Holding Pattern for Wii

A new Nintendo gadget makes Wii games respond more accurately, but how much of a difference can this really make?

The short answer is that having played with the Wii MotionPlus we're not sure if it feels very much different at all! We had a brilliant time though and that's all that matters... and if that makes us naïve then fine. Possibly there will be Wii games in future that make players stand or fall on surgical precision. For now though it's more arm-waving and pointing, same as before but so what.

Wii MotionPlus is a little extension that clips to a standard Wii Remote. Nintendo says that the £24.99 RRP add-on improves responsiveness in games such as EA's Grand Slam Tennis (out now) and Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort (available from July). The latter compendium of physical challenges ate up more of our working hours than we dare to admit yesterday. Has Nintendo got yet another hit on its hands? You bet, and we'll tell you more about in this weekend's preview.

Here, though, we think it needs pointing out that we had a brilliant time playing Wii Sports Resort this week and that you will have this opportunity too next month. Sony and Microsoft may have used an LA videogame convention to grandstand their gesture-control solutions to gaming, but we won't see Sony's Wii-like wand for PS3 until early 2010 while the Spielberg endorsed Xbox 360 controller-free full-body sensor remains, rather ironically, Watch This Space.

Differences between Wii MotionPlus and the standard Wii Remote are slight and so far insignificant from what we could tell. The chief benefits according to Nintendo are: "more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space" and "providing a true 1:1 response in game play". We can't be the only ones to have assumed Wii games, especially Wii Sports Bowling and Golf, already tracked our movement with precision.

In Wii Sports Resort the bowling action was indisinguishable from the original, though the presentation is much livelier. Frisbee throwing provided a glimpse of what could be the effects of 1:1 response gameplay, following the arc of your arm before a smooth and accurate release. Could this have been possible before? We'll never know.

Ah well.

Nintendo won't care if your excuse for buying Wii Sports Resort is ‘apparently it's more accurate' - it knows you would justify the expense because Wii Sports has been such a success in your family home that you've made your mind up already.

Nintendo is sitting in the only motion-sensing driver's seat for Christmas.