Wii Party!
So as you may or may not know Nintendo has been touring the USA with a Wii party. I was lucky enough to get an invite from Tony who runs Endangered Gamer. I just got back last night. Here are my honest impressions.
First of all the entire event was handled very well. I really enjoyed the hospitality and the vibe they presented. It was handled kind of cloak-and-dagger style to give it a bit of fun and mystery. We received a txt message on our phones telling us what intersection to be at (and when). I headed to this intersection @ 6:30pm Friday night and from there three big vans collected the thirty of us and took us to the undisclosed location (which turned out to be the Double Door, which is pretty cool). While we were there they fed us pizza (which, shock and awe, I actually ate) and kept cold beer in our hands. The Nintendo and PR people were extremely friendly and there were plenty of Wii consoles to play. Just when a game started to lose attention they would switch it out with a new one. Nicely done, Nintendo.
The machine itself is a sexy little beast but I do have some concerns about it. First of all you can’t stand too CLOSE to the television with this thing. Normally that isn’t a problem but there were some kids at the party and I noted that they kept getting closer and closer to the TV to point the Wii controller at the screen. When they got close the sensor started to fail. Not a huge issue, but something to mention. Secondly the sensor itself seems to be a big (about a foot long and 1/4 inch tall) strip that you lay either on top of or below the TV. It is not that big of a deal but if you have a wall-mounted TV it may cause you some set-up issues. Other than that the small unit is cool and next-gen looking. Kind of iPod like! :)
I asked about the virtual arcade. There are going to be around 30 titles at Wii launch to download. I believe the pricing mentioned by the Nintendo rep was 5$ for a NES game, 8$ for a SNES game, and 10$ for a N64 game (flat fee regardless of title). He didn’t know the pricing for the TG-16 and Sega games.
Ok so the heck with that, what about the games? Well the games at the party were “Wii-Sports”, “Zelda”, “Marvel Ultimate Alliance”, “Excite Truck”, “Wario Ware”, “Under the Knife”, “Madden”, “Elebits”, and “Tony Hawk”. I got to play all but Marvel (which didn’t interest me in the least) and Excite Truck.
Wii-Sports was undoubtedly the game of the party AND it ships with the system. Tennis with four players is a blast. Bowling is rocking and surprisingly true to normal bowling form. Golf is a lot of fun as well and I can see myself playing that quite a bit. The only Wii-Sports game I didn’t groove on was the boxing game. I didn’t understand when I could swing or not (they had some sort of fatigue system going that I didn’t comprehend). True to Wii form the gameplay here was really light and fun. The graphics.... were horrible. So simple that calling them stylized would be being generous. But that isn’t the point I suppose.
Zelda is awesome as a ZELDA game, but the Wii functionality feels completely tacked on. The whole time I played it I was really wishing I could just pick up a Wave bird controller. Aiming the arrow and boomerang was frustrating and I kept getting attacked while trying to hit these key points to open a door. Swinging the sword with the nunchuck was.... meh. The fishing was fun and is apparently exclusive to the Wii version. Zelda to me is a classic Nintendo problem, one that was experienced with the first generation of DS games. If you PORT a game to the Wii and shove functionality in it won’t be anything special. If you build your game from the START with the Wii in mind it can rock.
The Marvel game was a beat-em-up that didn’t make the cut. It was almost a joke how quickly it got cycled out and replaced with another game. Like three people played it and then it went idle. I think you swing the nunchuck to punch or something. Huzah.
I watched people play Excite Truck and it LOOKED cool. It appeared to be a mix of SSX meets Monster Trucks? I wanted to play it but with the other games there always drew me in first.
Wario Ware was awesome and a no-brainer for the system. A great party game indeed. If you have played Wario Ware for the GBA or the DS (or indeed the GC) you know what this is about. My first Wario Ware challenge was a shake the dog’s hand game. You hold the Wii Remote in the palm of your hand and try to catch the dog’s paw. It felt natural and cool. The second was a jump rope. You hold the controller in your hand and jump when the rope goes under your avatar. Was really fun (I expect a goofy picture of me jumping to be on a Nintendo site any moment now). Other challenges included rolling a ball into a hole, pushing a sassy Japanese guy over, driving a car, picking a nose, etc. etc. Classic Wario Ware stuff. This one is going to be a great purchase for the Wii.
Under the Knife was just like Trauma Center for the DS. Like almost a 100% port. Fun, but if you have played it on the DS you have played the Wii version. It could be argued my description of Wario Ware is the same but I am not enthused by Under the Knife (I would agree with that argument). I guess I just prefer the quirky fun that Wario Ware provides.
Madden was fun to play (and I don’t like sports games). But it LOOKED AWFUL. Like an N64 game. I enjoyed picking plays with the Wii Remote and playing 2-player but the graphics finally got to me (shock and awe). I put the controller down.
This brings me to the runner up for game of the show. Elebits. If you like Katamri you will LOVE Elebits. You start in a kitchen. You basically have a gravity gun and can move everything in the kitchen around with the Wii Remote. EVERYTHING. You collect these little dudes (I guess those are the Elebits) by zapping them with the gravity gun. Each one you collect gives you energy. You can use this energy to turn appliances on (toasters, coffee makers, etc.) which makes more Elebits come out of hiding which gives you more energy, etc. etc. It was really fun; more fun than it looks from screen shots. You see stuff like a toaster and want to power it but even once you have enough power you need the actual BREAD (put in the toaster with the gravity gun) before you can make toast. It sounds inane. It was fun and we were all laughing. “PUT THE BREAD IN! HURRY!!!”
Tony Hawk was the.... well it sucked. It was like SSX meets Gleaming the Cube with a dash of pure bat guano thrown in. Control was messy, graphics were poor (both in execution and style), game was no fun.
So my conclusion? Honestly I am still going to buy a Wii but I do have a new (and slightly lower?) opinion of the machine. Games made for the Wii or games ported from the DS worked wonderfully with the new controller. Games with established functional control mechanics (Zelda, Marvel, Tony Hawk) felt like Wii functionality was shoe-horned in and were not as fun. At this point I may purchase Zelda for the GC so I don’t have to deal with the Wii control. LOL I’ll be playing my GC disc in my Wii using my Wavebird.
That being said I think Nintendo is on to something here. Non-gamers and the mass market will LOVE this thing. It has the absolute potential to be the game version of the iPod. Are there better technically powerful digital music players? Arguably yes. Are these better machines selling better than the iPod or do they have higher visibility? Uh, no way.
Good luck Nintendo! You still have my money this November! And the fact that all attendees got a free Wii Remote doesn’t hurt your cause either! :)
First of all the entire event was handled very well. I really enjoyed the hospitality and the vibe they presented. It was handled kind of cloak-and-dagger style to give it a bit of fun and mystery. We received a txt message on our phones telling us what intersection to be at (and when). I headed to this intersection @ 6:30pm Friday night and from there three big vans collected the thirty of us and took us to the undisclosed location (which turned out to be the Double Door, which is pretty cool). While we were there they fed us pizza (which, shock and awe, I actually ate) and kept cold beer in our hands. The Nintendo and PR people were extremely friendly and there were plenty of Wii consoles to play. Just when a game started to lose attention they would switch it out with a new one. Nicely done, Nintendo.
The machine itself is a sexy little beast but I do have some concerns about it. First of all you can’t stand too CLOSE to the television with this thing. Normally that isn’t a problem but there were some kids at the party and I noted that they kept getting closer and closer to the TV to point the Wii controller at the screen. When they got close the sensor started to fail. Not a huge issue, but something to mention. Secondly the sensor itself seems to be a big (about a foot long and 1/4 inch tall) strip that you lay either on top of or below the TV. It is not that big of a deal but if you have a wall-mounted TV it may cause you some set-up issues. Other than that the small unit is cool and next-gen looking. Kind of iPod like! :)
I asked about the virtual arcade. There are going to be around 30 titles at Wii launch to download. I believe the pricing mentioned by the Nintendo rep was 5$ for a NES game, 8$ for a SNES game, and 10$ for a N64 game (flat fee regardless of title). He didn’t know the pricing for the TG-16 and Sega games.
Ok so the heck with that, what about the games? Well the games at the party were “Wii-Sports”, “Zelda”, “Marvel Ultimate Alliance”, “Excite Truck”, “Wario Ware”, “Under the Knife”, “Madden”, “Elebits”, and “Tony Hawk”. I got to play all but Marvel (which didn’t interest me in the least) and Excite Truck.
Wii-Sports was undoubtedly the game of the party AND it ships with the system. Tennis with four players is a blast. Bowling is rocking and surprisingly true to normal bowling form. Golf is a lot of fun as well and I can see myself playing that quite a bit. The only Wii-Sports game I didn’t groove on was the boxing game. I didn’t understand when I could swing or not (they had some sort of fatigue system going that I didn’t comprehend). True to Wii form the gameplay here was really light and fun. The graphics.... were horrible. So simple that calling them stylized would be being generous. But that isn’t the point I suppose.
Zelda is awesome as a ZELDA game, but the Wii functionality feels completely tacked on. The whole time I played it I was really wishing I could just pick up a Wave bird controller. Aiming the arrow and boomerang was frustrating and I kept getting attacked while trying to hit these key points to open a door. Swinging the sword with the nunchuck was.... meh. The fishing was fun and is apparently exclusive to the Wii version. Zelda to me is a classic Nintendo problem, one that was experienced with the first generation of DS games. If you PORT a game to the Wii and shove functionality in it won’t be anything special. If you build your game from the START with the Wii in mind it can rock.
The Marvel game was a beat-em-up that didn’t make the cut. It was almost a joke how quickly it got cycled out and replaced with another game. Like three people played it and then it went idle. I think you swing the nunchuck to punch or something. Huzah.
I watched people play Excite Truck and it LOOKED cool. It appeared to be a mix of SSX meets Monster Trucks? I wanted to play it but with the other games there always drew me in first.
Wario Ware was awesome and a no-brainer for the system. A great party game indeed. If you have played Wario Ware for the GBA or the DS (or indeed the GC) you know what this is about. My first Wario Ware challenge was a shake the dog’s hand game. You hold the Wii Remote in the palm of your hand and try to catch the dog’s paw. It felt natural and cool. The second was a jump rope. You hold the controller in your hand and jump when the rope goes under your avatar. Was really fun (I expect a goofy picture of me jumping to be on a Nintendo site any moment now). Other challenges included rolling a ball into a hole, pushing a sassy Japanese guy over, driving a car, picking a nose, etc. etc. Classic Wario Ware stuff. This one is going to be a great purchase for the Wii.
Under the Knife was just like Trauma Center for the DS. Like almost a 100% port. Fun, but if you have played it on the DS you have played the Wii version. It could be argued my description of Wario Ware is the same but I am not enthused by Under the Knife (I would agree with that argument). I guess I just prefer the quirky fun that Wario Ware provides.
Madden was fun to play (and I don’t like sports games). But it LOOKED AWFUL. Like an N64 game. I enjoyed picking plays with the Wii Remote and playing 2-player but the graphics finally got to me (shock and awe). I put the controller down.
This brings me to the runner up for game of the show. Elebits. If you like Katamri you will LOVE Elebits. You start in a kitchen. You basically have a gravity gun and can move everything in the kitchen around with the Wii Remote. EVERYTHING. You collect these little dudes (I guess those are the Elebits) by zapping them with the gravity gun. Each one you collect gives you energy. You can use this energy to turn appliances on (toasters, coffee makers, etc.) which makes more Elebits come out of hiding which gives you more energy, etc. etc. It was really fun; more fun than it looks from screen shots. You see stuff like a toaster and want to power it but even once you have enough power you need the actual BREAD (put in the toaster with the gravity gun) before you can make toast. It sounds inane. It was fun and we were all laughing. “PUT THE BREAD IN! HURRY!!!”
Tony Hawk was the.... well it sucked. It was like SSX meets Gleaming the Cube with a dash of pure bat guano thrown in. Control was messy, graphics were poor (both in execution and style), game was no fun.
So my conclusion? Honestly I am still going to buy a Wii but I do have a new (and slightly lower?) opinion of the machine. Games made for the Wii or games ported from the DS worked wonderfully with the new controller. Games with established functional control mechanics (Zelda, Marvel, Tony Hawk) felt like Wii functionality was shoe-horned in and were not as fun. At this point I may purchase Zelda for the GC so I don’t have to deal with the Wii control. LOL I’ll be playing my GC disc in my Wii using my Wavebird.
That being said I think Nintendo is on to something here. Non-gamers and the mass market will LOVE this thing. It has the absolute potential to be the game version of the iPod. Are there better technically powerful digital music players? Arguably yes. Are these better machines selling better than the iPod or do they have higher visibility? Uh, no way.
Good luck Nintendo! You still have my money this November! And the fact that all attendees got a free Wii Remote doesn’t hurt your cause either! :)
3 Comments:
Sounds like a great time! Did Jeong go with you? If so, i'd be interested to know what she thought about the Wii.
She did not attend and I wish she had done so. I didn't know what kind of event this was going to be and clearly I think that "non-gamers" or the "casual market" would have really had a lot of fun. A lost opportunity I suppose. I forsee a Wii in her future actually :)
It's a shame to hear about Tony Hawk, as well as the tacked-on nature of Zelda stuff. I responded more thoroughly in email, but I really think the Wii requires consideration in implementation at a conceptual level, or it doesn't work.
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