It's the Motion of the Ocean...

Motion controlling. That seems to be the new way of things for our gaming consoles. Nintendo unleashed their system on the North American masses in November of 2006. By now, the XBOX 360 had been out for about a year, and the Playstation 3 was freshly released, just 2 days earlier. Everyone in the gaming community laughed at Nintendo, and their goofy looking Wii-mote. Secretly though, everyone still wanted to play Mario, Kirby, and the rest of the long-lasting Nintendo mascot lineup. Even though we didn't see a Kirby game for a few years, Mario was all over the Wii. It seemed a little desperate, in fact, how much over the system he was. All their party games, sport games, and, of course, Super Mario Galaxy. He was karting, fighting, flying, switch-hitting, defending, kicking, and  pseudo-monopolizing. All with the help of the newly constructed, motion-activated Wii mote. Or was he?

In the early titles that came out for the Wii, the motion part of the motion controller was fairly weak. But, it was a new technology, and had a Galaxy of growth ahead of it. It made you get up, and actually move around while you were playing a couch-based game. It felt a little more interactive than the normal 'button' style gameplay. It just needed a little push. By the time Mario Galaxy came out, there were a few titles that were really using the motion. Luckily, Nintendo made the console, the technology, and the Mario. It was an instant hit, and really started to showcase what the Wii mote could do. Unfortunately, due to the Wii's hardware shortfalls, and Nintendo's rock-solid stance on the majority of violent video game on their consoles (Mad World, I think, was amazing, but a total anomaly), the Wii just couldn't push the sales the way they'd hoped. Also, even after the addition of the Wii Motion Plus, which added better motion tracking and movement response, it was still a twitch-based controller. This meant, in a nutshell, that you could still sit on the couch, and find the proper movements to play any motion game. Now, mind you, I'm not saying any of this to slight Nintendo. I can proudly say I love my Wii, and will stomp anyone at MarioKart or Modern Warfare. I just see where it fell short.

Now, enter the other, bigger brothers. Microsoft and Sony. Sony took the safer approach with the Playstation Move, while Microsoft jumped into a Steve Jobs-esque hands-free motion system, the Kinect. They watched the evolution of the Wii mote very closely, and, I think, just had more money to patch the holes Nintendo left behind. Let's start with the move. When it was officially shown off to the world at E3, it was a real knockout. Unlike the Wii mote, this new controller has a full range of motion. This means that if you were to hold the controller, and rotate your arm around in a circle, without tearing your rotator cuff that is, it follows your movement in a 1:1 ratio. This will make you move, rather than twitch. They showcased a few games that they had in production, and it really looked amazing. Physically, it looked a little goofy, but, hey, innovation isn't always beautiful. This would now open the door for all of the PS3 titles, such as Heavy Rain or even the Call of Duty series, to be played with this new controller. The accessories started rolling out for it, like a gun adapter and a steering wheel, much like what happened with Nintendo. And, I don't think Sony was prepared for the warm reception this controller received from the gaming community. Constantly, the controller and it's nunchuck add-on, were not available in local retailers, both large chains and small. Good innovation, good functionality, now, they really need to focus on more marketing for it.

Enter Microsoft with their hands-free Kinect. I won't bore any of you with tech specs, as half of your reading this already know them, and the other half couldn't care less. You pop in on top of your TV, stand back, and voila! The little rectangular box will track your motion, and translate that to the game your playing. It was amusing to see Microsoft go with something that Apple would be proud of, for a little injected irony. I don't want to sound biased here, but, to say they dropped the ball on this one would be an understatement. I'm still trying to figure out their angle on this one. The technology is fairly sound, with a few shortcomings, that luckily can be patched with software updates. The game lineup however, well, not sure where we went with that train wreck. This is a system that is mainly used by an older gaming crowd. Maybe not necessarily more mature, but older in actual age. I don't want my inaugural title to be Kinectimals; a cute, furry little tiger cub that I can pet, train, and talk to. I would expect to see that on the Wii. I didn't see any huge game innovations come through, and, a year later, I still haven't. The best thing they showcased was the ability to do a Minority Report style menu navigation. However, I still stand on the pedestal that the technology is sound, and, has the financial juggernaut of the big 'M' behind it. This could be a great motion system for gaming, if they get a few more actual gamers to give them a hand in game planning.

At the end of the day, I think the Playstation Move has the stuff. They added support to existing titles via a software update, that was free when you bought the controller. The full range of motion, and snap tracking give it a one-up on the Wii. And, I think the color changing ball at the end of the controller, phallic as it may look, is actually a cool idea. C'mon, I'm a gamer, and easily amused. Isn't that the heart of things? Simplicity can be complex too.