is the Wii controller a novelty?

[Kneel B4 Zod]

ok, so I have a Wii, and so far I love it. But some part of me is wondering if the novelty of the Wiimote/nunchak will wear off.

Some thoughts I've had:

Wii Sports does a great job of showing the potential of the Wiimore and nunchak. However, the long term playability of these games is low imho, as the depth of what you can do with the controlls is pretty low. What most excites me is how good some of these games could be IF they were fully fleshed out "real" games.

For instance, Boxing. I think this could be one of the best possible applications for Wii. But the graphics and overall control/game interface need a lot of work.

Tennis: again, this could be a sweet game if fleshed out. Obviously you need to be able to control the players, and again I think the overall depth of the game needs to be improved.

Baseball: needs a lot of work imho. All you do is control the speed of pitches. If they could somehow change this, as well as controlling fielders, the game could be good.

Bowling: replay value low imho.

1st person shooters: I think these can rule on the Wii. It's so much more intuitive than an analog aiming device.

Zelda: I love it, but some part of me also thinks the swordplay is meh. I mean, is shaking the Wiimote and nunchak that much different than pressing buttons? Yeah, it's better, but I don't think it's night and day - I think what they really need to do is make the swordplay much more freeform, and when that happens, that's like "WOW this is really something different".

Basically, I think for the Wii to be the lead console in this gen, they need to get far beyond what they have done with Wii Sports and the early releases. These games are fine for casual gamers, but these people aren't going to buy $300 worth of stuff for Wii Sports. Zelda is great, but that's b/c it's Zelda and also b/c of the shooting - I don't think it's nec. b/c of the controls. Nintendo still needs to produce games for all segments.

Back to my original point in this rambling post: I think the controls will be a novelty in most games unless Nintendo does more with them. But I think they can, and I'm excited for the potential.

[dmk]

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What most excites me is how good some of these games could be IF they were fully fleshed out "real" games.

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AFAIK, that was the entire point of Wii Sports. It wasn't supposed to be an in-depth series of games. Its a game that is bundled w/ the Wii that shows the new users "hey, this is what the wii/wiimote is capable of" its up to the game developers to put out a full-fledged game that really takes advantage of the technology.

[KRANTZ]

i agree with your point about zelda - if the motion controls actually mapped your exact movement with the remote, THAT would be something to write home about. i find myself just shaking the remote a little bit most of the time instead of making long sweeping sword motions (although theres something to be said for looking like a jackass and actually 'fighting' the bosses, those guys are dope)

[fnord_too]

I think there is a lot of room for improvement, but also that there will be a lot of improvement. I think things like the pitching in the baseball game is good, but in a dedicated baseball game I hope to see more. (Though I can see where you don't want to go to the point where people are injuring themselves to play the game.) I still havent gotten to the fishing game with the boat in zelda, but I have high hopes for that. I would probably buy a dedicated fishing game, and that is a real testament to the controller since I normally scoff at games like that.

[Madtown]

I agree with dmk regarding Wii Sports. It really is a fun little tech demo, to show people what can be done in a basic, fun way.

The Wii's development will likely follow the DS's, IMO. Everyone's going to wonder if it's just a little novelty, because the early games won't take full advantage of the innovation. But once developers start really putting their minds to how this tech can be used, we're going to see some REALLY sweet games. It took around 9-12 months on the DS, although I think the success there may have better prepared the developers for the Wii. So it may be within 6 months that we start seeing that happen here.

[MarkSummers]

agreed madtown. when the ds was first released, i thought it was a pretty big gimmick and bound to be the next virtual boy. this is because there was no support for it in the early days. after meteos came out, i finally picked one up and it's been the system i've spent the most time with over the last year or so. like many others, i've even purchased the upgrade ds lite when it was released so i have two nintendo ds systems.

if the ds went from no hype to another huge handheld success for nintendo, i can't even imagine what cool things are going to be done with the wii. i agree some of the uses for the wii remote seem gimmicky at first play, but i have faith that some developer will come up with some awesome uses for it in the near future.

[4 High]

While i think the Wiimote/Nunchuk has been vastly overhyped i think in the long run it will be a good addition to Consoles and very innovative. I also think the Sixaxis will help Sony out alot. Now if only Sony would pay immersion to have rumble.

[nolanfan34]

I think you have to think broader than just the controller, and think about the potential of the technology as well.

I'm interested in the potential for sports games in particular. Think about Tiger Woods 08, if it came with a custom controller shaped like a golf club of some sort? I think they'll be able to do some great simulators possibly with this technology (caveat - I haven't played the Wii yet, so perhaps this is seeming less possible to those who have played it).

I haven't seen anyone mention if they've played Madden yet, but I know the reviews of the control scheme have been pretty good.

[Badger]

I agree with a lot of the sentiments in this thread. Yes it's an improvement in a lot of areas and no it's not quite revolutionary, yet. I think that depends how much developers can leverage the wiimote's potential, and what that potential actually is.

As far as Zelda is concerned, I doubt they wanted to make a large change to the gameplay. OoT was one of the best games ever, and the franchise is one of the most prolific and succesful. I don't think they wanted to alienate gamers who play for predominant strategy portion of this game. It's pretty clear that Zelda, although somewhat of an action game, is not highly dependant on a player's physical skill and coordination.

[Emmitt2222]

I agree with almost everything being said. Its good, but at the moment it is more potential than actualization. I think, though, that this system more than any other has a chance to create one game that will just blow everyone out of the water. I can't imagine a PS3 or Xbox 360 game doing anymore than just improving on already established things. With the Wii, however, somebody might just create a game that everyone and their mother will want to play. I don't know if it will happen, but I have high hopes that some developer will just pour a ton of effort into one game and make it all of the motions perfect.