by Leon Rainey

Created on: July 14, 2008   Last Updated: July 20, 2011

People both praise and bemoan the mass social acceptance of the Wii games console, but does it's unique motion control and aiming functions separate it from the gaming mainstream?

It has been said that the Wii is a casual mainstream phenomenon and it's considered in essence to be a mainstream gaming platform. The biggest titles on the wii actually happen to be in the casual bracket of gaming (Wii Sports, Wii Play) and many of the best selling titles are actually not games in truth, I speak of Wii Fit in particular. The poor ratio of games sold to consoles sold is another indicator that many of the people buying the Wii are non-gamers not actually buying the Wii for good games. The best Wii game according to Metacritic is Mario Galaxy yet the initial sales of the game were disappointing considering the anticipation and hype surrounding it and other titles such as Wii Fit have actually performed far better at retail again indicating that the audience of the Wii are not traditional gamers.

The control method for the Wii is more suited to puzzle games and has in many of it's applications overwhelmed the experience I think mainly of games like Metroid, Sonic and the Secret Rings and Geometry Wars Galaxies. Take Sonic for example, it can very easily be considered a niche game as it puts the player in various locations which the player is not free to expire or interact with in any traditional sense. It actually removes the player from the character and instead gives them a limited series of actions to perform at key intervals, which are triggered by swatting or shaking either the Wiimote or Nunchuk.

Now a non gamer could pick this all up and practice to a level of proficiency that would get them through the game although it has to be said it wouldn't be enjoyable. In effect mastering the difficult controls would have the opposite effect that the developers intended in that it would make the player feel that they had little control over the character and it would force upon the player long and complex memory tests with one mistake leading to failure. Back in the day such a game would contain no computer generated imagery at all and instead comprise entirely of FMV sequences which triggers for the player to make split second decisions to influence the story, such "games" were called interactive movies and are now a quaint memory of videogaming's past.

Games that use the Wiimote (by aiming) actually require less accuracy contrary to the common assumption. My top scores

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