Come for the Gimmick; Stay for the Game Play!

Yeah, I said exactly that the other day during a work conversation… I was talking about the Wii and the power of a Gimmick.

Does this mean I don’t like the Wii? Nah. I mean, I don’t know that I like or dislike the Wii: I haven’t played around with it yet and I haven’t even seen it.

Right now, the two biggest draws for the Wii are the speculated price and the motion-oriented game play. And price is anyone’s guess… will it be 1/3 of a PS3? Half of a 360? No one knows for sure. What we do know is that it will be the cheaper of the three next-gen boxes. So lets look at game play aspect of the Wii, as it’s been reported.

I’ve haven’t been a fan of non-tactile game play for over a decade. Did I say decade? I did. Decade. Probably closer to two than it is to one, in fact. I play my games as God intended: with joysticks, paddles, and trackballs. *g*

Why the Taint? There was a game that came out in 1988 called Echelon, made by Access Software. It was a flying styled game for the Commodore 64; it’s big “draw” was the fact that it offered a voice activated firing system. You flew around the skies in this uber-futuristic jet using a joystick, but when you were ready to fire a missle, you said “FIRE!!!11!!” into the included headset. Or as my teenage mind saw it, you got to be all suave like Clint was in Firefox – I waited for that game for months and was giddy when I finally got my copy of it.

Then I played it. Reality set in: you didn’t have to think in Russian to get missile to fire. You didn’t even have to say “FIRE!”. Any sound would do… and after seven minutes of play, I had a dry mouth and was bored. On its own merit, the game was boring. The novelty of “saying FIRE!” wore off after the first three minutes. It was now a chore. Total time played? 15 minutes. Did I throw out my C64 because of a bad game? No. Did I buy the C64 because of this game? No. Would I have? Maybe… it did sound pretty freakin’ sweet before I played it. Is that a valid point? Yeah, follow the logic trail here.

Lets revisit release of the NES in the states, cerca 1986. When the NES shipped in the US they offered things like The Zapper and – dare to dream! – a robot. What’s this, you ask? You remember the lightgun but you don’t remember R.O.B.? Lemme ask you this: what do you remember using the lightgun for? Duck Hunt. Maybe some random cowboy shooter game, too, but it’s mostly for Duck Hunt. Nothing else really used it. And that’s why you don’t remember R.O.B. – it didn’t anything much. Was pricy too. Looked as cool as shit though – Geeks drooled for it.

So why did the NES do so freakin’ well? The other games that became available for the NES eventually evolved into franchises: Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. The very same line up that makes Nintendo GameCube popular today, with the [huge] addition of Pokémon. But before those games became franchises, Nintendo got your interests in other ways… they got you with a gimmick.

The Zapper and R.O.B. were the gimmicks of the mid 1980’s. You went in for the gimmick; you stayed for the game play.

2006 and the Wii is grabbing headlines with both fists – and kicking others with a foot or two – because of their new innovations in controllers. I’ve said it in other posts: just because something is innovative, it doesn’t mean that it’s good, but I’ve also said that I’m intrigued by the Wii, which I still am – I wanna play with one first before I decide how much I like it. I know the Wii will do well because of their games line up. The draw of new Pokémon and Zelda games are too strong for the fans of Nintendo to ignore. The draw of a new Super Mario World was enough for me to impulse buy a Nintendo DS; if the Wii is priced right, the same thing will happen for a lot of people that are on the fence for a Wii.

However, the biggest draw for the Wii is Nintendo’s new Gimmick: motion controlled gaming.

I suck at playing tennis. I know it. This is why I don’t play it often. Like maybe once every four years often. What about tennis on the Wii? Will it yell at me if I don’t lock my grip? Will my serves suck, because I don’t come overhead enough? Or so fast that the sensor-bar misses the action? Or if I accidentally lose my grip while swinging: did I just sent my Wiimote at mach 5 into my 50″ screen TV? What happens when I score a touchdown in Madden 07 – do I spike the Wiimote? Why in the hell do I want get physically tired hacking and slashing through Zelda?! [and yes, people have said “I’m SO tired” after playing TotemBall with the “physical camera/motion controlled” XBLA game, so it’s a real issue for gamers!]

Nintendo fans in my office have already jumped me for such questions: “the Wiimote motion won’t be the only way to play!” is the common argument. I hope not. I mean, honestly: if I had a body that could move like Semus in Metroid, why would I be playing video games? It’s like movies that make you study before you see them: they aren’t any fun. If I have to train before playing football on a virtual grid iron, I’d rather workout more and go play in a work league or something.

The Wiimote is the gimmick. People are going to flock to the Wii for that, get it, and then realize that it’s not as much fun as they thought it’d be. By then they will have the first Mario game and have pre-ordered the first Zelda game. They will have access to online services and shiny new accessories. They’ll have a small white or black box that lights up blue as it powers on in their living room and they’ll feel warm and fuzzy about it, because it wasn’t all that expensive. It won’t be as weird looking as the R.O.B. and it’ll be more versatile than the Zapper – even if it’s not as much fun as it should have been, the other platform games will make up for this small let down.

They’ll buy it for the gimmick but they’re going to revere it for the experience.

Props to Nintendo for such a masterful move: you’ve 1Up’d yourselves and your customers benefit for it.