Skate Controls Superior to Wiimote, Says Clive Thompson

While it might sound like a silly notion at first, if you actually consider the concept of the Wiimote being inferior to what Skate accomplished on a controller, it doesn’t seem so crazy. This is the point that Clive Thompson argues in a piece for Wired. He explains the way a Tony Hawk game controls, contrasting that with how you actually do an Ollie in real life. It’s not quite the same. Skate, on the other hand, emulates the real life gestures, only with the thumbsticks – and Clive thinks that might be better than any sort of Wii wagglin’.

Sure, Nintendo’s beloved console aims at capturing this sort of natural feel in its movements. But the truth is that it often fails, because it winds up being artificial, too. In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, you swing the Wiimote back and forth to “slash” your sword — but your physical movements do not really resemble what happens on screen at all. You can’t really control the angle of your sword’s attack, for example.

Swinging the Wiimote is just as artificial as using a regular controller — and maybe even more annoying, because you expect that your real-life arm, swinging away in the air, ought to map directly onto the onscreen activity.

Sure, that’s something more related to the specific game, but does any game currently on the Wii really work that well? Look at what Skate did with analog sticks, and you throw in the potential in something like Sixaxis… it makes you wonder if the Wiimote really is the closest you’ll get to realistic control over a game.

Check out the rest of Clive’s piece here.