Wii Sports is many things.
One of the most important games of all time.
A showcase of a revolutionary new way that games could be controlled.
A game that can be played with anyone regardless of their familiarity with or affinity for videogames.
And a bit of a barebones pack-in game if we're being honest.
But putting that aside, I think you really do have to give it credit for being one of the only video games to ever have entire non-gaming families playing together all across the world. It's the ultimate casual game and it's worth noting over something like Wii Sports Resort because it represents the motion control fad at its peak.
That's right, motion control was a fad. Or was it? It's hard to tell, but we did learn one thing from the Wii era and that's the fact that many hardcore gamers don't like getting up from the couch and moving their arms to play games. It's true that those people would never use motion as their main method of control. However, I think others had the potential to be convinced, but were ultimately unimpressed by motion control as a concept. We might have to blame Nintendo for that.
Nintendo popularized motion control without showing the potential. They didn't include gyroscopes in the initial Wii remotes, making for an extremely limited execution of the motion control concept. Wii Sports was a worse game for not having compatibility with a Wii Motion Plus gyroscope. This is clear once you see the giant increase in quality with the motion control in games like Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort. Maybe motion control would still be a popular method of play if the original Wii Sports had Wii Motion Plus support.
But then again, maybe motion control would have fizzed out eventually anyway. It's impossible to know. But given the fact that Wii Sports was many people's first and/or only experience with the Wii, I think we can both thank Wii Sports for popularizing motion control as well as blame it for relegating that control method to only be used with VR, Nintendo consoles, and gyro aiming for the forseeable future.
We are never getting Red Steel 3.
One of the most important games of all time.
A showcase of a revolutionary new way that games could be controlled.
A game that can be played with anyone regardless of their familiarity with or affinity for videogames.
And a bit of a barebones pack-in game if we're being honest.
But putting that aside, I think you really do have to give it credit for being one of the only video games to ever have entire non-gaming families playing together all across the world. It's the ultimate casual game and it's worth noting over something like Wii Sports Resort because it represents the motion control fad at its peak.
That's right, motion control was a fad. Or was it? It's hard to tell, but we did learn one thing from the Wii era and that's the fact that many hardcore gamers don't like getting up from the couch and moving their arms to play games. It's true that those people would never use motion as their main method of control. However, I think others had the potential to be convinced, but were ultimately unimpressed by motion control as a concept. We might have to blame Nintendo for that.
Nintendo popularized motion control without showing the potential. They didn't include gyroscopes in the initial Wii remotes, making for an extremely limited execution of the motion control concept. Wii Sports was a worse game for not having compatibility with a Wii Motion Plus gyroscope. This is clear once you see the giant increase in quality with the motion control in games like Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort. Maybe motion control would still be a popular method of play if the original Wii Sports had Wii Motion Plus support.
But then again, maybe motion control would have fizzed out eventually anyway. It's impossible to know. But given the fact that Wii Sports was many people's first and/or only experience with the Wii, I think we can both thank Wii Sports for popularizing motion control as well as blame it for relegating that control method to only be used with VR, Nintendo consoles, and gyro aiming for the forseeable future.
We are never getting Red Steel 3.