Twilight Princess, Session 4: Wiggle Waggle! Demiboy vs. Backlog, Game #6

The Wii felt like a turning point in console games history. Nintendo was no longer interested in a costly graphical arms race to win the hearts of the hardcore, but instead sought to attract the broadest possible audience via lateral-thinking innovations. This brought rage from gamer bros the world over, who lamented their childhood favorite video game company courting "filthy casuals" instead of continuing to cater to their every tech-greedy whim. One term this crowd used to derogate Wii game design was "waggle": the use of motion controls where traditional button- or stick-based inputs would work just as well.

Whoever this is, they're not practicing safe Wii. Always put your Wiimote in a Wiimote condom! (image credit: Vice)

 
Dear readers, I must confess, I am a filthy casual. I don't mind a bit of jagginess in my graphics, or an FPS below 60, or whatever, if the game at hand engages my interest. It thus doesn't especially bother me that in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, you flick your wrist to execute a sword swing instead of mashing a button. But it does bug me when motion controls or infrared aiming inputs are implemented thoughtlessly, without end-to-end consideration given to usability. In Resident Evil 4 for Wii, for example, I loved getting to aim my pistol using the Wiimote, but it made no sense to me that to fire, you used the top thumb button rather than the immediately intuitive trigger. And I straight-up quit playing when I obtained the rifle, which suddenly no longer used infrared aiming, but instead used the off-hand thumbstick to move its reticle. What a disorienting design, and a missed opportunity!

Twilight Princess isn't quite that bad, but it does feature a few head-scratching decisions when it comes to integrating Wiimote input into its otherwise traditional control scheme. Today's example: the bow, obtained in the Goron Mines dungeon. You point and shoot with the Wiimote, just as you'd expect, cool. Unfortunately, when you first nock an arrow, your view snaps not to where you're already aiming, but to the direction Link is facing, irrespective of the camera. It's baffling! You even have this cute little fairy cursor that lets you see where your Wiimote is pointed even when not aiming, but it's never used for anything but selecting things from menus. Why can't the bow jump right to that, so you can line up a shot before planting your feet? You can't move or dodge once you draw the string, which is fine--no need for a Zelda game to have a run-and-gun feel--but that more natural flow would make things vastly less awkward.

Now imagine doing this, but Link's facing the opposite direction, and the red thing is spitting lava lasers at him. (image credit: Gamespy)

 
It's a bit worrisome that I've spent so much of my Twilight Princess bloggage griping about issues with its controls. I have been enjoying it, though, and clearing this second dungeon was overall a satisfying experience. I just wonder if I'm going to make it through thirty or so more hours...

"Demiboy vs. Backlog" is a blog series where I play each game from my considerable backlog until I finish it or at least a week passes, writing here along the way! Twilight Princess was selected at random, but you can instead advise me on what to tackle next. Check out the play queue and leave a comment here if you want to nudge it in a new direction! Think my backlog still isn't large enough or is missing some must-play title? I accept gift games via Steam, and will slot any game thus received into the queue at the nearest opportunity!