Since mid-July, I've been doing a work experience placement at Instock Magazine, a games trade magazine based in London, which is written for retailers and is only avaiable to those on the mailing list.
On the first day of my new placement, the editor started sounding me out about what consoles i have, what next-gen console i'm interested in, etc. Being an avid nintendo fan since the age of six, my excitement is focused entirely on the Wii, naturally. By coincidence, the editor had recieved an invite to a small press event in the centre of London (actually in one of the buildings off the Mall!) where the Wii, among other things would be present.
"Would you like to go," she said.
"Yes," i said, struggling to keep the grin of my face and refraining from yelling 'what sort of stupid question is that?'
The next morning, i made my way eagerly across our capital and found the event. It was a lot smaller than i imagined; only seven games were on offer, and only one was a Wii title. Mind you, given that this was my second day of work and i'm already getting my hands on hardware and software not available till Christmas, I was not about to complain!
I made my way around the Xbox 360 and PS2 titles first, getting those out of the way, and then turned my attention to the Wii.
It was in the corner of the room, hidden from view by those portable walls that schools like to hang their students' art on, adorned with the Wii logo and pictures of the console. A small queue of five or so journos was stretching out of the thin entrance, which i joined, edging closer to the machine we've all been waiting for.
It's so small. That was my first thought. It looks so much bigger in magazines, but it's tiny. I didn't believe Nintendo when they said it was the same size as three dvd cases together, but it is.
And god is it sexy! Not that I often find machinery arousing, but this was gorgeous; the sleek design, the shiny exterior, the tantalising blue glow of the disc slot.
And then i was handed the controller. It was impossibly light, though that may have been because this model was plugged in rather than battery powered. It's just as sleek and shiny as the console, barely twice the length of my mobile phone and roughly the same thickness (I've got a Nokia 6101, btw).
An impressively wide, flat-screen television sat on the table in front of me, and i instantly recognised the small black slither of the Sensor Bar.
And smiling at me from the screen? Patrick Star, of Spongebob fame, sitting in a rocket and flying around an asteroid field.
This spoiled the moment for me a little, but nothing could ruin the experience. The only button used was the B trigger at the end of the remote, which took me back to the N64 days and the treasured Z-trigger, but it's the motion sensitive control we're all interested in, right?
Tilting the controller towards the top of the screen saw his onrails rocket glide upwards, while tilting it down saw him dip into a dive. Simple stuff that we've all read about, but moving left to right is what really shows the controllers potential.
"Just tilt it to the left" the THQ rep coos.
How? Should I twist my wrist to move the end of the remote away from the screen? Should I turn the controller on its side while still pointing at the badly-drawn rocket? Or should I do a combination of both?
It's the strangest thing in the world to realise, after fourteen years of gaming, your mind is bound by eight directions. I'm only used to the directions of a joystick: up, down, left, right, up-left, up-right, down-left, and down-right. Now, for the first time, I have every conceivable direction at my disposal.
Such thoughts actually sent Patrick crashing into a spacestation wall, so I dismissed them and continued.
As I'd watched the players ahead of me, they progressively found it harder to control and the Wii often had to be reset. This may well have been because this was very early code we were playing on - sound was removed from cutscenes, collision detection was laughable and Patrick had an uncanny ability to speak through his armpit. As a result, I often found that moving him to the top of the screen only resulted in him plunging to the bottom as I leveled out the controller. Moving left and right also became a chore, simply because I lost track of which type of tilting worked.
I hope that completed games, even Spongebob Squarepants, will be more responsive. The controls were sluggish when I reached the front of the queue, though from watching the bloke six people in front of me, it does look like it should be easy enough to control.
I also hope that none of you buys the Spongebob game. I've played previous Bob titles and they're never a treat for the eyes, but this was an insult. Jaggier than an N64 title, jerky framerate when you fly and fire your lasers at the same time. And when it comes down to it, this level was just an on-rails shooter, with the only difference being the control system. I read the press release; all of the other 'levels' lack the innovation of other Wii titles.
The Wii crashed once more and I had to move along, but it had all been worth it. The number of directions you can move the controller in boggles the mind. Granted, this was an on-rails shooter but I felt more involved with the game than i would with sticks and buttons. It's ME controlling the rocket, not the controller.
For this alone, the Wii deserves success beyond measure.
On the first day of my new placement, the editor started sounding me out about what consoles i have, what next-gen console i'm interested in, etc. Being an avid nintendo fan since the age of six, my excitement is focused entirely on the Wii, naturally. By coincidence, the editor had recieved an invite to a small press event in the centre of London (actually in one of the buildings off the Mall!) where the Wii, among other things would be present.
"Would you like to go," she said.
"Yes," i said, struggling to keep the grin of my face and refraining from yelling 'what sort of stupid question is that?'
The next morning, i made my way eagerly across our capital and found the event. It was a lot smaller than i imagined; only seven games were on offer, and only one was a Wii title. Mind you, given that this was my second day of work and i'm already getting my hands on hardware and software not available till Christmas, I was not about to complain!
I made my way around the Xbox 360 and PS2 titles first, getting those out of the way, and then turned my attention to the Wii.
It was in the corner of the room, hidden from view by those portable walls that schools like to hang their students' art on, adorned with the Wii logo and pictures of the console. A small queue of five or so journos was stretching out of the thin entrance, which i joined, edging closer to the machine we've all been waiting for.
It's so small. That was my first thought. It looks so much bigger in magazines, but it's tiny. I didn't believe Nintendo when they said it was the same size as three dvd cases together, but it is.
And god is it sexy! Not that I often find machinery arousing, but this was gorgeous; the sleek design, the shiny exterior, the tantalising blue glow of the disc slot.
And then i was handed the controller. It was impossibly light, though that may have been because this model was plugged in rather than battery powered. It's just as sleek and shiny as the console, barely twice the length of my mobile phone and roughly the same thickness (I've got a Nokia 6101, btw).
An impressively wide, flat-screen television sat on the table in front of me, and i instantly recognised the small black slither of the Sensor Bar.
And smiling at me from the screen? Patrick Star, of Spongebob fame, sitting in a rocket and flying around an asteroid field.
This spoiled the moment for me a little, but nothing could ruin the experience. The only button used was the B trigger at the end of the remote, which took me back to the N64 days and the treasured Z-trigger, but it's the motion sensitive control we're all interested in, right?
Tilting the controller towards the top of the screen saw his onrails rocket glide upwards, while tilting it down saw him dip into a dive. Simple stuff that we've all read about, but moving left to right is what really shows the controllers potential.
"Just tilt it to the left" the THQ rep coos.
How? Should I twist my wrist to move the end of the remote away from the screen? Should I turn the controller on its side while still pointing at the badly-drawn rocket? Or should I do a combination of both?
It's the strangest thing in the world to realise, after fourteen years of gaming, your mind is bound by eight directions. I'm only used to the directions of a joystick: up, down, left, right, up-left, up-right, down-left, and down-right. Now, for the first time, I have every conceivable direction at my disposal.
Such thoughts actually sent Patrick crashing into a spacestation wall, so I dismissed them and continued.
As I'd watched the players ahead of me, they progressively found it harder to control and the Wii often had to be reset. This may well have been because this was very early code we were playing on - sound was removed from cutscenes, collision detection was laughable and Patrick had an uncanny ability to speak through his armpit. As a result, I often found that moving him to the top of the screen only resulted in him plunging to the bottom as I leveled out the controller. Moving left and right also became a chore, simply because I lost track of which type of tilting worked.
I hope that completed games, even Spongebob Squarepants, will be more responsive. The controls were sluggish when I reached the front of the queue, though from watching the bloke six people in front of me, it does look like it should be easy enough to control.
I also hope that none of you buys the Spongebob game. I've played previous Bob titles and they're never a treat for the eyes, but this was an insult. Jaggier than an N64 title, jerky framerate when you fly and fire your lasers at the same time. And when it comes down to it, this level was just an on-rails shooter, with the only difference being the control system. I read the press release; all of the other 'levels' lack the innovation of other Wii titles.
The Wii crashed once more and I had to move along, but it had all been worth it. The number of directions you can move the controller in boggles the mind. Granted, this was an on-rails shooter but I felt more involved with the game than i would with sticks and buttons. It's ME controlling the rocket, not the controller.
For this alone, the Wii deserves success beyond measure.
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