Time Magazine offers impressions of Wii, confirms Wario Ware for Wii

[Cain Highwind]

Found this article at S-C. Sorry no link, I guess it comes from the Magazine itself.

Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new controller–but before I pick it up, Miyamoto suggests that I remove my jacket. That turns out to be a good idea. The first game I try–Miyamoto walks me through it, which to a gamer is the rough equivalent of getting to trade bons mots with Jerry Seinfeld–is a Warioware title (Wario being Mario’s shorter, fatter evil twin). It consists of dozens of manic five-second mini games in a row. They’re geared to the Japanese gaming sensibility, which has a zany, cartoonish, game-show bent. In one hot minute, I use the controller to swat a fly, do squat-thrusts as a weight lifter, turn a key in a lock, catch a fish, drive a car, sauté some vegetables, balance a broom on my outstretched hand, color in a circle and fence with a foil. And yes, dance the hula. Since very few people outside Nintendo have seen the new hardware, the room is watching me closely.

It’s a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It’s almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion–the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world–is powerful. And there’s an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you’re jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody’s having a good time.

After Warioware, we play scenes from the upcoming Legend of Zelda title, Twilight Princess, a moody, dark (by Nintendo’s Disneyesque standards) fantasy adventure. Now I’m Errol Flynn, sword fighting with the controller, then aiming a bow and arrow, then using it as a fishing rod, reeling in a stubborn virtual fish. The third game, and probably the most fun, is also the simplest: tennis. The controller becomes a racket, and I’m smacking forehands and stroking backhands. The sensors are fine enough that you can scoop under the ball to lob it, or slice it for spin. At the end, I don’t so much put the controller down as have it pried from my hands.

John Schappert, a senior vice president at Electronic Arts, is overseeing a version of the venerable Madden football series for Nintendo’s new hardware. He sees the controller from the auteur’s perspective, as an opportunity but also a huge challenge. “Our engineers now have to decipher what the user is doing,” he says. “‘Is that a throw gesture? Is it a juke? A stiff arm?’ Everyone knows how to make a throwing motion, but we all have our own unique way of throwing.” But consider the upside: you’re basically playing football in your living room. “To snap the ball, you ’snap’ the remote back toward your body, which hikes the ball,” Schappert says. “No buttons to press, just gesture a hiking motion, and the ball’s in the hands of the QB. To pass the ball, you gesture a throwing motion. Hard, fast gestures result in bullet passes. Slower, less forceful, gestures result in loftier, slower lob passes. It truly plays like nothing you’ve ever experienced.”

But the name Wii not wii-thstanding, Nintendo has grasped two important notions that have eluded its competitors. The first is, Don’t listen to your customers. The hard-core gaming community is extremely vocal–they blog a lot–but if Nintendo kept listening to them, hard-core gamers would be the only audience it ever had. “[Wii] was unimaginable for them,” Iwata says. “And because it was unimaginable, they could not say that they wanted it. If you are simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them. Sony and Microsoft make daily-necessity kinds of things. They have to listen to the needs of the customers and try to comply with their requests. That kind of approach has been deeply ingrained in their minds.”

I'm just awestruck. If some old, non-gamer Magazine writer can be so happy and jubilant playing with a Wii (*giggle*...okay I'll stop). I'm just so stoked the kind of fun I'll have.

[SOLDIER #819]

It is only natural that this would happen. People shall see the true power that is Wii. Those who do not grasp their Wii shall not be saved. Those who do shall become one with their Wii and ascend to a higher plane of entertainment.

It is only natural that this would happen.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by SOLDIER #819

It is only natural that this would happen. People shall see the true power that is Wii. Those who do not grasp their Wii shall not be saved. Those who do shall become one with their Wii and ascend to a higher plane of entertainment.

It is only natural that this would happen.

...You scare me.

[Cain Highwind]

Originally Posted by SOLDIER #819

It is only natural that this would happen. People shall see the true power that is Wii. Those who do not grasp their Wii shall not be saved. Those who do shall become one with their Wii and ascend to a higher plane of entertainment.

It is only natural that this would happen.

You sound like the anti-Braska

[SOLDIER #819]

Originally Posted by Sean

...You scare me.

Originally Posted by Cain Highwind

You sound like the anti-Braska

It is only natural that this would happen.

[Hildegarde]

When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler

Excuuuse me?.

Anyway, with every article out there, I become more and more interested.

But, obviously, I haven't read enough about the controller itself, is this man saying that to perform actions in games, you actually move the controller around accordingly, beside pushing buttons?.
I'm a little bit confused.

[Cain Highwind]

Yes the controller has gyroscopic sensors, so yes it detects how far from the screen you are, position, angle of rotation the works. It's best comparable to a 3D mouse. Instead of moving on a flat surface you can move it on all planes, Left, right, up, down, in, out, etc.

EDIT: I know that remark is kind of an insult, but he's only trying to say when you play games, you usually are, just sitting there twitiching buttons on the like. It's a very true statement like it or not.

[Hildegarde]

I know, I was just kidding.

Hmm, interesting about the controller, it makes me think of my sister, who's one of those that, when playing a racing game, actually moves the controller as if it is the steering wheel, players like her are the ones that will be the most thrilled with the Wii's controller, I guess.

I wonder if it will be easy to get accostumed to take in consideration what the controller senses, besides doing all the things one normally does, when playing a game...

[relm]

Originally Posted by Cain Highwind

Yes the controller has gyroscopic sensors, so yes it detects how far from the screen you are, position, angle of rotation the works. It's best comparable to a 3D mouse. Instead of moving on a flat surface you can move it on all planes, Left, right, up, down, in, out, etc.

I know, it is actually quite exciting now that I have seen
a little sample of it. Oh wanna see???

LOOK

A great fan-made video of the Wii!
Shows samples of the "gyroscopic sensors" in action ^_^