The New Era of Gaming, Revisited

Wow, so on June 5th, 2009, I wrote about how the Wii would revolutionize gaming.

I... didn't expect to be both right and terribly wrong in the same post.

So, yes, the Wii did bring to the forefront the change of how games were being controlled, marketed and made. However, it didn't do it for the better. At all. I mean really, this is ridiculous.

The PS3 Wiimote, wait, sorry, the Move, is about the only improvement I've seen, and only because it has better motion control. And that's still not that great. One of the biggest applications I've seen for the Move was to mount it in a gun frame... and use it like a light gun circa 1998. That's not innovation, that's... well, retrovation! That's not a word but it should be.

The XBox's "Project Natal"-turned-you-are-the-controller-Kinect is worse by light years. I thought the Wii had tons of shovelware. I think the entire product line for the Kinect is nothing but tech demos and terrible ideas. Yea, it's cool to gesture imperiously at your XBox to navigate menus, or command it to bring up a movie. But how are these applications going to work for gaming?

Quick answer: They don't.

Now, it's not because they couldn't. The Move has a better shot at integration into a more hardcore game simply because it can still be used as a controller. In that way, you can to the light gun rig, or maybe some kind of light saber thing... you get the idea. You can use the gesturing as a part of the action, while leaving some of the control to be done via good old button mashing.

See, Sony, and Microsoft went totally the wrong way. They tossed aside their elegant controllers in favour of gimicks and cheap tricks that are the hallmarks of why the Wii has never been taken seriously as a hard core console, and used them exactly like Nintendo did. That's a really bad move, and one they should stop. Like yesterday.

In my original post, I did state how low the buy-in was for the Wii, allowing anyone able to wiggle the controller to play a game. However, one of the really nice things is that after the initial learning curve, there are other games like Goldeneye and Legend of Zelda, that are more controller-oriented and will slowly get a player accustomed to analog sticks and button mashing.

If Sony and Microsoft wanted to improve on the model, they should have incorporated their respective controllers with the motion controls to enhance the experience. Instead, the motion controls are the only experience, and will eventually fall into disuse to be forgotten.

Let's hope with the new system from Nintendo and its LCD screen that they will not just saddle us with drawing tablets or some other ridiculous item to toss on the plastic junk pile...