Iwata on Wii Sports’ overlooked depth

Satoru Iwata has always maintained that Nintendo is a gaming company above everything else. A proof of this testament lies very well in the coming Wii itself. The console has veered away from the technological race rabidly being fought by Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo even went further when the current CEO and President uttered before, “I suppose I could give you a list of the technical specs. I believe you would like that, but I won’t for a simple reason: they really don’t matter.”

Now, even with these strong declarations, some are still hesitant to “join the revolution.” Take for example the case of compilation Wii Sports. We all know that its main purpose, more than a game, is introduce to gamers how intelligent and intuitive the Wiimote really is. Still, there are some saying it is impossible for such simple titles to hold a player’s attention long enough.

In defense, Iwata recently sat down with its developers and inquired the same regarding Wii Sports. The developers then made a rundown of each of the five games. The whole chit-chat can be found online over at Nintendo Europe‘s official site. Key points discussed are as follows:

• Tennis – game measures your skill level numerically, and pits you against over sixty progressively more difficult opponents; rocket serve means hitting the apex of the ball’s toss result to an intense burst of speed.
• Boxing- game works best when the players actually dance around, dodging punches and counterattacking.
• Golf – the game has taken nine of the best classic holes from the original NES Golf which was programmed by Iwata himself.
• Bowling – game contains absolutely no arbitrary random variables; allows rolling the ball away from the lane or even into adjacent lanes around you.
• Baseball – game allows players to fake pitching say for example, through a forkball while appearing to throw a fastball.

Satoru Iwata has always maintained that Nintendo is a gaming company above everything else. A proof of this testament lies very well in the coming Wii itself. The console has veered away from the technological race rabidly being fought by Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo even went further when the current CEO and President uttered before, “I suppose I could give you a list of the technical specs. I believe you would like that, but I won’t for a simple reason: they really don’t matter.”

Now, even with these strong declarations, some are still hesitant to “join the revolution.” Take for example the case of compilation Wii Sports. We all know that its main purpose, more than a game, is introduce to gamers how intelligent and intuitive the Wiimote really is. Still, there are some saying it is impossible for such simple titles to hold a player’s attention long enough.

In defense, Iwata recently sat down with its developers and inquired the same regarding Wii Sports. The developers then made a rundown of each of the five games. The whole chit-chat can be found online over at Nintendo Europe‘s official site. Key points discussed are as follows:

• Tennis – game measures your skill level numerically, and pits you against over sixty progressively more difficult opponents; rocket serve means hitting the apex of the ball’s toss result to an intense burst of speed.
• Boxing- game works best when the players actually dance around, dodging punches and counterattacking.
• Golf – the game has taken nine of the best classic holes from the original NES Golf which was programmed by Iwata himself.
• Bowling – game contains absolutely no arbitrary random variables; allows rolling the ball away from the lane or even into adjacent lanes around you.
• Baseball – game allows players to fake pitching say for example, through a forkball while appearing to throw a fastball.