Wii
I originally wrote a post comparing the Nintendo Wii to the Xbox 360. I've since decided that the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are so different that a comparison is silly. In this post I will attempt to describe what the Nintendo Wii is, how it is unique, and I will attempt to dispel some of the common fan boy criticism that is typically directed towards the Nintendo Wii.
The Nintendo Wii is easily the most unique video game system of this generation. Historically video game console vendors focus their next generation efforts by vastly improving the computational capabilities of their console. Sony and Microsoft continued this tradition by building veritable super computers with their High Definition offerings. On the other hand Nintendo has put almost no effort into advancing video games in terms of graphics. Nintendo set out to advance video games by fundamentally changing the way humans interact with with the machine. The results are fascinating. In three short years Nintendo's console has become the number one video game console, outselling the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined. Nintendo's console has been so successful that both Microsoft and Sony are releasing their own efforts to further advance the way humans interact with machines this year.
Video game controllers have evolved substantially since the release of the first joystick. I remember when I first played an Atari the controller had a single joystick and two buttons. The Xbox 360 controller has two analog thumb sticks, four shoulder buttons, four standard buttons, and a d-pad. For those of us that have been playing video games since we were children, the Xbox 360 controller is a great fit. It works well for just about every type of video game, and it works great for First Person Shooters. For those that have not been playing video games the Xbox 360 controller is unintuitive, cumbersome, and intimidating. With a controller like the Xbox 360's it becomes impossible to convince potential newcomers to play video games.
The Nintendo Wii's controller has two action buttons, a trigger button, and a d-pad. A player can hold the Wii controller with two hands much like the NES controller of old, or the player can hold the controller with one hand like a wand. The real innovation in the Wii controller is its support for gestures. Instead of pressing buttons to swing a bat in a video game, players swing the Wii controller like a bat, or like a tennis racket in the case of a tennis game. The genius of the Wii controller is that players interact with a video game much like they would in real life. This intuitive interaction lowers the barrier to entry, and allows people that have never played video games before to enjoy the Wii immediately.
The Wii controller has opened up some fascinating opportunities for video games. There are several video games on the Wii that just cannot be done on any other system. Try out Wario Ware on the Wii sometime. Wario Ware is a collection of mini games that takes full advantage of the Wii. The game is fun intuitive, and it cannot be done on any other console.
The Wii controller is great at opening up new opportunities. The real strengths of the Wii controller can most easily be seen with simple games like Wii Sports, or party games like Wario Ware. There have also been some attempts to utilize the Wii controller with more traditional types of video games; such as action games and first person shooters. While the Wii controller manages to function for these types of games, I wouldn't say it's been successful.
Typically more traditional games on the Wii will utilize the nunchuck setup. With the nunchuk setup the user attaches another controller that has a thumbstick and a couple of additional buttons to the Wii controller. The user holds this new module in his/her left hand, and the Wii controller with his/her right hand.
In many ways the nunchuck controller setup defeats the original intent of the Wii of providing a simple intuitive experience. The nunchuck controller is easily as complicated as the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers. What's worse is the nunchuck controller doesn't work nearly as well for traditional games as the Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers.
If the player is playing an FPS on the Wii he/she will use the nunchuck thumbstick to move forward and backward, strafe left and right. The player will use the Wii wand to look up and down, and turn left and right. Unfortunately unlike the Xbox 360 controller there is no resting position for your aiming controls, which is unfortunate since you spend most of your time in the rest position when playing an FPS. Furthermore using the Wii wand to turn in an FPS doesn't work nearly as well as just using the right thumbstick on an Xbox 360 controller. Typically when playing an FPS on the Wii all I can think about is how cumbersome the controls feel and how I wish I had an Xbox 360 controller.
When it comes to action games the Wii controller actually works just fine. Typically in an action game the player will move his/her character with the left thumbstick on the nunchuck, attack by shaking the Wii wand, as well as aiming using the Wii wand. While this setup works just fine it really just replaces button presses with waggling the Wii controller. It's while playing these types of games that the Wii controller feels like a gimmick. Normally this would be fine, but gamers that purchased the Wii sacrificed the vastly superior graphics capabilities of the PS3 and Xbox 360 for a unique controller experience with the Wii, and in the case of action games the Wii fails to deliver a unique experience.
The Wii may not be the ideal console for the more traditional line up of games, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any traditional games in the Wii's line up. Nintendo has brought us "Zelda: Twilight Princess", "Metroid Prime 3", and "Mario Galaxy". Additionally third party publishers have produced games such as: "Conduit", "Red Steel", "Dead Space: Extraction", and "Call Of Duty: Word At War". All of these games have been well received by critics, but unfortunately only Nintendo's offerings are selling very well. For example in it's first week "Dead Space: Extraction" only sold a dismal 9,000 units. In fact third party sales have been so poor on the Wii that many third party publishers are changing their strategy for the Wii, and I suspect that many third party publishers will abandon the Wii altogether.
The issue that third party publishers are grappling with is the realization that the Wii caters to casual gamers. Casual gamers are gamers that tend to prefer the lighter more simple type of games that the Wii lends itself so well to. Casual games focus their efforts on offering the game fun short moments. These are games like the aforementioned Wario Ware, and the popular Wii fit.
Third party publishers also need to deal with the fact that the typical Wii owner gravitates to Nintendo's offerings. This environment makes it very difficult for third party publishers to succeed on the Wii. Nintendo is aware of the challenges facing their third party publishers, and they are working hard to help third party publishers find success on the Wii, but the fact remains that third party publishers have done poorly on every Nintendo console since the N64. It will be difficult for Nintendo to convince third party publishers to continue to invest their efforts in the Wii. Gamers can expect to see the presence of third party publishers continue to diminish on the Wii as third party publishers migrate their efforts away from the Wii and towards the Xbox 360 and PS3.
The Wii may lack a strong hardcore lineup, and it may be hemorrhaging third party developers, but the Wii still has the strongest lineup of casual games on the market. Chances are if you are interested in a Wii the you are interested in it because of its innovative casual games, so the lack of hard core games and third party publishers isn't an issue for you. If you're the casual gamer then Nintendo has you covered.
Nintendo's success with the casual crowd has generated a lot of controversy with the hard core gamers. A lot of hard core gamers feel threatened by the success of the Wii. They believe that Nintendo's success will convince other developers to abandon making the hard core games that they love, and instead focus their efforts on the casual games. This concern is completely unfounded, and it demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic economics. The Wii isn't converting hard core gamers into casual gamers, so the market that existed for hard core gamers previously still exists today. In fact if anything the Wii is convincing a whole new breed of gamers to give video games a chance. This can generate new sources of revenues for the video game industry, and some of these casual gamers may even take an interest in hard core games, further increasing the demand for hard core games. Furthermore its difficult to convince me that hard core gamers are suffering at the hands of the Wii with the fantastic line up of hard core games that can be found on the Xbox 360 and PS3. This generation has seen the best and biggest line up of hard core games of any gaming generation. Hard core gamers have seen all of their favorite genres make major advancements. RPG's this generation are bereft of their outdated and tedious mechanisms. First person shooters have engaging story lines and the best online game play we have ever seen. These hard core games are selling very well, and as mentioned previously most publishers are struggling to make money with casual offerings on the Wii.
Hard core gamers may not like the Wii, but they should still celebrate it. The Wii may not have the strongest hard core offering, but it has succeeded in convincing millions of people to purchase a video game system that would not have done so otherwise. Case in point: my older sister owns a Nintendo Wii at her own request. This is the same sister that used to tease me about playing video games as a kid. There is no way she would have purchased an Xbox 360 or a PS3.
The Wii is also changing the way all of us interact with our favorite video game system. This year Sony is going to introduce its own Wand controller, and Microsoft is introduce its highly ambitious project Natal. Unlike Nintendo Sony and Microsoft know how to cater to the hard core crowd. I suspect that Sony and Microsoft will find ways to make these new control devices enjoyable for hard core gamers. If Nintendo had not introduced the Wii Sony and Microsoft would never have taken this leap.
The Nintendo Wii has led the charge in changing human machine interaction. Nintendo's Wii may not be the best console for the hard core gaming crowd, but it has made huge strides in convincing a lot of people that would ordinarily not play video games to dive into the video game world. The Nintendo Wii is changing the way all consoles interact with their audience, by inspiring Sony to introduce its motion wand and Microsoft to create project Natal.
No comments:
Post a Comment