Fusion Tour: Texas

By Shawn White / October 21, 2006

Since September, the Nintendo Fusion Tour has been making the rounds across North America. A few weeks ago, the tour stopped in New York City at the Nintendo World Store; The Wiire's audio editor Leo Pugliese covered the event and received his first hands-on time with Wii. October 20, however, brought the Fusion Tour down to the Lone Star State (that's Texas) and The Wiire's Senior Editor Shawn White was in attendance. The following is his report.

Everything is bigger in Texas. An unfortunate reality at times, but in the case of the Nintendo Fusion Tour, it's definitely a positive. Nokia Theatre--an enclosed, yet spacious center for a myriad of musical affairs--housed the event, and for one night only, the Wii.

user posted image

The glass is for your protection, little Wii. It's a big state out there.

Of course, while larger space means more demo kiosks (there were 10 in all, which is the most Nintendo has yet to set up outside its World Store), it also translates to more people, and more people means longer lines, and longer lines equal less play time; the Twilight Princess demo, for which there were two kiosks, was at least an hour long, just to give an example. Thankfully, a few phone calls and some helpful representatives helped me sidestep that cumbersome situation.

That line in the back is for Zelda. The guy under the middle TV screen is 40 minutes away from playing, at least.

The first title I tested was Excite Truck, one of the games I didn't have the opportunity to demo at E3 2006. I won't spend a copious amount of time detailing that experience, seeing how Leo did so previously.

Those "big, damn trucks" may not seem so big,
but they do pack a speedy punch.

However, I will say that after less than two minutes, I had the controls pegged down, they were that intuitive. While I didn't really come close to winning the race (I picked a bad car, really!), it was thoroughly engaging and left me wanting to try again--not to rid losing's bitter taste from my mouth, but because of sheer fun factor.

Interesting to note is that because of the Wii Remote's small size, and the contrasting size of the in-game trucks, the sense of weight might seem skewed had one never played the title. In reality, though, the sensitivity of the controls helps to diminish this factor, as does all the enthralling air time (for heavy objects without wings wouldn't exude a sense of flight well).

Visually, Excite Truck is clean, with sufficiently detailed truck models, pleasant lighting and water effects, and a great draw distance that shows its best side when the truck is ruffling the clouds. The blur effects initiated by turbo boosts also add to the sense of speed, which this game has no hesitations about showing off. My only quip would be with the foliage, which while not an eye sore, does leave something to be desired. However, the less one crashes, the less that becomes an issue.

While Excite Truck may not turn the racing genre on its head, it's certainly a solid truck racer that wraps speed, variety and intuitive use of the Wii Remote up in a polished package.
{page}
Next on the list was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I played the game at E3 2006, but Fusion Tour was my first time with the updated demo. Although Twilight Princess has received superfluous pre-launch praise, I can't help but welcome the control scheme changes.

Using the bow felt far more precise and intuitive than it did at E3 (as did just using and switching between items in general). Swinging the remote to initiate sword strikes, though, really added a whole new level of flavor. Expansive swings aren't necessary, but I quickly found myself caught up in the visceral excitement of using gestures to send enemies sprawling. I'm slightly afraid the GameCube version will seem mundane in comparison.

And again, the sense of weight would otherwise seem unbalanced due to the controller's miniscule proportions, but the developers did an excellent job timing an instantaneous pause with each sword strike that delivers the necessary "Oomph". On a similar note, I had forgotten just how light the Wii Remote and Nunchuck are, the latter device especially. At the very least, getting tired shouldn't be a concern, even if one slashes like a disoriented fencer.

Visually and aurally, Twilight Princess delivers (yes, I could actually hear the music, which was orchestrated and lovely); that's speaking only for a demo that encompasses probably 1% of the entire game. Pat Wells--one of Nintendo of America's twenty permanent product testers--informed me that before he left Redmond in September to oversee the Fusion Tour, NOA had over 60 individuals working on just Twilight Princess, which doesn't include the game's Japanese staff of nearly 200. So it's clear Nintendo has been making the effort to ensure Twilight Princess not only makes launch day, but is in top form come November 19.

Wii Bowling and Boxing, the two most recent editions to the Wii Sports compilation, were my final testing grounds of the evening. Bowling came first, and I enjoyed a game with Pat Wells, who bowled me over (pun intended); understandably enough, considering he had worked at a bowling alley for five years prior to joining Nintendo in 1988. The controls were incredibly intuitive and captured the movements of bowling well.

Pat Wells prepares to own me in Wii Bowling.

As an interesting side note, Wells told me that in a previous Tour stop, he had seen an older man demo Wii Bowling against a younger, presumably more 'traditional' gamer, and surprisingly, the older fellow picked up the movements seamlessly, while the younger gamer seemed to struggle for a time. It will be interesting to see how well Wii succeeds in reconditioning gamer reflexes.

To round out the night, Wells and I dawned virtual gloves and stepped into the ring of Wii Boxing (hopefully not a foreshadowing metaphor of the future). Unlike Wii Bowling, which requires a few button presses, Wii Boxing is purely motion-sensitive. Surprising, then, that it took me a bit longer to adjust to the game, though at times the controls didn't feel as tight as they should have been.

See the guy in red? That's me.
Thankfully, I did get up. Only to get beaten.

{page}
Regardless, once the full range of motions was understood (and there's variety present in both offensive and defensive maneuvers, though not so much that flexibility in motions is limited), I was boxing better than John L. Sullivan (and I can only get away with such blasphemy because John Sullivan never played Wii Boxing). Granted, I lost the match to Wells, but the experience was satisfying, and I felt that had I played the game long enough, I might have actually shed a few beads of sweat; I don't recall the last time any video game presented that possibility.

Additional demos included Wii Baseball and Tennis, along with WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Wii Play's shooting game, though I only had the time to observe others play the aforementioned titles. In most every case, people seemed to enjoy themselves and really get immersed in the respective movements of each game.

It was often as entertaining to watch other people try Wii as it was to play.

A few other matters to note quickly: Wii Play, according to Wells, wasn't played up much at the Fusion Tour because Nintendo of America still hasn't decided if the game will be brought stateside--a situation that raises my eyebrow given all other territories will be receiving Wii Play at or around their respective launch. Localization efforts would be minimal, so the only reason I can imagine for the game's absence from America's launch is that Nintendo wants to see first how warmly Wii Sports is welcomed before inviting another compilation game to the party.

As for why Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was absent from the event, Wells explained that Nintendo wanted to give more focus to Twilight Princess, since it will be at launch and Metroid won't. The decision must have been made recently, as Corruption was playable at the Fusion Tour in New York City. I imagine the policy will apply throughout the remainder of the tour.

Third-party titles were also missing, outside of a video panel playing various game trailers. Wells mentioned that while the tour started with Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, the demo crashed too many times and was pulled.

Wii kiosks were closed down as Hawthorne Heights took the stage, and lacking an interest in loud rock concerts, I ventured home, my second testing of Wii complete. All in all, the Nintendo Fusion Tour was an enjoyable showcase, and if the lines were any indication, Wii will do well this holiday season.

Goodbye Nokia Theatre, Wii and
girls screaming for Hawthorne Heights

Bookmark/Share

No related articles...
But we do have random ones!

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Trailer

Nintendo Bringing Video to Wii

Study Says Wii Controls Don't Induce Violence

Chat

Upcoming Games

Jan ??	Cid the Dummy
Jan ??	Evasive Space
Q4 '09	Arthur and the Re...
Feb 17	Brave: A Warrior'...
Feb 27	Dead Rising: Chop...
Q1 '09	Mushroom Men
Q1 '09	Wizardology
Q1 '09	Martial Arts: Cap...
Q1 '09	Last Flight
Q1 '09	EA Sports Active

Q1 '09	Dead Rising: Chop...
Q1 '09	Cooking Mama: Wor...
Q1 '09	A New Beginning
Q1 '09	Planet 51
Q1 '09	The Godfather: Bl...
Q1 '09	Wacky Races: Cras...
Q1 '09	Spogs Racing
Q1 '09	Art of Fighters A...
Q1 '09	Final Fantasy Cry...
Q1 '09	Animal Crossing Wii

Jan 15	Castlevania Judge...
Mar 31	Dead Rising: Chop...
	Planet 51
To Be Announced	Art of Fighters A...
To Be Announced	Final Fantasy Cry...
To Be Announced	Animal Crossing Wii
To Be Announced	Luxor: Pharaoh's ...
To Be Announced	Raid over the River
To Be Announced	Balls of Fury
To Be Announced	Tony Hawk's Downh...