I picked up my Wii today along with Zelda, Red Steel, and the Wii Sports pack-in. Predictably, Zelda is the most fun of all three, but none of them feel truly revolutionary. Zelda is the same Zelda we’ve seen in Ocarina and Majora’s Mask, with nothing new added except more of the same goodness. The controller is great, it was supurb motion tracking and infrared sensing capabilities. I have extremely limited movement due to a disability, yet I can still handle the Wii sports with pretty good success. The controller is able to respond to both big and small motions, and adapts accordingly - pretty impressive. You can swing a sword with a small flick of your wrist or a wide arc, they both work - but you can get more power out of a big swing. You can also use the remote (I refuse to call it a Wiimote) to aim guns and stuff. It’s extremely sensitive and works perfectly, as long as you point toward the sensor. The launch games don’t truly use the controller to its best potential though. For example, in Zelda you swing your sword by swinging the remote, but what’s the point? It doesn’t feel like you’re swinging a sword, it feels like you’re wiggling a controller around like an idiot when there’s perfectly good buttons to be used. When more games are created from the ground up specifically for the Wii, we’ll see some impressive use of the controller. The technology is definitely there.
Got my wii, didn’t get any games though due to a shipping error, so I just played the sports game. It was pretty good, although none of the games are fleshed out enough to be very satisfying. Bowling was probably the most fun, the boxing was the least. The games feel more like wii techdemos than actual content. I’m picking up Zelda today, so that will give me a better feel for what a true wii game is like.
Played Zelda yesterday. While I agree it is good it does not seem all that revolutionary. Hopefully future games will take better advantage of the control scheme.
Anyone else make up their little Mii person yet? I’ve made one and have been waiting for visitors but no one has dropped by yet.
I was very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to use the Wii, but so far so good. It’s extremely sensitive and forgiving. With small movements I’m able to play bowling and baseball, but I can’t slam out big homeruns and power strikes. Butit’s a lot more than I can do in real life. Red Steel has sensitivity options for its sword fighting, you can choose between “big swings” and “small swings.” With small swings on, all you have to do is flick your wrist. The most trouble I’ve had is with the Zelda fishing mini game - you have to jerk the virtual rod back fast.The Wii has a traditional analog controller as well, but most stores seemed to have not gotten their shipment, and no games use it yet, besides maybe Zelda.
Zelda is essentially a port of a Game Cube game, so it’s probably the least “true wii” of all the launch titles. All of the games so far are just tech demos. They definitely needed to hold off another year to develop some better software, but Nintendo does this every time they release something new.
Loving both Zelda and Red Steel. Even downloaded myself some original NES Zelda. But something is wrong. In the NES Zelda port, the sound your sword makes when it fires it’s blade is NOT the right sound. The very end of it (when it hit’s the target,) sounds too bassy (that’s not a word, but that’s the best way to describe it.) Anyone else noticve this? Maybe my TVs sound settings are off, or something.
I didn’t pre-order or anything, so I didn’t get a Wii – I foolishly thought maybe I could saunter into a store Sunday afternoon and get one, but all the places I checked said they were sold out. Rumors are that another shipment will hit for “Black Friday” after Thanksgiving, though I’m not sure if I want to brave the shopping mobs for one.
I did get to play Wii Sports at the mall, though, and it was a blast. I really want one now…
OK, I got my first major complaint.
Link is right-handed. What the fuck? He has always been left-handed (at least in the incarnations where we could tell.) Why did they see fit to, for no reason, make him right-handed? It was one of his unique qualities we loved. It would be like making Zelda some sort of retarded fish-frog for no reason. That’s just not how it is. I kid you not, my roommate says he will not play the game anymore because of this. He actually got as far as being turned into the wolf, then I casually mentioned Link was right-handed, he said really, and I said yes, so he turned it off right then and there and said no more. Whether or not he actually stands by this, I don’t know, but it was enough to make him stop playing rfor at least the rest of the night.
Seriously, what the hell?
Zelda : While not blown away by the visuals, the game looks good. I’m still adjusting to the controls, my attack motion needs tuning (read : I overdo it). I dont’ like that if you happen to bump into some geometry you slow down, but thats my only complaint so far. Mithra is…well hell she’s a bitch. And story…it seems like this, among all Zeldas, has a good focus on story. Beyond my issues with the sword, the mechanics work well, and this is one hell of a lot harder than Wind Waker was. (BTW, they mirrored link because of the whole most people are right handed, they felt it was more immersive. Bah). Has anyone noticed that the aiming seems a little lagged in?
Marvel : Again, the control scheme is great here. And again, I seem to have issue getting the ‘shake’ right, but the rest is great to use (I brought out Colossus immidately, yay big hits!)
So far my impressions are positive; I know people are worried this is a gimmick, but then again, didn’t video games as a whole start out as a little gimmick? This all depends on the developers imo, we’ll see how that goes.
Link: You are amazing. Zant: I ought to be, after 20 years. Link: Oh, there’s something I ought to tell you. Zant: Tell me. Link: I’m not left-handed either.
[Moves his sword to his right hand and defeats Zant]
If it’s bothering you, play the Gamecube version. See, they ran into a problem when making the game. With the remote, most people are going to be using their right hand. And apparently, it just feels weird swinging your right hand around and having the character’s left hand swinging around. Unfortunately they didn’t realize this until well into the development. Simply flipping the character model would make things a little clumsy, so they completely flipped everything.
The Wii isn’t out in the UK until the 8th December
I’ve pre-ordered both the Wii version and the Gamecube version of Zelda.
As an Ocarina/Majora veteran a right-handed Link may be a bit off-putting.
Has anyone played both versions, as I now don’t know which version to play through first.
Does the Wii’s unique control style make the game more or less enjoyable?
I picked up ExciteTruck and Call of Duty 3 yesterday. I have not played them yet but will definitely be playing ExciteTruck tonight. I am a bit wary of opening up Call of Duty 3 though. I do not generally like FPS’s on consoles. I prefer the superior mouse and keyboard combo of the PC for those types of games. Has any one played an FPS on their Wii yet? How do they play? More intuitive than a console controller?
Much more, I’m finding. I’m with you, I typically hate FPS games on a console, because of the dual-analog setup. I enjoyed Vice City on the PS2, but absolutely loved it on PC because of being able to use my keyboard and mouse.
COD 3 is a lot of fun on the Wii. I’m only through the first few missions (it’s hard not to just fire up Sports and bowl for a while) but it’s been very enjoyable. Very much point and shoot.
Dude, if you haven’t already in Zelda, attack the chickens. I know what you’re thinking…and you’re wrong. What happens in previous Zeldas is NOT what happens in this one. It’s worth it to find out what happens.
