The “Break it Down” Blog

Ok so I bought into the hype-machine that is everything-Nintendo and plopped down my $19.99 for a Wii MotionPlus when it came out and along with the only other highly rated Wii MotionPlus-enabled game that launched with it: Grand Slam Tennis.

Here’s my single sentence description of the experience for everyone that was curious “Was it worth it?”:

Playing a Wii MotionPlus-enabled game with the new controller addon yielded no noticeable improvement in game immersion, realism or fun — you still end up playing “wrist tennis”.

To go more in-depth into what I mean there — even with the Wii MotionPlus addon enabled and a game that supposedly makes great use of it, the Wiimote still cannot properly discern the differences between fast hand movements and you end up executing the wrong swing.

I’d also point out there is no 1:1 or even 1:3 motion-mapping taking place here, it is still basic movement recognition used to trigger pre-scripted swings and strokes, exactly like Wii Sports 2 years ago.

NOTE: I’ve been playing tennis for years, really actively for the last 3, and playing this game felt nothing like real tennis. It felt like Wii Sports for anyone interested if you “really get to swing at the ball” or “can I really put top-spin on it?!” — no, no you can’t.

An example of the problem with motion detection is when you see a forehand coming at you, and swing your arm back to get ready for it — the swinging back motion registers in the game as a backhand instead of you preparing your forehand so your character executes a backhand in the game, inevitably missing the ball and you screaming in frustration.

I’d also point out that slices, lobs, dropshots, etc. are not done with swings of the remote, but again, just using the A and B buttons as modifiers.

This was hugely disappointing to me. I really tried to give this thing a chance, logging in about 8 hrs of gameplay in the last few days just to make sure I was “doing it right” as well as reading all the tips online — many people said to treat the side of the remote as the “face of your racket”. I couldn’t see any difference at all in the accuracy of playing with the MotionPlus regardless of the “side” of it I pretended was my racket face.

Overall the MotionPlus will likely provide excellent 1:1 motion mapping for any game that doesn’t require fast movements, but if you are hoping to finally get some awesome simulation of your favorite sports game or lightning fast sword-fighting or may light-saber fighting in the future, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Honestly, I’d sell your Wii and wait for whatever is next if that is what you want (which I do).