E3 2008: New Nintendo Wii Games Set Gamers In Motion
July 24, 2008
In Part V of this week's five-part video game series, “E3: Let the Games Begin,” NY1’s Technology Reporter Adam Balkin explains how Nintendo's Wii will try to keep people moving in the middle of their TV room.
The Nintendo Wii has gamers doing stranger things than ever imagined in the comfort of their own living room. Game developers are constantly working on even more ways to move you through your motion-sensitive Wii.
The new Wii balance board, which users can stand or sit on, can be used in virtual sports including skateboarding and snowboarding in the style of Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, who helped develop the game.
“A lot of the stuff for me was just kinda like describing what the stuff is like for me,” said White, “because when I'm up in the air I see a totally different view then everybody else gets to see. So I have that input and just overall how the mountain should look.”
“Wii Sports Resort” is the title that'll come packaged with that new Wii MotionPlus, an add-on that will allow the controller to recognize even subtler movements. The title will include, among others, a disc-fetching mini-game, a sword-wielding “American Gladior-type mini-game and jet skiing.
“[In the jet skiing game,] your wrist flicks up and down, back and forth as you're throttling and getting more speed on the power cruiser,” said Denise Kaigler of Nintendo of America. “And this is reflected in the game, so you are actually able to move the power cruise on the water faster.”
Nintendo is also getting set to unveil this fall “Wii Speak” -- a microphone for chatting online with others in certain games. The first game it will be adaptable with is “Animal Crossing: City Folk.”
“If you connect it with people worldwide, you can go into each other's towns and you can celebrate various different holidays and chat with each other all around the world,” said Melvin Forrest of Nintendo of America.
Another Wii game, “Rayman Raving Rabbits TV Party,” promises to use just about every single peripheral available for the Wii including the balance board, which at times will need to be sat upon.
“We have fifty games with all different controls,” said Diego Fernandez of Ubisoft. “One third of those games will be played with the balance board, the rest with a Wii remote numchuck. You can even play some games with a wheel -- Mario [Brothers] Cars.”
If you must act like a nut in front of your TV, it's only fitting to do so while pretending to be a crazy rabbit going 100 mph down a ski slope on the back of a yak.
- Adam Balkin
July 24, 2008
E3 2008: New Nintendo Wii Games Set Gamers In Motion
Adam Balkin
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