August 14,
2009
Nintendo
scores huge with Wii MotionPlus
By: Dakota
Grabowski
Nintendo
is at it again with delivering another superb accessory.
There’s no
denying it: Nintendo knows how to accessorize their platforms with smart
products that are attractive to both the casual and hardcore gaming crowds. The
Wii MotionPlus, the latest expansion device for the Nintendo Wii console,
improves the Wii Remote controller by permitting more accurate motion controls.
While the
developer support for the accessory isn’t exactly one of the brightest selling
points, this attribute will only improve in the future. Currently, there are
only four titles that give the Wii console the improved controls everyone has
asked for since its release and they are the following titles: Tiger Woods
PGA Tour 10, Grand Slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis 2009, and Wii
Sports Resort. I’ve had the chance to play three of the four (Tiger Woods,
VT 2009 and WSR) and all of them have greatly benefited with
heightened entertainment value in the motion controls.
In the
future, the accessory is expected to be utilized by several key developers. In
one instance, High Voltage Software, developers of the recent Sega published
The Conduit, will be using Wii MotionPlus in two out of four of their
projects including: The Grinder, a first-person shooter involving
vampires and werewolves, and Gladiator A.D., a fighting game that
involves the Roman gladiators.
If gamers
aren’t satisfied with the current list of games supporting the Wii MotionPlus,
then maybe the line-up of upcoming 2009 titles will prove to be a better fit to
their style. September 8 will see the release of Ubisoft’s Academy of
Champions Soccer and the following week, September 15, NHL 2K10
will release to add its name to the list of sports titles giving their nod to
the accessory. Outside of those two titles, the schedule is barren in terms of
hard release dates – Red Steel 2 was delayed until the first quarter of
2010, XS Games’ Crazy Mini Golf 2 doesn’t have a date set in stone, and
the day Namco Bandai’s Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked reaches store
shelves is still in question.
The
popularity of Wii MotionPlus isn’t to be questioned either as there’s been close
to 1 million units sold in the United States when you include the sales of more
than 500,000 bundled with Wii Sports Resort and 205,000 units sold with
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. Combine that with exceeded sales of 1 million
units in Japan, it’s almost a guarantee that developers will be dedicating their
time utilizing the accessory by any means necessary.
The best
example that has been set would be Nintendo’s highly popular Wii Balance Board.
It has sold almost as many units in a year and a half as Sony’s PlayStation 3
has done in three years. The software for the Wii Balance Board now has over 20
games making the most of Nintendo’s beloved accessory and has upcoming titles
such as: Dance Dance Revolution, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
and Wii Fit Plus in the cooker. So if the Wii MotionPlus takes the same
route, gamers could have a plethora of options by this time next year for
software to pick and choose from.
Looking
even further back in time, Nintendo has traditionally done exceptionally well
with their add-ons with the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak and Nintendo 64 Expansion
Pak. The former released a year after the Nintendo 64 hit markets and helped
advance technology by years for both Nintendo and its rival console providers by
giving gamers something intangible with their gaming experiences. As for the
latter, the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak helped double the console’s RAM storage
capacity and gave developers much more memory to work to create their video
games with better resolutions, textures, and depth to their art. From Perfect
Dark to The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, the Nintendo 64
accessories benefited gamers enormously and Nintendo is replicating that success
with the Nintendo Wii.
Though, it
must be said, even with the major success Nintendo has had with the Wii
MotionPlus and Wii Balance Board, one has to wonder if their next accessory is
going to fail. Revealed at their E3 2009 press conference in June, Nintendo is
ready to unleash the next step for the Nintendo Wii in the form of the Wii
Vitality Sensor. Do gamers really want an accessory that tracks their pulses
and body signals? Is there any use for the Wii Vitality Sensor besides for
fitness games? There’s a glimmer of hope that a developer makes use of the
accessory for horror games such as Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse,
a Japan-only title that was published by Nintendo and developed by Tecmo.
Tracking the gamer’s heartbeat could potentially be entertaining for a horror
game to ante up the terror.
When it’s
all said and done, Nintendo is proving that their track record for accessories
is almost bullet-proof. From the wireless revolution that was the GameCube
Wavebird to the Wii Balance Board, Nintendo continues to perform above
expectations and the Wii MotionPlus is no exception. But for now, it’s time for
developers to start stepping up and pledging their support to the accessory.
