An opinion on motion gaming

Back in 2006 Nintendo came out with their newest console, the Wii.  With it, brought motion gaming with it’s Wiimote.  Essentially what it is, is a remote control that can track your movement via IR.  People loved it, and made the Wii the best selling console of this generation.  Having used the Wii and hated it, I really hated having to flail my arm around like a jack ass, just to play a game.  4 years later, both Microsoft and Sony have their own answers to the Wii, the Microsoft Connect and the Sony Move.  Microsoft’s technically is not innovative, in which you don’t actually have to hold a controller or anything; but it also lacks buttons and is incredibly annoying to press buttons with your hand.  The Sony Move is quite similar to the Wiimote, being that it’s a remote-like controller you hold in your hand and does 1:1 tracking with your movement.  The Move does offer quite a lot over the Wiimote and is actually built with core gamers in mind, unlike the Wii’s casual gamers.  While I’m not excited about any of these, there are some redeeming qualities about motion gaming, but I honestly hope that it doesn’t last long.

I’m not going to talk about the Wii since everyone already knows about it, and I can’t stand the damn thing, so I’m sorry to disappoint.  Let’s first talk about motion gaming as a whole.  Does it offer anything over a typical controller-based way of gaming?  Personally, I don’t think so.  Most of the games with motion support are casual games, and let’s face it, I’m not a casual gamer.  I couldn’t care less about playing stupid sports games with stupid avatars as the characters.  Nor do I want to flail my arms around trying to play a damn game.  I’m not about to look like a jackass playing a game.  There’s a river rafting game on Kinect (I still like Natal as the name, Kinect is dumb) that requires you to jump, flail your arms and look like a complete retard just to play this “casual” game.  How is this fun?  Are people this inept on how to play real games that they need games like this to say to people “I play video games”?  Party games as a whole are lame, and motion enabled party games are even worse and should die in a boat fire.  As a core gamer (there’s nothing “hardcore” about how I play video games), I’d much prefer a game that I actually want to play, like a shooter (1st or 3rd person) or an action/adventure game.  Why is it that company keep allowing shovelware to be put on their console?  Give me Gears of War 3 or Metal Gear Solid 5 with motion support any day (not of course saying I’d play either of these games with motion support).

Microsoft Kinect (Or Project Natal as I still like calling it) is Microsoft’s 4-year late entry into motion gaming.  But what it adds over the competition is, no controllers, you ARE the controller.  If you look at the image above, you’ll see the Kinect essentially is a camera that can track your movements and put that into the game.  They say there’s 1:1 tracking, but the demos that I’ve seen so far, there’s a good 1/2-1 second delay from the time you move, to the time your “avatar” moves.  Not terrible, but something that shouldn’t happen if you’re playing a game, as screen lag is annoying enough.  What really is strange, is that Microsoft is targeting the casual gamers instead of it’s normal core gamer audience.  Why is that Microsoft?  Because they want to make the most money, because casual gamers will buy any crap as long as it looks fun.  Ok, so you’re targeting to casual gamers, well what kind of games are you bringing to the table?  Well, I’m glad you asked, because you get to play fun titles such as “Kinect Adventures”, “Kinectimals” and who could forget “Kinect Joy Ride”?  With such “quality” games coming out for this thing, how can Microsoft lose?  Oh I know, the price!  Microsoft is looking to charge $150 for this damn thing, and they give me a game where I can pet a damn tiger?  Seriously?   Until Microsoft comes out with core games, this thing is a total dud.

Last but not least, we have the Sony Move.  Very similar to the Wiimote, but is a nicer black color and offers 1:1 tracking, oh and that color changing light bulb at the top.  Who wouldn’t want that?  All joking aside, I think Sony has it right with the Move (those game journalists will tell you otherwise).  Not just because I like Sony better than Microsoft, or that I like playing on my PlayStation 3 a whole lot more than my 360, but because they actually are targeting core gamers with this thing!  While I’m still not sold on motion gaming as a whole, I do honestly like the idea of using the Move controller as a a gun, or using it to play Heavy Rain.  I understand the need for the color changing light bulb at the top, but it just looks silly.  Sony could have easily built something similar into the controller itself, instead of looking like a lollipop for 5 year olds.  Since Sony is targeting core gamers from the start, we’re getting “Move support” for games like Heavy Rain, Killzone 2/3, Tiger Woods Golf, Resident Evil 5, SOCOM and countless others.  Even if motion gaming doesn’t pick up, it’s still really nice to see that Sony actually cares about the people who buy their consoles, core gamers.  I think I am going to buy a Move when it comes out this September, but only for the games that I’ve listed above.

I know that a good portion of this article bashes on Nintendo (let’s face it, I hate them) and Microsoft, but I hate motion gaming as a whole.  It’s very similar to 3D, if you just tack it on, it feels cheap and crappy; but if it was made with it in mind, it can actually turn out to be quite nice.  Another issue of motion gaming, is that it’s going to be expensive.  The Kinect is $149, the Move is $50 for the Move controller, but you also need to spend an additional $30 to get the camera, and another $30 for the joystick controller.  Again, very similar to 3D, movie theaters charge more for a gimmick.  All in all, I hope motion gaming fails and fails miserably; but if some good games can actually come out for any of these platforms, that’ll be nice too.