New Nintendo Wii Features Slips

Posted: 05/01/06 03:55am
By Author: Hang Lauv

Ever since the Nintendo Wii’s controller was announced last year at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Game Designer Shigeru Miyamoto and friends have always stated there’s more to the controller than has been revealed. Of course Nintendo fanboys have ripped up message boards ever since trying to guess what this new functionality is.

Recently in an interview with IGN, EA Canada’s senior vide president, John Schappert, slipped some details on features built-in for Wii that weren’t previously confirmed. One such feature was the rumor that accelerometers were built into the nunchuck unit of the controller setup. He confirms that EA will be using this functionality in the Wii version of Madden. Is this the secretive fuctionality Nintendo isn’t telling? Probably not.

When describing how a play might work, he states, “it does use the accelerometer in the nunchuck unit as well for juking,� and “if you want to juke, you use the nunchuck to gesture it.�

The accelerometers in the nunchuck unit will differ from the controller in that it only senses movement. If you hold the nunchuck still, it’s the same as not pushing a button. However with the wand controller, even if the unit is still, the Wii can determine its angle and orientation. So only when the nunchuck unit is moving, will that be translated to somthing on the screen.

John also confirms that the game will utilize force feedback from the Wii controller as well. Whether or not this is simply the rumble feature that has become standard in today’s controllers or a more advanced system remains to be seen. However a rumble feature certainly isn’t a big surprise.

Finally as a relief to many graphic whores out there who had a heart attack when Nintendo announced that Wii would not support high definition, John states in the interview that Madden Wii is being developed for 16×9 widescreen and 480p progressive scan. He commented, “As for graphics, we’ll be showing Madden in 480p and 16×9 widescreen mode running at 60 frames per second. I think it looks great. I think it looks really good.â€? We can all let out a big sigh of relief. Madden Wii is also expected to make an appearance at E3 next week. Check back with The Game Feed to see how EA adapts to the Nintendo Wii and the controller.

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