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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.
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wow the person who wrote this article has quite clearly only been playing games for a week..
Posted by: kholdspark on Tue Jun 16 07:38PM | Report abuse1
Posted by: julianfiddes on Tue Jun 16 07:46PM | Report abusewho really cares project natal, i watched it on xbox live and it blows the wii away. No wonder nintendo is scared now. If you have not watched the demo then do it
Posted by: julianfiddes on Tue Jun 16 07:47PM | Report abuseI think this is further evidence that Yahoo! holds a bias against Nintendo. Many trustworthy reviewers have already reviewed Wii MotionPlus as a quality product that noticeably enhances the precision of the Wii remote. Yahoo! claims that "Wii games, especially Wii Sports Bowling and Golf, already tracked our movement with precision," yet the accelerometer contained within the Wii remote is unable to distinguish rotational motion from linear motion. With the addition of a gyroscope, MotionPlus adds this capabilty. For example, when playing Golf without MotionPlus, the remote would be able to detect the swing taking place, plus the power of your swing, but not how the remote changes position during the swing relative to you. Hence, it is possible to perform a swing backwards, whilst it appears to render in the correct direction on screen. With MotionPlus, not only would the swing be accurately be detected and displayed on screen, further measurements could be taken to increase the realism of your shot, such as any twisting of the club. Recently I have begun to question Yahoo!'s credibility and sources. N.B. - I own an Xbox 360, before the accusations of being a Nintendo fanboy begin to flood in.
Posted by: nbrown_dslite on Tue Jun 16 08:14PM | Report abuseAnybody else thing this is just a last ditch attempt by nintendo to sell a few more units before microsoft totally blows them out of the water with Natal later next year?
Posted by: merlin83uk on Tue Jun 16 08:52PM | Report abuseso what now?
Posted by: dnwachukwu13 on Tue Jun 16 08:59PM | Report abuseWith all the specialist games websites absolutely raving on what a significant difference motionplus makes, I really can't take this article seriously. They didn't even bother researching in to what the motionplus is (a gryoscope) and the origonal flaws of the wiimote that motionplus fixes. "We can't be the only ones to have assumed Wii games, especially Wii Sports Bowling and Golf, already tracked our movement with precision" Yep, the shovelware works fine, but the reason my gamers actually bought the system is for 1:1 game play where the movements are tracked just as you're doing them. Bowling and golf are not 1:1; your actions are not replicated on the screen JUST like you're doing them as it doesn't know exactly where it is in 3-D space. Motionplus fixes that. Therefore, we cannow have a LOZ game where the wiimore acts as the sword, rather than it being gesture based. Take my rant with a pinch of salt, I don't own the thing yet, but I trust the many sources I've come across :)
Posted by: rood_ice on Tue Jun 16 09:08PM | Report abuseNintendo Motion Sensing products should be blown out of the water when Microsoft release "Project Natal" for the X-box. If you haven't heard of this, do a search....it is amazing!
Posted by: carolinetobin89 on Tue Jun 16 09:55PM | Report abuseI dont get why people are saying its a waste of £20 cuz in the end most people will get it anyway
Posted by: derek180593 on Wed Jun 17 12:55AM | Report abuseThis may be a hit!(accessory and game)
Posted by: scoobyjack8 on Wed Jun 17 06:22AM | Report abuse