TechStuffCanada

jargon-free tech news for non-technical people

The genius of the Wii controller

November 15, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment

steering a truck with the Wii controller Maybe the best way to understand the fuss about the Nintendo Wii is to watch this video.
Go ahead. I'll wait.

The video shows a young man playing a driving game. The object of the game is to keep a fast-moving truck on the road, and beat the other drivers to the finish line. It's harder than it looks.

Notice how he steers the truck. In addition to moving the controller, he moves from side to side, leaning into the corners, turning his whole body.

This is how beginners interact with video games. They expect their body movements to affect the game. It's a natural thing to jab at the television with the controller when you're attacking something, or to lean to one side when steering.

But here's the thing: most video games controls do not behave this way. Gamers have been trained to push buttons to make things happen on-screen. The movement of the controller has been irrelevant. If you want to move to one side, you push a button, or twiddle with a joystick.

The genius of the Wii controller is the way it embraces the natural body movements of the players. If you lean left, your character (or vehicle) moves left. It's the most natural thing in the world, but it goes against decades of video game design.

I know "genius" is a strong word, but I think it fits here. Nintendo aims to bring video games to a new audience with the Wii console, and I think they're going to succeed. The Wii controller, which is at first disorienting to veteran gamers, feels great after a few minutes of play.

Sony and Microsoft can fight over the market for "hard core" gamers. Nintendo is going to help the rest of the world to have some fun.

November 15, 2006 › Sandy McMurray | comment on this item