The Nunchuck Conundrum

The Nunchuck Conundrum

by Shep

Let me pose you a question: How often to you use the Nunchuck with the Wii-Mote?

I own a Wii, (which I have barely touched in recent years in favour of the Xbox 360 and, to a lesser extent, the PS3) which when I do play I usually shun the Nunchuck add on but where does the fault lie, the games available on the system or my own gaming style?

Lets list the games I own for the Wii: Donkey Kong Country Returns,  Epic Mickey, Goldeneye 007, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Metroid Prime Trilogy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 (adding up all the metacritic scores for these games and dividing by nine gives a average metacritic score of 88).

Now let us list the games that are playable without the Nunchuck: Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye 007, Kirby’s Epic Yarn & New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Then (don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this) let us list the Wii games which I own and have actually played: Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye 007, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess & New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Finally, (honest) of those games which ones have I completed: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Obviously, there are games out there, but why am I seemingly so unwilling to give the Wii the same opportunities as the Xbox 360 or the PS3?

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a busy guy, what with going to work, studying for a degree, playing for a football team, going to the gym and all the other day to day things that need doing before I can play many videogames. When I do, I just want to collapse in my chair with a drink and some snacks, and play. I don’t particularly want to be waving my arms around (looking at you too Move and Kinect) when I look to play games to relax.

Obviously from the list above there is an exception to that rule: The Legend of Zelda, which was only playable with the Nunchuck in tow. With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword I found myself dusting off ye’ olde Nunchuck as I prepared for battle. I’m not going to go too deeply into Skyward Sword as I will end up reviewing the game that our resident self-confessed Zelda nut, Dish, has had dibs on since the day it was first announced.

The point I am trying to get across is this: to veteran gamers, like me, the preferred method of controlling our on screen avatar is the control pad and it will take something special to get us out of our close minded preconceptions and actually try something different. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are not being helped by veteran gamers also being quite savvy when it comes to videogames (who would have thought it?) and only being willing to fully embrace a new control method for our games when there are high quality games available to make us want to do so.

Taking InfinityFeed HQ as a microcosm of veteran gamers in general: between us we have 3 Wii’s – all of which have been collecting dust since Twilight Princess and all of which have recently been dusted off for Skyward Sword. Was it worth the wait? Dish will let you know on that score. Has it been too long? Definitely, if only Nintendo could get a Zelda game out every year maybe more of us veterans would be more willing to take the Wii seriously.