(Disclaimer: I own a Wii, Gamecube, N64, and played the SNES and NES to death. Also.. 360, Xbox, PS2, PS1 etc..)
After having a Wii for a couple of months now I still have very mixed feelings about it. As much of a cliche as it is ( !) I have had a Wii party, and several friends who have no interest in games had great fun in Wii Sports. A few of them are now thinking about buying too, and the relatively low price tag certainly helps.
However:
Graphics: I was pleasantly surprised how well Twilight Princess looked, for a SD game on a HD TV. I was playing in 576i (even though 480p seems generally recommended, I found 576i to be sharper). Sure, the environment, character and lighting models are relatively simplistic, but the graphics are sharp, and it doesn't detract greatly from the game. It certainly shows if you design a game with the console's limitations in mind, you can produce a game which still looks very, very good.
Another game I tried on the Wii was Prince of Persia Rival Swords, and this game seems to take the other approach, with more complex models and effects but the graphics appear very pixellated.
I know people will say graphics don't matter, only gameplay does. But I have to take issue with that point. How can you have ambience in a game, when you're walking towards a ray of light coming from a window and it's so horribly pixellated (looks more like dithering or compression artifacts actually) it just jars you out of the game mood. Or you're trying to sneak up behind a guard, and he runs forwards towards you - it's so pixellated you can't even see which way the guard was facing!
I think there is certainly going to be a big market for Wii-specific games, but I'm very dubious about any market for ports from other consoles as time goes on. (I'm sure some will say "no loss"! but I think the more games on any console, the better as far as I'm concerned).
Controls:This was the main reason I bought a Wii, I foresaw games where you hold the controls and wield them just as you wield tools/weapons in real life (just like the early Wii adverts show). And certainly in Wii Sports that's the case and the games (while basic) play beautifully. That's not the case in Twilight Princess (generally) or Rival Swords. Instead, you find yourself wiggling or shaking the controllers to execute a sword slash.
Instead of being a more obvious, intuitive, immersive control scheme, it's even more obscure than a normal game controller. Why shake the Nunchuck from side to side in Zelda to do a spin attack? How is that in any way "better" than hitting a button or rolling a control stick?
Maybe (I hope!) future Wii games will employ the controls far better, but the games I've played thus far bar Wii Sports, the controls require more thought and time than a gamepad would.
Any thoughts? Any good Wii games which use the controls better than "wiggle to turn left", "wobble to turn right"?
After having a Wii for a couple of months now I still have very mixed feelings about it. As much of a cliche as it is ( !) I have had a Wii party, and several friends who have no interest in games had great fun in Wii Sports. A few of them are now thinking about buying too, and the relatively low price tag certainly helps.
However:
Graphics: I was pleasantly surprised how well Twilight Princess looked, for a SD game on a HD TV. I was playing in 576i (even though 480p seems generally recommended, I found 576i to be sharper). Sure, the environment, character and lighting models are relatively simplistic, but the graphics are sharp, and it doesn't detract greatly from the game. It certainly shows if you design a game with the console's limitations in mind, you can produce a game which still looks very, very good.
Another game I tried on the Wii was Prince of Persia Rival Swords, and this game seems to take the other approach, with more complex models and effects but the graphics appear very pixellated.
I know people will say graphics don't matter, only gameplay does. But I have to take issue with that point. How can you have ambience in a game, when you're walking towards a ray of light coming from a window and it's so horribly pixellated (looks more like dithering or compression artifacts actually) it just jars you out of the game mood. Or you're trying to sneak up behind a guard, and he runs forwards towards you - it's so pixellated you can't even see which way the guard was facing!
I think there is certainly going to be a big market for Wii-specific games, but I'm very dubious about any market for ports from other consoles as time goes on. (I'm sure some will say "no loss"! but I think the more games on any console, the better as far as I'm concerned).
Controls:This was the main reason I bought a Wii, I foresaw games where you hold the controls and wield them just as you wield tools/weapons in real life (just like the early Wii adverts show). And certainly in Wii Sports that's the case and the games (while basic) play beautifully. That's not the case in Twilight Princess (generally) or Rival Swords. Instead, you find yourself wiggling or shaking the controllers to execute a sword slash.
Instead of being a more obvious, intuitive, immersive control scheme, it's even more obscure than a normal game controller. Why shake the Nunchuck from side to side in Zelda to do a spin attack? How is that in any way "better" than hitting a button or rolling a control stick?
Maybe (I hope!) future Wii games will employ the controls far better, but the games I've played thus far bar Wii Sports, the controls require more thought and time than a gamepad would.
Any thoughts? Any good Wii games which use the controls better than "wiggle to turn left", "wobble to turn right"?