Weeee for the Wii

Gesture based gaming is the next big thing… the Wii is perhaps the first console, if that term still applies to it, to use this awesome technology, and the result has been, that despite being considerably weaker than other consoles of its generation, like the Xbox 360, and the PS3, still is way more popular. And because its actually less powerful, its also cheaper, but what really makes it a cut above the rest, is how you play on the Wii…

The whole idea of button crunching is out the window, you still have buttons, but they’re passé, for the most part, you’re doing what you want to be. This is really interesting for Sports titles: the Golf game on the Wii actually involves making shots, and doesn’t have the usual, power/spin/direction bars, that require you to hit at the right time, instead you can just play the shot in the manner its meant to be played.

The Wii used advanced motion-capture technology the kind that’s used to create games in the first place, and uses that to play games. The possibilities of this are still being explored with most games that incorporate this kind of motion capture based game play falling slightly short of expectations. Like the Star Wars dueling game, while it allows you ‘fence’ to some degree, could easily be played just sitting on a couch… somehow a little more is expected…

While the natural outcome of what I’m talking about seems to be a complete, and irritating virtual reality, think Matrix, its still exciting, for people who like to dream. But then you have the old debate of reality versus the mind, versus cyber control, and you’re stuck with nothing to choose from really… I think. But this tech is definitely here to stay, at least for some time, and with the titles for the Wii increasingly taking advantage of its remote, we can expect more and more consoles to try to compete. In fact the race is on… but more on that later.