The Nintendo Wii Controller: Why all the Excitement?

Up until now, the history of console game controllers has been one of convergence: over the years the offerings from Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft have become more and more alike. The Nintendo Wii controller is that rare thing in the gaming industry: an actual innovation. The Wii controller is different, and that in itself would have generated a huge buzz. The question remains, however: is it actually any good?

Despite having been through a couple of minor redesigns since its unveiling, the essence of the “Wiimote” remains unchanged: it looks like a remote control. Slim and less than fifteen centimetres (six inches) long, it fits easily in one hand.

It’s also completely cordless, which will be a relief to anyone who’s ever forcibly unplugged their controller or yanked the console over in the heat of the moment. This allows total freedom of movement, though there are a couple of drawbacks. The first is that the controller is powered by two AA batteries, which give you 30-60 hours gameplay, depending on how you’re using it. Depending on your habits, this will mean your Wii controller will give you somewhere between a month and three days of gameplay before the batteries need replacing. The second is that if you throw it in a fit of frustration, you may never find it again, and they retail for US$40.

The real genius of the Nintendo Wii remote, though, is its flexibility. It communicates with the console using Bluetooth, and the Wii can take input from four controllers simultaneously. It has an accelerometer, which allows it to detect motion through three axes as well as tilt and acceleration. This means the controller can directly mimic the movements of a sword, a golf club, a tennis racket, or pretty much anything else. It gives a direct relationship between game skill and real-world skill rather than button-mashing, and has the potential to completely change how games are played and developed.

The Wii controller has its own speaker, allowing games to give the effect of a sound travelling from the player to the television, and 4KB of non-volatile memory. This is to allow players to store their own profiles, or ‘Miis’ on the controller, so they can take characters and saved games from one console to another. It has ‘forced feedback’ capability, and a rumble pack.

The Nintendo Wii also has a number of other controller peripherals. It ships with a ‘nunchuck’ controller, which connects to the Wiimote and allows one player to give input from both hands – handy for Wii Boxing. The Nunchuck controller features a thumb joystick and two triggers, which many players will find easier for moving characters around.

Turned sideways, the Wiimote slots into a ‘classic’ controller for playing traditional NES games, or it can become a steering wheel – Ubisoft has produced the first third-party peripheral, for use with their Nintendo driving games. The Wii controller also slots into a ‘Zapper’ gun shell for First Person Shooter games.

The Nintendo Wii controller has so much potential to change the way people play games that there’s been some concern it would require players to have a worryingly high level of skill and fitness. From the first independent tests, it seems that the Wii is perfectly usable sitting down and doesn’t require large movements: it’s just more fun that way.

Many game designers are really excited about the potential of the Wii controller. Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s marketing manager and the creator of Mario and Donkey Kong, is talking about redeveloping many older Nintendo games for the new system. A couple of AA batteries seems a small price to pay for the first real gaming revolution in decades.