Mega motion-gaming match-up

21.02.2011
When the Nintendo Wii was first announced at E3 in 2005, I, like many gamers, wrote it off as a gimmick. After all, part of being a gamer was being a slob on the couch, eating the Official Food of Gaming (pizza) and drinking the Official Drink of Gaming (Mountain Dew). Getting up on your feet and moving was unthinkable. But since then, Nintendo has gone on to sell nearly 76 million Wii consoles worldwide. Boy, was I wrong...

Fortunately for Nintendo, it didn't underestimate its ability to harness the casual gaming market the way I did. Previously, casual gaming was limited to a few titles -- maybe Guitar Hero, maybe Singstar -- but thanks to the Wii, there are now tonnes of motion-based games on the market. There are also several different options if you want to buy a motion-gaming device, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. They are, of course, the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect for Xbox 360.

Nintendo Wii

The Wii -- unlike the Kinect, which I'll get to later -- uses a controller and a sensor (an accelerometer) to detect your movements. Once you set up the console, which takes about as long to set up as any console does, getting the software running is very simple. Create a profile, make your avatar look like you if you wish, and away you go. You can control the whole system using your Wii remote, so there's no switching between different controllers.

Since all three motion-gaming devices have some kind of sports game, I used those games a point of comparison. Wii Sports came bundled with the Wii console when it was launched, which made it a pretty popular offering. It's essentially a collection of mini games based on various sports, including golf, baseball, tennis and my personal favourite, bowling.

Playing is simple too -- the game tells you how to move your remote in order to win, and if you do a good job of it you get lots of points. Easy, as long as you're relatively co-ordinated. The Wii does suffer from some accuracy problems though, which became frustrating at times, especially when I'd spent 10 seconds carefully lining up a ball in bowling, only to have it unexpectedly curve at the last moment and miss every pin. But that might have been because I'm not relatively co-ordinated.