Nintendo's E3 Conference Thread

[miffy495]

I don't get why so many people want to be able to do freehand sword battles with the Wii. Yeah, it would be fun... IF YOU WERE ACTUALLY GOOD AT IT. The problem lies in the fact that while everyone can push a button, not everyone can actually properly weild a sword. And not a lot of people are all that willing to put in the time required to learn. Everyone talks about this fabled freehand sword fighting game as if it would be the most intuitive and fantastic thing available, but learning how to do this well takes a lot of training. Is the average gamer, and probably many of the "hardcore," really up to investing all that time into it? In order to make it fun, it would need to be unrealistically dumbed down. So yeah. Freehand sword fighting = not to hard to do, very VERY hard to do well.

[Nappi]

It can't be very hard. You just do a punch of über-fast moves you think would look cool with a sword and the enemy should be in tiny pieces. Right?

[nsps]

I don't get why so many people want to be able to do freehand sword battles with the Wii. Yeah, it would be fun... IF YOU WERE ACTUALLY GOOD AT IT. The problem lies in the fact that while everyone can push a button, not everyone can actually properly weild a sword. And not a lot of people are all that willing to put in the time required to learn. Everyone talks about this fabled freehand sword fighting game as if it would be the most intuitive and fantastic thing available, but learning how to do this well takes a lot of training. Is the average gamer, and probably many of the "hardcore," really up to investing all that time into it? In order to make it fun, it would need to be unrealistically dumbed down. So yeah. Freehand sword fighting = not to hard to do, very VERY hard to do well.

Good point. It would be like a "Guitar Hero" in which you had to actually learn how to play guitar. It might work as an educational game.

[Erkki]

I think this is a more general issue with Wii that you raised -- for example, would you need to learn actual ping-pong skills to do good spins in a ping pong game? If you would, I'm not sure it's such a bad thing -- obviously the games would be balanced so that anyone can complete them, but the term "easy to learn, hard to master" would obtain a new (long-lost?) meaning in the context of gaming.

But would free-hand sword-fighting be any more difficult than with a regular control scheme? Well, it depends on how the enemies are done of course. But I don't really see how it would be more difficult than trying to communicate my thoughts about where to slash or thrust by translating them into presses of keys or buttons.

I for one have trouble doing combos in any current games, I keep messing up even the simple ones...

[Roderick]

I would LOVE to see a game that uses the Wiimote to teach me all the intricacies of the old European medieval swordfighting techniques, or katana-fighting, or simply swordfighting in its entirety. Maybe not even as a game, but really an instructional piece of software. I'd buy it in a snap if it were any good. Learning swordfighting (maybe even pirate-style with a cutlass!) has always been a dream of mine and this will make it very feasible. COME ON, somebody MAKE THIS!

[Anonononomous]

I would LOVE to see a game that uses the Wiimote to teach me all the intricacies of the old European medieval swordfighting techniques, or katana-fighting, or simply swordfighting in its entirety. Maybe not even as a game, but really an instructional piece of software. I'd buy it in a snap if it were any good. Learning swordfighting (maybe even pirate-style with a cutlass!) has always been a dream of mine and this will make it very feasible. COME ON, somebody MAKE THIS!

I'd buy it.

________

Yamaha XS400

Edited January 18, 2011 by Anonononomous

[doremi]

I don't get why so many people want to be able to do freehand sword battles with the Wii. Yeah, it would be fun... IF YOU WERE ACTUALLY GOOD AT IT. The problem lies in the fact that while everyone can push a button, not everyone can actually properly weild a sword. And not a lot of people are all that willing to put in the time required to learn. Everyone talks about this fabled freehand sword fighting game as if it would be the most intuitive and fantastic thing available, but learning how to do this well takes a lot of training. Is the average gamer, and probably many of the "hardcore," really up to investing all that time into it? In order to make it fun, it would need to be unrealistically dumbed down. So yeah. Freehand sword fighting = not to hard to do, very VERY hard to do well.

It's appealing because you can't do this with the old controllers. Why go to the trouble of making a new controller and have things play the same?

Speaking of sword fighting, Monkey Island Wii!

[miffy495]

I wouldn't mind an instructional one. That's actually a pretty damn good idea. The idea of a game that incorporates this swordfighting as an essential element to a larger game is what throws me.

[Roderick]

yeah, I understand what you're saying completely. If it were part of a larger game it WOULD have to be dumbed down because it would have to be fun foremost. But in an instructional game I'd WANT to have it be hard to master and have different tiers of mastery, etc. Of course there could be a 'game' element inserted next to the learning, such as a tournement or sparring matches, but the essence of it would still be instructing in the very real and proper techniques and arts of swordfight.

And, hell, this lies exactly on the road of broadening gaming to the non-gaming audience.

[vimes]

Here are my 3 cents....

*clear throat*

Having worked on a VR lightsaber game demo using a device I suspect to be similar to the stuff in the wiimote, I can say it IS very simple to manipulate a sword when you have one in your hand and to aim at stuff... it just feels intuitiv and it is A LOT of fun. The thing is that you don't need any type of GUI or tutorial to play... but a player couldn't handle anything else because it requires all his/her attention, i.e. it woudn't work with Oblivion or complex gameplay.

[Roderick]

Well, theoretically you could divide up the gameplay. say you had some world with a lot of interaction controller by classic means, and then as soon as you go into combat there's a brief moment where the game allows you to go into Sword Mode with your controller and you'll only have to concentrate on the fight from them. That is of course just one of the various ways you could intercept difficulties like these. But in all honesty, I'd just like a very deep and good instructional game.

I think that eventually, we'll get both those AND games.

Hell, we already HAVE Red Steel. What are we speculating about? =D

[vimes]

Oh, I didn't notice the Connect 24 until now.

Thanks to Connect 24, Nintendo is at your house anytime, entertaining your kid in your place, taking care of your business... just like that brother everybody has.. you know... the Big one.

[brkl]

The thing that makes virtual swordsmanship a whole lot easier than real life is that there is no weight.

[Oath]

The thing that makes virtual swordsmanship a whole lot easier than real life is that there is no weight.

Exactly. You can stop your strikes at any moment and easily twirl the blade around using your wrist, with little difficulty. It's pretty much just a removal of all the downsides of trying to wield a sword.

[Roderick]

Aye, but you DO learn the techniques, which would in theory make the transition to real swordfight (which would eventually be the ultimate goal of course, Highlander in the real) easier. You just have to adjust to the weight of a sword and your timing, but you know the moves and the rules of engagement. Am I making sense?

[Oath]

Aye, but you DO learn the techniques, which would in theory make the transition to real swordfight (which would eventually be the ultimate goal of course, Highlander in the real) easier. You just have to adjust to the weight of a sword and your timing, but you know the moves and the rules of engagement. Am I making sense?

Yeah, I guess so. I'm not sure about how useful those techniques could ever be when your brain has no way of knowing how to compensate for the weight. That's something that really needs training.

I just thought how great it would be if they made a Bushido Blade title for the Wii, as that'd be a good blend of realism and fun. It's paced pretty much just right for a console like this.

[brkl]

Yeah, that was a great game that would work well with Revolution.

[castorp]

Wasn't there once a game that had some kind of chainsaw-lookalike controller (an evil-dead game, I think) as gimmick. A chainsaw without chain and saw but lots of buttons.

Now with a Wii-powered sword-controller it would be not just a ridiculously looking piece of plastic but be really cool. Kill-Bill-like swordfights with a real Wii-Katana. Awesome. Or a Wii-lightsaber (no light, but real built in speaker-sound).

Or Wii-whatever.

[miffy495]

I think that was actually RE4. But yeah, the addition of the controller speaker would be amazing for the hum of a lightsaber.

[Duncan]

There's a Gamasutra article here which thinks Lucasarts might be into a lightsaber game, though on closer inspection the article seems a little too optimistic.

I think it's interesting how a prospective Wii lightsaber game is entirely about this simple game mechanic but that's pretty much all the game would have to be for everyone to love it. Everyone's just really excited about the Wii, which is cool.

[vimes]

Abe from the Oddworld serie.

[Roderick]

I'm watching the Nintendo conference for the third time and it's still super awesome. I believe in the revolution of gaming

[vimes]

I believe in the revolution of gaming

You mean... the wii of gaming.

Tired of that already?too bad, you're in for a looong ride

[Roderick]

Get out.

[BigJKO]

Man, Super Mario Galaxy, despite not even using the Wiimote that much, looks awesome. That robot boss battle was just magnificent. Didn't even notice how big the robot really was until Mario started running up it. No gravity = !