Sports games on the Wii

With games like Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, and Zelda on display for Nintendo at this year’s E3, it’s hard to believe that anyone was actually playing any of the other titles. However, being the game journalist that I am, and after spending a hefty portion of my day with the aforementioned titles, I decided to take a stroll and see what else Nintendo had to offer, and in particular the sports titles for the Wii.

First up was Madden 07. The enclosed area where Madden was located had a lovely 32-inch television and a white couch that my tired legs were all too happy to see. With the controller in hand, or rather both hands, I began to set up a few plays with the Eagles. The game plays out exactly like every other Madden title, with one obvious exception – the remote’s motion sensitive functionality.

To choose a play, all you have to do is point the remote at a play and press A – all set. The first play I chose was a passing play – big surprise. I felt a little weird at first using a throw motion with a remote in my hand, but the embarrassment quickly faded when I remembered the type of people who were watching me. The pass was a success (naturally), and eventually, with the aid of my right arm, I made it to the endzone in four plays. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. The extra point kick played out as you would imagine – motion your arm as if to throw a bowling ball and voila, you’ve got yourself another point. At least that’s supposed to be how it plays out. I unfortunately kicked the ball about 20 yards to the left of the bar. Oh well.

I was a little disappointed to find out that you don’t use the remote for running plays, which seems a little odd. Thankfully that limitation is tentative and EA might possibly address it before the game is released alongside Wii later this year.

My 10 minutes were up with Madden so I moved on to Wii Sports Tennis. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I reached the front of the line and was pitted against what appeared to be a 12-year-old boy (I don’t care if it says you have to be 18 to enter the show, he was 12!). Anyway, it seemed like a fair match, so we began.

This time there were two televisions. I was on the right, while my opponent (the small child) took the left screen. Since I was the server, I pressed the A button, raised my arm in the air and proceeded to swing away at the invisible ball. It was a great serve, one of the best I had ever seen, but unfortunately, either the boy was Miyamoto’s son, or he was extremely gifted, as he effortlessly hit the ball back. With only a split second to react (which is hardly enough time for my brain to process what was happening), I swung the remote right and left like the obvious noob that I was, giving the prepubescent boy a 15-love lead. And that quickly turned to 40-love and game over. I had lost the match, as well as my dignity, in front of about 40 observers. Yay.

As it turns out, I wasn’t the only person to have trouble. Everyone after me, who ended up serving, could not return the ball once. The score was always the same, with games being won to love. As far as I could tell this was happening for one reason: The remote was extremely sensitive, more so than in any other game I had played that day. As soon as I and everyone else after me had the remote in their hands, we were pulling off huge Agassi backhands, when only a light flick of the wrist was necessary. When I did manage to return the ball, which was once, it careened way too far to the right side of the screen and ultimately out of bounds. Given more time with the title, I’m sure this would happen less and less, but considering Nintendo has praised its controller as being easy to use right from the get-go, I was a little surprised to see how difficult it was.

Next up I had to make a choice. I had another appointment soon that I couldn’t miss and only had time for one other game. Zelda? Nah, the Wii controller was used for aiming and shooting arrows (which was very cool by the way), but it wasn’t worth waiting in line for. What about Red Steel? Nope, not that one either. The game’s visuals are akin to a first-generation GameCube game, and turning (similar to Metroid Prime 3) looked extremely awkward. How about Excite Truck? No, not that one either. Anyway, I was meant to be looking at sports titles. I was too upset that it wasn’t a new Excite Bike game to even attempt to play it. Ah, and then I came across Wii Sports Baseball. Another obvious demo (which, like Wii Sports Tennis, I heard was to be packaged with the console, but I could have heard wrong), but it seemed like the next obvious choice after playing both American Football and tennis. The only exception was that this time, I looked really ridiculous.

I never got a chance to test out the pitching aspect of the game, but who likes pitching anyway? Up to bat was my generic big-headed slugger, who performed much better than my generic big-headed swinger at the Wii Sports Tennis booth. The pitch came; it was a fast ball – my arch nemesis. I swung, missed terribly and one person in the audience chuckled (he later missed every pitch when it was his turn). The second pitch was a curve ball, to which I was able to hit right out of the ball park. I did a little nerdy dance and was up to bat once more. Again I hit the ball, this time straight through traffic to centre field. In fact, I ended up only missing the first pitch. So if you’re reading this, person who laughed at my first swing, you my friend, suck.

I’m still feeling a bit ho-hum about the Wii’s remote. On one had it offers greater precision for games like Metroid Prime 3, precision you simply cannot find in a controller. But on the other hand, for some games, the remote is extremely hard to get used to and is far too sensitive for its own good. So as of right now, I have two major concerns:

1: Will we be able to adjust the sensitivity of each game, similar to how we can adjust Y and X axis sensitivity in games today?

2: Once the initial slew of games that fully utilize the remote hit store shelves, will the novelty of motion sensitivity wear off and will developers revert back to the regular control schemes to save time and money?

With the Nintendo DS only using the dual screen innovatively (as in not just for maps and stats) in less than 20 per cent of its titles (a rough estimate), I can’t help but question whether or not Wii’s controller will end up as a revolutionary game mechanic, or just another gimmick. I am, of course, hoping it’s the former.