Slashdot Mirror
The Wiimote As Yoda Intended - A Lightsaber
An anonymous reader writes "So what if the Wii can't handle the awesome 'next-generation' physics engine the other consoles will enjoy when Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is released? LucasArts announced today that Krome Studios is developing a version of the game for the Nintendo console, and players will finally get to use the Wiimote for its intended purpose — as a lightsaber. 'The sword-swinging action will be exclusive to the Wii version, and even then, it will only be available in an exclusive "duel mode." The description in the release says that this duel mode will be a multiplayer affair.'"
to welcome our wiimote toting sith overlords.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
Arrr! I be thinking it be more fun to have an actual lightsabre, be it plastic I don't be carin', with the Wii controller attached some way, so ye be hackin' and slashin' (and no small bit o' swashbucklin'!) to the dulcet tones of sommon bellowin' 'Hey, you could poke an eye out with that thing!'
We be needing cutlasses and some fing piratin' adventures, too. oX|P-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
So will the rest of the game rely on poorly coded waggle controls to get by? I like the concept, but this has got to be hard to code, and if it is not handled correctly, we are only going to end up with another crappy Star Wars game. Instead of giving us Wii owners bad ports with waggle controls added, I think LucasArts has two options. 1) Make sure the controls work, and work well. 2) Stop the bad ports, and give us updated versions of classic LucasArts games, like Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, and others.
This is a great move, but it still treats the Wii as an afterthought, with a unique multiplayer module tacked on to the core game. I'll still be pining for a real lightsaber game.
Always someone has power over you. The thing to consider is this: Is the power good, or bad?
Both the nunchucks and the normal Wii remote have a motion sensor.
Sure, using the nunchuck to use the Force is a cool idea, but being able to play as Darth Maul has its attraction as well.
How do you get force feedback on those things?
You'll never know if you hit something. I'm a sword fencer (2 kg bastard sword) and the experience is much more tactile then visual. Even if you consider that light sabres are much lighter than a real sword and don't have bars to protect your hand I doubt if fencing with a light sabre wii control will live up tu the experience of real fencing - even if it's just for show.
-- Put crudely, the world is an extremely large problem instance. (Russel/Norvig Artificial Intelligence)
The logistics of lightsabers always intrigued me... some possibilities:
- How fast can they turn off and back on? By timing it right you could bypass a parry but turning it off...
- Lightsabre trap... to stop others from using it, make it look like the other end is the business end.
- While most other forms seem silly (especially the two-ended staff), putting it on a long pole would be of definite advantage in some situations. But why stop there? Can you imagine a pair of light-sabre nunchuku? HOw about a garden rake with one stuck on the end? Or why not a boomerang with twin-sabre action that turns them on a few seconds after it leaves your hand, then back off when it returns... the possibilities are endless..
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
"I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic computer adventure like your father did. It's your father's WiiMote. This is the weapon of a Wii Knight. Not as clumsy or as random as a Joystick, but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Wii Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the PS3."
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
So, what they are actually saying is that they are adding a tacked on, last minute, third party mode. Then they are going to point to it and say "see we gave everyone what they were yelling for" and when no one is happy with it LucasArts is going to be all smug and start talking about how it shows the Wii was not a viable platform to start with. It is no secret that LucasArts hasn't been a big fan of the Wii because of the less powerful graphics. This is more of a slap in the face than a real attempt to port it to the Wii.
I wonder how they've approached making this work. Physics of swordplay aside, sword fighting is not easy. (Hint, *real* swordfighting doesn't look like the movies, and you can't pick it up in a couple afternoons swinging sticks at your friends.) If their simulation of sword movements is true to how each player is swinging their Wiimote, I think people may get frustrated very quickly by the fact that they're going to suck. On the other hand, if the controls are simplified to allow a preset handful of attacks, I wonder how much depth they can provide to the game.
Any plan which depends on a fundamental change in human behavior is doomed from the start.
"I always thought of the wiimote as REALLY intended for something way more sexually explicit..."
You'd better disable the rumble feature before you chip your teeth!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
First, a minor quibble: I wasn't disappointed with Red Steel. While it didn't do what I feel was promised, the swordfighting was overall pretty cool because of how you could block. It was almost instinctive, so it allowed for better reaction times.
As for what the Wii's capable of: they really have a lot of room to innovate here that unfortunately hasn't been explored:
-It could largely solve the 1-1 motion matching problem by having the Wii detect vertical tilt as it normally does (w/ accelerometer) and horizontal motion with the pointer. If your Wiimote loses sight of the sensor bar, it can just bring your saber back in at the next place it does detect it. There is quite a wide detection angle to begin with.
-When sabers collide, make either the player push himself back (as represented by his onscreen view), or the opponent bounce backward, or some of both, so that your living-room Wiimote position, despite having "gone through" where the opponent's saber should be, is still consistent with what he sees on the screen.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.