Wii Quirks
The Nintendo Wii is great and we all love it and so many things about it fit into Nintendo's overall plan, and so on and so forth. I'm sure you can find a 1,000 other websites that tell you how great it is, and I agree, but I thought I'd share some things I found strange.
In Wii Sports, player 2's selection icon (the red hand) doesn't seem to do anything in any of the menus. It would have been better to allow both players to select items, even if that means "fighting" over game options. It's weird that one player can't even start a game.
In Wii Tennis, it looks like Player 1 always serves. Shouldn't it flip a coin or something to see who serves, especially in a 1-game match?
If you leave the system alone for a while, the "wiimote" shuts down (good, saves batteries) but the Wii displays a message that says
"Comminications with the Wii Remote have been interrupted. Press the A Button without touching the Control Stick to reconnect the Wii Remote."
My Xbox 360 never gave me any semi-scary messages like that. If I were an averge user, I might not know that message came up simply becaues the remote is trying to save batteries. It sounds an awful lot like something went wrong.
The A button is used to select things and the B button is used for cancel or back. In Zelda, if you press the minus button, you can then assign various items to the d-pad or buttons. On *this* screen, B assigns an item and *A* is used for back. Yes, I see why it's like that (so you can assign things to B) but it's just a bit wonky that A becomes back for that screen only.
In Zelda, pressing C activates free-look the default is inverted y-axis. That is a minor annoyance to me, but it's not my actual complaint. When I press up, I want to look up (not down!), but I accept some people want the y-axis inverted, so ok. I would have made non-inverted the default, but whatever. Here is my actual complaint: when you go to change this setting, the game labels the scheme where up looks down "normal" and the scheme where down looks up "inverted." I think their entire view of y-axes is inverted.
I've only played an hour or so of Zelda and while it has the feeling of a great game, it also has the feeling of a game I've played before. Rolling into to trees, storing milk in bottles, gliding while holding a chicken over my head, it's just all so familiar. (Yes, I really just typed that.) Perhaps this was meant to be an expansion pack for Majora's Mask? heh.
If I could remove one area from any video game ever, I would remove the vast emptiness of Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time. It was huge for no reason, contained zero enemeis during the day, and a measly three skeletons at night. That field is the boring "quit the game" field as far as I'm concerned. So it was with great excitement that I got to ride a horse basically immediately in this new Zelda. Maybe that meams pointless travel times will be minimized. Cheers to that.
And despite all these minor complaints, cheers to the Wii and to Nintendo.
--Sirlin
November 20th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I haven’t tested the Wii and Zelda yet, but inverted Y axis is like the “normal” thing in Zelda, so that’s probably why they used that nomenclature.
I loved that in Okami, you could invert one axis, both or none. I ended getting used to the default option where the direction you were pressing moved the camera instead of the vision of Ammy, but it was really nice to have those options. A friend of mine, for example, is playing it now with both axis inverted.
What are your thoughts about the pointer not working as it should? I have read many negative comments about that, but most people say it’s due to the average Joe not calibrating the Wiimote.
Anyways, I hate Nintendo for releasing a console with Zelda and thus forcing me to buy it the day it hits the stores. Normally I would wait, but come on, it’s Zelda :(
Now I have to find another game to add to Wii + Zelda + Wii Play. Rayman seems like the best option to me right now.
November 21st, 2006 at 1:27 am
yeah how is the pointer? is Wii going to break the ceiling on console FPS games? no matter how good your game is, when i have to aim with an analog stick it is inherently limited.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:03 am
Always good to hear about the downsides of new technologies rather than just perfect glowing reviews of the upside. While wii sports isn’t enough of a draw for me to buy the system on launch day, I can’t imagine myself not having a wii by the time both Mario and Metroid are out in their latest incarnations.
Oh, and sirlin or anyone else who knows this: Is there a way to make link LEFT HANDED in the wii version? I know its stupid, but right now my primary reason for getting the gamecube version is that I want my link to remain a southpaw. That and as a lefty myself, swinging the sword with the right hand would be ackward.
November 21st, 2006 at 7:32 am
I’m interested to know this too. No where is it mentioned that its possible (from Nintendo Reps in the past and stuff, haven’t seen the manual yet of course). I would have thought that they would’ve done this as an option in the game (This would definitely be an option in most FPS, except Metroid as Samus is always right handed… unless you can be mirror Samus or something).
However, they did mention that they had to mirror the whole world to get the combat to work properly with a right handed Link. Apparently the GC version is mirrored from the Wii version. If this is the case, then I can imagine that it would be too confusing to have the whole game mirrored just for the sake of having your protagonist left handed instead of right.
November 21st, 2006 at 8:10 am
The Wii Sports is nothing more than a tutorial to the new controller, it is not meant to be a “launch title” per say.
November 21st, 2006 at 3:55 pm
I think that a lot of the Wii launch games are just shallow. Wii Sports could have had more features like you mentioned, CoD3 should’ve had multiplayer, Excite Truck’s multiplayer is lacking, lack of voice acting for Trauma Center, the list goes on.
Maybe developers are thinking (although I hope not), “OK, since we have this great new control, we don’t have to put in the time and effort to including standard features.” This really isn’t acceptable, and I won’t be buying some games (like Excite Truck) because of this. I hope that this trend only occurs in the first gen of games, and that developers start adding standard features, instead of only riding the Wii’s new control.
On Zelda, I haven’t played it yet, but I was worried that it would play identical to OoT and WW (both of which played very similarily). Hopefully I’ll still love the game, but I think that Nintendo needs to deviate from the formula to freshen things up (maybe like the time system in MM).
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:32 am
In Wii Sports Tennis, you at least you can choose which side of the court you’re on and which position you’re in by clicking on them. It’s too bad there’s no ‘random’ option, though.
What’s really bothersome about Wii Sports, though, is when we tried the soft controller recalibration so that one person could stop playing, while the controller lights changed, the same physical controller ended up with the same hand colors (so that when “Player 1″ Blue dropped, there was nobody around to mess around with the menu). I’m not sure if we were doing something wrong, but recalibration is definitely unintuitive. That’s a real problem in situations where you want to bring your Wiimote to other people’s houses instead of using their controllers.
At the very least, these launch titles have the excuse of “nobody’s ever tried this before.” The launch titles for the Gamecube, PS2, PS3, XBox, and XBox360 didn’t really have that excuse. It seems like every time you come up with something even remotely new, new interface snafus pop up. We can’t really expect anything different from something completely different. (The game industry always needs to bring in more ‘outside’ testers to make sure interfaces are actually intuitive!)
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:42 pm
1.) “In Wii Tennis, it looks like Player 1 always serves. Shouldn’t it flip a coin or something to see who serves, especially in a 1-game match?”
No, because then if the players _want_ to have a specific one of them serve, they can’t - they’re always at the mercy of chance. Better would be an service option of {player 1, player 2, random}. If that isn’t in there then at least the players can switch remotes or toss a coin themselves for who gets player 1.
2.) “It sounds an awful lot like something went wrong.”
I don’t agree. It’s pure opinion and personal connotation but I think “interrupted” is weak enough that most people (average users included) won’t be alarmed.
3.) “The A button is used to select things and the B button is used for cancel or back. In Zelda, if you press the minus button, you can then assign various items to the d-pad or buttons. On *this* screen, B assigns an item and *A* is used for back. Yes, I see why it’s like that (so you can assign things to B) but it’s just a bit wonky that A becomes back for that screen only.”
One way of looking at that is that A isn’t representing ‘back’, but instead ‘confirm’.
4.) “the game labels the scheme where up looks down “normal” and the scheme where down looks up “inverted.” I think their entire view of y-axes is inverted.”
Do you mean it labels the scheme where down looks down and up looks up inverted? Yes, that is against convention you’re right.
5.) If I could remove one area from any video game ever, I would remove the vast emptiness of Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time. It was huge for no reason, contained zero enemeis during the day, and a measly three skeletons at night. That field is the boring “quit the game” field as far as I’m concerned.
Interesting. When I talk to people about Ocarina of Time, how much they loved the environment of Hyrule Field is usually one of the first things they mention. I like it a lot too and I think it’s because it gives the feeling that the gameworld is bigger than it really is. It increases the belief that the gameworld is real and not just a load of interconnected dungeons. Lake Hylia is much larger than it needs to be too. It’s got a huge expanse of water with nothing happening, but it feels more like a real environment to have the lake a decent, proper size. Also, there are tonnes of secrets around Hyrule field. That’s something I really liked about it, that every nook and cranny has _something_ of interest.
6.) “So it was with great excitement that I got to ride a horse basically immediately in this new Zelda. Maybe that meams pointless travel times will be minimized.”
But that’s what the warp songs on the ocarina were for, surely? You get them only a little after the horse, IIRC.
November 24th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
When Sirlin says:
[quote]
“Comminications with the Wii Remote have been interrupted. Press the A Button without touching the Control Stick to reconnect the Wii Remote.”
My Xbox 360 never gave me any semi-scary messages like that. If I were an averge user, I might not know that message came up simply becaues the remote is trying to save batteries. It sounds an awful lot like something went wrong.
[/quote]
… I totally agree.
Sometimes users freak out because Windows displays confusing messages. Imagine those same people now getting confusing messages on their GAME CONSOLE. Implying that something is “interrupted” might very well trick people into thinking something is wrong, and on top of that, they aren’t supposed to touch the stick, which might lead them to think that they might break something if they DO touch it. It’s totally stupid.
November 28th, 2006 at 1:06 am
“If I could remove one area from any video game ever, I would remove the vast emptiness of Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time. It was huge for no reason, contained zero enemeis during the day, and a measly three skeletons at night. That field is the boring ‘quit the game’ field as far as I’m concerned.”
It’s also worth mentioning that it was where a badass remake of the original Zelda theme should’ve played, but instead we got humdrum garbage.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:27 am
“Comminications with the Wii Remote have been interrupted. Press the A Button without touching the Control Stick to reconnect the Wii Remote.”
That´s bad marketing 101. I’m pretty sure the marketin departament was left out on this (or is a) too weak or b) not too competent). And this is not personal opinion. Any academic or professional will agree, since its soo easy to make a more “user-friendly” message (just type other words).
Maybe the Wii is trying to be the new VCR :)
November 29th, 2006 at 3:04 am
Though I don’t own a Nintendo Wii yet, apparently the swinging action of the remote is not always registered in Zelda and so you might not attack when you want to attack with the sword. If this is true, and however rare it may be, they should have offered a simple calibration routine to understand a player’s choice of how they swing the remote.
November 29th, 2006 at 3:32 am
I don’t understand why inverted y-axis is no longer a standard on all games. I’m glad it is in Nintendo’s first party games, because ever since Halo, the craze has been to ditch inverted controls as the default. Inverted y-axis was prevelant in the 16-bit and 32-bit generations, and I’ve always been curious as to why few people still use it.
I personally prefer the inverted y-axis because of the hundreds of hours I put into Goldeneye. For some reason, inverted was no longer the default in this past generation, and it’s been killing me. My friend handed my the controller for Gears of War the other day and I looked like a big doofus because I kept shooting at the sky.
It’s like flying a plane — down makes you go up, up makes you go down. The choice between standard and inversion is arbitrary, but what boggles me is why inversion is no longer the popular choice, when it was once the only choice on consoles.
November 29th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
damn this being in australia and not knowing about all this for another 7 days.. thankgod my local game store is doing a midnight launch anyway these things aside that error message is probably a poor translation that seem fine when it was in japanese.as for problems with wii sports i don’t thinl nintendo really considers it a game more like a demo cd only for the controller. and finally inverted should be the norm for those who care its because joysticks were at first just for sim games. as such in my opinion all sticks should be inverted and all pads should be none inverted end of story is you don’t like the classics go make love to jar jar.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:34 am
About the Zelda controls: The only time I have ever had trouble attacking was when my sword was still sheathed, and I’m pretty sure those times were my own fault. I’ve learned to draw my sword any time I hear the music indicating that enemies are near, and have had no problems since picking up that habit.
About Hyrule field: The first time you cross it you do have to walk, but every other time I’ve gone through it I’ve had the option of riding my horse or teleporting (I’m 9ish hours in). And charging through the field on your hourse cutting down enemies with your sword without so much as slowing down is actually a lot of fun.
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:37 am
Also my left-handed friend just held the remote in his left hand during the 15-20ish minutes he played it and the game didn’t seem to care at all.
Oh, and Jim:
“3.) “The A button is used to select things and the B button is used for cancel or back. In Zelda, if you press the minus button, you can then assign various items to the d-pad or buttons. On *this* screen, B assigns an item and *A* is used for back. Yes, I see why it’s like that (so you can assign things to B) but it’s just a bit wonky that A becomes back for that screen only.”
One way of looking at that is that A isn’t representing ‘back’, but instead ‘confirm’.”
This is really grasping at straws, especially since the game labels A as “Back” in the screen mentioned.
December 4th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Sirlin: “When I press up, I want to look up (not down!), but I accept some people want the y-axis inverted, so ok.”
I’m used to playing flight simulation games, so the default Y-Axis is intuitive for me. Just imagine Link’s head balanced on top of the control stick. When you pull the stick back, the head looks up, therefore you look up in the game; when you push the stick forward, the head looks down.
Of course, it’s a good thing that there’s an option to switch the Y-Axis, or we’d never hear the end of it.
~Avatar Z
(PS: On a semi-unrelated note, you should play Okami if you haven’t done so already. I’m interested in your thoughts on that game)
December 6th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Question to those who have played twilight princess… how much slow scrolling text is there? You know, the text where you cant hit a button to make it all display, and it comes out one letter or word at a time. Slow scrolling text pretty much killed Okami for me. Fun game, but come on guys I can read.
Just a little pet peeve of mine.
December 8th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Finally got my Wii last Thursday (thanks to Spanish retailers completely ignoring launch dates and consequently turning Wii into the first console with no stock left before launch). I love it and I love Zelda. Textures are blurry, there are edges everywhere and it looks really bad on my HDTV, but with its really unique artistic direction I tend to forget about that. I’m currently in the third dungeon and, while I haven’t played Zelda since the N64, I’m enjoying it a lot, even more than OoT. Dungeons have been really funny, although not much challenging, and the Twilight Realm makes for a good change, even after playing Okami and being a little weary of the adventure wolf. And I love Midna, a huge improvement after the annoying Navi.
Controls are OK. They don’t add much, but certainly the game doesn’t feel worse with the Wiimote.
The biggest disappointment to me are some animations, like jumping link or running wolf. Maybe it’s just me, but they feel really unnatural.
The bad thing is there are no games I’m interested in the launch window apart from Zelda and Wario Ware. I would have bought Rayman, but nunchuks are completely sold out here, as well as classic controllers, separate Wiimotes, and everything except Wii Play. Nintendo should have been more prepared for a launch like this, because the lack of peripherals and cables (both RGB and component) is annoying.
Dilpil: 0, you can skip the scrolling of every text.
December 30th, 2006 at 4:22 am
The travel in Zelda was designed excellently. You are required to cross part of Hyrule Field on foot once in the entire game. You get the horse very early. There are also portals which you can warp to from most places. These are great, as they provide an alternative to the horse if you are in a hurry. But riding the horse is so fun that I often travel on horseback out of choice rather than use a portal. So there are almost zero pointless travel times, and there are a good deal of enemies in Hyrule Field.
Also, Hyrule Field is GIGANTIC, though there are sections connected by narrow canyons, presumably for loading times.