Comment by jjice

Comment by jjice 2 days ago

"Gimmicky" in the sense that they used movement controls and that's non-standard in the industry and went away mostly afterwards. I'm considering anything that isn't a traditional stationary control (keyboard + mouse or controller) as "gimmicky" or out of the ordinary.

In terms of sales, you're absolutely right - the Wii crushed it. I'd be curious to know about usage and software sales though. Maybe I'm wrong (very possible), but almost everyone I knew had a Wii at some point, but they didn't use it outside of a family toy with a few games when they first got it. I'd still consider that a win for Nintendo compared to less sales, but I'd imagine the average Xbox 360 or PS3 had a lot more software sales per console.

bsimpson 2 days ago

The Wiimotes were a clear influence on the Joy-Cons.

Nintendo still uses motion controls; they just made them portable and more resilient with gyros instead of IR.

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dmicah 2 days ago

The Wii Remote Plus had gyroscopes built-in, the attachable 'Nunchuk' also had an accelerometers.

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bombcar 2 days ago

The Wii was pretty clearly sold as a Wii sports console, which got people who would never have touched a "standard" console into the market.
The attachment rate was likely lower because of that.

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jjice 2 days ago

Right, but it's not the main focus in the majority of games. In many games that do offer gyro support, it's usually able to be toggled off. It's not like the Wii where the core of the controllers was pointing them and swinging them around.

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- bsimpson 2 days ago
  
  I don't remember motion controls being a majority of Wii games either.
  A lot of them were played with a Nunchuk to emulate a classic controller (or attached to the actual Classic Controller or Rock Band instruments to play cross platform games).
  The motion control that comes to mind beyond Wii Sports were circling the Wiimote to collect things in Mario.
  
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  staticman2 2 days ago
  
  The Wii exclusive Zelda, Skyward Sword, was motion control only.
  Even games that didn't require motion controls for basic gameplay still required you to do things like turn the controller around and use the pointer to select options from a menu rather than using the D pad. (I'm thinking Punch Out). I think Donkey Kong country occasionally made you shake the controller.
  
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- stonemetal12 2 days ago
  
  Yep, Skyward sword vs Skyward sword HD on the switch. Gimmick is still there but not forced on those who don't like it.
  
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baby 2 days ago

Come on, EVERYTHING about the Wii was about moving these like they were your hands in game. Pretty much NOTHING on the switch uses them. On the other hand VR has accomplished the dream of early Wii games like Red Steel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfNgkhmPPsc

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jacobgkau 2 days ago

> almost everyone I knew had a Wii at some point, but they didn't use it outside of a family toy with a few games when they first got it.

At various points in my family's owning one, we obviously used it for the Wii Sports-type games, as well as non-motion games like NES titles from the Virtual Console (the Wiimote in its rubber case felt surprisingly decent in the hands while turned sideways). But we also used it for Netflix and YouTube with the official apps, and surprisingly, various other websites with the Internet Channel. We sometimes used the SD card reader to look at photos from digital cameras, which seems like it doesn't make a lot of sense today, but was easier than connecting up a camera or camcorder to a TV with a cable to look at things, which was also a thing back then.

It was certainly a "go long periods without touching it" part of the home, but it was also surprisingly versatile with the uses that did pop up for it. And I think we got more usage out of it, both in terms of hours and in terms of distinct use cases, than we got out of the Xbox 360 we had later (if not, it was basically due to Minecraft, not because we played a larger number of games on the Xbox).

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threetonesun 2 days ago

I believe the Wii had the best or second best attach rate for a Nintendo console (how many games sold per console sold). It lived a long time and had a ton of good releases.

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