Three years after the launch of the Nintendo Wii, I think most of us are able to admit that motion controls are not a fad that will disappear overnight. Nintendo has had incredible success with their system and now Microsoft and Sony both have motion-based peripherals on the horizon for 2010.

But motion-based gameplay is tricky business. Much like the strange features of the DS (two screens, microphone, touch screen, etc.), it has taken time for developers to learn how to develop different kinds of games that make use of these strange and exciting new input devices.

Many developers map what could easily have been a button press to a quick motion. This is often referred to as “waggle” and is considered the lowest, most basic form of motion control. While often times waggle can feel imprecise and unnecessary, this isn’t always the case.

Take Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition for example. In the original version, slashing your knife was a matter of holding an aiming button that differed from your gun aiming button and pressing another button. It was pretty cumbersome for such a simple action. Making effective use of waggle, the Wii version lets you slash in the direction of the nearest enemy by simply performing a quick slash motion with the wiimote. Rather than having to remember the multiple buttons required, I always knew I could easily slash with my knife/wiimote if I was in a pinch.

The other use waggle can have is to enhance immersion. What’s more convincing: trying to shake a zombie off of you by tapping a button, or by… well, shaking. These kinds of controls don’t necessarily make the game any easier to play, but can make the experience all the more satisfying when done properly. While the Wii iteration of Punch-Out!! is great when played with the wiimote on its side, I found it more rewarding to interrupt Great Tiger’s “Magic Rushing Attack” with a punch that I threw with my own arm.

The IR sensor is something that isn’t really new. Gameplay that used the DS’s touch screen has been seen duplicated on the Wii in the Trauma Center series. Going even further back, the IR sensor isn’t really all that different from using a mouse on a PC. I suppose what makes the IR sensor notable is that it allows you to have control similar to a mouse in addition to the ergonomic button layouts of a console controller rather than being accompanied by a keyboard whose identically shaped buttons you will usually only need a small portion of.

What I’m really interested to see, is how more advanced motion controls will be used in the future. Games like Boom Blox (which came out even before the Wii’s Motion+ attachment) have already shown off some of the more unique and innovative methods of using motion controls in ways that couldn’t easily be replicated by buttons.

Wii Sports Resort in particular contained several mini-games with near 1:1 motion control that I would love to see fleshed out into more in-depth experiences. Take the sword dueling for example. The speed and angle in which you slashed was all taken into account as well as the angle in which you attempted to block. I can only hope that the upcoming Zelda title for Wii expands on these types of concepts to create something that couldn’t have existed without motion-based gameplay.

This is exactly my point. For the most part, many (though not all) of the games we have seen thus far have only modified (for better or worse) existing game archetypes with the addition of motion controls. But with Motion+, Project Natal, and Sony’s motion controller (whatever they’re calling it), the possibilities for new types of gameplay that previously couldn’t exist has been opened up.

I sincerely hope that all three companies take full advantage of their respective technologies and create some truly unique and innovative experiences. At the same time, I expect button-based gameplay to always remain a large part of gaming. I’m glad there are games like Muramasa alongside WarioWare Smooth Moves on the same platform and I don’t see that sort of thing changing in the future.

Tags: motion controls, project natal, Punch-Out!, Wii, wii motion +, Wii Sports Resort

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.