Top 5: Activities that Need Waggle
Hardcore gamers sure do hate tacked-on waggle. Indeed, no one likes to flail their arms around like they're trying to signal aircraft when a simple button press will do. And the guys on the other sides seem to be under the impression that the Wii is nothing but a PS2 that replaces thumb pressing with wrist flicking. So when a new title or an iteration of an existing franchise gets announced for the Wii, the non-believers tend to thumb their snooty noses and prattle amongst themselves with ingenious statements like "Dead Rising on the Wii? More like Waggle Rising. YEAH! HIGH FIVE, BRAH!" All right, maybe they're not quite as neanderthalic, but the sentiment remains: the use of waggle is often met with skepticism from the core.
To ignore the importance of waggle would be to forget what makes the Wii so awesome. Sure, some games have no real need for motion-based controls, but let us not forget the joy and immersion experienced by the non-gamer who first picked up a Wiimote and found themselves instantly engaged in a lively tennis match. To downplay motion controls would be to forget what made the Wii so successful in the first place. Without it, the Wii would be just a beefed-up GameCube. (THERE, I said it!) Just for a moment, let us forget about why Super Mario RPG has yet to be released on the North American Virtual Console and go back to the flood of imagination we felt when the Wiimote was first unveiled. Here are the activities we wish were made into games on the Wii.









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Grimes @ Aug 4th 2008 12:01PM
Hey! what happened to the Fatal Frame 4 "silly nintendo costumes" post? I was reading that!
Don't tell me you let yourselves get squelched by the man.
David Hinkle @ Aug 4th 2008 12:17PM
That must have been a scheduling mistake, our bad.
Grimes @ Aug 4th 2008 12:32PM
I shall continue to feign outrage in the absence of anything better to do!
silentshadowxp @ Aug 4th 2008 12:44PM
"Sure, some games have no real need for motion-based controls, but let us not forget the joy and immersion experienced by the non-gamer who first picked up a Wiimote"
That's exactly the point, the Wii isn't really for the core gamer anymore, it's all about the non-gamers, because that's where the cash flow is. And other than Wii sports, which is only fun when other people are around, all the truly good games that i actually give a damn about on the Wii could be played just as good if not better without waggle. Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros would all be great with a GCN controller. oh that's right, 3 of them ARE able to be played with a GCN controller. Sure twilight princess has the bow and arrow goodness on the Wii, but that's about the only thing better it has than the GCN version.
I used to be one of the biggest Nintendo fanboys, I'd read the dojo every day, hell i even knew every level of galaxy before the game was even released from all the videos i watched of it! But truth be told waggle has been the death of Nintendo for me. Now I'm planning on selling my Wii to a friend and buying a PS3 for LittleBigPlanet, that way i can make all the old school nintendo games on it (the VC being the best thing the wii has to offer anyways).
Not only that but the only other thing i looked forward to (brawl online) was COMPLETELY ruined due to the fact that nintendo fails at online gaming. A similar game, small arms on the 360, plays PERFECT online... i don't see what the trouble was for brawl.
EVEN WITH the motion+ coming (which should have been how the controller was built in the first place), i don't think it can do any justice to the Wii. And the Mario and Zelda teams? Probably just another Mario party or sports game, and another Zelda game with no Ganon, Triforce, or an actual Princess Zelda anymore (i bet you it's another game that takes place right after Phantom Hourglass).
All in all, Nintendo is no longer the same as they used to be... Sure I'll still enjoy my DS because 3rd party developers have mostly realized that the majority of people no longer like the touch screen anymore, but as far as the Wii is concerned, I think I'm done for a long while. Obviously the waggle is too much of a cash flow because of non-gamers, so i don't think many good waggle-less games will be coming out for a few years.
SoshiKitai @ Aug 4th 2008 1:04PM
Hey! ... I liked the touch screen goodness. :(
Many games did wonders with the touch screen.
Same would go for the Wii's waggle if 3rd parties decided to do something with it other than Party Games.
But hey, if you liked neither touch nor wag, I won't argue with ya'.
I'll say three things though: If you're gonna' play a ton of games on the DS that don't use the touch screen- it'd be more beneficial for you to buy a PSP.
If you're gonna' buy LittleBigPlanet to relive your old Nintendo days in resent, you're not a Nintendo fan, you're a nostalgia-fan. (But LBP is still awesome either way)
And if you've got a problem with Nintendo's ability to go online for Brawl, I think you're not the same Nintendo fan as you used to be. Nintendo fans have ALWAYS loved local-versus, and something such as "online" wouldn't make or break them.
...oh, and I guess one more thing: Stop complaining about Zelda. YOU JUST GOT ONE! Yeah Twilight Princess was on the 'cube as well, but hell, it's still a Zelda game. You complain about different Zelda games having to exist while complaining about things like waggle and touch, in other words- you just like the old games. Though nothing wrong with that, stop blaming Nintendo for trying to move on rather than staying in the same style for all its life. You want "the old ways of gaming" as of the late 90's (basic good games, nothing too mind-blowingly different)? Stick to the 360.
It just irks me the way you say you're a Nintendo fanboy, yet you don't have any loyalty to them just because you're disappointed with the Wii-- which for the most part is the 3rd party developers' faults for not trying to make a game that wasn't a party game.
zchry @ Aug 4th 2008 1:42PM
Hockey could be awesome. Imagine skating around with the Nunchuck, your Wiimote being your hockey stick. Swish it to hit the puck (or the other team).
Wii MotionPlus and the Balance Board could be used quite nicely for some really realistic gaming. Imagine this: you lean in any of the four cardinal directions to skate, hit the puck accurately (not just a Twilight Princess gesture) with your Wiimote, and punch people in the face with the Nunchuck.
I'm pining for that, and I don't even like hockey that much. (Given, I live in Alabama where hockey is as likely to be seen as unicorns. I think we have 5 rinks in the state, and they're all far and dopey.)
zchry @ Aug 4th 2008 1:43PM
Hockey could be awesome. Imagine skating around with the Nunchuck, your Wiimote being your hockey stick. Swish it to hit the puck (or the other team).
Wii MotionPlus and the Balance Board could be used quite nicely for some really realistic gaming. Imagine this: you lean in any of the four cardinal directions to skate, hit the puck accurately (not just a Twilight Princess gesture) with your Wiimote, and punch people in the face with the Nunchuck.
I'm pining for that, and I don't even like hockey that much. (Given, I live in Alabama where hockey is as likely to be seen as unicorns. I think we have 5 rinks in the state, and they're all far and dopey.)
zchry @ Aug 4th 2008 1:46PM
The technology for motion sensing as accurate as MotionPlus wasn't practical a few years ago. In fact, the Wiimote itself wasn't practical a few years before it came out. That's the thing about technology: improvements always arise every few years.
The Wiimote blew me away when I first used it. If you see how accurately it swings on Wii Sports (Baseball), you'll understand. There wasn't enough efficiency in MotionPlus to make it not eat batteries.
FYIan @ Aug 4th 2008 3:25PM
About #4, I hate the toy airplane way of controlling flying things. You could make a bitchin' air combat sim if you used the nunchuck as the control stick, and aimed with the Wiimote.
maverick @ Aug 5th 2008 3:33AM
id love to play a surfing game on the balance board then lean to far fall off and spill my drink while my friends laugh at me and one last thing its spelt ganon not gannon yeah dont know y just pointing that out
Kenneth Caldwell @ Aug 5th 2008 10:40PM
"Get on it, Nintendo! (After you've finished the New Super Mario Bros sequel, of course.)"
Yes, yes, yes.