Orange Lounge Radio

I wanted to comment on what Bobby said regarding the Wii controller on the Thursday show.

He basically said that Nintendo is trying to pass the Wii controller off as cutting edge tech but in reality it's just an IR remote with accelerometers. He also mentioned that Nintendo was perhaps leading people to believe that the Wii knows the controller's location in space and would "know" if the controller is on the floor. That isn't word for word but you can go back and listen to the show.

I thought that was a bit of a cheap shot and here's why:

People have known about the black bar you need to stick someplace close to your TV for a while. It works kind of like the bars did with the old Power Glove (RIP). Nintendo isn't misleading anyone. You can't track an object in 3D space with one bar in one location. You would need a second bar on either side of the player to record the remote's location in real time. That would kind of suck for putting in your living room.

As it stands now, the remote communicates with the Wii via IR (with the black bar) and also communicates with the Wii via Blue Tooth. This means that driving type games where your hand may be cover up the IR sensor will still work. Basically, the IR is what gives you the ability to target stuff on screen and won't be needed for every game.

Pretty cool if you ask me. Sony tried to fake the funk with their controller and it shows. Plus, you need to remember you're probably getting all this for about 200 bucks. Nintendo has said that the Wii is NEW gen not NEXT gen and I think that holds true. To my knowledge no other system has integrated this type of control.

Comments?

I am more stoked that ever about the Wii... I think Nintendo did a great job this year at E3, from Smash Bros. Brawl to Zelda for the DS. I am just glad I have a job to help me afford all the money I am going to give Nintendo the next few years. I cant wait to see how the new Dragon Ball Z game will work with the wiimote.

Realize that I'm a Nintendo fanboy so I'm not really trying to take cheap shots at Nintendo - I'm still buying a Wii on launch day and think that everyone should...It's just not as *much* as promised originally.

I do believe that the original intent was to have multiple sensors on the TV to be able to triangulate the position of the remote in 3D space. Removal of features is okay (hell, the PS3 did it) but I felt that it was necessary to point out that the features were removed. Soneone I spoke with in the gaming peripheral industry who works with the same type of technology was the one that was really "disappointed" with how common the tech was that was being used because of how the big N hyped it up originally.

Sony's controller isn't actually faked, though...The Sony controller is the exact same technology that is in the Nunchuck. If they put an IR pointing device on the Dualshock 3 or whatever they're gonna call it, it would be exactly the same as the Wii remote.

And about the price, accelerometers and IR emitters are actually really cheap (the guy I spoke with said accelerometers are like...50 cents a piece) so it all depends on how much Nintendo wants to charge for the retail product - it only costs maybe $5 to build one of those remotes.

Thanks for the comments!

-Bobby Blackwolf
Cheap Shot Artist Extraordinare

Heh, a reply...didn't think you read these boards.

Anyway, within the context of the podcast you did sound pretty down on the Wii controller.

However, my post was in relation to your comments on how Nintendo may be misleading people. I just didn't feel the same. From what I've read and heard so far, the system does exactly what I thought it would. You may have read other press stuff from them that lead you to believe other though.

That aside, the only real complaint I have is that Mario, Zelda, and Red Steel from E3 looked "forced" on to the Wii controller. I hope Nintendo doesn't fall in to the pit of trying to force traditional games to use the Wii controller. That's why the PSP is failing compared to the DS. Games are being developed FOR the DS and it's controls while many games on PSP are just forced ports and other crap that doesn't take advantage of the PSP controls.

Here's to hoping Nintendo knows this and develops to the Wii's strengths. As of right now I think I'd get Twilight Princess for the cube.

I can see how that's the way it sounded in the context. I guess I fell into the hype in my mind and there was no way it could live up to it.

I actually ENJOYED Zelda on the Wii, though. It doesn't seem tacked on there - I did not get to play Super Mario Galaxy though, and I did hear that some people feel it WAS tacked on there.

Now that I think about it more, I enjoyed Excite Truck and Wii Sports Tennis, and I also enjoyed Wario Ware a lot. (It was such a quick demo and a short line I got to play it like 10 times.)

Here's hoping that Nintendo can capitalize on the strengths just like they did with the DS. I have faith.

And you should all buy one on launch day.

-Bobby Blackwolf
Reader of ze boards

I plan to get a Wii at launch as well as the PS3...I just hope PS3 can live up to the hype.

The Wii remote is the showstopper cause it makes gaming fun the PS3s controller will be a good thing but Nintendo will make the control the focus.

And again i dont think sony copied cause of the original design look for the PS3 controller looked like it could fly but didnt feel right in the hands of no one that didnt touch it.

Graywulf wrote:PS3 controller looked like it could fly but didnt feel right in the hands of no one that didnt touch it.

Not sure what you're saying here, but I for one actually DID enjoy Warhawk with the tilt control in the PS3 controller. It was a surprise, I was expecting to hate it based on my Nintendo fanboyism. But it felt light and felt good to me, even with Warhawk's limited development time using the new API's.

-Bobby Blackwolf

to understand dont edit out a sentence like so many do the sentence meas what it says just read the whole sentence.

What???

I think he tried to say "people shouldnt have judged it because no one used it" kind of thing, but it utterly horrible, horrible, english.

Graywulf wrote:to understand dont edit out a sentence like so many do the sentence meas what it says just read the whole sentence.

I read the whole sentence and it didn't make sense. What I got out of it, and what I responded to, was that you seemed to say that nobody liked the PS3 controller.

If that's not what you meant, perhaps you should try not using triple negatives.

Yes I suppose a triple negative was a bit much. Just a little fed up with all the critical hype that is created when new machines come out.

To issue a statement to the statement that i previously stated. I felt like maybe I should of been able to make the choice for myself that the boomerang controller was a bad idea .. Sony giving in to the gossip erked me but I guess thats the way it has to be..