Nintendo Wii @ eGames & Entertainment Expo
Today (17/11), on a spur of the moment, I decided to go to the eGames & Entertainment Expo at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre just so I could try out the Nintendo Wii games!
I've been undecided about whether if I should get the Wii at launch on December 7. I've never really brought a video games console at launch with the exception of the Super Famicom (SNES), which I had ordered with Street Fighter 2 back in high school with 2 other friends. I usually wait like a year after to see if the games library has anything worth me investing in getting the console itself.
I guess these days, it's much easier to go online and read all the rumors and hype on the latest video games news whereas back in the good old days, all I had were magazines and what friends who couldn't wait and tell me what it's like.
In terms of next-gen consoles, the Nintendo Wii has the most potential to me. I've never really been a Nintendo fanboy and I don't care much for Mario. Although I love all the Legend of Zelda games. The games on Wii generally looks fun to play and that should be all that matters in the end. It also has the Virtual Console where you can download classic favorite games, Wii channels and even the Mii looks fun. However, strange as this might sound, I actually consider the Sony PS3 to be my numero uno choice. But the launch price is just ridculous and the games I want for it (DMC4, FFX13, RE5 and MGS4) all doesn't come out until way into next year. While I don't care much for the Blu-ray but the free online service is nice.
Anyway, if I was seriously considering buying a AUD $399 console at launch, I should at least try out what the games are like, even if I have to pay the $16 entry fee (I'll talk more about the actual expo itself below). There were at least 2 games I wanted to get a go at, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Red Steel. Both of which luckily were playable at the expo, as were Wii Sports, Excite Truck, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Tony Hawk: Downhill Jam, and Sonic and the Secret Rings.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was the first game I lined up for and played as it's the one I'd like the most on the Wii. Most of everyone got about 10-15 minutes worth of play on it, we had the choice of either playing a dungeon stage demo or a fishing demo. Most chose the dungeon from what I saw, as did I. I should note that at the Wii stand, there's an assistant giving you tips and making sure you know how to use the Wii-mote at every game. Controls were quite easy to take to, although it does feel different to holding a nunchuk in the left and a Wii-mote in right hand compared to a joypad. I didn't once get disorientated, so the in-game camera is pretty good. I got to a few sword slashes and bow & arrow a few enemies. I also accidentally fell in the water and swam. One odd thing with the controls is that jumping is automatic, so you don't need to press a button to jump. Weird. There were some slow-downs (on purpose maybe?) during multiple enemies onscreen with Link doing a sword combo with flashy effects. Rather than just a short demo session, I'd imagine it would be a more immersive and better experience once you play this game in your own home.
Red Steel was the next game I lined up for. This is first person shooter but with both guns and swords which sounds like a pretty good combination to me. When I was in line, I only saw one person who got to play with the swords in the demo which is at the very start and it was like a training session. When it got to me, I was in the same playable demo area like everyone else and it took me a while to get used to the controls. The nunchuk, like Zelda, controls your character movements but what's different in Red Steel is that where you point your gun with your Wii-mote is where you look. So a lot of the time I had to remember to co-ordinate both my movement and where I was looking with both hands. I felt it was a bit too sensitive maybe but you have to consider that it's set up on whoever turned the game on first. I'm not a big fan of FPS to tell you the truth and what I really wanted (and I'm guessing at least some other people who's interested in this game as well) was to swing that sword(s) at some enemies! Someone needs to make a game just with swords fighting or Red Steel needs a mode where all you can use is just your swords!! I think this is a game you just have to spend much more time with the controls and story to really enjoy.
Excite Truck was the third and final game I tried out. Surprisingly, it turned out to be the most fun I had out of the 3 games!! Basically anyone who lined up, got to play the Mexico desert track for 2 full laps. You only have to use the Wii-mote and you hold it sideways like a steering wheeling, hold and press one of the buttons for the accelerator, there another button for brakes and the cursor is the boost. It's like playing Mario Kart with a lot of air and smashing! Great fun! I think I was quite lucky and only smashed my truck into a tree once. Also, I totally forgot to play around with tilt sensor more since when I was lining up, I was thinking of trying to flip the Wii-mote to see what happens but was totally too involved in the game to actually remember to do it. This game has a LOT of potential to be a winner for just about anyone. It's got that instant play, an immediate hook with how fun it is and I can see people challenging their friends race after race. I hope Nintendo can consider adding a WiFi feature to this game in the future or maybe they are saving that for Mario Kart Wii...
Overall, I had fun with just the 3 demo Wii games I played today. If I had time, I probably would have lined up to play the rest of the demos, too. There's probably one other game I wanted to play and test out that wasn't on demo today, which is Trauma Center: Second Opinion (because I secretly always wanted to be a surgeon). Although, I'm still not sold on getting the system on launch day, at least I know how it plays and what I might be getting into.
I didn't think there was much to do at the expo apart from playing the Wii. There was a pretty big Xbox 360 presence, lots of 360s to play where you get to sit on bean bags, a large inflatable box thing like one of those jumping castles but you can go in it. Sony had a marquee, a trailer (that rocked every now and then, which I can only guess at what they were doing inside) with 4 playable PSPs on each side (I played Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection for at least 20 minutes) and a large ute thing where the back had HD screens, PS2 and people playing one of those Buzz games. I heard there was a Nintendo Wii concept presentation where they talked about it and showed some Wii channels. I caught the end of the 360 presentation where they showed the Gears of War trailer.