Wii Warm Up: Hey, batter batter batter, swing, batter

by Candace Savino { Mar 23rd 2008 at 10:30AM }

One of the best uses of the Wii's motion controls, in our opinion, is for sports games -- which is probably why Nintendo bundled a game full of sports demos with the console. Take the Wii version of ~~Winning Eleven~~ Pro Evolution Soccer, for example, which was hailed by critics as bringing new life to the series.

What do you think, though? Do motion controls add an extra layer of immersion to sports titles? Or, do you prefer to play your sports games without waggle?

Tags: pes, pro-evolution-soccer, sports, winning-eleven

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SoshiKitai @ Mar 23rd 2008 10:38AM

It depends..
If the waggle actually feels like it matches the "hit", the "move" or whatever: It's a great thing.
If it doesn't: It sucks and it's overused.

I don't NEED the waggle function, but it's definitely nice to have when it feels fun.

vidGuy @ Mar 23rd 2008 11:11AM

Completely agree with Soshi. Tiger Woods is leaps and bounds better thanks to the swing motion. I don't mind the way spin is added, but it is slightly jarring and pulls you out of the "reality" created. The Bigs had the batting down pretty well, but fielding sucked, IMO. SSX Blur had perfect snowboard control with the nunchuk tilting, but the special moves were so hard to get that I gave up.

It seems like we've been subject to a lot of trial and error, which is understandable but I'll just be glad when we get a full game for each sport with great control all around.

mian @ Mar 23rd 2008 11:49AM

pro evo seems to have a pretty evolved take on how to do sports on Wii. I rather like that it isn't *defined* by waggle.

EDW @ Mar 23rd 2008 1:22PM

i really prefer them with motion control. in fact, i couldn't even stand to play most of them without it. sports is still my least favorite genre though, and i'm more interested in games like Wii Sports or Deca Sports or the new Mario Baseball game than games like Madden.

Tom @ Mar 23rd 2008 1:26PM

Same here man. I always thought that games like Madden and the like were boring on regular consoles, but now if a friend wants me to play a sports game with them on the Wii, I'll do it. Only sports game I own right now (aside from Wii sports) Is Mario Strikers Charged.

Croove55 @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:02PM

Aw man, I thought we we're going to talk about Ferris Bueller's Day Off when I read the title.

I don't have many sports games, because I'm frankly not into sports. All I own in this category are Mario Strikers Charged and Wii Sports. I believe that the latter did well with it's controls (as it should have; it was a demonstration of the system's possibilities, and a game that every customer would end up owning by default). Strikers' motion controls were almost never used in my house, though. Perhaps it was because the slide tackle (I forgot the actual name, and I won't be bothered to look it up) was about ten times as effective.

Can we talk about Ferris Bueller now?

samfish (Brawl: 2793 0291 2277) @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:35PM

Aside from NBA Jam, I could never bring myself to play sports games. Now, though, I'm interested in at least bowling, tennis and golf games.

Desi_D @ Mar 23rd 2008 4:57PM

Waggle is fun when playing games in social settings.

Ting Lee @ Mar 23rd 2008 5:26PM

The Big's pitching and batting is absolutely the best. I am looking forward to the next version to see if they improve the fielding.

Koop @ Mar 23rd 2008 10:34PM

I really don't like the controls for sports games on the Wii. To me I feel like I lose some control of what I want to do. Say in Madden, it's really hard to make a bullet pass or lob, or a juke instead of stiff arm. Also, the sports games themselves are really lacking on the Wii. Lacking sports, no hockey, college football, and a good basketball game, and the games that are on the Wii lack features and look terrible. I'm actually planning on buying a PS3 soon because of this. I like the Wii alot, but I need my good sports titles.

Razor @ Mar 24th 2008 7:25AM

The fact there is no NHL game kills me to no end. I really miss that series. I think a lot of stuff in the house would get broken taking virtual slap shots.

robertg @ Mar 25th 2008 12:44AM

I think the PES2008 controls are amazing. The best forward move in sports games controls in years. I had not purchased a soccer game in a few years as they never seemed interesting enough when I tried them, but being able to control every player and manage the entire team has changed that. I haven't played brawl once in the last 4 days and I don't see PES being ejected from my Wii anytime soon.

Developers need to look at what Konami did here (I'm not saying to copy it) in terms of innovation and apply it to future sports games. The wii has the opportunity to have the best innovations and controls for not only FPS/TPS but sports as well.