Wii, Wiimote duas semanas de testes

Parece que a Nintendo acertou desta vez.

O novo videogame dos criadores de Donkey Kong e Mario Bros já vendeu 600 mil unidades nos primeiros 8 dias de vendas (veja nota no Red Herring) e parece que o objetivo de atingir o mercado dos não-gamers foi cumprido.

Neste artigo e discussão no games.slashdot.org há vários relatos de pais e mães que nunca jogaram nada encantados com o novo brinquedo.

The reality of the situation is that multiplayer Wii games make you look like an idiot. As strange as it sounds, this is just one mark of a system that has succeeded. For so many people, gaming is either a solitary pastime or one done socially via the cold detachment of a Ventrilo link. I, like many other folks, had the opportunity to introduce the Wii to my family during Thanksgiving, and it was anything but detached. It resulted in several hours of good-natured competition among my cousins, and allowed me the pleasure of watching four individuals north of 40 volley and serve via Wiimote. With the exception of my mother, I believe it may well have been the first time these people had ever played a videogame. It's not Half-Life, sure, but it isn't exactly Tetris either.

Ou seja, o joystick sem fio sensível à movimento batizado de Wiimote funciona direitinho criando uma interface mais intuitiva que os gamepads tradicionais.

The reason for this is that it is easy: It just works. The first time you hand a Wiimote to someone and they point it at the screen, they know what to do. There's a little hand, representing where you're pointing, and each Wiimote has a different colored hand. Navigating menus is actually ... fun, in an odd sort of way. Moving over UI elements with the little hand representing your controller causes a very slight rumble. The controller shakes just enough to give the entire experience a tactile element that, again, I've never seen in gaming before. It's the little things like this that really makes the Wii experience.

Como tudo que é novo, o Wiimote traz alguns problemas novos... Alguns games do Wii devem ser jogados em pé e exigem movimentos amplos do corpo.

Isso tem causado acidentes entre os jogadores mais entusiasmados desprovidos de coordenação e a quebra de uma cinta usada para prender o controle à mão, como informa o Gamasutra.

With the Wii console due to be released in Europe tomorrow and already out in other major territories, Nintendo execs have acknowledged media reports of uncoordinated gamers causing damage to televisions, furniture and even fellow players.

As quoted by the AFP from an appearance at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke to Japanese reporters on the issue, saying that: “Of course before the launch of the Wii hardware Nintendo had a number of tests on the durability of everything, including the strap, but our understanding right now is that even beyond our expectations people are becoming more and more excited playing with the Wii." He also commented that "we are investigating" possibilities for a solution to the problem.