If there’s one thing I love about the Wii, it’s that Nintendo keep coming out with new technology to build upon what’s already there. First it was the Wii Balance Board, a creation that I had very little faith in when it was first announced. But boom! It’s become an instant hit, and is definitely one of the most desired gaming presents for Christmas 2008. And next year, Nintendo will boost the abilities of their Wii Remote with the Wii Motion Plus, designed to give the 1:1 functionality that was promised before the console came to market. But what’s next?
Well, if you’ve seen the work by Johnny Chung Lee – you’ll probably say it’s head tracking. By adopting head tracking technologies developers can offer us an immersive, 3D experience that actually changes perspective as you move you head . It’s pretty interesting technology to say the least, but what games would benefit from having head tracking interwoven into their gameplay?
Stealth Games e.g. Metal Gear Solid
You tap the ‘A’ button, causing Snake to duck down behind a crate. The radar shows the presence of an enemy just ahead, but you aren’t armed. You lean your head to the side and Snake mimics your movement, giving you a sneaky view of the terrorist ahead. He’s carrying an AK-47 and a few grenades. And as the enemy turns and begins to walk away from your hiding place, Snake jumps up and follows. A swift movement of your Wii Remote and Snake grabs the solider from behind…
Arcade Shooters e.g. Time Crisis
It’s logical, isn’t it? Up until now these kind of games have relied upon pressing a button to toggle between set positions (usually a “safe” position and a “shooting” position). But with head tracking, you could quite literally choose to jump out from any direction. If developers spent some time improving the enemy AI on games like this to respond to the actions of the player (say, you always attack in the same, rhythmic manner) the enemies could learn from this and adopt new strategies of attack. It’d be a blast (excuse the pun).
Point ‘n’ Click Games e.g. Hotel Dusk
I’m a sucker for a good story and I’m a sucker for a good puzzle, which is why point ‘n’ click games rank very highly on my list of favourite genres. And it’s exciting to think about the next step for these games – that next step is head tracking.
At the moment, most point ‘n’ click games rely on you click on objects in order to have a good look at them. Maybe a key is cunningly placed behind a picture frame? In Hotel Dusk on DS, the player is given an on-screen slider he/she can move to look round objects. This works fine, but it’d be far more fluid and immersive to have the player move their head to change the angle of view.
The main disadvantage of head tracking is that the changes in perspective will only work for the head being tracked. To everyone else, it’ll look utterly bizarre. But don’t rule out multiplayer head tracking just yet – we have split screen, so there is no reason why each ‘split’ can’t change perspective independently. However, there’s little that can be done for anyone not playing. It’ll just look wrong.
Furthermore, the suggestions above may seem small, almost insignificant additions to some already great games. But in this writer’s opinion, that is how to get the best out of head tracking. You don’t always want the game to be built around the technology, because while this can result in great games like Wii Fit and Brain Training it also has given us countless gimmicky games like the Imagine series and Carnival Games.
That’s not to say I’m against a game like Wii Play for a head tracking device (if it came bundled in the box all the better), but I’m most interested to see how head tracking will fit in the kind of games that we already play and love.
Oh, just one more thing – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!
