Nintendo’s Japanese site has pics of a new design of Classic Controller set for release this year. Named the Classic Controller PRO, it’s essentially a cross between the original Classic Controller and a GameCube pad, with a dash of the DualShock thrown in.

Wider than the original, and with Wavebird-aping hand grips, this doesn’t have the old-school class of the original Classic, though it looks a little comfier to hold for longer gaming sessions. The Z buttons have been enlarged, and have been sensibly positioned behind the L and R triggers, which is one nod to Sony’s controller, the other being the larger gap between the two analogue sticks.

A worthwhile upgrade, then, with one glaringly obvious flaw - Nintendo could easily have made it wireless, but has opted instead to keep it tethered to the remote for additional battery-drainage. It’s definitely worth choosing over the original Classic if you don’t already own one, but wireless was the real tipping point for me. As I’ve got plenty of Cube pads, I’ll happily stick with those, if only to save me a few quid on AAs.

Bookmark It

First things first: House of the Dead Overkill is almost certainly the best on-rails shooter on Wii, and you should go out and buy it immediately. I’m not ready to review it just yet as I’m only three levels in, but I’m confident enough to say it topples Ghost Squad from its throne, despite being a little slower and easier (which some might see as a bonus, anyway).

But I digress: I’m really here to talk about the HandCannon which I picked up from my local gaming retailer for £14.99. It’s a lot of money for what’s essentially nothing more than a plastic shell, but if you’re after a copy of the game as well, some stores are offering deals which make the guns a little cheaper. Or you can get them online for around a tenner. Bargain!

And a bargain it is, because this weighty beast is one of the most satisfying lightguns ever. With the remote slotted in, it’s a pretty hefty number, but it feels incredibly satisfying to hold and shoot. The puny of arm might whine that it hurts after a long play session, but that’s a good thing - it means you won’t complete the two-to-three hour story mode in one sitting. (There’s plenty of replay value; don’t worry if that seems a little short.)

With a comfortable grip, a really cool design, and a chunky solidity to the shell (as well as a clever way of attaching the nunchuk, ensuring compatibility with other Wii shooters) it’s a cracking piece of hardware, and makes Overkill even more enjoyable. If you’ve not got a lightgun, or you’ve only got the Wii Zapper, then this is well worth the investment. Buy two, even - once you unlock dual-wielding mode, you can really make those mutants “suffer like G did”.

Bookmark It

A dispute over the design of its wireless nunchuk hasn’t put Nyko off making peripherals for the Wii, and its latest is a particularly bold move - taking on the Wii remote with its new Wand device.

It’s pretty ugly, though part of that is undoubtedly down to the company needing to differentiate the controller from its official counterpart. The unusual d-pad design should make diagonal inputs that much easier to execute, and it has a rubber battery cover and B button for additional grip - handy if you’re a little sweaty of palm.

It has one other key feature - Nyko’s own Trans-Port tech, which apparently “enables control and vibration feedback to be electrically replicated on a compatible attachment accessory, providing for faster and more accurate input response”.

Nyko has created a new pistol attachment to demonstrate the feature - it connects to the Wand, electrically replicating action buttons, which isn’t possible with other Wii peripherals.

The Wand is released in April, and will be available from selected retailers.

Bookmark It

It’s no exaggeration to say that Wii Sports is one of the most important videogame releases, not just of this generation, but of all time. It introduced a whole new way to play games, offered a way in to those who’d previously considered games too complex or inacccessible, and is one of the main reasons for the console’s unrivalled success in this generation. While Nintendo has built well on the foundations laid by Wii Sports, it’s arguably the launch title which has had the biggest impact on its host console. For a long time, Wii was a Wii Sports player. No pressure on the sequel, then…

Yet Wii Sports Resort has an ace up its sleeve too, in the form of MotionPlus, the peripheral that, when attached to the Wii remote, will allow it to more effectively recognise movement in 3D space, picking up the most delicate of motions far more accurately than ever before. Sure, it’s bound to lead to more than a few grunts of dissatisfaction at Nintendo bringing out another peripheral, and there will be several complaints that it’s only allowing the remote to do what we were all led to believe in the first place. But if there’s anything Nintendo’s expanded audience wants, it’s more Wii Sports. If it’s not massive, then something has gone seriously awry. It would take a screw-up of epic proportions to stop this being one of the biggest titles of 2009.

So what do we know about Wii Sports Resort so far? In truth, very little. We’ve seen three minigames, only two of which seem to use MotionPlus in any real meaningful way. The dog frisbee game will no doubt be skipped by most of the game’s male players, while it’s fair to say that Nintendo’s ever-growing female audience won’t necessarily be quite so taken with the Wave Race-esque jetskiing. More universally appealing is the sword fighting, with Miis swinging rubber weapons atop a high platform overlooking a pool of water - get knocked back once too often and you’re in for a dunking.

With a rumoured ten games featured this time, it should offer more variety and longevity than Wii Sports, while still providing the thrill of the new in terms of its control. One potential sticking point is that  - like its predecessor - it’s likely to be a more multiplayer focused title. In which case, shouldn’t Nintendo be bundling at least TWO MotionPlus add-ons with the game? Particularly if the rumoured retail price of £15 for the peripheral turns out to be accurate - we can’t see too many people wanting to shell out for four of these. It’ll be interesting to see just how Nintendo handles this - will the games require MotionPlus or simply be improved by the more flexible controls? Will all the minigames feature MotionPlus enhancements, or just a few? Nintendo has a tricky balancing act here - it needs to really sell MotionPlus as a key component to the game (and, indeed, something which future Wii titles will benefit from) while making sure that Wiimote-only players don’t feel left out. If it can somehow get that right, then Wii Sports Resort will be an unqualified success. As it is, it’ll be a big hit, but will that necessarily make for a good game?

Bookmark It

It’s been a long time coming, but finally you can chat away to your Wii friends using the Wii Speak Channel - assuming your pals have the peripheral in question and have downloaded said channel from the Wii Shop, that is.

And it all works very well. My wife’s round at her parents’ house today, and we were both able to talk in a fairly relaxed manner, with Wii Speak picking up our speech very well. While we got the odd bit of echoey lag (I could hear myself speak when I raised my voice, which came through a couple of seconds after I’d spoken) the sound quality was decent, and background noise was barely noticeable. At least until my son decided to start shouting from the other side of the room…

Once you’ve downloaded the channel and accessed it from the Wii Menu, you can start adding your friends into a central space by ticking off their names - a Wii Speak mic will appear next to their usernames assuming they have said channel installed. Once you’ve added them, they’ll appear in a circle within your own space, which has plenty of room and can be scrolled around by holding the B button and moving the pointer. If you want to chat with one or more people, it’s a simple case of selecting their icon and inviting them to a chat. Assuming they accept you can then start having a chinwag. A nice touch is that you can add Miis to represent you, and swap between them instantly. Sound waves move out from the icon when you’re speaking while your Mii will turn to ‘face’ who you’re chatting to, with their mouth moving up and down as you talk. Lovely stuff.

You also have the ability to send short voice messages to friends, even if they don’t have the channel installed. I was given a warning that it might take a little while to arrive in my friend’s inbox, so I’ll check with him later to see if and when it arrived.

It’s a shame this wasn’t bundled with the Wii, as it would have offered a great social option from the outset. As it is, Nintendo will do well to make its audience more aware of this, as it’s a function which will no doubt appeal outside the core gamer demographic.

I’ll report further on Wii Speak’s effectiveness next week, once I’ve tried it out with a few more Wii Friends in a round-table chat and also in Animal Crossing.

Bookmark It

 

Coming across very much like a blend of the official Classic Controller and a PSP, the Blaze Classic Wii Controller is an alternative option if you’re looking for ways to play your old GameCube games or those classics from yesteryear on the Virtual Console.

Weighing in at £14.99, however, it costs the same as the official model, and in my experience I’ve never used a third-party pad on a Nintendo console that’s bettered the official versions. Which doesn’t necessarily make it a bad purchase, but it seems as if it’ll only benefit those unable to get hold of the in-short-supply Nintendo controller. It does remind me that Nintendo should release a wireless version of their own Classic Controller, though. Will we see anything like that next year, or does Nintendo not quite care enough about the core gamer to bother? With MotionPlus on the way in the spring, it might just be an official peripheral too many for Nintendo, particularly given Satoru Iwata’s insistence that the company wasn’t planning on releasing any more new controllers.

Bookmark It

 

Subsonic has released info and pics of its latest two peripherals for Wii. The first is a lightsaber which no doubt due to copyright issues has to be referred to as a Laser Sword, which lights up either constantly or when you swing the remote. Nice idea, but to be frank the people who buy these things are imagination-free idiots. Though it’s maybe just about acceptable if you have kids. Maybe.

The second accessory is the Wireless Nunchuk Adaptor, which allows for “up to 50 hours of game autonomy” on 2 AAA batteries, which aren’t provided. It also makes your nunchuk about twice as big, so it’s a bit like holding two remotes. Considering half the appeal of the original nunchuk is in its ergonomic and lightweight design - and given that the cable between the two is plenty long enough for every game you’ll ever need it for (unless you’re doing some really bizarre and wrong movements while playing) - this has to be one of the most pointless peripherals I’ve seen.

Might be good for the one-handed control of Opoona, but then again you’ve got Nyko’s wireless adapter which is smaller and almost certainly better. Ah well.

Bookmark It

 

Thought the extraneous accessories situation on Wii couldn’t get sillier? Wrong! Peripheral-maker ezGear has created a set of four instrument-shaped remote shells, representing a violin, a conductor’s baton, a saxophone and drumsticks/xylophone mallets, for Nintendo tune-em-up Wii Music.

Watching someone play Wii Music is faintly amusing as it is, but there’s a certain abstraction to the playing which makes it a little less daft. But wailing on fake plastic music-makers, which only cater for - at my reckoning - around ten of the game’s sixty instruments, seems like an even more pointless waste of time and money than those Cooking Mama kitchen implements.

Nonetheless, there’s clearly a market for this sort of thing, and if you really can’t do without a saxaphone shell when tooting along to the Animal Crossing theme, then you can reserve the pack here for $29.99. And I’ll concede that perhaps the violin isn’t such a bad idea.

Bookmark It

 

If you’re rich/popular enough to own four remotes and are chewing through packs of Duracell faster than a chaingun spits bullets, then peripheral maker Nyko has a brand new solution, with its forthcoming Charge Station Quad offering an easy way to make sure all your controllers are ready for a multiplayer sesh on Wii Sports.

It’s an updated version of the company’s popular Charge Station, with two further docks, NiMH batteries (no, me neither) and special rubber-gripped battery covers in black, grey, blue and pink, allowing you to instantly see whose is whose.

It’s available across the US in December - no details of a European release just yet - for the bargain price of $49.99. Well worth the outlay if you’ve got family and friends over for Christmas, particularly if you’ve just got Wii Music in, too.

Bookmark It

Electronic Arts today announced details of EA Sports Active - essentially EA’s own take on Wii Fit, but it’s actually much more interesting than that.

Far from just a straight clone, EA Sports Active looks to provide a different kind of fitness experience to Wii Fit - and all without requiring the Balance Board (though the peripheral is supported).

It’s clear that EA has spent some significant time on R&D with this, as the press blurb and accompanying video proves. Rather than provide a series of disconnected exercises, in EA Sports Active you’ll be able to specify targeted workouts - used to focus on whichever area of your body needs the most work. While there aren’t as many activities as in Wii Fit (”over twenty” EA claims) it seems they’ll be more varied, and will be supplemented by regular downloads.

Intriguingly, it’s bundled with two peripherals - a resistance band which you place under your feet to make bicep curls and the like more difficult, and two leg straps, used to attach the nunchuk to your leg so the software can recognise your full body movement instead of just your arms. (The spare is so another player can join in simultaneously.)

It promises full one-to-one body movement, thirty day custom exercise plans, and the option for new peripherals for future exercises. Evidently EA sees this as more platform than game, with a ‘football version’ planned for release at a later stage. There’s a packed-in nutrition book, and it’s all endorsed by Bob Greene, personal trainer to Oprah Winfrey.

So yes, this is going to be big. It’s certainly one of the most intriguing forthcoming prospects on Wii, and from the sounds of things could provide a more thorough and effective workout than Wii Fit. And it’s out in March, so we’ve not too long to wait to see whether Nintendo has indeed been beaten at its own game.

Bookmark It