Wii MotionPlus
"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."
Yet another accessory? Would it be worth it?
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"I'd say I was joining the winning team, but that'd imply there existed a time when I wasn't on team evil."
This is what we need for 1:1 lightsabre controls... it's a shame that LucasArts no longer make games....
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
This is exactly the kind of direction the Wii needs to get from Cabbage Patch Doll status to video game platform.
I still see issues in terms of a melee/lightsaber combat, since there's still be no great way to give the player feedback on resistance.
Danjo Olivaw Lives
Y'know everyone immediately says "lightsaber!" but... why not just an ordinary sword?
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
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You know that the interesting thing about lightsabre wielding is that there's no weight in the blade...
*Goes and watches six in the morning trilogy on youtube*
Swords are boring. Give me sparkles, bloodless dismemberment and cool sound effects every time
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
If this serves to reduce some of the milliseconds of "lag" between when I move my hand and the cursor updates on the screen, I'll go buy it yesterday. And I don't even own a Wii.
It always feels like the pointer is lagging behind where I'm pointing.
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That's what I meant by melee.
The weight wasn't a factor anyway. The point is that when a sword hits something it can't cut, or a lightsaber hits another lightsaber, they have to stop. In the real world you naturally keep swinging the remote, but on screen your blade hasn't kept up, so you've got an unnatural discrepancy between the two to take care of somehow before the fight can continue.
Danjo Olivaw Lives
Spiffy. I can't see Nintendo releasing this without some killer app to go with it. Zelda, maybe?
As for feedback, a ghost image of where the sword would be sans resistance versus where the sword is in game would work, I think.
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Couldn't you solve that issue with the rumble feature? Perhaps if the Wiimote released a sudden, strong vibration when the character on screen came in contact with something, you could condition a player to stop mid-swing. Also, if they didn't stop mid-swing with the vibration cue, it would impair their fighting.
I think it could work.
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And thusly, the 1:1 aspect of this flies out the window.
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Could work, sure, but would it be fun? It's an interesting game design challenge, but for this kind of game mechanic I don't think the lag currently in place was ever an issue, yet we still haven't seen any developers solve the problem or even get close.
Danjo Olivaw Lives
Can I have some games with that preferable? Seriously. It's all about how the games use it. Most of them will be craptastic and a small few will be great.
My guess its for Wii Composer or something.
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Or whip. No, wait not tha...
So Nintendo is basically patching the Wiimote so it's actually accurate.
Clever
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I think so, sure. Assuming the Wii always knows where your controller is at, this would give the player a great deal of control over the blade without burdening him/her with long move lists.
I agree, though, I don't think lag is the problem, it's effort. What games have even attempted this? There was Red Steel, and then...? Wii Baseball or something?
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this
Lets just call it an replacement and not a new feature. In a year we'll all forget about the old Wiimotes like the old Sixaxis.
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Ulairi wrote:
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This reminds me of that memory booster cartridge thingy for the N64.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Oh god, I remember buying that. I think it allowed me to run Turok in "High Rez". Crap, I played Turok on the N64? I feel dirty.
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Nintendo usually releases things like this with big game releases. The expansion pack for the N64, I believe was released with Starfox 64 or Majoras Mask, I know it was with some big game.
So, if they can get this in a big 1st party and a big 3rd party release, as a free pack-in, I'm ok with it.
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The rumble pack was released as a pack-in with Star Fox 64. The memory pack was packed in with Donkey Kong 64, but was released earlier as a separate accessory when Rogue Squadron came out.
Yes, I know entirely too much game history.
I also bought that memory pack when it released. I loved it, more because some games took advantage of it to run better rather than just in 640*480 (though 640*480 was great to see!).
This wouldn't do anything to change the pointer, since that's all stuff to do between the sensor bar and the black area at the front of the remote rather than the motion-sensors inside the controller. If the pointer is lagging, then either it needs to be calibrated, which is hidden somewhere deep within the bowels of the Wii menus, have its sensitivity altered, which is hidden within the bowels of the Wii remote menu, or there's some sort of outside interference such as strong, direct sunlight or candles or something. The remote can mistake those kinds of things for the sensor bar, and when it sees too many IR sources, it gets confused and the cursor jumps around or becomes laggy. Most likely, though, it's the sensitivity thing.
So, yeah, I hope this WiiMotion Plus thing makes the remote more accurate so there will be more games that actually make use of motion-control without sucking in the future. It's just too bad they need to release this extra little thing to make the controls better rather than have them be as good as everyone thought they would be right from the start. I mean, Wii Sports handled the motion stuff really well, for the most part, so the regular remote is definitely quite capable. If this makes them even better, that's awesome. And I'm really glad Nintendo is willing to make them better rather than pretend they're awesome just the way they are, but still, you know? I'd like to know when this thing is coming, how it's coming and how much it will cost. It better be packaged with a game that makes use of it, and the stand-alone units better be cheap. Like $10, max. And maybe in the future they can package them in directly with the remotes, without bumping the price up any. $40 for a remote by itself is bad enough.
How long do you think it will be before Sony announces the Sixaxis 2, with improved motion-control that will actually allow developers to implement motion-controls that sort of work sometimes! DualShock 3: Sixaxis 2 - coming this holiday season for only $69.99!
Ah, the RAM pack for N64... I got Donkey Kong 64, and that's where I got the RAM pack. Because, for some strange reason, DK64 required the pack to run. Odd, considering how the game looked pretty bland and simple, especially compared to Jet Force Gemini, which had come out a month before and had textures that looked phenomenal for the time-being. And DK64's soundtrack was subpar, compared to JFG's soundtrack which was epic and sounded almost like it was played by an orchestra! I think DK64 just had more polygons on screen or something. Or maybe it needed the extra 4MB of RAM to assault our ears with that horrible DK rap...
You know what's sad? I collected every single thing in DK64.
I'm trying to remember if other games required the RAM pack. I believe Majora's Mask did, since it had to keep track of like 50 people over the course of 3 in-game days. Perfect Dark required the RAM pack to unlock of some of the multiplayer modes, I believe, since you could have 4 players with 8 bots. I don't think that many other games used it for anything other than slightly higher-res graphics.
I got the Rumble Pak (that's how it was officially spelled) with Star Fox 64, and never unplugged it except in the annoyingly rare case of a game that, for some stupid reason, required the Memory Pak to save games. I believe Mystical Ninja 64 was one of those games that required the Memory Pak, but I may be wrong. I love Mystical Ninja 64. Mystical Ninja 64 on Virtual Console, please!
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The 2 other main reactions (outside of GWJ especially) seem to be:
1.) This is AWESOME, I heart you Nintendo, ty ty ty.
OR
2.) Ugh why couldn't they do this to begin with, there's too many peripherals already, etc etc etc.
I think I'm more in line with Ulairi on this one, in the middle-ground. A way to absorb the extra cost to the consumer would be great. I don't believe the 'why couldn't they do this right off the bat' argument is in any way valid though- Wii was pioneering enough, I don't think that kind of accuracy right out of the chute could have been expected, plus it would have made the console cost more. Although, after they sold like hotcakes and supply ended up being too low....meh, hindsight is 20/20.
My issue with this is that from the images it goes into the port on the base of the wiimote and then doesn't appear to have any corresponding output. So it's not compatible with the nunchuk. Can you really imagine controlling something like Zelda with just the motion sensor and the buttons on the wand?
(Of course, I could be wrong entirely about the dongle not having an output port.)
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Looking at the article, it does have a cover that is the right size for a passthrough, and really it makes sense. So I'm sure it'll work with the nunchuck.
The sensors they use are fantastically sensitive, but they are all in the front end of the Wiimote. I believe this will include a second set of identical sensors, and the Wii will then track front and back motions. This means that instead of having to estimate the movement of the Wiimote parts remote from the sensor, it can track front and back exactly.
Motions I can see this being useful for would be virtual joysticks, fishing rods, martial arts stick, staff or sword (so detecting pivot from the base would be useful, definitely), virtual steering post (like a mountain bike), dual-line kite controller, gesture tracking... All kinds of stuff.
Every melee combat game in existence gets by without having physical stops for the user, so... I think the sword-on-sword stuff will trigger a shoving minigame or a quick "reset position" slide-off and recover animation, so the user has time to adjust. The new controller would allow a dual-ended weapon like a staff to be properly portrayed - so I'd expect that in the light-sabre game, and a bundle with the controller ends.
Those are my guesses.
Extremism in the defense of liberty *is* a vice. It has been since the first Crown Loyalist was tarred, feathered and set afire, and it's no better now. It corrupts first the individual, then ultimately the institution it defends.
It's coming with a new Zelda or Wii Conductor or WiiSports 2 or all three.
Well, on one hand I like it. It could definitely enhance gaming. The thing I do not like is that is another new peripheral. I now have 4 Wii-motes, 2 nun-chucks, 1 steering wheel, 1 guitar and a balance board. Now I also need to get this to fully enjoy some of the games using this system. Also, I will probably need to buy 4 of them, so every Wii-mote is motion enhanced, else it would be unfair for those with and those without.
I don't watch, I interact!
Am watching the press conference now. It does appear to have a pass-through (so that fear of mine was unfounded). Comes with Wii Sports: Resort. Which includes sword dueling.
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Dueling?! Ausgezeichnet! Does your Mii get scars? Can you decapitate another Mii? Will it drive our own sword afficianados crazy with inaccuracies?
Extremism in the defense of liberty *is* a vice. It has been since the first Crown Loyalist was tarred, feathered and set afire, and it's no better now. It corrupts first the individual, then ultimately the institution it defends.
I'm with the group that doesn't think it's a valid criticism to say this should have been with the Wii in the first place. Time passes, technology increases and cost decreases, so good on Nintendo for taking advantage of that fact.
However I do feel the same way about this that I do about most every other console peripheral in that I hardly expect this to be made use of, since requiring an additional peripheral means only the fragment of the market that purchased said peripheral can play the game. Most publishers aren't going to want to target such a small subset of gamers.
Nintendo seems willing to make games that feature alternate control methods (see Smash Bros) but I feel like such an approach would lead to the full potential of the peripheral not being realized.
I think that's a generalization. I think in this case packing it in with WiiSports 2 will help move these things. And get them into enough hands. ...along with marketing.
I think if the experience is that new and fresh and fun with the peripheral then games will be made for it and the peripherals will sell.
Pricing is a factor too. It also sounds like Nintendo might pack them in with new wiimotes going forward.
If this thing is as good as what I'm reading then it really do wonders for boxing games and golfing and baseball and those types of things. And you know Nintendo is going to make ZElda for this thing.