Official Nintendo Fanboy Smugness & Gloating Thread

[Samus]

The latest Mario Galaxy vid, shows the robot boss scene, high quality clip!

[starshipcommand]

Think about it. For a sword fighting game, or the Llamasoftie most wanted light-saber game, you'll have a set of moves to call on by gesturing with the Remote. A couple of blocks, heavy, medium, and light attacks. It's not going to represent you free-styling with a virtual sword, rather you'll be triggering a preset animation from the available moves.

I'm seeing that as a glorified way of pressing buttons, and from reading the hands-on impressions the sports games are the same.

Instead of mimicking every movement of your hand (something that is done in Nintendo Baseball), Red Steel instead waits for a full action to be done with the Wii-mote, and then executes it on screen. What this means, however, is that it is simply simulating a button press.

Dunno about anyone else, but I find this a bit depressing... what's the point in having this hardware if you're just emulating button presses and not going to use it properly?

I suppose it's down to the software authors rather than Nintendo though, but still...

[Nixie]

Looks fresh like mario 64 was back in the day, And the graphics are super!

[Rod_S]

More on Red Steel from Games Radar:

Putting the two elements together took some time - not only because this was the first time we'd played an FPS in such a way, but also because the aiming isn't as instinctive as we'd hoped. You have to hold the remote a long way out in front of you while making highly exaggerated movements. The result is that you're constantly making readjustments to hit the target which means your arm soon gets tired.

The sword fighting section was far more satisfactory than the previous shooting bit, mainly as you can move the remote more freely. What was noticeable, though, was that the movement of the sword on-screen didn't always replicate the movement you made with the remote, which suggests there's a finite number of programmed moves which can be activated. Also, all of the attacks were slashes, as you aren't able to lunge or stab with the sword.

Overall it was an interesting - if unwieldy - experience and raises a few questions that we'll put to the developer in our meeting with them later this week.

[Mr Meow]

All I can say we all gonna be standing up Wii-ing. no pund intended a lot. You really can't sit down and play this thing on sofa. first the telly would have to be the right height. 2nd you couldn't even much on muchies on your lap from a big bowl either while on the sofa (phew that was a mouth fall). Still I'm a little Intriged. dispite all the negative stuff I said.
.

[Samus]

More on Red Steel from Games Radar:

Putting the two elements together took some time - not only because this was the first time we'd played an FPS in such a way, but also because the aiming isn't as instinctive as we'd hoped. You have to hold the remote a long way out in front of you while making highly exaggerated movements. The result is that you're constantly making readjustments to hit the target which means your arm soon gets tired.

I watched a lot of people play Red Steel. A lot of people. At first, everybody extended their arms far from their body, as if they were holding a firearm. This is known as the "wrong" or "stupid" way of playing Red Steel. I did it too, mind you, at Tokyo Game Show when I played the Metroid demo. But eventually one begins to realize that you don't have to wave your arms wildly -- you can just hold the controller like you would hold any normal game controller, and aim all over the screen with minimal wrist movement.

It took about one time through the shooting gallery to get totally acclimated to aiming. At first, it's easy to struggle with the controls and have trouble hitting targets. But something truly amazing happens after about five minutes. You get good. I mean, you get real good -- better than you could possibly imagine being with analog sticks or (dare I say it?) a mouse.

The second or third time I went through the demo, I was picking off targets instantaneously, one after the other. If five targets popped up all over the screen, I took them out with five bullets in two seconds. Once you really become comfortable with the Wii remote, you'll start to amaze yourself with what's possible.

In the demo, you could also jump and crouch using the shoulder buttons on the left-hand "nunchuck" attachment. The A button on the main part's face put you into a lock-on mode where you could aim at any part of the screen without your character turning to the side -- helpful for intricate shooting sections. The Select button crashed the demo. I had fun with that one.

http://blog.wired.com/games/index.blog?entry_id=1473339



Btw. wonder if the lock-on mode is similar to the way FPS games work with mouse controls?

[Bubba]

This is really interesting - looks like it really works for some people, and not so much for others. Very interested to get my hands on one now. Then take it apart and figure out what the fuck is going on

Cheers

Bubba

[Samus]

Yep, it is quite strange..

Right now I think the problem is in Red Steel, seeing as in the Duck Hunt demo video the aiming looks very fast, easy and precise and the Metroid videos are almost all good control-wise except for that one guy who was shooting and jumping all over the place. Maybe it was RevStu using the dual analogues instead

[ThetaReactor]

More on Red Steel from Games Radar:

Putting the two elements together took some time - not only because this was the first time we'd played an FPS in such a way, but also because the aiming isn't as instinctive as we'd hoped. You have to hold the remote a long way out in front of you while making highly exaggerated movements. The result is that you're constantly making readjustments to hit the target which means your arm soon gets tired.

I watched a lot of people play Red Steel. A lot of people. At first, everybody extended their arms far from their body, as if they were holding a firearm. This is known as the "wrong" or "stupid" way of playing Red Steel. I did it too, mind you, at Tokyo Game Show when I played the Metroid demo. But eventually one begins to realize that you don't have to wave your arms wildly -- you can just hold the controller like you would hold any normal game controller, and aim all over the screen with minimal wrist movement.

It took about one time through the shooting gallery to get totally acclimated to aiming. At first, it's easy to struggle with the controls and have trouble hitting targets. But something truly amazing happens after about five minutes. You get good. I mean, you get real good -- better than you could possibly imagine being with analog sticks or (dare I say it?) a mouse.

The second or third time I went through the demo, I was picking off targets instantaneously, one after the other. If five targets popped up all over the screen, I took them out with five bullets in two seconds. Once you really become comfortable with the Wii remote, you'll start to amaze yourself with what's possible.

In the demo, you could also jump and crouch using the shoulder buttons on the left-hand "nunchuck" attachment. The A button on the main part's face put you into a lock-on mode where you could aim at any part of the screen without your character turning to the side -- helpful for intricate shooting sections. The Select button crashed the demo. I had fun with that one.

http://blog.wired.com/games/index.blog?entry_id=1473339



Btw. wonder if the lock-on mode is similar to the way FPS games work with mouse controls?

Sounds more like the lock-on mode is similar to a light-gun. Locks the viewpoint, allowing you to point and click without your character [and, relatively, the target] moving.

This is very, very unlike the way I play a mouse/keyboard FPS. I don't just zip the mouse over to the target and shoot. I tend to move the mouse in small arcs and use movement and sidesteps to zero in, then fire when the cursor sweeps over the target.

[Snakey]

The problem is that the damn thing doesn't work like everybody expects it to.

you can just hold the controller like you would hold any normal game controller, and aim all over the screen with minimal wrist movement

That is exactly how it works. Waving it about does not work.

It's not a software issue.

The worst part is, though, that it's Nintendos fault that everybody gets this wrong, because they've been showing stuff with people waving the damn thing about since it was first revealed So, it's only natural that people expect it to work that way.

The whole thing with 'slashing' etc. is the same damn thing - the controller can't really do that. All it can see is that it's been moved really quickly across the screen. This is why you're hearing 'simulating a button press' - because that's pretty much all you can get out of it if you use it this way. Very little information of any use.

More games that use it sensibly and it'll be fine.

...and Kudos to them for not using the bloody thing in Smash Bros.

[zbandito]

The Wiimote currently uses AA batteries, which I thought was an enormous faux pas. The remote uses Bluetooth to communicate with the console, IR to determine distance from the screen and where you’re aiming, and a series of gyroscopes and accelerometers to figure out what the hell you’re doing. It’s ridiculously accurate and has a blue LED on it, too. And a joystick. And rumbling force-feedback. While they assured me that they were told the controller batteries should last the entire week, they weren’t able to say how long the batteries would last on average (depends on gameplay, and they just didn’t know) and commented that allowing a rechargeable system as an accessory is a definite possibility.

http://www.coveringe3.com/index.php/e3/ ... 511060329/

[Snakey]

Yes, its a subtle but very genius idea.
I bet in a generations time, people will say it was an "obvious" invention.

Woah, calm down there.

The Dreamcast had full control over the speaker in the VMU, which, being PWM, was capable of pretty much anything. Nobody bothered apart from making the odd simple beep after a savegame had been saved.

Sony planned to pretty much rip off the whole VMU idea, but didn't bother, probably because it made far less sense when the memory card slots weren't in the controller. But that would have no doubt had similar possibilities.

The Xbox and the Xbox360 both have their headsets, which gives you a speaker in each controller.

Not exactly a new invention, and, it would seem, it's fairly "obvious"

But..no mic mentioned yet :-/[

Yeah, that's surprising. Far more useful than a speaker. But I'd be very surprised if it doesn't end up with one.

[Anders]

The latest Mario Galaxy vid, shows the robot boss scene, high quality clip!

That looks really great.

[Snakey]

Question for somebody who's been following E3 more closely than I have time to:

Mario Wotsit. That very first vid, the very first part of it.

Are there a lot of levels like that in the thing? Because if there are, and it's a bit more difficult than Mario64, but not as fucking annoying as Sunshine, I might be all over that.

I'm not so sure about the bouncing around planets stuff, though... but given the name theres probably a LOT of that...

[namor7]

Just check out that hd vid Samus posted above. Wow

My brother called me a minute ago. He's not a gamer. He said all he keeps hearing about on the net is how Wii took over the show and he called cause he knew I was into it. Looks like the word's starting to spread.