It occurs to me that, just as the Wii came out, Sony said ‘Oh yeah?!? Well OUR controller has waggly movement, too!’
And I’ve had my PS3 since Xmas last year…but I can’t remember a SINGLE time where a game has asked me to waggle the controller, instead of pushing buttons or moving the joysticks.
Perhaps I’m playing the wrong games?
Occasionally. The Ratchet and Clank games used it from time to time, but you could turn it off and use the analog stick instead for those sections. I believe Little Big Planet used it. Batman Arkham Asylum used it, I think, in gliding. I also think at least the first Uncharted game used it from time to time as well.
The best use of the Sixaxis, in my opinion, is the downloadable game Flower, where everything is controlled by the use of the Sixaxis plus pushing a button in order to go faster.
In other words, it’s in there, but it’s often something similar to a quick-time event or otherwise just rarely used.
Heavy Rain used it pretty extensively.
You could turn it on for GTA IV. I never used it there.
One of the Ratchet and Clank games implemented it for flying around.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Lair and Flower are the only two I can think of that used it extensively. Flower made good use of it, but it’s kind of generous to call Flower a game. I don’t know what I’d call it. Lair was terrible and sixaxis controls are a large part of that. They just aren’t are responsive as they need to be for an action game.
I think all the games I’ve played that used it only used the pitch and roll. Did any game actually use the yaw control?
The only one I played that used any part of it was Uncharted, which only used one axis (I want to say pitch?) to aim a grenade throw.
And then they even removed that in Uncharted 2! (Maybe it can be turned back on again in options? I didn’t bother to look, I liked using the analog stick better.)
And why is is called sixaxis…wouldn’t threeaxis be more accurate?
The full term is “Six axes of movement”: three rotation axes, three positional axes. Hence, sixaxis.
And yeah, it’s primarily a gimmick. I’ve never seen it used to good effect in the few games that support it.
Katamari Forever uses it to jump, but I can’t seem to get it to work reliably.
There’s a real trick in getting the Prince Hop to work, and I’ve never been able to really nail it either. Some movements just don’t work easily with motion detection–there’s a couple special moves in the Wii game Dead Rising: Chop Til You Drop that aren’t very easy to pull off consistently, for instance. Or the way that a number of various actions in Donkey Kong Country Returns all require the same waggle motion while pushing another button.
My kids still play SMB III and Mariokart, but I can’t remember the last time I sat in front of our Wii…
The game I use it in most is PAIN, where you shake it up and down to get a super-boost (or Super Ooch, in PAIN parlance).
I used it in GTA IV to control the attitude of boats too, but steering or flying with it always seemed very imprecise.
If you play with the Wii Remote and nunchuck, there is not a single motion-controlled action that you need to hold a button for.
I like Flower a lot, and it is rather challenging if you’re trying to completely complete all of the levels.
Do you prefer the nunchuck for DKCR? I didn’t try it for very long before switching to the sideways mode (which immediately seemed much better) but can admit that this is a rare instance where I am annoyed by motion controls. (Ground pound and blowing by shaking seems awkward.
The MLB: The Show games allow you to use it for jumping and sliding, I believe. I tried it once, didn’t like it, and turned it off. Haven’t used it since.
I like both, but do prefer the nunchuk, as the motion controls are less awkward (I actually rather like them) since you only need to shake one hand vs two.