My best aide in understanding games and the Wii phenomenon in general are my little nephews. You have not lived until you play games with children. Many people think they know how games are with children when they play them with their kids. But everyone is biased when it comes down to their own kids. The kid could be acting moronic in the game and the parent will go, “Oh, little Jimmy, you are just so amazing!”
Children are the future of gaming, and I find them to be the best compass about what works and what doesn’t in games because children are closer to their instincts than adults are. I do not tell my sister that I use her children as guinea pigs, but my nephews never seem to mind. They just love playing new games.
It is good to watch children play games. You will sense the pulse of gaming is very warm when, in your blood, you feel it cold.
I could not get those kids to stop playing swordfighting. They were addicted to swordfighting, especially the duels. One thing they did, that I didn’t discover initially, is that they sprang up the ‘Final Level’ that I did not know existed. In the two out of three mode in Duel Mode, have a tied game and have one player having a win each. Both players step inside the middle blue platform and it will rise up. It is much easier to fall off and will result in a win faster.
These kids are masters of wiggling the controller. I tell them not to, but in their excitement they spaz about. Since they both wiggle and waggle, it makes for some interesting battles. But then I play one of them, and it is no contest. My real sword movements completely destroys their wiggling and they are sent into the sea. Anyone who says the game prefers wiggling to real movements is lying or just having a ‘hardcore’ tantrum. In scenario after scenario, they just kept losing to real sword movements. It wasn’t even a contest. “How do you beat me so fast?” “Use real sword movements.” “Oh.” (Then they ignore what you say and start wiggling again.)
Archery was a hit. The kids took to that one pretty well.
Table Tennis was meh to them. Perhaps they were used to the slower paced Wii Sports Tennis.
I did a three player ‘all-in-a-canoe’ and that had interesting results. It was fun, but they got frustrated with the movements.
Jet Ski was likeable to them, but they couldn’t automatically pick up on it. In their excitement of a ‘race’, they start overcompensating in the steering and they are spinning around in circles. One nephew decided to say heck with it and made a run for the middle of the ocean.
Frisbee dog was hated. The kids couldn’t figure out how to properly throw the Frisbee. I can’t blame them. While I was throwing it well, it took me much practice. I had the same problems too when I first tried throwing the Frisbee. I would have preferred a “Throw-The-Frisbee-Dog Mode” instead where I could toss the doggie as far as possible. Be more entertaining. Personally, frisbee mode is growing on me. But the kids couldn’t pick up on it.
Didn’t try cycling or waveboarding with them. Or Golf or Bowling.
A big hit with them was airplane. Since they are playing multiplayer only, they only played dogfight. And they loved it. They both took to it very well. Even without playing the single player mode, they eventually figured out the island and where to get additional balloons.
Out of what they played, they couldn’t stop playing Swordplay. No matter what game they played, they wanted to go back to Swordplay. After Swordplay, Dogfight was the game they played the most. Then, after that, it was Archery. So this might be start of a pattern with Swordplay, Airplane, and Archery being the universally liked games of the bunch.
One thing I realized about Swordplay when watching young five year olds play it is that Swordplay really channels that masculine aggression into the game. The sword fighting, the environments, the music, and how your movements operate in the game, all of these keep a masculine aggression fire lit that burns hotter and hotter the more one puts into it.
This makes me wonder if girls will have a different experience with Swordplay than boys. With Wii Sports, Tennis and Bowling and the other sports are so universal. But Swordplay is not something I can imagine girls being too excited about. Maybe Frisbee Dog? Oh, I don’t know.
Swordplay reminds me of the 16-bit Era and earlier due to how games, back then, really channeled that masculine aggression. Some try to do so today, but they really don’t do it. Imagine games like Contra or Streets of Rage or Double Dragon and you get the idea. The shmups at the time even did a really good job of channeling such aggression. No wonder games were such crack for young men then.
I’ll test out Wii Sports Resort with 60+ year old people next. Nursing home, here I come!