Wiiality Check

Last week, I had a chance to demo a Wii at the Nintendo World Store and these are my impressions…

First, the WiiMote control. I had seen the ads but was nonetheless astonished at the range of motions that could be detected by the controller. However, some games responded jerkily especially when using the infrared pointer. I’d say the control responded the way I would expect about 85% of the time which isn’t bad but could be improved.

I played 3 games for about 5 minutes each. It was hardly enough time to make a fair assessment but I must say I was a little disappointed.

Wii Sports

“Hey look, you can use the WiiMote to play sports!” Wii sports was little more than a demo of the wireless controller. I played tennis followed by bowling. While the prospect of controlling your racket by swinging your controller conceptually was tantilizing to me, the actual gameplay felt a lot more like pong. I couldn’t seem to find any measure of control beyond either [swing-and-hit] or [swing-and-miss]. Bowling was similarly lifeless.

Excite Truck

“Hey look, you can use the WiiMote to drive a truck!” The Nintendo Store dude showed me that I simply turn the controller this way to turn right and that way to turn left. This button accelerates, that button breaks. OK sure. So I’m driving with the WiiMote. But who cares? This game was decidedly NOT fun.

WarioWare Smooth Moves

All was not lost. WarioWare was the perfect mix of innovative control mixed with innovative game design that I was looking for. The Warioware series continues to impress me with its simplicity and creativity and is only improved by the versitility of the remote control interface. I LOL’d at least 3 times while (literally) cranking, jumping, drawing, and even hula-hooping.

Overall, the games seem to be shallow and uninventive relying solely on the gimmick of the WiiMote which did not hold my interest for more than the first 2 minutes. I left the store with a distinct taste of “Dave and Busters” in my mouth.

I wouldn’t get your hopes up too much for the Wii launch titles. i’m still holding out hope for some of the games coming down the line (plus I didn’t get to play Zelda which will probably tip the scales).