Xaotik Designs

It seems that everybody is adding touch screens, motion sensors, cameras, and anything else they can into our gaming systems, and thats fine.  I like the occasional change up in a game.  What I don’t like is when the entire game is based around it.  For years, the simple process of hitting left, or right  a D-pad to move, or hitting A to jump was enough to play a game, now it seems that even for simple platformers we are stuck waving the controller around like a freshman at Hogwarts.  Can’t we make it so that we only use these features when they make sense?

Wii sports is great, but only because it makes sense to use the features in this game, same with Wii Fit, they are games where you are supposed to jump around like an idiot.  Guitar Hero was great because it only used the accelerometer for when you wanted to activate star power, it also gave you the option of just pressing a button to initiate it as well.  Jedi Alliance on the DS, not so much.  Why would you forgo the age old use of the D-pad for movement and make me hold the stylus on the screen.  Why not walk with the D-pad and use the stylus to tap on specific items.  Not only is it uncomfortable to play with the stylus for more than a couple of minutes, but I also find that my hand will cover the screen as I play, meaning that I can’t see the game.  It’s a waste of an otherwise good game.  I’ll probably never finish it because the gameplay sucks.

The problem is that the Wii was hugely successfull due to it’s gimmick.  Gimmicks are flashy ways to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and that is where the money is, just ask Stephanie Meyer, Paris Hilton, or Brittany Spears…