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When unveiled at E3 2006, that Wii broke new ground in
the videogame industry is simply not a question. Upon holding that
Wii Remote for the first time, it was clear that every
 journalist at
the show had their mind racing with the possibilities that such a
device presented. However, while the technology has been there,
arguably few developers other than Nintendo have managed to
capitalise on it with software.
The big swing of a Baseball Bat and the repeated quick
taps of a Tennis Racket may have been easy to implement, but gamers,
developers and the press have been longing for the day when that
illusive real-time manipulation of on-screen objects became
possible. Thankfully, Nintendo have broken their ease-of-use
priority, and announced an adapter for the Wii Remote, known as Wii
Motion Plus, which will give developers the opportunity to create
games which do just that.
Wii Sports Resort is, unsurprisingly, the vehicle
Nintendo have chosen to demonstrate the capabilities of the device.
As the next-step for the casual audience – a more accurate and
distinctive action undoubtedly a steeper barrier for entry than that
of a basic motion – and what could be argued as the first for the
hardcore gamer audience (aside from the likes of
 The Legend of
Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption),
Wii Sports Resort features that all-important pastime that
every gamer has been waiting for on Wii – sword fighting.
Three games have been shown – Power Cruising (Jet Ski
racing that look’s very similar to Wave Race: Blue Storm),
Disc Dog (acting as an updated and fleshed-out revision of the
Frisbee Mini-Game in the Nintendogs series) and Sword Play.
Sword Play is undoubtedly the big feature of the title
for most gamers, and features on-screen motion and detection as
close to 1:1 as could feasibly be imagined at this point. As a
one-on-one competition, the idea is to knock your opponent out of
the Ring and into the water below, in a best-of-three competition.
Much like the Boxing Mini-Game featured in Wii Sports, player
movement is controlled automatically by the game, but the ability to
Block is present on the B Trigger. There’s actually a lot of
strategy involved in the combat; holding a block against a battery
of attacks, followed by a quick blow to your opponents’ cranium can
stun the enemy, and speed is factored into your movement, allowing
quick swipes in where hard thrusts may be countered.
The Wii Motion Plus device is due to be released in
Spring 2009 (after Wii Music at the end of 2008, to fill a
Wii Fit-sized gap perhaps?) and each copy of Wii Sports
Resort will come bundled with a unit. No price has yet been
announced, but it has been hinted by none other than Shigeru
Miyamoto himself that Wii Motion Plus may well be bundled with all
Wii Remotes in the not-too-distant future, and so it can be expected
to arrive at a price which won’t push those bundles too high.
Wii Sports may well have been the perfect conduit for
Nintendo to offer the public the premise of Wii, and Wii Sports
Resort does exactly the same job for Wii Motion Plus. Let’s just
hope developers catch-on soon, and that stream of First-Person
Shooters, real-time Hack-N’-Slash titles and adult-orientated
Action/Adventure releases we were promised at launch materialise
somewhere in Wii’s second-generation of software. |
