I remember the days when everyone thought the Wii was cool. Motion controls were pretty cool to 6 year old me, and I was ecstatic when I finally got one for Christmas. Nowadays, however, they are not seen with such interest. After all, the motion craze had come and gone, and all of the console manufacturers that jumped headfirst into it have all since abandoned it. Some games still implement them from time to time, with usually polarizing results. Although I can definitely see where they can go wrong, I think there can often be great benefit to using motion in games today.
Although there are some quality titles that rely on motion as its selling feature, I think that it is best implemented as a supplementary feature. For instance, my personal favorite implementation for motion controls can be seen in Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. The game controls like a standard platformer, but if you give the controller a quick shake, the character will do a roll. The roll gives the player a quick boost of momentum that can damage enemies, and is the centerpiece of Donkey Kong’s arsenal.
Although I first assumed that the move would be easy to pull off accidentally, I actually found the opposite. Since my last playthrough of the game about two years ago, I honestly don’t remember a single time where I rolled unintentionally and it hindered my experience. The responsive movement gave me a little sense of immersion that went a long way in my enjoyment of the game, and I would say that playing the game with that feature disabled would lessen the overall package.
Although small, there is a feature in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that makes good use of the feature. When playing with multiple people, one character will be the leader. The leader has all of the same abilities as during single player, while the others cannot access their inventories or pick up objects for themselves. However, when the leader gives their controller a quick shake, one of the others can hit the A button to take the leader role. This is an extremely useful and efficient method to switch leaders that very much supersedes just going through another menu. It may be small, but it makes playing with your friends that much easier.
Although there are games that rely too heavily on a multitude of complex movements, such as most Kinect games and frankly most Wii games, I think that small movements make all the difference. It may feel like nothing, but short, quick movements really do enhance the experience in a way that a button press cannot, and I would encourage skeptics to give motion another chance. If they are anything like me, they may be surprised.
Blog About Games 