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Originally Posted by BreakABone
I always thought the appeal of the Wiimote was that it bought that arcade type of experience home. And in essence, arcadey (read somewhat easy to pick up and play games) have truly shined on the Wii.
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I guess for me, the arcade became less enjoyable with each new generation of consoles. There was very little reason to go pay for games that I could play at home, unless those games were mutliplayer rail shooters or the classic fighting games like Street Fighter 3 or Marvel Vs. Capcom.
What the arcade lacked in depth, it made up for in multiplayer and gimmicks, like rail shooters which are fun for about 30 minutes until you realize how boring they are, and racing games where you get to use a steering wheel and a pretend clutch, which is surprisingly just as satisfying as a controller if not slightly less satisfying because it does not respond in a manner realistic to how driving actually is.
The shift to motion control adds a layer of interaction that will indeed be revolutionary for a select few games. But, to what degree can you truly interact and at what point does this interaction compromise game design or depth?
Sure, you can swing your Wiimote to simulate hitting a baseball bat, or you can make the gesture of rolling a bowling ball, or you can flick your wrist. But, if you break down the motions you can do with the Wiimote, there's only a few. Flick your wrist, twist it, throw it, shake it....And making the motion of rolling a bowling ball or hitting a baseball bat with your Wiimote is never going to fill the void of not holding a real baseball bat or rolling a bowling ball.
For sports games or party games like Wario Ware, the Wiimote has potential ad infinitum. I even think that for games like Grand Theft Auto the Wiimote could be put to good use. But the Wii is just too underpowered to pick up titles like Grand Theft Auto. And with three platforms (PC, Xbox360, PS3), why would Rockstar go out of their way to develop a modified version of Grand Theft Auto to work on the Wii?
But still, for me, and this is strictly person preference, I would prefer a standard controller over motion control for platformers (Mario Galaxy), first person shooters (Metroid), fighting games (Super Smash Bros.), Adventure games (Zelda), and for Football, Soccer and Basketball sports titles. RPGs have very low appeal to me so I can't comment, and Strategy games belong on the PC where you can use hotkeys and bindings.
The Wii will never ever ever EVER further the First Person Shooter genre. Already, that is one genre that the Wii has made zero impact on. The Wii will probably leave very little impact on the racing genre, especially for serious racing game fans. The Will will not leave any impact on the fighting genre, Super Smash Bros. remains a Nintendo exclusive. I doubt the Wii will impact platfomers very much or adventure games.
The Wii will innovate sport and party titles. And that innovation is done. You can't really further it. Motion on a home console has been done, so where do we go from here?
How innovative can you get? Twist your Wiimote? Flick it? Repeat and make a sequel? Does there need to be a Wii Sports sequel? The one where you do the same stuff from the first one only slightly different?
I mean can't you see how the Wii is kind of gimmicky? It's going to leave very little impact on all the genres that people tend to gush over.
Meanwhile, everyone else is going to remember their Halo 3, or Grand Theft Auto 4, or whatever immersive, graphically orgasmic, in-depth game that rocked their single player world for 40+ hours.
I don't think there's very much innovation behind the Wii at all. For most games, it's just another way to do things, only with less graphical horsepower, and more physical work. And forget third party titles. But, obviously the Wii's appeal has worked because people are pooring in the money. But I can't call the Wii revolutionary, not yet. Because, personally, I could see Sony and Microsoft doing something similar to the Sixaxis for future consoles, but I can't see them abandoning the controller.
The Wii is an awesome horizontal step.