Thinking about my Wii

When will WiiDS (pronounced “weeds”) games come out? I am looking forward to making my girlfriend hold the DS, which I can assume will display only a map for about every game with connectivity, while I play Wii games. She has tried to explain maps to me before and it never works out because we both have terrible senses of direction and tempers. Threatening to kick her out of the car will probably be less effective when sitting in the living room playing video games so I’ll have to come up with a new threat for getting me lost. Not knowing where I am while driving costs a few minutes, but in a game can cost me my life.

Here is a good idea for a game. Take notes, Nintendo. The player with the DS frantically draws monsters (or stick figures, depending on their artistic ability) and quickly assigns them basic AI, while the Wii player fights those same created monsters with his remote controlled sword/gun/2×4. Or something like that. Direct interaction between the systems with a fast paced competitive nature would be excellent. How about a Star Fox (type game) where you navigate your ship completely on the DS while the Wii player gets a better view out of the gun chamber? There are many exciting possibilities and with so many DSs out there, WiiDS games wouldn’t have to suffer the same fate as those totally awesome combination Sega CD/32x games.

Why have people criticized Zelda as not using the remote fully? Expecting every game on the Wii to use all of the remotes functionality is stupid. Incorporating the remote into games where it makes sense is smart. Zelda works because it doesn’t feel gimmicky; sword fighting is intuitive with the controller, walking around with the analog stick. If every game tries to be Trauma Center, we are bound to get a lot of shitty games.

Also, I hope companies stop making collections of mini games and pretending they’re games. Wario Ware can pull it off because Nintendo is a brilliant developer and Wario is as much fun as he is greedy. Instead of games of mini games, why not develop games of a few deeper mini games tied together seamlessly. Pirates! is nothing more than five engines or so stitched together and dressed with the same theme. Actually, Pirates! would work really well on the Wii. And no one would be able to mock a controller that gives you a hands on feeling of looting, plundering and hitting on the mayor’s bosomy daughter.