Wii Remote - Reception

Reception

Overall reception to the Wii Remote has changed over time. The control styles provided by the controller were met with praise at its first public exhibition at E3. Since then, comments have been noted by the press on its functionality. Matt Wales of IGN UK highlighted the aiming and precision of Red Steel and stated "Taking down swathes of enemies with nothing more than a twitch of the wrist proves immensely satisfying and, more importantly, incredibly involving." Nintendo Power listed the Wii Remote as an innovative controller, citing it as innovative for several firsts, including the first use of motion control, the first built-in speaker, and the first Infrared Pointer. This is incorrect, however; the first video game controller to make use of motion sensitivity was Le Stick for the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64, manufactured by Datasoft Inc, and released in 1981.

Other publications have noted specific complaints regarding control. GameSpot expressed that some motions in Cooking Mama: Cook Off failed to transmit or meet expectation during gameplay. Similar observations were made on other titles made available during the Wii launch period. ComputerAndVideoGames.com reported that "Most prominent is the first batch of games, many of which do a better job at exposing the obstacles of full motion control, rather than the benefits... Need For Speed...is near unplayable, Far Cry got it all wrong, and the motion control in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance just feels tacked on."

The overall situation was described by Joystiq thus: "Over the months since launch, the unpredictable Wii Remote has led to a maddening dichotomy. Some games are too easy, while others are too hard – for all the wrong reasons...Gamers who crave a deeper challenge have to settle for battling incomprehensible controls." Critics felt that fault was largely attributed to the developers' lack of experience with the Wii Remote. Jeremy Parish of the magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly compared the initial phase of control implementation to that of the Nintendo DS. Matt Casamassina of IGN also presumed that the first generation of Wii games were of an experimental stage and that potential for refinement had yet to be exploited.

Later-released titles have seen mixed reactions in terms of control. Of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 from Electronic Arts, Matthew Kato of Game Informer stated that the controller "has a hard time detecting your backswing. Thus, it’s harder to control. There were even times the game putted for me by accident." A GamePro review for Medal of Honor: Vanguard offers that the title "is an encouraging sign that developers are finally starting to work out the kinks and quirks of the Wii Remote."

First- and second-party titles have produced more favorable utilization of the Wii Remote's unique capabilities. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, in particular, was nearly universally praised for its unique control scheme, which is seen as being unrivaled by any other console game. Corruption utilizes the Nunchuk for strafing and the infrared pointing capability of the Wii Remote for turning and special "gestures", which are used to select visors. Other Nintendo titles take a more minimalist approach, using mostly the pointer and buttons only, as with Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, or use the controller in a sideways configuration to resemble an Nintendo Entertainment System controller while de-emphasizing more advanced capabilities, as seen in Super Paper Mario.

The Wii Remote and Nunchuk combined to sell over 8.5 million units in the United States, and took the top two spots in video game accessories sales in 2006. In the U.S., the Nunchuk was the best-selling video game hardware for January 2008, with 375,000 units sold, in a month where the Wii was the best-selling console with 274,000 units sold.