practice sword techniques on an inanimate scarecrow. You swipe the Wiimote in a slashing motion to activate the swords normal attack, but could also utilize the Nunchuk to perform a whirling attack by tilting it to the left and then right. Your shield could be used to “bump” enemies off you by thrusting the Wiimote forward in a stabbing motion. All this seemed pretty intuitive and I was able to continue with the quest fairly quickly.
At each point in the level, my helper Midna gave me clues to my next action. Dispatching enemies at a distance took the use of the bow and arrow. Midna told me to aim using Z and fire at my targets. This was where the Wiimote became tricky. You must point the controller at the sensor bar and not the TV and I found myself struggling to locate my center. Taller people gaming with a low sensor bar will make things much harder because you must turn your wrists down in order to get a center spot on the monitor. Compound this by a slow and unresponsive camera, and you'll spend more time losing arrows and taking hits than actually killing baddies. I tried to picture myself in an eight hour session marathon of Zelda (which is totally common for me and the franchise) using only the Wiimote. I cringed at the thought. Games like this need intense hours of hands on button mashing and sore thumbs - not risk of carpal tunnel. In fact, when I asked the Nintendo representative if I was able to switch to a classic controller over the Wiimote he said, “No, then again we recommend a game session of no longer then two to three hours.” Two to three hours!?! Do they even know how people play Zelda? Then I asked, “Well what if I want to use a normal controller to play the game?” They actually responded by saying, “You can always just buy the Gamecube version and use the old controllers.” Sure, I’m going to buy two versions of the game just so I can have my choice of controllers. Thanks Nintendo.
All the Wiimote issues aside, there is one thing that was certain, the game felt like Zelda. Everything from the atmosphere, enemies and the puzzles to solve put me right back into the classic Hyrule setting. Within minutes I was sucked in and ready to play for days. The demo used many different aspects of gameplay including iron boots, grappling hook, swordplay, bow & arrow and, of course, the boomerang. After solving some easy, yet ingenious puzzles, I battled my way into a dungeon full of baddies and the final fire boss which is seen in many Zelda screenshots. Again, the camera angles made it hard to maneuver around the boss and properly see where I was heading, but once I solved the puzzle to take him down it became much easier.
As for the fishing side of the demo, there really isn’t much to say. The Nintendo rep told me it was the single most important reason to get the Wii version, but I just couldn’t see it. After 20 minutes of rowing around blindly trying to catch one fish I finally gave up. In fact, I don’t think I saw one other person actually catch one. The Gamecube version does not have fishing but, in my opinion, you will be missing out on anything. In the end, Zelda is just what you want from the franchise in terms of content. While the Wii's remote may take some getting used to, it is still one of the main reasons to buy the console. The question will just be "what version of Zelda: Twilight Princes will you want?"
Wii Spots
Wii Sports was possibly the best game at the Wii party. The entire suite of games shows off just how perfect the Wiimote can be when programmed properly. Each sport was insanely easy to control and felt like each maneuver you performed had a different impact on the games response. Personally, I favored boxing and baseball. After a round of boxing with one of my colleagues, we didn’t want to play anything else. Using body movements, you were able to duck, move in, crouch down, move left, move right, jab and uppercut. If you saw your opponent throw a punch, you could easily back up from the sensor and let the fist blow on past you. Of course, you could also just fake the movements with your hands but that took the fun out of the experience. This same idea followed through every game in the Wii Sports package. Baseball allowed you to throw the ball faster the harder you moved your arm as well as tossing curve balls by holding down different buttons on the remote.
The only real down side for some hardcore sports gamers might be in its simplicity. These are not complex sports games that you'll find yourself playing for hours alone in your home; for the hardcore gamer this might be an issue. Instead, they're meant to be played with a group of friends in a party setting. They create a great physical/social aspect that online gaming has taken away in the past fifteen years. It brought me back to the days of 3AM Mario Cart tournaments in my dorm room.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Marvel Ultimate Alliance was the most disappointing display at the party. I’m sure this game would be perfect with a normal controller, but with the wiimote it was a disaster. You control one of four total Marvel characters at a time. The games camera is set over head in the arcade style hack n’ slashes most gamers love. You move through the game using the nunchuk and position the camera in the direction you want to go by tilting the nunchuk to the left or right. Then, with the other hand, you shake your wrists back and forth to perform different attacks depend on what character you control. The whole process felt like a random mess of meaningless movements and the end result isn’t spectacular enough to warrant all the exertion. It was more like a test to see if you can rub your tummy while patting yourself on the head at the same time. The movements mimic that of an actual arcade stick so much you'll be crying for one just to defeat the level in a timely manner. If that isn't enough, each character played almost completely alike. There were tiny differences between Spiderman, Wolverine and Captain America, but not enough to make any of it interesting and unique over a short span of time. After all, these are arcade style games and have always meant to be button mashers, not arm wigglers.
Excite Truck
This is a game the screams for online play! As it has been stated in other articles, to control the truck you hold the Wiimote with both hands like your tilting a seesaw. The axis is extremely sensitive but the controls are simple enough that it only takes a minute to get used to playing. You push A to give your truck gas and the D-Pad to use your boost. Along the tracks you will fine little items that, when picked up, will completely change the course for the drivers around you. If you touch an item, the ground below your truck may suddenly drop down and a mountainous jump forms ahead. This adds a great multiplayer aspect to the game which would be perfect for the online service. When I asked the rep if Excite Truck would come with online play he only responded with, “I don’t think so, but why not?” Um ok.
Elebits
Here is another game built strictly to show off the Wiimote. The player is set in first person view and utilizes a huge gravity gun laser to move stuff around the room similar to that of Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun. The object of the game is to uncover little creatures called Elebits which help charge your gun's voltage. The more voltage you have, the heavier the objects can be that you move with your gun. As you progress through the game, you move to other areas of the house to uncover more Elebits. Your goal is to see how far you can travel and how much voltage you can acquire. The game is built on simplicity and creates an arcade-like addiction that had us all trying to beat the high score. Once again, this game plays better with a social aspect where friends can go against each other to see who can get further and gain more voltage
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
To put it simply, WarioWare: Smooth Moves is a blast. Much like Wii Sports, WarioWare is a collection of strange mini-games you try to defeat in the fastest amount a time. The game uses the Wiimote in almost every configuration possible while making you jump around the room like a madman. Before each round, you get a popup message explain how to use the Wiimote for the given level and then it begins. The faster you complete the task the better your score. The entire concept is silly and fun. After all, who doesn’t want to virtual hula hoop in their living room?
Madden NFL 07
Madden was the only game to freeze at the Wii party. For me, this kind of sets the tone for my experience. As I said early on in the article, ports just don’t seem to have a place on the Wii - Madden is no exception. While it was fun to throw passes using the Wiimote, it didn’t really help the mechanics of the game. The idea was more of a gimmick and contained few unique new features. Selecting your receiver and passing was easy enough but I found the tackles and interceptions hard to pull off. I asked about online play the rep told me he didn’t think it would have any. Now, I’m not sure this is true, but Madden without online play is like football without the pigskin. In the end, I think you will want to play Madden in its full resolution glory, if you are a "Wii60" owner anyway.
Tony Hawk: Downhill Jam
The controller set up is the same way as Excite Truck, but Tony Hawk: Downhill Jam lacks the charm of the first party title. While control was easy enough, the games graphics and art seemed repetitively bland and beige in almost every level of play. The game has an almost SSX Tricky-like style which won back some points for me, but I felt like I wanted more from this title. The good news is the reps said there are more then 100 levels to go though in the game so I may be proven wrong once I have more time with the game.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Trauma Center: Second Opinion is basically a remake of the already classic Trauma Center for the DS. Because of that, there isn’t much new to tell you about the game. In case you don’t own a DS and this game, it is played by using the Wiimote as if it were your scalpel. You spend your time performing different surgeries which become progressively harder. While this may seem boring to you, we found ourselves spending a large amount of time going over the same levels more than once. If you have played the original Trauma Center, you know that it can be addicting, and adding the wiimote to the situation only makes it better. I predict that many of us will be called home suddenly from work because we are “on call” and have a surgery to perform
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