14 DAY TRIAL // I hope I'm not going to make enemies writing this piece of news?still I just have to write it. Every now and then, I slip into my "evil" form and criticize the Wii for its simplistic games and control scheme. The way I see it, any Wii port of a game series gets simplified. I may be wrong about this, so I'm going to let you be the judge this time. Nintendo showed off two of their highly anticipated Wii titles at the E3 this year: "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games." Care to find out something not so good about the latter...?
This piece I picked up on Pressthebuttons.com, says that Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games has the simplest control scheme ever, making it not the kind of game supporting an interesting storyline and other important features in a video game. According to AMN's Lucas DeWoody...:
"In what is probably an attempt to connect to the same demographic as Wii Sports, the controls are waaaaaaaaay overly-simplified. A lot of the games just boil back into a glorified waggle fests, much like a next-gen Track & Field on a Wii-mote where you just stand there and shake the Wiimote/Nunchuck combo as hard as you can. The game will feature a tournament mode where all the characters can compete against each other in a full Olympic setting, but the game will not support any kind of story mode which feels like a waste of the license considering the historic relevance of the joining of these two classic characters."
As I was saying, no more criticizing this time. I hope this excerpt says it all and while I'm not trying to convince anyone that owning a Wii isn't great and all, I sure hope that people try and see video games for what they really are: complex, educative, attention demanding and reflex-improving tools. The Wii is just fun, which is not necessarily bad, if having fun is your only goal in life.
Having not played the game, I cannot confirm whether the game's controls are indeed "waaaaaaaaay overly-simplified," but when you get the chance to experience it hand-on, do share an impression with us.