Nintendo MotionPlus hands-on: blah.
By Ryan Block 
posted Jul 16th 2008 4:27PM
posted Jul 16th 2008 4:27PM
It's a tricky issue -- gyros, relational movement, real-space, accelerometers, etc., and we've already got the take of the company that helped Nintendo produce the hardware. We also asked the booth rep to explain why we needed the MotionPlus for Sports Resort. Not just because the software requires it, but why it NEEDS it, and not just a regular Wiimote. We were told that with previous Wii Sports games, players could kind of get by with a waggle (this is where he started gesticulating with some what random movements), but now you could play all this crazy stuff, like swords and jet skis.
Earlier we asserted that it felt like most of this could be accomplished with a regular Wiimote -- or what the Wiimote originally promised. That may or may not be the case -- it's hard to say for sure what Nintendo's built-in accelerometers are truly capable of, although we're supposed to take it that this level of motion control isn't in spec. The gyroscopic relational movement MotionPlus is supposed to add just didn't really seem to build on that experience. to make it more accurate and effective in real space.
So why not move to improve the Wiimote's native experience instead of trying to hock another $30 accessory? When you're basing your titles on motion control, changing your system's motion control capabilities strikes us as a monumentally bad idea. What's worse, it strikes us like Nintendo's charging consumers to make good on what we were supposed to be getting in the first place. As of right now, we'll pass -- at least until Nintendo can really bring it home as to why this is the next important thing.
I was hoping this wasn't the case...but in the back of my mind...I was guessing this would be the case.
Your post seems pointless... kind of like a "First Post"
Anyway, whatever. I get the feeling this is one of those addons that requires decent developer support. Somehow, I doubt that's going to happen.
Yeah... developers can't figure out what to do with the motion stuff NOW, adding "more precision" is just going to result in "more precise crappy controls".
@Bryant: WTF is your problem? Like you offered anything to the table? Not that it matters at all anyway, but you said almost the exact same thing as Ramifications. Oh, and he didn't say first, but you kind of did. F$@# off, jerk.
What I meant was... when I first heard about it, I was afraid it was kind of a gimmick, but was hoping it wouldn't be... then joystiq reviewed it and based on this post, essentially confirmed those fears.
You made perfectly good sense, Rami.
Not really. Nintendo is selling it with a "Wii" game. Does that make it a gimmick? THINK PEOPLE. What are close to the 3 top selling games right now?
Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit.
Why do "hardcore" games hate these games? Because casual yuppies eat this up like crack cocaine.
But you act like this is a bad thing. Hello!! Wake up and smell the strategy. This allows 1:1 motion. What have hardcore gamers been clamoring for? 1:1 motion.
Nintendo just gave it to you. Oh but wait, in order for developers to actually USE it, we're going to need to make sure it gets set as a standard.
But how can they possibly make such a small little addon a standard? Oh yeah, by packaging it with a "Wii" titled game that every casual consumer eats up like slow kids eating glue and playdough.
This is an obvious strategy by nintendo to ensure that the thing the hardcore gamers have been clamoring for will actually get supported by the casual crowd, which will in turn ensure that developers will see enough of these things getting bought to warrant making a game that supports this stuff.
Otherwise your precious "1:1!" would fall to the wayside.
Besides, I'm willing to bet that half the reason developers were having trouble with motion controls is because they couldn't get the precision they needed with that missing axis. By having this in place, developers won't have to sacrifice precise movement controls to make up for that, which should make it easier for developers to use motion controls without it feeling like "tacked on waggle"
So seriously, quit complaining or doomsaying so we can actually get 1:1. If you were that much of a casual gamer that you can't recognize the ability to flail around in Wii Tennis, then you wouldn't be commenting on a blog about this. Those that are casual enough to think Wii Tennis plays just like real tennis will still buy this game just because it has "Wii" in the title. Hardcore gamers can buy it because it has 1:1 in the description.
I'll save everyone the time of actually reading these 100+ comments. Engadget failed on reporting this thing. It does work, and it provides much more accuracy to the wiimotes motion-sensing. It will sell like hotcakes because it is bundled with another Wii Sports game which will make it one of the biggest if not the biggest sellers yet for the system.
Yes, Nintendo releases a crazy amount of peripherals, but they always have -- power glove, ROB, etc. The point of the Wii console is to change the way people interact with the game which pretty much requires different input devices. That is their strategy and it is working. They will keep creating and selling peripherals and people will continue to buy them.
"Yes, Nintendo releases a crazy amount of peripherals, but they always have -- power glove, ROB, etc."
Why does everyone always think Nintendo made the power glove?
No, they did not design and manufacture it, but it was an official licensed peripheral. Small distinction IMO but you are right.
With the current Wiimote, it's not possible to do the sword fighting. There's no way the system can accurately predict where you're holding the sword.
With the MotionPlus, the on-screen sword can follow exactly how you move the Wiimote.
Do you understand now?
"The remote still won't know its true position in space."
This was posted by sswift on ve3d:
"If it does what it says on the box, this would be revolutionary. But I suspect what we're going to get is more trickery.
For those keeping score at home, the WiiMote contains an accelerometer, and an infrared camera:
wiili.org/Wiimote
The accelerometer is what tells it when you are swinging it about or shaking it. It is offset from the center of the remote, which allows it to also detect rotation on a couple axes to a limited degree. The infrared camera is used when you point the remote at the screen. By noting the location of the two infrared led's in the "sensor bar" you can determine where on the screen you're pointing, and whether you're rotating your wrist around the screen's central axis.
What this MotionPlus accessory likely adds is a gyroscope. This gyroscope would tell the Wiimote what orientation it is being held in. By combining this information with the information from the accelerometer, they could truly tell a golf swing from a simple shake of the controller.
But this is still a trick. The remote still won't know its true position in space. It will have the information it needs to calculate that, but since it's passive detection based on acceleration and rotation values, it will be subject to drift, and won't be entirely accurate. But it will still be a hell of a lot more accurate than what we have now.
One thing does concern me though. That thing plugs into the nunchuck port, and I don't see another plug on it for the nunchuck. If they don't announce a wireless nunchuck, then that means you won't be able to use this new addon and the nunchuck at the same time. And that means that while this addon would allow you to swing a sword much more accurately, you won't have the ability to move around as easily as you could in Zelda with the stick.
The fact that this device isn't integrated into a WiiMote II would seem to confirm these fears. There's no need to integrate it into a new Wiimote if you can't use it with the nunchuck and games won't be able to use both devices at the same time.
So in summary... This little gadget will likely make motion detection on the Wii more accurate. Our Wii baseball bats won't jiggle about anymore. But we still won't have the revolutionary device which knows its exact position and orientation in space at all times with the kind of precision that would allow a character onscreen to perfectly mimic your sword swings.
Don't get me wrong; it should allow you to swing diagonally, or do an overhead chop; but if you start holding the sword diagonal and off to one side in front of you like when blocking with a light saber, that's when it's likely to screw up."
You can golf -- same holding position, same motion, just down instead of up. You can play tennis, too -- again, same motion. This stuff is all familiar, we're not seeing how the MotionPlus is necessary.
It's pretty clear that the current wimote does not know if you are pointing it down or up on a golf swing, in other words it knows only relative position. The sensor bar allows it some sense of absolute position but I can't imagine it is very good and it really isn't as anyone who's played Wii boxing can tell you.
With 2 gyroscopes at different positions on the remote its ability to track absolute motion is enhanced.
So, genius, what happens when you swing the sword and your on-screen character's sword hits an object while you swing through it? Make it as accurate as you want, 1:1 sword fighting does not work.
Do YOU understand now?
@CarlM: Wrong. This is just more accelerometers. This does not help with absolute positioning at ALL. The current accelerometers can already give controller orientation and motion. Adding more is not going to give you absolute positioning: to do that, you STILL need an origin mapped. If this was some neat RF device that triangulated controller position without having it face the screen, THEN it would do what you say.
As it stands, it's complete BS. I wouldn't be surprised to have someone open one up and find nothing in there but a chip that says "user paid $30, enable game".
It does use a gyroscope. A tuning fork gyroscope, to be precise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrating_structure_gyroscope#Tuning_fork_gyroscope
The Wiimote by itself has an accelerometer and the IR camera. The IR camera only works when it's pointed at the sensor bar, so for the most part it can't help very much.
Let's review what an accelerometer is. Imagine a lead weight that's suspended in the air by a couple of springs pulling in opposite directions. Add some sensors above and below the weight that tell you how close the weight is to the sensors, do the same for the left & right sides, and for the front & back sides. The sensors are all attached to a fixed framework that is then attached to the Wiimote.
If you don't shake the accelerometer, it can tell you which direction is down. If you SLOWLY rotate it, the weight will always shift downward, so you can detect tilt. (Note that it cannot detect yaw, or a twist around a vertical axis.)
If you quickly move the accelerometer, it can detect a jerk and the direction thereof. However, once the weight starts to bounce around, it is no longer possible to detect tilt. The problem is that you have two forces acting on it (gravity plus the user's force on the Wiimote) and there's no way to tell the two apart. You can measure one or the other, but not both at the same time.
To repeat, it's simply NOT POSSIBLE to track general motion using only an accelerometer. No amount of software refinement will help.
To track general motion, you must have additional data from additional hardware sensors. The MotionPlus adds three gyros, which are MUCH more complicated (and expensive) devices than accelerometers. (Cheap decent gyros simply did not exist until this past year.)
A common rate gyro will tell you how quickly an object is rotating around a given axis. You need 3 of them to measure how an object is rotating in 3D. This information allows you to measure tilt at all times, and thus you can take the accelerometer data and separate out the gravity force from the user force and measure how the overall device is being moved.
Of course, even this is not perfect, due to "drift", measurement inaccuracies, range limitations, callibration, and other issues. But at least it makes the formerly impossible now somewhat possible.
So if the Wiimote seemed to track motion "pretty well" before, you can bet that (1) you weren't paying that close attention, or (2) the actual motion being tracked was very limited, and (2) the programmers were struggling with the limits from the little data they had available.
With the data from the new sensor, it will be interesting to see what kind of new gameplay comes up. Obviously you can do things like a realistic tennis simulation, where it now matters exactly how hard you swing and at what angle you hold the racket. But I'm hoping to see even more innovative things that we haven't even imagined yet.
Remember Baseball in Wii Sports? How when batting you can move the bat around, and it's almost 1:1?
Yeah, the swordfighting doesn't look much different from that.
@Ryan
Yeah, because judging an entire peripheral with a blasé review that's based entirely off of "Wii Sports" is a great idea.
It's clear the Wiimote alone has a pretty rudimentary sensor. Turn it around too far in Mario Kart Wii and the game will think you're steering the other way.
It's pretty simple to realize that getting twice the data, and from opposite ends of the Wiimote is going to give you more precise positioning, tracking, orientation, rotation, etc, as opposed to what the Wiimote does now.... which is called "guessing".
@Hold
I'm not sure I've ever played a game where the sword can actually get stuck on things, but if it's a true 1:1 experience aren't you going to be able to tell when you should stop swinging? :)
Besides, I'm pretty sure the Wii is too slow to be able to compute collision detection without, you know, looking like you're playing N64. *oh snap*
@ myself
My first comment is to RYAN BLOCK, not the Ryan above me. Sorry Ryan above me.
@Podaman
There is a port for the nunchuck. It was being used with a nunchuck at the press conference.
@Podaman:
Like Joseph says, the MotionPlus has a pass-through port on the bottom for the nunchuk. You can see the port cover on one of the pictures in Engadget's post.
@Ryan
You are so damn clueless it's amazing. Do you realise that the Wii doesn't know when you're holding the wiimote on the left side of your body, or the right, above or below?.
Hold the wiimote level, slowly turn it left and the Wii doesn't know your doing it. Unless you tilt it, the wii is clueless. It's all different now.
"One thing does concern me though. That thing plugs into the nunchuck port, and I don't see another plug on it for the nunchuck. If they don't announce a wireless nunchuck, then that means you won't be able to use this new addon and the nunchuck at the same time. And that means that while this addon would allow you to swing a sword much more accurately, you won't have the ability to move around as easily as you could in Zelda with the stick."
You can attach the nunchuck, that's how Reggie played the jetski game.
I think the drift would be solved with usual pointing at the center of the screen (like at the show) .
@Hold: Make the controller rumble when it hits. If you stop moving the sword in response, you parry and can bring it back for another blow. If you keep moving it forward, your opponent slips past your defense and slashes you.
Unfortunately, many a people will fall for this and buy it.... regardless of the accessory's pointlessness
You should have said "Unless StarWars will not support it - it's useless."
That's the way it is. From all it looks, N responded to request to implement proper light saber ;)
Ugh, you just called me out. I went and put in my order and I don't even own a Wii... the shame.
But it is so true.
So is this incremental controller upgrade $30 or $15 like "G" reported? Huge difference, but overpriced either way. :op
It's not really pointless. It should make the Wiimote much more accurate. See the posts above you.
On that note, why not refine the control scheme and sensitivity on the Wiimote? Sure, I like the idea of MotionPlus (true motion sensitivity), but if this is something that can be done using software updates, then I agree, this is a ripoff.
However, MotionPlus probably tightens up control by adding that extra sensor to be more dimensionally precise. If this is probably the case, then the $30 is justified. And who knows, maybe this Wii Sports Resort game just really sucks?
The Wiimote only has linear accelerometers and one optical sensor, which is good enough for detecting simple linear movements, but not angular movements. Hence, no game has properly implemented swordplay on the the Wii.
I would assume that the MotionPlus has a tuning fork gyroscope built-in to handle this.
It just adds more weight to your Wii so there's a higher chance the wrist strap will break and it'll shatter your 2000 dollar TV.
Wiimote*, that is.
Yo Batman, wazzup? How's your paren.... Uhm.. bye!
Yay, now we can get our wiimote condoms in magnum size!
I bet if you open it up you'll find some rocks in it.
You mean like crack..? Damn. Then this moiton+ just has to work!
It's got a more accurate reading on what's going on with the WiiMote... my guess is that when you would flick the WiiMote now, it registers as a movement and swings your tennis racket (for example). Now, the MotionPlus requires the full movement for the swing to register; having the user do an actual swing. The reason our reviewers didn't notice the difference is probably because they already play the Wii like you're supposed to, and that is, not flicking the remote to accomplish a full swing.
Dan,
I agree with you. I think this will make the lazy couch bowlers actually get off the couch and actually move more then their wrists to score 300.
Just another way to try and charge me for Wii Jackets.
*rolls eyes*
the jackets are included
well thats a not encouraging
Bigger is better, right?
the current wiimote doesnt trasmit the twisting motion if u hold the controller on the same y and x axis while twisting. the motionplus accessory will allow for this detection.
This kind of crap is what is making me hate my wii. So many addons that you need to purchase just to use a game. The wii seemed such low price but now compared to other consoles its a rip off specially after purchasing 3 other remotes and ninchucks. Now they expect 4 wii motion sensors to play one game?? Lets release a device that will make the wii remote do what it should have been able to do already. Nintendo is making a fortune for only 3-4 games that people actually play. Which all suck for online with 4 players. Why cant you play with all 4 people from a wii online with mario kart or supersmash???? Im giving up on the wii and it needs a price cut and dvd playback or im gonna start using it as a paper weight. And accesories need to be cut in price by half.
Yeah I agree. With all the accessories and add-ons people buy for the Wii the price starts getting close to the cost of the 360 and PS3.
Quit your bitching. You have to buy extra controllers for all the other systems too. You're not saving any money by buying one of them over a Wii.
"Im giving up on the wii and it needs a price cut and dvd playback or im gonna start using it as a paper weight."
So if they don't cut the retail price on the Wii you're going to stop using yours? How does that make any sense at all? And why are people so bent out of shape that the Wii doesn't play DVD movies? Most people (especially gamers) already have multiple boxes hooked up to their TV that will play DVD's. Including, *GASP*, a DVD player! Why on earth would you feel the need to cry for another?
@Miguel
Are you comparing the Wii + accessories to the base price of the Xbox and PS3? In case you have forgotten, neither come complete with four controllers, or any other accessories you may need (if your not buying a MotionPlus or a Nunchuck for the Wii, your buying a headset, recharge station, text pad, or Xbox Live Vision camera for the Xbox 360).
No use in comparing the one to the others.
Both the Wii Wheel and the Wii Zapper thing come with games, as will the MotionPlus. Stop complaining. If you watched the Wii Sports Resort E3 Presentation video and you didn't think you need an extra accelerometer to pull off the accuracy that was being shown when Cammie was twisting the frisbee with her whole arm, then you've never played Wii Sports Baseball and watched the bat as you tried to move it. It jiggles like hell as it tries to predict where your arm is.
Also, just asking, couldn't this theoretically eliminate the need for a sensor bar?
I totally agree. Sure, the accessories come with the game, but for multiplayer (which puts the WE in WII) requires dishing out for three more extra accessories, e.g wheels, motion plus modules.
A Nunchuk and Remote combo is a damn sight more expensive than an extra 360 pad, let alone all the attachments. The 360/PS3 pads need no extra accessories. Sure the 360 pad might need a recharge kit but hey so does the Wii!
I dig the whole casual thing, it's great. But going beyond the balance board and wheel will start turning people off. It will confuse casuals "Whats this for? What do I need to play my game? Oh, I need to buy more to play multiplayer"
Wii was about simplicty and now the slew of extras is eroding that original vision. IMO Remote, Nunchuk, board would be fantastic. No extras, leave it at that.
@Tim:
The Xbox 360 comes with a headset, you have to buy a recharger for the Wiimote too, the textpad is completely optional (you can just use the on-screen keyboard), and even mentioning the Xbox Live *camera* is really showing how desperate you are to force a point that isn't there.
The nunchuks and MotionPlus adapters will be required for some games and you have to purchase the Wii microphone separately.
@Tim
No, you will still need the sensor bar. One function of the sensor bar is to provide a reference so that the Wiimote knows that it is being pointed at the TV. This function, at least, cannot be duplicated by a new set of gyros or accelerometers as they have no way of interpreting orientation relative to another object.
Yeah, I agree. Seems kind of pointless. I dont think many people will buy it.
Older games can't use it?
So much for finally being able to putt in Wii Sports...
As it is, all the Wiimote can really detect is acceleration. That doesn't allow for much more than waggle controls, as it has almost no way to determine it's postion in space or rotation. This was necessary to attain as close to 1:1 control as possible, since it allows for much better detection of position and rotation.
Besides, wouldn't you rather pay $30(if it's that much. They never named a price) than pay $40 for a brand new Wiimote?
They're going to pack it in with WiiSports Resort, aren't they? So bingo there's about 10 million of them in the hands of WiiOwners, right off the bat.
They really should make a WiiMote2 however that comes with this tech built into it.
Put in a golf or baseball game and you've differentiated yourself, big time.
Too bad Nintendo was too paranoid to share this with some of their closest 3rd party devs in advance so they could take advantage of it earlier.
Still, it's not pointless it will become common with WiiSports Resort (unless I'm totally off base with the pack-in thing, then fail music, please.).
Stick an APPLE logo on it and this place would be praising it.
While I agree, I have a hard time picturing Apple doing something like this.
True... Apple would just upgrade the software and add email, and make you pay $10 for it.
I was going to say the exact same thing...
totally...
Spot on, it's a shame but Engadget has become a little bit fanboyish itself, it supports Apple and all it's ventures plus it seems to love everything that the Xbox team produce.
That's what i'm thinking to because ign loves it as well.They even have video of them playing the sword fighting game and the movements are 1:1 to me or they are pretty damn close.
Nintendo can add a motor on their wiimote and gesticulate it up their alley and see how much that improves their quality of gaming. I don't care for accesories is the part where you have to have it to play a game that gets me.
go read the impressions on other sites. they all say this is what the Wii remote should have been when it first came out. don't listen to this engadget impression. i guarantee that there is no way the original wii remote could detect the subtle movements that are being detected in wii sports resort.
just watch IGNs sword-play video with the guy in the video. the response is nearly instantaneous, and it's ACCURATE. no more waggle, you actually have to do the movements. no more shake wiimote for a canned animation, that won't work anymore. This is what most of us dreamed about when the remote was announced, and it's finally here. i'm excited.
Awesome, now my minigame collections are going to be so much more fulfilling!
Yup i agree i don't know what they played.All i know is that i have a wii and i play alot of wiisports and the closes thing to 1:1 was baseball and that wasn't even close.There is no way the normal wiimote could get 1:1 with out this hardware.
The real question is, will Nintendo make this a mandatory accessory by requiring it for their future first party games? It really seems like it would undercut their cheap and simple vibe, but on the other hand, if they don't support it, nobody else will.
And, when XBox and PS3 release their rumored competing motion wands, will they including this functionality?
Can we call them something more manly than wands?
You know, we could, but I was hoping to keep Sigmund Freud out of this.
if it helps accuracy for FPS games on the wii and other devs support it, it may work out well. guess we will have to wait.
by 09 all the games ill need by Q2 '09 they'll have a new wiimote that will have this feature integrated.
They played that jetski game yesterday with the knumbchuck but I still have yet to see any pictures of the remote with the wiimotion connecting to the knumbchuck....
The motion plus has alittle flap in the back i'm assuming that is to connect the nunchuck.
This is so very Nintendo.
Reminds me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:N64-4MB_expansion1.jpg
I don't mind that Engadget didn't like the new add-on, but I do agree that their coverage of such a major peripheral is remarkably shoddy. If you're going to get a hands-on look at one of the biggest stories to come out of E3, you ought to do better than an incoherent two-paragraph rant. In one sentence, Ryan seems to have noticed a difference; in the next sentence, he didn't. And I have a hard time believing that the Nintendo rep was as ignorant and incomprehensible as the post made him/her out to be.
That "other" tech site published a thoughtful article that took the time to offer a thorough evaluation of the MotionPlus mechanics and to place the MotionPlus in historical context.
It's very unusual for Engadget to be outdone by its peer sites on such a fundamental piece of gadget news. Given the dearth of big news coming out of this year's E3, I think it's an obvious call to dedicate a little more care to the MotionPlus report, whether the verdict is positive or negative.
Or maybe you both can except the fact that the big N just wants your money and puts out crap accessories to take your money :).
It was plainly obvious what they were saying.
It shows slight improvements in games (that require) where it can measure more movement, but nothing fanatically different that the wiimote couldnt do before. In other words nintendo put this crap out to sell maybe 4-5 first party developer company games and make another quick buck.
The review seemed very on point. Its a waste of money, just like the other crap they announced, the wiispeak.
Hello? Remember how you felt when Zelda sword swinging wasn't 1:1 but it was still an amazing game??? I'd have no problem paying $30 for a little 1:1 action.
"I'd have no problem paying $30 for a little 1:1 action."
That sounds like something you'd say when you're desperate for sex.
From the pictures in the gallery it looks like the nunchuk will still plug into the bottom of all this
Honestly, this is why I've stopped using the system. I absolutely love the idea behind it, but every time I try to play a Wii game, I just end up frustrated. It never feels like I'm particularly in control of what's going on; I can do all sorts of things, and the response on-screen remains the same.
A lot of people harp on the graphics being behind the times. And sure, they're not fantastic, but it's not something I even notice most of the time. It's the control that lets me down every time.
Hands up who thought this would revolutionise the way you play games?
Nobody? Good. My faith in humanity is restored.
Snake oil.
Yeah no go on this. This will be a total failure. I can see it now....... parents and "the targeting a broader demographic" folks won't buy this. A: "It makes the motion better!" B:"But isn't there already motion???" A:"yeah but this makes it more accurate" B:"how much?" A:"30 bucks"= no go. If nintendo decided to make this a new wiimote and ship it with all consoles starting today.... I could see this as an must have. Was gonna get a wii but after e3 the big N smells alot like pee.
It's bundled with Wii Sports Resort. So it will "sell".
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=28237
"Another new addition for Nintendo is the Wii MotionPlus, an accessory for the Wii Remote that includes a gyroscope which improves the precision of the motion control. With MotionPlus, the controller can now offer true one-to-one movement. The accessory will be bundled with Wii Sports Resort next spring."
Yeah...... maybe if its a pack in with the system as well. Actually since just about nothing was shown except for Animal cross, wii musux and this with resort I guess it will sell because there is nothing else out there coming along to the system. It just seems so dissapointing that with all the money nintendo has been making they haven't come up with some more game development teams. Where is the platformer??? or how about an wii earthbound? You know something with a story to go along with it. Are they really going just the party game route. You don't need a wii to play beer pong or stay in shape.
Thanks for your response, Dan. I gather that you believe the MotionPlus is "crap." That's fine. Like I said, I don't mind that Engadget had a negative take on the accessory. I don't have much invested in the MotionPlus one way or the other. What surprised me is that Engadget's reporting was so hasty and underwhelming compared to other sites' coverage. It's not about "excepting" [sic] facts, it's about getting the facts from a usually reliable site.
But this is an aberration from some usually fine work by the Engadget crew, so it's probably not worth hammering the point home any further.
After Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Wario Ware and some virtual console games I wanted to try my Wii feels useless. I just play Gamecube games on it now.
We need some PROPER GAMES. Don't forget about the people whove stuck by you for 20 years.
i trust ign better than you anyway...
seems to me you already have the mindset of the peripheral to fail before you tried it so as i can see, i fail to see how the peripheral can do any better.
so what if you can golf... have you tried it? it isn't perfect.. if you move your wiimote, the game will think you're swinging; if this helps correct that then i do believe it's worth it. it eliminates the waggle issue everybody brings up or complain about - and now it's fixed.
besides you do the things you do to act out for real and now this can actually help the games move as realistic.
it wasn't on the console to begin with because technology did not allow it and/or it would have made it a little more expensive. nintendo did not predict their console to become this big. at least now they're trying to make their console better. hell, xbox has a lot of add-ons to improve their system, why couldn't nintendo.
plus i doubt this is the final product. for all we know it is still in development.
not to mention, nintendo only announced to make xbox360 and ps3 to hold off their own motion-sensor controllers.
Come on. I expected more fro mengadget. They post an uninformed article and then state the accessory is useless when they are wrong. People described why this is needed. It adds gyroscopes to the controller. Which are different then accelerometers.
Inexpensive gyros where not available to nintendo until now.
Other gaming sites have shown and stated themselves that its much better tracking motion now with the accessory.
Come on I excpeted better from this site.
Just so you can't twitch it. bullshit.
seems to me you already have the mindset of the peripheral to fail before you tried it so as i can see, i fail to see how the peripheral can do any better.
so what if you can golf... have you tried it? it isn't perfect.. if you move your wiimote, the game will think you're swinging; if this helps correct that then i do believe it's worth it. it eliminates the waggle issue everybody brings up or complain about - and now it's fixed.
besides you do the things you do to act out for real and now this can actually help the games move as realistic.
it wasn't on the console to begin with because technology did not allow it and/or it would have made it a little more expensive. nintendo did not predict their console to become this big. at least now they're trying to make their console better. hell, xbox has a lot of add-ons to improve their system, why couldn't nintendo.
plus i doubt this is the final product. for all we know it is still in development.
not to mention, nintendo only announced to make xbox360 and ps3 to hold off their own motion-sensor controllers.
This accessory is going to end being neglected by developers just like the N64 Memory expansion or the Genesis disk drive. Maybe we will get 2 or 3 games that supports it and that's all.
I don't see any need for this, the current Wiimote works fine as it is and people love it. Nintendo should have saved this technology for the successor to the Wii in the future to be built in on the controllers.
Synopsis:
With the Nintendo MotionPlus, concentrate on your game as you may, you're still just as likely to be defeated by a four year old waggling their WiiMote around as if they're having a seizure.
Personally I can't wait for this, the number of times I've been playing Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Pro Evo, etc. and completed the motion I was told to do only to have nothing happen is immeasurable. When you try to do too much with the current Wiimote, it just gets confused and does nothing. Which can be a touch annoying when playing Drinking Wario, and trying to make that damn pen write or straighten those freaking papers up...
Well, there is likely a difference, but the games shown to demonstrate it probably aren't great examples. I think the problem here is that people are expecting improved tracking of the remote's physical location in 3D space, when the location of the MotionPlus on the remote suggests it's for tracking the remote's orientation. The Wii does a pretty impressive job of approximating the orientation of the remote, it's still pretty easy to confuse the thing. My guess is that the MotionPlus will alleviate that problem.
What I'd really like to see though, is a future firmware update to the Wii that allows the MotionPlus to be used retroactively with current Wii titles by calculating the average of data from both the remote and the MotionPlus to improve overall tracking and allow it to prevent errors in absolute orientation tracking. (I could see games like Boom Blox or No More Heroes becoming a lot more comfortable to play as a result.)
Well, the Wiimote right now kinda fails when you aren't pointing the controller in the direction of the IR receiver. All bets are off then. Doesn't the MotionPlus add-on help to fix that?