Waggle 2.0: Still for Noobs Only

When Mr. Keeley and I discussed the Wii a few weeks back, I concluded that motion gaming's future looked more promising on the two other systems – Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Sony seems to agree since, last week, they announced Playstation Move. This is not an autonomous system; like Microsoft's camera-based Project Natal, it will serve as a relaunch of sorts for the company's existing system. Because of this, Move has a bit more work to do than the Wii did. It must rope in casual gamers while still appealing to discerning hardcore gamers. In other words, it has to be every bit as inviting as the Wii but offer some genuine depth.

The way Sony chose to unveil this new wand/camera control system to the public showed a clear focus on the former: Wooing the Wii crowd. One of the first games they unveiled is a naked attempt to emulate Wii Sports, but in HD – Sports Champions. Sony claims that the Move controller is far more precise than the Wiimote and that this will markedly enhance the experience. It will be impossible to assess the quality of the gameplay before it is released, but the game's subject matter clearly suggests that the Playstation Move is more an upgrade over the Wii than an attempt to reinvent motion gaming.

That fact only became harder to ignore as Sony trotted out a slew of party games and rail shooters at their press conference. The technology may have been upgraded but the creativity has not.

Naturally, if the motion-centric games are proving hopelessly shallow and derivative, an alternative lies with games that deign to incorporate motion as a secondary form of control. Cue LittleBigPlanet. The demo Sony provided illustrated how this constantly evolving game can grow to incorporate motion control. Users will be able to create levels that are played normally by one person but contain obstacles that require assistance from a second person with Move. It was not entirely organic, with one person controlling the onscreen character and another controlling a disembodied force, but it seemed like it had some potential.

The other entry in this category was SOCOM 4, the latest in Sony's line of military shooters. This game is fully playable with either the traditional DualShock 3 controller or Move. Options are always nice, but this raises a few concerns. First, will the motion control ever be a preferable alternative? It is not likely to prove as precise as the DualShock, especially in a third person shooter. Second, will players using one form of control play against those using the other in online matches? That would create a huge potential for imbalance, as both modes of control will surely have different strengths. Finally, will the added work necessary to implement all of this detract from the overall experience? I cannot imagine that either mode of control will be as tight as it could have been if only one had been included.

Sony clearly wanted to throw serious gamers a bone with SOCOM 4, but I doubt that they will bite, given all of these issues. Furthermore, similar issues will probably plague any other games that try to straddle the line. Sony needs games that are substantive, but still built from the ground up to utilize what the Move has to offer.

Oddly enough, the only game Sony presented that I felt even hinted at this ideal was about as simple as a game could get: EyePet.

Now, this hardly qualifies as a deep game, but I bring it up for the potential it shows. This game illustrates the unique capabilities of the Playstation Move like nothing else does: Nintendo has motion control and Microsoft has camera-based control, but Sony has both. That could result in some surprisingly dynamic and immersive experiences. The number of ways in which players can interact with their EyePet is impressive. There will obviously need to be much more to any games that wish to capitalize on this potential, but EyePet was the only Move game that felt like a glimpse at the future.

Or maybe it was just the pop music.

Even that one flash of excitement I felt was quickly tempered by a dose of reality: This crap is going to be expensive. Sony has promised that a starter pack, including a Move controller, a Playstation Eye camera and a Move-enabled game, will sell for less than $100. Not a bad deal, on the face of it, but when considering the social experience for which these games are clearly striving, one controller simply will not cut it. Some games may even require one person to use two Move controllers or one Move and something called a Sub-Controller (think Wii Nunchuk). So, while experiencing EyePet will only cost $100, experiencing all of the possibilities of Move will cost considerably more.

At the very least, the introduction of Playstation Move represents a renewed commitment to the Playstation 3 on Sony's part. No one wants a new generation of systems anytime soon, and this ensures that it is not coming. At the same time, Move will certainly open up real gaming to new people. It has a unique capacity to bring casual gamers to a system with a deep library, creating a viable path for their growth into serious gamers.

That path will likely lead them to outgrow Move, however. Sony seems to have a weak case for this acting as anything more than a hook for the uninitiated. If that is the extent of their plan, an aggressively priced Move may very well do its job. I would not count on gaining much attention from those who are already on the boat, though; they will see Move for what it is.

Growing Wiiry: A Nintendo Fan's Perspective

This is Part Two of a two-part series wherein we discuss the successes and failures of Nintendo's Wii console as it enters its fourth year on the market. Mr. Hollis-Lima's analysis of the console as a draw to casual gamers was posted earlier this week.

I spent the morning of the Wii launch – November 19, 2006 – scouring Boston for the system. I bypassed Best Buy and other big box retailers and stood for an hour waiting for the Downtown Crossing F.Y.E. to open. They didn't have any Wiis, and neither did any of the other stores I checked that day. I walked back to school almost empty-handed; I carried the new Zelda game, but I had nothing to play it on. I was a sorry sight.

I got my Wii a week or so later, at Gamestop on Black Friday. I hope that I never again have to wake myself up at three in the morning in order to go shopping. Still, I thought my trip to consumerist hell had been worthwhile: I could finally play my lonely copy of Zelda, for one thing, and I could now happily look forward to new Metroids, Smash Bros.', and Marios. Back then, it seemed like there was a lot to look forward to.

As I was writing this article, I took out my collection of Wii games. It's rather a disheartening sight, as it consists of only six games, including the packed-in Wii Sports. Only one game is a third-party (i.e. non-Nintendo) production. I've had the system for more than three years, but I only own a handful of games. I've owned my PS3 since July, but I already have eight games, all but one of which I enjoy and admire. What happened to the Wii? I'll get to that, but first I want to address one thing that Nintendo did right, at least at first.

Nintendo's Internet strategy is the object of much justified derision, but when the system came out, things looked far better than they do now. For one thing, the Wii, like the PS3, comes with a built-in wireless receiver – if you have access to wireless Internet, connecting the Wii is quite simple. If you want to take your Xbox 360 wireless, you will have to pay painfully high prices. As nice as the Wi-Fi is, the Wii's lack of an ethernet jack is vexing, and, in retrospect, an early warning. Once I managed to get my Wii online – shortly after launch – I had access to what should be one of the Wii's selling points, the Virtual Console. All three current-generation game systems offer game download services, but only the Wii can offer Nintendo games. There are dozens of great games in the back catalog, and there was a fairly good selection of them available at launch. Even better, there would be Sega games available too! Monday Virtual Console updates, it was clear, would destroy my wallet.

It's a shame then what's happened to the Virtual Console. Nintendo never tells us when or if they will release a particular game; some of the best and most-wanted games are still absent. I'm glad that Sin & Punishment finally got a US release and that Super Mario RPG and Ogre Battle are magically cheap again, but such laudable releases are few and far between. The Virtual Console promised a consistent flow of quality classic games; it should be an antidote to all of the Wii's disc-based shovelware. Unfortunately, most of the games that Nintendo deigns to release are not exactly worth the download. What, pray tell, is the market for Donkey Kong Jr. Math? Surely no one will play that aside from unlucky game reviewers and masochistic devotees of electronic camp.

Mr. Hollis-Lima and I have both alluded to the Wii's lamentable shovelware problem. I sometimes think that almost all the Wii's third-party developers have colluded to provide a proof of Sturgeon's Law; how else can any sane person justify the existence of Cold Stone Creamery: Scoop It Up? Twenty-five different flavors of virtual ice cream! Corporate drudgery, now available on the Wii! Or maybe I should play Jenga: World Tour! For every fine game like Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Mario Galaxy, there're a couple dozen minor abominations. Many games are more fun to pan than to play.

I shouldn't paint the Wii's current situation as blacker than it really is. There are a number of fantastic first-party games, including Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's true that I thought the latter wasn't quite as good as it should have been, but it's still a fine game and one I wish I had spent more time playing with friends. Mr. Hollis-Lima decried the pricing of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, saying that on most systems a simple 2D platformer would be a $15 download. This may be the case, but it makes me happy to see such games get full disc-based release. They may be old-fashioned, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be big deals. Besides, some dedicated gamers tend to forget that not everyone can get their consoles online and download games.

Earlier in this article I mocked the Wii's lack of third-party support, but there are a few developers doing very good work on the system. No More Heroes is awkward, vulgar, and somewhat perverse; it took a good while for me to get into the game's rhythm. Once it clicked, however, the game enthralled me. I'm very much looking forward to playing the sequel, which looks much improved. Atlus has released a number of good-looking niche games, as has XSEED. Finally, I've heard nothing but good things about Konami's recent Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which psych profiles its players and changes the game and its characters accordingly. While Shattered Memories was designed for the Wii, however, it's a bit disconcerting to see that it was ported to both the PS2 and the PSP. Wii games, it seems, are easy to translate to older hardware.

I won't write the Wii off quite so easily as Mr. Hollis-Lima has, but Nintendo has disappointed me. Some months ago, my sole Wii remote broke, rendering most games more or less unplayable. I'd like to continue playing the system, but I've yet to shell out $40 for a new controller. At the moment, it just doesn't seem worth it.

Tiring the Masses One Waggle at a Time

This is Part One of a two-part series wherein we will discuss the successes and failures of Nintendo's Wii console as it enters its fourth year on the market. Mr. Keeley's contribution will discuss the console from a Nintendo fan's perspective.

As difficult as it may be for some hardcore gamers to admit, the Nintendo Wii has been a massive success in one regard – sales. In fact, the Wii's sales are far higher than they should be for a game console. Sales charts clearly indicate that the system is in its own class, with numbers that generally remain untouchable for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This is often attributed to the idea that the Wii is aimed at a broader, more casual audience – people who are not traditionally considered gamers.

Nintendo maintains that the system's high sales are a blessing for the industry, theoretically introducing more new people to video games than any other system. Yet, the Wii's success as a "casual gamer" system may not prove as beneficial for the whole of video games as one might think.

Many gamers backhandedly comment that the best game on the Wii comes packed in with the system – Wii Sports. While its status as the best game on the system is arguable, its status as the most popular is not. According to VGChartz, Wii Sports has sold more than twice as many copies as the system's second best selling game. Lest people attribute the game's sales to its status as a pack-in, a similar game, Wii Play, is the second best selling. In fact, four of the top five games are in the same vein as Wii Sports – minigame collections designed to showcase one peripheral or another. While the fun factor in these games varies, one point is unavoidable: These games are shallow. As fun as it is to golf with the Wiimote, the novelty wears off rather quickly and, once it does, there is little incentive to keep playing. Basic features like unlockables, medals and leaderboards are missing, as well as any innovations to this end. Wii Sports and its ilk are far more tech demo than full-fledged video game, but they dominate the sales charts.

What is the result? If you suspect that most Wiis in the world today are languishing in a dusty, shadowy corner of their owners' entertainment center, you are correct. Nielsen statistics show that Wii owners play their system far less often than owners of the PS3 or 360. Even extinct systems like the Xbox and GameCube get more playtime than the Wii does. In other words, many people own a Wii, but few of them like the thing enough to play it often.

The shallowness of the average Wii game, however, is not entirely to blame. The quality plays a role as well. A recent Metacritic feature ranked the Wii dead last in terms of average game quality, despite the fact that more new games are released for the system than any other. There are certainly good games for the Wii (Mario Galaxy, Zelda: The Twilight Princess, Okami), but there are hardly enough good games for a system that is three years old (and, hell, two of the games I listed are available on other systems).

The vast majority of Wii games are what is called "shovelware" – software that borders on unplayable. For every quality Mario game, there are a few dozen shameless marketing tie-ins, lazy minigame collections and wildly overpriced puzzle games. It makes browsing the Wii shelf at the electronics store akin to shuffling through the DVD rack at the supermarket – even marked down, none of it is worth the money. This year has been particularly disappointing, with the Wii's only major holiday release being New Super Mario Bros. – a rehash of the same game Nintendo has been making for over twenty years and something that would probably only qualify as a $15 downloadable game on any other console.

Even setting aside the lack of quality games, the fact remains that calling something a "good Wii game" means something very different than calling a game "good" in general. The strides video games have made in terms of artistry, technology and social networking over the past few years simply do not apply to the Wii. A system that contains eight year old hardware, a nonexistent online community and little earnest input from third-party developers cannot hope to convey to the uninitiated what modern gaming is about. The nuanced setting of Assassin's Creed II, the cinematic immersion of Uncharted 2 and the addictive competition of Modern Warfare 2 would literally be impossible to create on the Wii.

Worst of all, Nintendo's stubborn inclination to rely on the same, tired franchises means that there are few feasible ways for Wii owners to grow out of those games and into something better. Motion control may yet be the way to draw inexperienced gamers to the table; upcoming devices from Sony and Microsoft could be far more successful because they will draw people to systems that have the capacity to support gamers who tire of or outgrow such gimmicks. The Wii, on the other hand, is nothing more than a dead end for a budding gamer and, perhaps even worse, it perpetuates the conceptions of those who view video games as a pointless, expensive diversion. Yes, Wii sales remain high for now, and that increases the profile of the game industry, but when one considers this fact closely, it becomes clear that the Wii will not grow the game industry; the Wii may just strangle it.