Wii FPS: An in-depth on the controls

We’ve already seen the Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Red Steel trailers (and heard the interviews), and it’s showcased just how much FPS-style games like these are going to rock with the Wiimote/Nunchuck attachment. Or does it?

N-sider just came up with an in-depth on the fire control style they’re planning to use on the Wiimote/Nunchuck combo for games like the two we’ve mentioned above, giving a detailed description of how the game physics work, the problems they’ve seen, and what Nintendo could do to fix the said problems.

For the basics: In most FPS games for for the Wii, The Nunchuck controls your character’s body movement and overall direction, while the Wiimote aims your gun. Now, to add a more “natural” feel to the gameplay, Wii titles like Red Steel and Metroid have added a “bounding box” system. Within the said box, you can aim freely without having to make any body adjustments in-game, much like the shooting-gallery style stages we see in arcade shooters.

But once you aim outside this box, the character automatically aims in that general direction – like how real shooters (Ex: cops, soldiers, SWAT) will change their body movement when a target’s too off-angle for minor arm or wrist adjustments. The beauty in this system is that it tries to marry the free-style mobility of traditional FPS’ with the Wiimote’s light gun feel for more immersive play.

Note that we said “try”; while the idea’s sound, there’s still some problems. In the author’s opinion, the bounding box is too large. How so? Because of the bounding box’s size, there was a lot of aiming and shooting among players, but no real maneuvering or dodging – they just stood there and took the hits, moving only if the targets were off-boundary.

More details on this report after this jump!

We’ve already seen the Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Red Steel trailers (and heard the interviews), and it’s showcased just how much FPS-style games like these are going to rock with the Wiimote/Nunchuck attachment. Or does it?

N-sider just came up with an in-depth on the fire control style they’re planning to use on the Wiimote/Nunchuck combo for games like the two we’ve mentioned above, giving a detailed description of how the game physics work, the problems they’ve seen, and what Nintendo could do to fix the said problems.

For the basics: In most FPS games for for the Wii, the Nunchuck controls your character’s body movement and overall direction, while the Wiimote aims your gun. Now, to add a more “natural” feel to the gameplay, Wii titles like Red Steel and Metroid have added a “bounding box” system. Within the said box, you can aim freely without having to make any body adjustments in-game, much like the shooting-gallery style stages we see in arcade shooters.

But once you aim outside this box, the character automatically aims in that general direction – like how real shooters (Ex: cops, soldiers, SWAT) will change their body movement when a target’s too off-angle for minor arm or wrist adjustments. The beauty in this system is that it tries to marry the free-style mobility of traditional FPS’ with the Wiimote’s light gun feel for more immersive play.

Note that we said “try”; while the idea’s sound, there’s still some problems. In the author’s opinion, the bounding box is too large. How so? Because of the bounding box’s size, there was a lot of aiming and shooting among players, but no real maneuvering or dodging – they just stood there and took the hits, moving only if the targets were off-boundary.

Then there’s the problem of the “wonky arm” syndrome, where players were jutting our their gun arms out in weird angles as compared to their character’s posture in-game. While it’s not really gonna kill your performance, the big gripe here is that the game loses immersiveness as the player isn’t emoting the firing stances he’ supposed to be doing; your character’s doing a Matrix, while you’re doing a funky chicken.

The author’s proposed solutions for the “bullet magnet” and “wonky arm” syndromes? Make the bounding box smaller. By doing so, the character turns faster, and you’d still be able to freely within a smaller boundary – this gives a more realistic feel to gunfighting. As an added bonus, it also eliminates the “wonky arm” syndrome. Then there’s the complete removal of the bounding box: The gameplay would very much be in line with what we’ve seen in most dual analog controls.

The last suggestion, is our favorite: create a narrow bounding box shaped like a tall vertical column. By doing so, it allows the player to rotate quickly side-to-side, much like a real shooter does in a gun fight, while still maintaining their perspective when they only need to aim up or down.

This’ll work because the games’ battles take place on a mostly horizontal plane, while battles requiring the player to look up or down are minimal. That, and it once again mimics real gunnery physics – SWAT teams don’t really change their body orientation when aiming up or down, but do a lot of torso twisting for lateral aiming.

Another proposed idea is that, by a quick jerk of the Nunchuck to, the character glances 45 degrees left or right without messing up his current aim, much how real gunners look off-point when searching. There’s speculation that Red Steel has options that allows you to adjust this bounding box, while Metroid only allows you to tweak the rotation speed. No solid news on this yet.

We thought this’d be an informative heads-up for those of you planning to getting these games all the more as they’re the top talks for the Wii’s releases.

Via n-sider