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View Full Version : Hands on with the Wii today!



Anthus
11-19-2006, 06:16 PM
I may not own one yet, but I did play one today. I walked to EB-Games just so I could play it. I doubted they'd have one out but they did. When I walked in, there it was, in it's own little designated Wii corner. I felt like a little 12-year-old girl who just got to meet the Backstreet boys.. or something to that effect. I noticed the the Wii-remote wasn't out there with it. So, I asked at the counter. Actually, I said it was gone. They keep it behind the counter for obvious reasons. Apparently, you must give them some form of collateral (preferably, a state ID, but I gave my student ID) so you can't walk out with it. Those things are 40 bucks.

When I saw the Wii-mote, I was shocked by it's size. The thing is freakin' tiny. I was expecting it to be a lot bigger. To be exact, it was about 6 inches long, one inch and a 1/4 wide, and about an inch thick. I thought it's be about 8 inches long, and 2 wide or so. I walked over the Wii, and the game was Excite-Truck. It was paused. I was holding the Wii-mote the regular way, and I had no idea what to push. I did the only thing I knew how to do, and that was press "Home" I exited Excite Truck, and went to the main Wii menu. I noticed the the remote was incredibly sensitive. I'm sure you can adjust this, since my hands are fairly shaky, I'd turn it down, but I didn't. It's cool, because if you turn the Wii-mote, the little pointer finger goes with it. The controller rumbles when it is placed over an option. I did notice one thing though; the pointer doesn't automatically stop at the edge of the screen. It leaves the screen. So, you can get the pointer lost in nothingness. I hope there is an option for a "screen border" or something, because it can get annoying.

After playing around for a few minutes in the Wii menu, I went into Excite truck again. At first, I was holding the controller wrong. I was holding it upright. I remembered seeing a video where the guy held it on it's side. I did so. "2" accelerates, and "1" brakes/ reverses. Pressing right (up when held on it's side) on the Wii-mote boosts you, and tilting it left to right steers, and tilting it forwards and backwards while air-borne affects your jump. Old habits die hard, as I often found myself trying to use the D-Pad to turn, but quickly caught on and became an instant pro :P. I exited that file, and started a new one. I played each tutorial course, then through the "Ireland" course. After wasting a good half an hour there, went up to the desk, and asked the big question: Was there a Twilight Princess demo? That is what I went there for with hopes of playing. They didn't have one though.

So, was this worth the four mile walk each way to South OSU campus and back? You bet it was.

I may actually get this game. I thought I'd not like it, but it was pretty cool.

It wasn't a total waste of time, since I did pick up Metroid Prime Hunters with the $31 burning a hole in my pocket.

AtmaWeapon
11-19-2006, 08:35 PM
Yeah I was actually surprised by the Wiimote size as well; it fits in my hand real nice but for some reason I was expecting it to be somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" bigger in both length and width.

I'm noticing some problems with sensitivity as well. You can adjust it some but a lot of it seems to stem from how the sensor bar is placed and how far you are from it. At my house I only had about 2 feet between the Wiimote and the sensor, and there was a pretty big angle between my hand and the sensor so I'm not sure how that factors in. If I can get caught up on my work before tomorrow night I'll be able to do some serious play testing and I'll make a trip report to let inquiring minds know how much compensation is available.

Anthus
11-19-2006, 10:10 PM
Yeah, distance is definitely a factor. At first I was about three feet away. I'm not sure where the sensor bar was though since it wasn't out in plain sight. I asked the girl there how far away you could get, and she said the ideal distance is in between three to eight feet. So, I backed up, and was about five feet away. I was a lot more stable, or maybe I just couldn't see it twitching with my shaky, exited hand.

But, does your cursor leave the screen on the main menu? I saw a video a few days ago outlining the interface, and it looked like it stopped at the border for that guy, but this one just went off the screen. I lost the cursor for a good thirty seconds. I felt like an idiot pointing the thing at the ceiling and such.

One thing though, you can't scratch your nose with the controller in your hand, because it is motion sensitive, and you do turn =P

vegeta1215
11-19-2006, 10:32 PM
I tried it out at my local Gamestop the other day. I was shocked at how small the remote was too. (I saw the console before)

I played Excite Truck for 5 minutes or so, and it was really neat, but I think I wasn't playing it correctly. I was turning the remote like a steering wheel instead of tilting it left and right...so suffice it to say I was crashing a lot. I want to go back and try it again soon and do it right this time.