Wario Ware demo at E3?, Zelda, Madden and Tennis too

Hell yes:
Nintendo gave TIME the first look at its new controller--but before I pick it up, Miyamoto suggests that I remove my jacket. That turns out to be a good idea. The first game I try--Miyamoto walks me through it, which to a gamer is the rough equivalent of getting to trade bons mots with Jerry Seinfeld--is a Warioware title (Wario being Mario's shorter, fatter evil twin). It consists of dozens of manic five-second mini games in a row. They're geared to the Japanese gaming sensibility, which has a zany, cartoonish, game-show bent. In one hot minute, I use the controller to swat a fly, do squat-thrusts as a weight lifter, turn a key in a lock, catch a fish, drive a car, sauté some vegetables, balance a broom on my outstretched hand, color in a circle and fence with a foil. And yes, dance the hula. Since very few people outside Nintendo have seen the new hardware, the room is watching me closely.

It's a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It's almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion--the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world--is powerful. And there's an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you're jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody's having a good time.

After Warioware, we play scenes from the upcoming Legend of Zelda title, Twilight Princess, a moody, dark (by Nintendo's Disneyesque standards) fantasy adventure. Now I'm Errol Flynn, sword fighting with the controller, then aiming a bow and arrow, then using it as a fishing rod, reeling in a stubborn virtual fish. The third game, and probably the most fun, is also the simplest: tennis. The controller becomes a racket, and I'm smacking forehands and stroking backhands. The sensors are fine enough that you can scoop under the ball to lob it, or slice it for spin. At the end, I don't so much put the controller down as have it pried from my hands.

John Schappert, a senior vice president at Electronic Arts, is overseeing a version of the venerable Madden football series for Nintendo's new hardware. He sees the controller from the auteur's perspective, as an opportunity but also a huge challenge. "Our engineers now have to decipher what the user is doing," he says. "'Is that a throw gesture? Is it a juke? A stiff arm?' Everyone knows how to make a throwing motion, but we all have our own unique way of throwing." But consider the upside: you're basically playing football in your living room. "To snap the ball, you 'snap' the remote back toward your body, which hikes the ball," Schappert says. "No buttons to press, just gesture a hiking motion, and the ball's in the hands of the QB. To pass the ball, you gesture a throwing motion. Hard, fast gestures result in bullet passes. Slower, less forceful, gestures result in loftier, slower lob passes. It truly plays like nothing you've ever experienced."

confirmed:

- WARIOWARE
- Zelda TP sword fight, fishing and bow, among others?
- TENNIS demo (will it become a real game?)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98738&page=4

This post has been edited by Jay on May 7 2006, 04:01 PM

Wario wiire

I have no idea how that's pronounced

so how bout that wario land

ppp?

yes ppp

EDIT: Wait NO.

This post has been edited by Jay on May 7 2006, 02:54 PM

Needs more GC.

Moved as per request.

Wario Warez!

I thought Wario ware was done after the guy who made them left?

Yes Wario Ware! Even though we already knew without being told.

And Zelda! Even though I'll probably complete it thrice on GC before getting a Wii... yay

sadfgdsfjhdgs


yes. I can't wait to play one...like in thanksgiving D:

He did leave--and he handed off Wario to Intelligent Systems, the original division that worked on the first Wario Land, and Wario Land for Virtual Boy.

Wario Ware Touched was the first Wario game since Wario Land for the Virtual Boy, that the 'original' team had worked on.

This post has been edited by Kaepora Ocelot on May 7 2006, 04:00 PM

I still hate this whole "moving and standing while you play video games idea".

Unless you frequently palpitate, or are one of those weird kids who jumps up and down while playing video games, I don't see how simple wrist movements involve "moving and standing while playing video games".

Unless you're referring to that horrendus Revolution teaser at the Tokyo Game Show.

I move around a lot when I play games, so it'll probably be hard for me to get used to it.

If anything, it will probably be easier with a trait like that to get used to the controller.

I was just saying that you aren't required to move your entire body while playing the Wii.

The problem is that it could really easily detect moving your entire body to the left as moving the controller to the left.

Much like the DS, and Halo 2's analog controls, I'm expecting that some games will have an option to increase, or decrease the controller's reaction time and/or sensitivity to movement.

This post has been edited by Kaepora Ocelot on May 7 2006, 04:17 PM

Ack, the DS one was the one I didn't like.

I don't think what ShadowMan is talking about will be an issue. While I too suffer from his condition, I do this with the subconcious knowledge that I'm not effecting gameplay with my movement. When I start to play Wii games, I will be going in with a mindset that realizes what effects my extraneous movement will have on gameplay, and as such I will adapt to controlling them.