Gii-mmicks.

This is another article I had unfinished for a long time. Originally intended for publishing in early January, 2010.

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to try out the latest Wii gimmick, the Wii Motion Plus and its associated bundled tech-demo game, Wii Sports Resort on my friend's home console.

Now, before I start off, I have to mention that I've always been pretty negative about the Wii, and I'm sure glad as hell I never purchased one. It was and still clearly is, a casual gamer console that catered to the family audience, and its weak library of games relied far too heavily on the gimmicky aspect of their control scheme to ascend their games to the forefronts of publishing.

Regardless, the addition of a new motion sensor has generally improved on the accuracy on the Wii-mote, but feels like a feature that a consumer would have justifiably expected as a standard with the release of the Wii. After all, isn't this the console that designed from the bottom up with the accuracy of Wii-mote gyroscopic movement, spatial location and fine angular changes in mind? Pushing out a product now that says "Oh hey, we didn't make it right the first time, here's a tack on upgrade" really seems to cheapen the design ideals of which the console is wholly based on.

Additionally, despite the improvement, it still doesn't feel like it does enough. You can still feel that the Wii has certain specific situations and movements that aren't being detected as well as other types. For example, thrusting or pulling motions seem to be poorly registered, often incorrectly recognizing a pulling movement when you thrust forward and vice versa.

More and more, the Wii feels like a console selling off a gimmick aspect, not all that much different from how Apple products sell nowadays. While new, unorthodox control schemes are interesting and add dynamic to gaming, I think the least frustrating designs have been those that ease in the incorporation of new control functionality without abandoning old ones. Essentially, the best designs that face the least amount of resistance are those that 'upgrade' the most practical controller design of the previous generation. The SNES controller was a sleeker, more powerful version of the NES one, and one of the best controllers at the time, leaving a legacy for even modern controllers to follow. The PS1 controller too was upgraded with analog sticks and pressure-sensitive button functionality, becoming the PS2 controller. Yet the directional pad was not abandoned, and at the choice of the user, continued to be the primary method of control for many games.

One of the issues inherent with Nintendo is that they have always been trying to innovate in the most bizarre methods. From Power Gloves, to Virtual Boys, to Pistols and Bazookas, Nintendo's Wii really doesn't seem to be the odd one out of the box, relatively speaking. However, because of this characteristic, I find that it's difficult to have balanced games designed for long term mastery or competitive play when it is based off such strange, unpredictable control schemes. We still have competitive iterations Mario or Street Fighter, which use traditional control schemes, but have you ever seen competitive Duck Hunt? Or Power Ball? Or Wii Tennis? The fact that it is impossible to make these games competitive stems from it's unreliable control schemes, and as such, no one cares to be competitive at them, as the element of luck or device-specific accuracy varies too greatly. This makes gimmick consoles unlikely to accomplish anything but create a 10 minute mass of flailing limbs.

Seeing other consoles or developers who backed traditional long-term games abandon their principles to jump on the gimmick market is a devastating shame. It is fine to have a few esoteric companies develop bizarre creations, but without the core companies sticking with the practical methods, gaming as a whole deteriorates as the long-term competitive games that we hold dear will dissipate, as more is instead invested to the 10 minute drivel that gimmick-developers churn out. Gimmicks are like poison, recreationally fine in small dosages but too much will kill off what makes true dedicated gaming great and memorable.