Has Motion Plus...

[tapedeck]

Firstly. it's been too long since I wrote an epic Wii thread.

 

Once my bread and butter, I've been reviewing a lot of titles and writing articles (such as the history of vitual football) for our beloved N-E. Great fun, but I'll always write here when looking for YOUR thoughts. The thoughts that matter.

 

So...

 

Has Motion Plus altered your perception of Wii?

 

When Nintendo initially showed the Wii remote, we were perhaps led to think that the attributes of Motion Plus were to be a part of the original design. In a nutshell we thought 1:1 was what we were getting from day one.

After spending time with Wii Sports, Zelda and 3rd party efforts (Red Steel in particular) it was soon apparent that motion control wasn't as 'instant' or as responsive as we were originally led to believe. Did Nintendo lead us down a path of deceit? And was that a clever thing to do or not?

 

Has Motion Plus altered what Wii is capable of in the future or have you tired from the library Wii has brought onto itself? Will you reinvest in Wii when Motion Plus arrives or do you think it is perhaps too little too late?

 

Moreso, is an 'add-on' a viable product to push when it could actually change the entire console as a whole? (In both positive and negative ways.)

Will Motion Plus create a divide within the Wii software spectrum or do you feel that purely an option within titles for Motion Plus is the way forward?

 

It seems the gamers relationship with Wii has fluxuated far more than any other generation and so it will be interesting to see what you all think about the positives and negatives that Motion Plus will bring. Afterall, it is an add-on that could completely change the software catalogue on Wii.

 

Thoughts as ever, : peace:

[Hellfire]

Quick answer no. Asides from the first shocking minutes, it was obvious it couldn't get anything close to 1:1. Don't know how much an add-on will affect the future library, but it's promising.

[Rummy]

I still have my Wii, though it does not get much use beyond Brawl and even that is waning now, my recently purchased 360 would get a large part of my attention now, I think. Am I sold on motionplus? Well, no, because Nintendo DID to an extent misrepresent the accuracy of the original Wiimote, and so I am going to take MotionPlus with a pinch of salt and see what it can do first before I get all excited, but I think it does show alot of promise, but once again I can't imagine the scope, but that's just cos I'm rather unimaginative

[DazzeL]

Quick answer no. Asides from the first shocking minutes, it was obvious it couldn't get anything close to 1:1. Don't know how much an add-on will affect the future library, but it's promising.

 

I agree that motion plus is promising. There's no way it was initially "obvious" that the Wii mote couldn't do 1:1. Even after the first initial plays of Wii Sports it wasn't altogether clear that 1:1 was impossible. Tennis is nowhere close but both baseball and golf are extremely close to 1:1 - probably still the closest attempts.

 

We certainly weren't deceived by Nintendo. However, the limitations of the hardware were also unclear at launch.

[dazzybee]

Hasn't altered my perception of the Wii, I think it's a great machine with exciting controls. I suppose what motionplus will do though is make everything better really, so stuff like Sambe de amigo, forced unleashed etc will all be better because of it.

 

As for new opporutnities, well I think we can all agree in theory it could be amazing, especially combined with the balance board, if developers actually go for it we could have some truly spectacular pieces of software to play!

 

I'm just worried it will get underused like the balance board appears to be

[Hellfire]

I agree that motion plus is promising. There's no way it was initially "obvious" that the Wii mote couldn't do 1:1. Even after the first initial plays of Wii Sports it wasn't altogether clear that 1:1 was impossible. Tennis is nowhere close but both baseball and golf are extremely close to 1:1 - probably still the closest attempts.

 

We certainly weren't deceived by Nintendo. However, the limitations of the hardware were also unclear at launch.

It was to me, if it wasn't to you, not my problem. Of course that by minutes I don't mean minutes literally, but I thought it was pretty damn obvious.

[Tellyn]

It hasn't changed my perception of the Wii. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what third-parties can do with it, since we'll be able to actual do realistic movements for puzzles and other activities rather than waggle or something which is only slightly similar to the movements you'd do in real life.

 

I hope Nintendo are giving third-parties enough support with programming for MotionPlus, otherwise we could just see people following suit of Ubisoft and having slightly more accurate waggle.

 

I'm just worried it will get underused like the balance board appears to be

 

I wouldn't say it's underused, it only came out in April. Developers will be waiting until it's reached a certain amount of sales so that Balance Board exclusive/compatible games will be worth it.

[Pit-Jr]

I think its yet another nice idea tossed into the sloppy, unorganized melting pot that is the Wii. Im more interested in how it will be implemented in the Wii 2 to be honest.

[Grazza]

I'm very optimistic about MotionPlus and I don't think there's a bad side to it. In fact, I'm amazed Nintendo are improving the Wii halfway through.

 

To answer your question, tapedeck, it has taken my perception back to when Iwata announced the controller for the Revolution. I was totally behind it then. Closer to release, though, I somehow realised it wouldn't be as good as I once thought. This may sound like prejudice, but when I played it, it was exactly as I expected.

 

From what I've played so far, I don't actually like motion controls, and it's only fair to say Nintendo's 1st-party games represent the peak of what the machine can do. However, motion controls have been a success, so it's only a good thing to improve them.

 

It seems to me that the actual motion controls, apart from being fairly unresponsive, can only understand simple, sharp, jerky movements like "forward", whereas I hope MotionPlus can understand "forward 1cm", "forward 2cm"... etc.

 

Apart from party games, I don't feel these "jerky" movements actually improve gameplay. What I want from MotionPlus is for it to put my hand in a 3D space and understand subtle movements. Now that really could improve games.

 

I'm not going to sulk if it doesn't deliver this, and my expectations aren't quite as high as TGS 2005, but I would say MotionPlus makes me perceive the machine much more like I did then.

[Emasher]

I'm not going to take sides until I've tried it in a few decent games. I has so much potential, and yet that probably won't be met if 3rd party Wii games up until now are anything to go buy.

 

But still, perhaps if Capcom made another game like Zack and Wiki for it...

[Rummy]

I think the biggest problem isn't the technology, it's the accessibility to it that Nintendo give to other party developers. One thing that struck me about MotionPlus was that in Wii Sports Baseball, when you're waiting for the pitch the Bat seems to have quite an accurate representation of what your Wiimote's doing. I reckon Nintendo are going to be able to do brilliantly awesome things with MotionPlus if they have the innovation behind them, as they have the knowledge and access to the technology, but they really need to make sure that they help other developers to totally understand how to utilise it to its fullest in order to make the most of it.

[Hellfire]

I think the biggest problem isn't the technology, it's the accessibility to it that Nintendo give to other party developers.

Considering that 3rd parties already have and had it for a while and that Wii still has at least 2-3 years ahead of it, I really don't see that as a problem.

[tapedeck]

Considering that 3rd parties already have and had it for a while and that Wii still has at least 2-3 years ahead of it, I really don't see that as a problem.

 

Tbh the time a dev spends with a new tech doesn't seem to inicate whether quality will arise. (Redsteel/Monkeyball for proofs?)

 

Now I'm not arguing that spending time with a new tech distracts from quality, I just think it's perhaps the actual developer who the tech goes to that determines wether the final product is quality or not.

 

I firmly believe that Ubisoft jumped into bed with Nintendo for the launch of Wii and almost had a smash and grab approach to their business. They came out of the blocks with Wii and then reverted to selling nothing but casual 'opportunities' (Even though their launch titles sold well). Good business sense perhaps, but only detremental to their image from a consumer standpoint.

 

I guess there is another side to the coin. Nintendo doesn't need 3rd parties at this moment in time and if they limit the tech to only second parties, they will (on a business level) rake in all of the profits. Maybe when Wii launched Nintendo needed support from other devs (perhaps even bigger Western devs) but now it's not the case. Maybe it's the way the old Nintendo would have been or maybe it's the cinic in me thinking that Nintendo will always look after Nintendo but I certainly think that Motion Plus is something of interest to keep an eye on.

 

And to think: I thought that the balance board would create an onslaught of new, fresh titles for the conusmer.

 

Whilst Nintend seem to be continuing to pioneer their blue ocean strategy, offering new 'types' of games, other developers seem content to be stood on the shore. Catering to the land masses - only dipping their toes in the water very now and then.

[Hellfire]

Tbh the time a dev spends with a new tech doesn't seem to inicate whether quality will arise. (Redsteel/Monkeyball for proofs?)

 

Um.. I don't get where you're going at, Red Steel was the first FPS with pointer and motion controls and a Wii launch title, Monkey Ball was one of the first games of the type to come out, they're kind of the biggest example of games that were the first, hence they didn't had a lot of experience.

[Chris the great]

motion plus doesn't change my view of the wii. its kinda like the N64 expanshion pack. it makes things a little better, but i dont see why it wasnt there from the start.

 

as for what it can do for games, id like to think we can have 1:1 sword fights, boxing and outher clever uses, but lets face it, without clever designers, its not going to make much difference.

[DazzeL]

Um.. I don't get where you're going at, Red Steel was the first FPS with pointer and motion controls and a Wii launch title, Monkey Ball was one of the first games of the type to come out, they're kind of the biggest example of games that were the first, hence they didn't had a lot of experience.

 

True, though Ubisoft did have access to Wii tech in the same way that companies have advance access to motion plus tech now. The point is that perhaps the first motion plus games won't hit anywhere near the potential of the device in the same way that it took a year to get good Wii fps controls (Metroid, MOH:H2).

 

If so we might be waiting longer than we'd like for a massive improvement.

[sumo73]

I'm happy with the Wii and it's controls for most games.

 

As a left handed player often games don't think about the 10-15% of players who may need to have controls changed. I'm not happy about that. I was happy that Nintendo put in a left handed mode for 'Wii Sports' and thought that other companies who follow suit but most haven't. I don't think being left handed is much of a problem on the 360 or PS3.

 

I'm sure that for most people their view is just swap the Wii controls around but it's not as easy as that.

 

In regards to Wii Motion Plus I can't offer any real opinion until I've used it. I just hope Nintendo can use this on more than just a few games (unlike the Gamecube Bongo drums) and that 3rd party companies will be interested in using it as well.

 

When Sony released the 'Eye Toy' for the PS2 lots of companies went out to develope games for it but as I said before with the bongo drums only a few games came out.

 

What I would really like to see are games which come out that can be played with or without the Motion Plus. Of course if you have Motion Plus you will get a better gaming experience.

[Emasher]

But really. Can you expect developers to make games that used the bongo drums any more than you could expect them to make games that use the GH controllers?

 

Motion plus can work for a lot more types of games.

[Zechs Merquise]

I have more worries over Motion Plus than I do any other expectations. I feel add-ons are always tricky business and they tend to polarise the market between the hardcore who will snap them up and the regular gamer who won't have a clue.

 

I also think add-ons split the market for developers. You may have 40 million Wii owners, but if only 10 million end up with Motion Plus you can guarentee if you make your game a Motion Plus game you're going to sell less units.

 

What's more, will Motion plus be optional in some games, if so will having it give an advantage to gamers over those who aren't using it?

 

I may sound negative, but I've been against add ons since the Mega CD. Granted, I believe the Satellaview in Japan was a success, however the Mega CD, 32x, and numerous other add-ons and expansion packs never lit up the market place, espceially not in Europe.

 

I find this all a little confusing and worrying, maybe Nintendo should be focusing more on the games themselves and making sure they are up to the usual Nintendo standard rather than inventing ways to split their own user base.

[tapedeck]

I believe if the software is there any add-ons will sell well enough. Obviously we've seen titles like Virtual Racing/Virtua Fighter 1 sell only to the hardcore and thus (as you said) sold to only a certain percentage of the "hardcore" marketshare. The software has to be unique enough too (Stunt Race FX shamed Virtual Racing afterall.)

Look at Majoras Mask/Perfect Dark/Donkey Kong64 for a good example of software using an add-on well but (in PD's light) keeping it optional. I think it always comes down to having unique software.

 

Wii Fit is a good example. That shows no signs of letting up and it's something which you would say wasn't "hardcore". Perhaps this new market is a little nieve when it comes to add ons?

 

I think with Wii Sports Resort Motion Plus will sell well enough to make it a shoe in for future Wii endeavours. Perhaps (as hinted at) Nintendo will put the tech into a remote. (Even if it's a year down the line, or even christmas 2009). Either way the Motion plus tech will be there for the long term. (Even if it's in their next console).

 

Good times to find out either way...

[Emasher]

I don't think they're going to put it right into future remotes. But I'm 100% sure that it will be in the Wii HD's controller(s) from day 1.

[sumo73]

But really. Can you expect developers to make games that used the bongo drums any more than you could expect them to make games that use the GH controllers?

 

Motion plus can work for a lot more types of games.

 

I quite agree that the Bongo Drums and Wii Motion Plus are very different. : peace: The amount of games that can be developed with Motion Plus is of course a lot more.

 

The point I wanted to make is that in the past Nintendo releases something and then doesn't always support it or allow others to use it. For example, the code needed to activate the rumble on the DS was quite small but Nintendo didn't give it to other developers for a while. Nintendo took a while to allow small developers to develop WiiWare games. Sometimes I just wish Nintendo could act a bit faster.

 

I'm glad to hear that a non Nintendo game like the Conduit is going to be using Motion Plus. It's a healthy sign.