My Nintendo Wii experience

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Bregalad
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by Bregalad »

So the first thing that pisses me off about the Wii is that it's big gimmick is the motion controls. I'm a hardcore player, I don't need a motion controlled game. I want a standard regular controller and that's it. Also I hate the vibration in the controller. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but I want my controller to be as steady as possible. I don't want anything wiggling my controller around in any game. The vibration doesn't give me any satisfaction whatsoever.
Actually vibration was introduced with the Dual Shock controller released in the middle of the PlayStation's life. I didn't know Wii motes had them too. But I and a lot of other people agree that it's awful, most games for the playstation allows to disable it. I do not see why anyone would not disable this systematically. In addition to being extremely unpleasant, it probably damages the controller itself in the long run.

The wiimote is however horrible for other reasons I won't mention here.
I pop in the first game. Lego Star Wars.... Since when did Lego all of a sudden combine itself with other franchises and then make games out of them? Like the last time I remember Lego was just a bunch of plastic toy building blocks... not movies... not games... and not games tied in with other companies such as batman and crap.
I guess you should blame capitalism rather than Lego themselves. If they just continues to sell the same toys over and over again, their shareholders will be angry that their revenue is constant rather than growing, or not growing fast enough, so they'll put pressure in order to have more crap coming out... you see the picture. Any company who just stays with the same product and doesn't "evolve" is basically dead (note that I personally think this system is not a very good one - however that is not only Lego who is to blame - actually even Nintendo is victim of that pseudo-infinite-growth "thing").
Now earlier today I actually played Secret of Mana for the first time on the SNES. Now this game is awesome. The music is beautiful and catchy and it seems like its a fun game so far. If you look at it's title screen, its a work of art and it looks like someone actually cared and put time into it when they made the game.
Agreed - note how the US/EUR title screen is a strange zoomed version of the japanese title screen. In my opinion the original japanese title screen looked better. Also it's so awesome Tales of Phantasia copied the concept for their own title screen :)
Okay so next game. It's Toy Story 3. So I start up the game and I see probably the worst title screen that I've ever seen in my life.
Licence games tends to be awful in general - and that was especially true in the "good old times" - juging the Wii on one of them sounds like a bad idea.
I also played one of the Mario Kart games on the Wii at my friends. Honestly I didn't like it that much. I'd rather prefer the SNES mario kart or the N-64 mario kart.
SNES Mario Kart has aged horribly. The mode 7 aliasing is so noticeable that it ruins the graphics. (Theoretically an emulator could remove it I guess, but it wouldn't be console accurate). N64 and DS Mario Karts are the bests; GBA is pretty good too.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by FrankenGraphics »

I remember the dual shock controller being a big deal when it came out. (I still played NES during this period, though, so it's based on what friends in school thought). But i can't single out a particular game that has put it to good use. Haptic feedback may be good for the following in my book:
-one-shot impulses, like a push or bash or recoil.
-alerting the player of something s/he can't see but the player character ought to feel.
-guidance/assistance for visually impared users (again as one-shot impulses).

Instead, most games seem to go bzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzz or bzt-btz-bzt-bzt-bzt; trigged by way too many things. Or it just feels like a buzz when it should feel like impact.
bregalad wrote:most games for the playstation allows to disable it. I do not see why anyone would not disable this systematically.
At which wii excels (and probably other newer consoles), because you can turn it off via the system one button away, rather than via the game interface. :beer: Goodbye menu diving.
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TmEE
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by TmEE »

I physically disconnect all the motors in the controllers I have. Headache (or should i say wrist ache) cured immediately ~
lidnariq
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by lidnariq »

calima wrote:
lidnariq wrote:I wonder how practical just a port of minitube to the Wii would be.
Very, though a custom interface combined with the youtube-dl logic could be faster to implement.
Sure, but ... isn't that basically what minitube is? A custom interface combined with youtube-dl logic?

I know there's already a version of QT that uses the linux framebuffer without needing X, that helps.
93143
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by 93143 »

Bregalad wrote:Actually vibration was introduced with the Dual Shock controller released in the middle of the PlayStation's life.
Nope. It was introduced with Nintendo's Rumble Pak, which was bundled with Star Fox 64.

And also Sony's Dual Analog in Japan, which came out at about the same time. But IIRC it was kinda buggy; in any case they removed the rumble feature from the international version.
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Jedi QuestMaster
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by Jedi QuestMaster »

FrankenGraphics wrote:But i can't single out a particular game that has put it to good use. Haptic feedback may be good for the following in my book:
-one-shot impulses, like a push or bash or recoil.
-alerting the player of something s/he can't see but the player character ought to feel.
-guidance/assistance for visually impared users (again as one-shot impulses).
I think it intensified MGS really well every time an alert goes off. Also... Psycho Mantis. :lol:
Last edited by Jedi QuestMaster on Wed Oct 11, 2017 7:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
adam_smasher
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by adam_smasher »

My favourite use of vibration is in Ico: your controller gently throbs when you hold Yorda's hand - it's supposed to be her pulse. It subtly makes her feel more "human" and helps make the player more emotionally invested in protecting her.

Also, uh, Rez came with a pretty interesting haptic peripheral.
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Bregalad
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by Bregalad »

FrankenGraphics wrote:I remember the dual shock controller being a big deal when it came out. (I still played NES during this period, though, so it's based on what friends in school thought). But i can't single out a particular game that has put it to good use. Haptic feedback may be good for the following in my book:
-one-shot impulses, like a push or bash or recoil.
-alerting the player of something s/he can't see but the player character ought to feel.
-guidance/assistance for visually impared users (again as one-shot impulses).
But I think all games had to be playable with the original Playstation joypad as well.
Nope. It was introduced with Nintendo's Rumble Pak, which was bundled with Star Fox 64.
I stand corrected then. This is still an awful idea, I don't see why anyone would want their controller to vibrate, and even less why you would buy an extension to do that.
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Gilbert
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by Gilbert »

Bregalad wrote: But I think all games had to be playable with the original Playstation joypad as well.
There indeed are games that had to be played with the Dual Shock controllers though. Saru Getchu (or if you prefer, Ape Escape) is often cited as the textbook example. I think it actually only requires the two analogue sticks, and vibration is not a necessity though. I think the release of the N64 together with Mario 64 with the mandatory analogue 3-D movement done right (previously, most 3-D games only adopted the "tank" control, or just digital 8-direction movement, or very sloppily implemented analogue movements) is a huge factor here, and Sony just had to copy follow suit.
calima
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by calima »

lidnariq wrote:
calima wrote:Very, though a custom interface combined with the youtube-dl logic could be faster to implement.
Sure, but ... isn't that basically what minitube is? A custom interface combined with youtube-dl logic?

I know there's already a version of QT that uses the linux framebuffer without needing X, that helps.
Qt is huge. Even with swap, a Qt-based UI could take far too much RAM. You need at least 16mb to buffer the video, maybe 1mb for audio buffers, and other parts before you get to the UI.

So that's why you'd likely need to implement a new interface anyway. Whether it's less work to disentangle minitube's youtube-interfacing code or adapt youtube-dl's, depends.
tepples
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by tepples »

Fishing in Animal Crossing for GameCube uses vibration. When the fish bites, the controller vibrates, and the player has a split second to press A to pull the fish in. Animal Crossing: Wild World for DS replaced this vibration with a sound effect.
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Zutano
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by Zutano »

Erockbrox wrote: I pop in the first game. Lego Star Wars.... Since when did Lego all of a sudden combine itself with other franchises and then make games out of them? Like the last time I remember Lego was just a bunch of plastic toy building blocks... not movies... not games... and not games tied in with other companies such as batman and crap.
LEGO Star Wars is a great game imo, although a bit easy. Lots of unlockables and things to do. I can't speak for the other, more recent LEGO games.
http://zutanogames.com/ <-- my dev blog
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rainwarrior
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by rainwarrior »

One thing that I found about the Wiimote is that it still drains batteries relatively quickly when not in use. I started taking the batteries out when not using it and ithey've lasted a lot longer as a result.


I'm trying to think of any Wii games I'd consider essential. I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of some. Metroid Prime was pretty good, though it was originally a GameCube game anyway. I think that's the only Wii game I own that I'd actually recommend though.

Ironically it seems to me that Wii U got some much better games despite being a lower selling console.
93143
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by 93143 »

...Mario Galaxy?

There's got to be more. I was starting to be disconnected from the modern game market around that time, so I don't have as much of a sense of what's good.
Pokun
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Re: My Nintendo Wii experience

Post by Pokun »

Yeah I noticed that too. My low-discharge batteries that usually lasts years, are always discharging fast in the Wiimote. And changing the batteries with both the jacket and strap on is a bit troublesome.
Mario Galaxy is a fantastic game, I love the story book scenes and the general atmosphere, but it was just a bit too easy compared to Sunshine and Mario 64.
It was introduced with Nintendo's Rumble Pak
Of course haptic feedback in the arcades predates Nintendos rumble pak, but I guess it's thanks to the Nintendo 64 controller and the DualShock that both analogue joysticks and rumble became the norm in modern console gaming.

I would normally never dream about turning off rumble in games and risk missing any surprises the developers has put in the game. When Star Fox 64 released I thought its only use was to make the player feel vibrations in collisions in shooting and other action games, but MGS and Ocarina of Time both made me realize that haptic feedback can be used for much more stuff than that.

The only problem I had with the rumble in Wii is that it was missing in the nunchaku controller. Because of that you only feel vibrations in half of the controller (right hand). I'm looking forward to the "HD rumble" in the Switch though, ice cubes in both hands and even in the pro controller. Maybe that's why they are so expensive though.
FrankenGraphics wrote:Speaking of the wii eshop closing down, what titles do you think are worth purchasing?
WiiWare Exlusives:
Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth - a must have as it is a return to what castlevania was all about prior to Iga. The graphics are a bit too smugdy for my taste (easy on the transparency mask and antialiasing pixel work next time, please!), but it's still a good game.
Blaster Master: Overdrive - meh. Mediocre and empty-feeling; it's got the bare bones to qualify as a game in the metroidvania genre, but that's about it. Graphics are bland, the level design feels uninspired. The original (and blaster master zero for the switch) are much better. I only include it because it's a WiiWare exclusive and Blaster Master fans might want to play it before it's too late.

Non-exlusives.. kind of:
I had a blast with la mulana. I'm uncertain whether this particular version is available elsewhere or not.
Would've probably been the same with Cave Story but i played it on the pc prior to getting a wii.

Virtual console:
Book of ys 1 & 2. Nice that your character transfers between the two games. But you can play this on the DS too, no?
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: Probably the most inexpensive way to legitimately play this game from your couch. One of the best classic 'vanias, too.
Metal slug, 1 and 2: Mixed feelings. On one hand, these are well crafted classics, and we've had much fun. They're definitely hang-out-with-a-friend-type of games, but works well when playing on your own too. On the other hand, oh the slowdowns. Is this because of the emulator being faithful, or just slow?

Even though castlevania 3 for the NES was my very first hard copy of a game, i have it on the wii for convenience, too. But you can get it elsewhere, too.
Same with super metroid. Got it for convenience.
The Ys games have been ported and remade so many times, and yes I think the DS has it too. I guess the VC game is the PC Engine version? I have the PC Engine disc and it's pretty much the definitive version of the first two games.

According to Wikipedia a Windows version (on GOG and Steam) based on the WiiWare version of La Mulana was released (I'd also recommend the original MSX-style freeware game for PCs). But I prefer these kind of action games for a console with good controllers (not having to mess with gamepads in Windows), maybe I should grab the WiiWare version while the Shop Channel is still open...

I'd also like to recommend the WiiWare games Rockman 9 and 10. They are not Wii exclusives but they ARE two great instalments of the Rockman main series, and they'll be hard to get without pirating them when the online shops are all closing down. I still haven't grabbed all the DLC for these two games yet, but I plan to do that before it's too late.
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