The Wii: A medium of vast untapped potential

31st January, 2007.

More than two months since “Revolution day” back in 2006. The day that would make or break Nintendo, following all the hype surrounding their successor to the DS, the Wii. One might argue that the Wii is successor to the ill-fated GameCube and they’d be right … but only partly. While the Wii is a buffed-up GameCube with motion controls, there’s a lot more to the console than just its technical specifications. No, it isn’t the motion controls either. And don’t get me started on WiiConnect24.

No, it’s the underlying philosophy.

It is in this regard that one could argue the Wii is following up in the wake of the gaming boom created by the DS. Much like a well-synchronized volleyball duo, Nintendo’s two consoles are setting up and delivering the shots one after the other. Granted, where these shots will land and if they will net any scores remains to be seen, but there have been no indications so far that either the DS or the Wii are going to slow down anytime soon.


So, launch day has come and gone and it’s still damn near impossible to find a Wii anywhere. Is this an indicator of success? Of course. Is this an indicator of success in the long-term sense of the word? Definitely not.

I am not ashamed to admit that I subscribe to Nintendo’s philosophy when it comes to gaming. Namely, how gaming is about the feel rather than the look. Winning formulae were created back in the days of the SNES and Genesis when the console boom took place. Tons of people were opting to play games instead of watching TV. Why was this so? No offense to Nintendo or Sega or anyone who created games back then, but games looked like crap compared to TV shows and cartoons. Yet people still played them.

This is evidence of the fact that no matter how big a graphics whore one might be, graphics alone aren’t going to keep them in the game. The look of a game might draw you in, but it won’t necessarily captivate you the way the interactivity of the medium does.

Needless to say, a device like the Wii could not have been easy to create in this day and age, and I don’t mean from a technical standpoint either. The risks involved, the amount of research involved, the reputation the company had gained after the GameCube’s disastrous tenure, the costs … all these points could easily have put Nintendo off and compelled them to create a device similar to the Xbox 360 or the PS3. And yet, they didn’t.



It’s because if there’s one thing Nintendo has in abundance, it’s foresight. As if the completely insane approach they were taking with their new console wasn’t risky enough, they went and renamed it “Wii” from “Revolution”. Laughter echoed across the globe as people tried desperately to come to terms with the hilarity of it all, while Sigmund Freud rolled over in his grave, wetting himself at the thought of all the sexual innuendo that day-to-day conversations about gaming would now be laced with. Hate mails were sent, war cries were sounded. Mass Nintendo fanboy suicides were committed (OK, not really, but that would have been funny as hell).

And yet, two months following the launch of the system, a “Wii” joke produces, at best, a weak smile or a little chortle as one thinks back to the days of vibrating controller jokes. The Wii is everything Nintendo could have hoped for and more. They said it would cater to the hardcore and the casual gamer. We didn’t believe them. They claimed they would offer more fun for less money. Again, we didn’t believe them. They claimed it would not only increase their share of the gaming market, it would increase the size of the market itself. By this point, fanboys, anti-fanboys and regular gamers alike were all finding it harder and harder to subscribe to the hype machine that was Nintendo. Well, they’re laughing all the way to the bank now guys.

Truly, the amount of thought that went into creating the Wii must have been tremendous. It’s enough to make me wonder if this isn’t all some sort of conspiracy; a finely staged drama, where each player had a pre-determined role and went about playing their part perfectly.


Paranoid speculating aside, though … I do find it amazing how every aspect of the Wii fits together perfectly.

Let’s take a look at the console itself. Everyone says it’s an upgraded GameCube and let’s face it; they aren’t exactly wrong. But is this really a bad thing? Any experienced developer who wants to develop for the Wii now has it slightly easier than they would have, had Nintendo incorporated new technology into the system. Two separate motion-sensing controllers are hard enough to figure out … devs don’t need the additional burden of struggling with complex chipsets and processors.

Speaking of motion-sensing, it’s amazing how the Wiimote has turned out to be some kind of all-purpose device in and out of the gaming industry. Last I heard, homebrewers managed to integrate it into Half Life 2 and World of Warcraft. Hell, some dude used it to control his entire house. I’m fairly certain everyone who worked on the Wii saw this coming and deliberately made it easy for homebrewers to “hack” the controller. After all, the homebrew scene has done wonders for the PSP and DS.

Next up, is the design of the remote itself. For one thing, it’s a remote. It was meant to provide newcomers to the gaming world with a sense of familiarity and it has done just that. It also acts as any sort of in-game device one could imagine, from a sword to a wand to a gun to simply a steering wheel (although, someone needs to make better use of it in this regard). There’s also that matter of how Nintendo has provided multiple controller combinations for developers to use while creating games.

If anyone thinks the novelty of using motion-sensing will go away, it won’t. What will happen is that it will become an expectation … something we start taking for granted. This may not affect Nintendo directly, but it does affect their competition. As far as the novelty of using intuitive or fun control schemes is concerned, the Wii is safe for a good long time.


Don’t feel like using the Wii and Nunchuk and waving your arms about? How about snapping the Classic controller onto the Wiimote for some SIXAXIS-like functionality? It was smart of the designers to think of this. A blend of oldschool control and motion-sensing would go a very long way toward giving players increased control over their games in several genres. I’m thinking mainly of flight-sims, mech sims and racing games here. I'm not one of those people who hates the SIXAXIS. Whether or not Sony copied Nintendo doesn't matter. The point is, the SIXAXIS provides a good balance between traditional and motion-sensing controls. We had to give up rumble for it, but you never know -- maybe it was for the best.


People also seem to have forgotten the return of the “Zapper”, which is now merely a shell in the shape of a gun. Both, the Wiimote and the Nunchuk snap into it to provide what is a near-perfect gun controller with buttons and analogue controls all in the right places. If developers manage to make good use of this peripheral, we might just have a reason to consider console FPSes over their PC counterparts (something I’m not inclined to do at this point in time). I sincerely doubt a keyboard and mouse setup could beat the feel of holding a gun shaped object in your hands and feeling it rumble with varying levels of intensity as you pump an enemy full of lead. There’s even a speaker on there to make the experience more real, for God’s sake. Although one may not think so, the Zapper has the potential ability to render dual-shock FPS games obsolete, considering the latter controller configuration still isn't very convenient even after all these years.

Is anyone seeing what I’m getting at? The Wii is fun and all, but in order to realize its true potential you really need to think hard about the possibilities it brings to the table. I just hope developers embrace the concept of non-traditional controls because that’s what the Wii is about.


It isn’t about tacking motion controls on to every game. It isn’t about using the Wii remote and Nunchuk everywhere you can. It’s about judging which control scheme would be both, fun and intuitive and incorporating it well enough into a game to keep players immersed. There is a plethora of control schemes possible using the Wii, both, with and without the use of peripherals. Metal Slug Anthology is already evidence of this. Sure, a lot of the controls in that title were completely pointless, but developers now know what they can work with.

Moving on, we come to the interface, the price, the cost of developing and the inspiration developers encounter when they decide to work on the system. Motion controls notwithstanding, developing for the system itself is similar to GameCube development and there have been several reports of this already. This is one case where familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. Next up is the price. It’s cheap to develop for and it’s cheap to buy. A definite plus point.

And finally, we come to inspiration. If there’s one thing Nintendo has that Sony and Microsoft don’t, it’s the ability to inspire. In addition to being a console developer, Nintendo is also a game developer. This gives them the ability to show third parties the ropes of developing for their systems. The ability to inspire and guide and garner support for their new system. Sure, the system doesn’t have Xbox Live and it doesn’t have the Core processor but it does have a very loyal fanbase, the likes of which Microsoft and Sony could never hope to match and a well-established set of franchise all set for release with more on the way.

Things are looking good for the Wii so far but plenty more is possible. The system has its flaws, no doubt. WiiConnect24 is still the nightmare of any online gamer. But if you think about it, the Wii is about change. The 360 has already done a marvelous job of changing and improving the online gaming scene. I doubt there's much either Nintendo or Sony could add to it. This is no excuse, of course. But keep in mind that a botched-up online matchmaking isn't going to affect the core of the console. One can only hope that developers will make good use of the Wii’s untapped potential in the long run and that Nintendo will make improvements to their infrastructure as necessary.

[Editors' note: No, I didn't make that awesome video. Here's the direct link.]