I busted out Wii Sports Resort today for the first time in awhile, and I got to thinking – motion control is hardly the most important feature of the Wiimote.
There's no denying that WSR is a supremely well-made game. In fact, I'd say it's the pinnacle of its genre, and that the fact that Move and Natal are essentially copying its template for their respective launches scares me. The game isn't good because it has motion control – certainly, it doesn't hurt that it's incredibly immersive – but because the game has been fine-tuned to the expected first-party Nintendo standard that few developers working anywhere are able to match. What significant improvements can be made to that formula beyond a few perfunctory "HD" trappings (online functionality and HD visuals with, more than likely, creepy doll-faced Uncanny Valley people)? And what are they going to offer to take away business from the motion control obsessed Wii crowd?
I play my Wii more than my other systems for two simple facts. One of those reasons is one that the other consoles will never be able to do – namely, the Wii has Nintendo games – but one element that I think that these motion controllers have totally missed the boat on is the Wiimote's versatility and adaptability. It's already clear to me that with Natal and Move, they're setting up a rather dichotomous relationship between the motion control platform and the pre-existing gamepad support. It's either/or, and there's no way to integrate the two (or at least, not in especially practical or meaningful ways).
But consider the Wiimote. It's not designed to simply be a motion controller. It's a complete blank slate for developers to play with. Sure, more often than not because of the low development costs associated with working on the Wii, there's a number of inexperienced developers who try to shoehorn in stupid motion control when it's not necessary, but the best developers realize that what the Wiimote presents is the opportunity for the control method to meet the specific needs of each game.
The Wiimote is a pointer, an old school NES controller, a Wheel, and something to be tapped. It can have enhanced motion control, or it can be removed. It can hook up a variety of peripherals – the Classic Controller, for instance, is directly tied into the Wiimote. In essence, it's the focal point of the system, and the different ways to use it are as myriad as the games developed for the system.
This is the problem that I see with Natal and Move. They're both designed exclusively to do motion control (at a premium price, too), and because of their design, don't allow for the multitude of control experiences that the Wiimote does. If Sony and Microsoft can rectify this, they will find that their new controllers open up an entire world of development opportunities. If you think about it, while you can certainly do some creative things with the current gamepads, the way of controlling a game of a certain genre is inculcated into the developers because of what has been done on that controller before. It's much easier to break the mold when the controller itself is moldless.
Looking through my collection of games, there's actually very few that use motion control extensively anyways – that's perhaps because games aren't being designed with it in mind, but probably more likely because for certain genres, it doesn't make sense. That'll be true of Natal and Move too, meaning that they're essentially delineating between "casual games" and "hardcore games." The Wiimote is the great equalizer, and I think that'll be something that both Microsoft and Sony will realize next generation.