The Wii Hands On
- July 06, 2006 09:27 AM PST
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We just got back from a marathon gaming session, and Wii lived to tell the tale. Here are the four most interesting titles -- for better or for worse -- that we played at Nintendo's super-secret, invite-only gaming session. More to come!
Best Wii Games
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Definitely the star of the show. The graphics looked amazing -- better than Halo 2 on the Xbox without a doubt -- and the levels showed off sparkling details, proving the Wii is far more powerful than the Gamecube. Out of all the games we played, the Wii controller seemed most at home with Metroid.
You don't fire with your index finger, but with your thumb (using the A button). This sounds a little goofy, but in practice it worked very, very well. You could press the directional pad to fire rockets or enter your scanning mode, and the trigger (aka the B button) handled jumps very nicely. Samus has a few new moves that take advantage of the motion-sensitive controller. By locking onto a target and thrusting the left nunchuku forward, Samus could launch a grappling beam. The beam is similar to Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun, but was mostly used to push rubble out of the way, open grates, or in a nice touch, yank shields from enemy hands. The other major Wii functionality was that some control panels needed to be lifted, rotated, and pushed back into slots -- these movements were all handled on the Wii controller.
Aiming with the point-and-shoot controller felt very nice, though it took a few minutes to become truly comfortable. The experience was much like playing a PC first-person shooter, especially since the nunchucku analog stick controlled movement We found that standing roughly four feet from the TV provided the best motion, and the cursor stayed smooth and steady -- no shakiness! The frame rate was also smooth and consistent, even when the screen got crowded with special effects.
Metroid was probably the best Wii game on display. Wii can't wait to play more!
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Another excellent demonstration of the Wii's abilities, Zelda just felt natural using this unconventional controller. Aiming the bow and arrow was a snap, thanks to the point-and-shoot mechanics....though it took a bit more practice than with Metroid. You can aim at any time -- you'll see a tiny fairy that shows where you're currently aiming the Wii controller.
We also toyed around with a fishing scenario and some basic swordplay before being trotted off to the next game. Sword slashes are handled with button taps, but the more advanced moves (spinning slashes and downward strikes) are handled with simple hand motions. It was a good, if brief, playthrough, and it felt utterly natural.
Worst Wii Games
Red Steel Though decent as a whole, Red Steel wasn't one of the more impressive games on display. The visuals looked solid but unremarkable, definitely leaning more towards the PS2 generation than many of the games at the play session. The special effects looked very nice, but enemy characters looked somewhat blocky and under-detailed.
The biggest disappointment was the sword combat, which wasn't nearly as pixel-precise as Nintendo's hype made us believe. You don't actually seem to have that many sword attacks, just several different generic slashes and a few parry moves. It's still an interesting gimmick to parry an enemy's attack, then slash him to ribbons. But in the long run, we're betting Red Steel's swordplay will strictly be endured rather than enjoyed.
The gunplay also had some issues. Moving the aiming cursor seemed to be over-sensitive and jerky at times; if the reticule got too close to the side of the screen, it also wonked out a bit. It took more focus and concentration to get precise shots in Red Steel; Metroid pulls off the FPS Wii mechanics much more smoothly. It's still fun to spray a room with SMG fire using the Wii controller, but the experience would be even better if Ubisoft could iron out the aiming issues.
Necro Nesia Nintendo probably would have been smart to keep this game out of the play session, but on the other hand, they're giving the journalist a "warts and all" look at Wii gaming. In that case, the almost indecipherable Necro Nesia is definitely a wart. The graphics didn't look bad, but again veered closer to the gritty look commonly associated with PS2 titles.
But the problems extended beyond the visuals. The on-screen directions were ridiculously unhelpful for most of the maneuvers; for the ones we did figure out, the hand motions seemed to be counter intuitive and awkward. Dodging, for instance, didn't seem to correspond to any particular direction. Attacking was also awkward because, for each attack, you had to hold down a button and make a hacking motion with the Wii controller. Super-slow and ineffectual attack animations also made for a hard time. The analog stick controlled the camera views, which felt strange considering the Wii's robust camera control abilities.
Overall, Necro Nesia didn't show much promise. A couple of scenes looked cool, with a giant ball of huge centipedes and bugs looming out of the darkness to attack. But overall, the experience felt awfully underwhelming.
It just goes to show that the Wii can't make a crappy game any more fun.
