Versus! Wii FPS Controls: Deadly Accurate or Dreadfully Awkward

Wii + FPS = Sad

James Labalokie

Wii Is Best for First

Evan Campbell

At first, I believed that the similarity to a light gun would work so well for FPSs, but that isn’t the case here. Sure, it’s great for rail shooters-– arcade-type games-– but the lack of control really hurts the Wii in the long run. Unlike the 360 or PS3, Wii lacks a second analog stick, so looking about as you move proves a difficult function to map onto a controller. The freedom to look in one direction and move in another is vital to the FPS genre. You need it, and with only one analog stick, it just isn’t possible. Sure, aiming the remote at the edge of the screen can work, but it’s slow and breaks flow, and that is in the best of circumstances (come on, you know it’s obnoxious when the sensors don’t respond in the way that you want or expect them to).

That aside, there’s so little benefit to the ability to point the remote at the screen as you would a light gun. Sure, it’s cool at first, and it can end up having a slightly higher accuracy, but it necessitates an unrelaxed position to reside in while playing. See, that’s kind of a problem, since a video game, as entertainment, is typically a relaxing sort of thing. You know, something you can sit around playing in boxers while sprawled on a couch. I certainly don’t like sitting uncomfortably upright to play a game. It’s not worth sacrificing my comfort in order to play a game to the best of my ability. So, as I’ve noticed, I’ll let my body slacken on the couch, and then my sensor won’t see the remote at a key moment… and then I am enraged. Well, in all fairness, it’s a first person shooter; if I wasn’t already enraged, I probably wasn’t doing it right.

All I see with the Wii is a list of negatives with a very tiny positive. It certainly isn’t worth playing an FPS on Wii when I could just as easily play one on another console. Or on the PC for that matter, but that really isn’t fair at all.

At. All.

While James laments the controls of Wii, I welcome the remote and nunchuk with arms wide open. Ticking a second analog stick to slowly aim at an enemy is awkward and imprecise, at least for me. Pointing the Wii remote at the screen, however, allows for more precision and speed. You can easily snap to different places, horizontally and/or vertically, as well as run circles around enemies while locked onto their heads. This fluidity in controls has made Wii online shooters– the Call of Duty franchise, GoldenEye 007, and The Conduit — highly competitive and fun, and one of the best places for FPS action anywhere. (And I cannot say enough kind words about the amazing single-player campaign for GoldenEye.)

I also must address the misconceived notion that the Wii setup is awkward and uncomfortable. You don’t hold the Wii remote with your arm straight out in front of you. You rest your hands in your lap, with small movements from your wrist controlling the reticule. This is the same thing as playing with a regular remote. But if you do need something to stabilize you, just grab a small throw pillow. Boom. Problem solved.

The only shortcoming for Wii first-person shooters revolves around the visual prowess. At the same time, almost any genre on Nintendo’s platform deals with the same graphical shortcomings. So, basically, the question arises whether visuals are more important for you, or controls? There is no right-or-wrong answer, as all consoles have their positives and negatives, but Wii really does provide a new and fun way to tackle the shooter genre. Not only that, but it’s deadly accurate.