One of the biggest downfalls of most gadget sites, in my opinion, is that they are all about facts and humor, but almost always lack in creativity. That’s a shame because the internet provides us with such a great opportunity to flex our collective creative minds and to speed up the rate of innovation.
We at Gadzooki are committing ourselves to the creative side of tech. Rather than simply notifying you of the latest gadgets (as so many other blogs do) we’re going to put our efforts into spurring creativity in the gadget blogosphere. Creativity is dangerous and more often than not, creative efforts fall flat and die. But without creativity, we’re left with the same old, same old.
To begin this process (and possibly fall flat on our faces!) we’re going to brainstorm about various game mechanics that we’d like to see on the forthcoming Wii system.
1. Whack Your Neighbor
Imagine a game of football where a stiff arm is literally a stiff arm. Even better, imagine a motorcycle racing game where you can whip out your billy club and whack the guy right next to you off his bike. Only, instead of pushing a button, you literally move your arm in the direction of your oponent.
2. Grab and Throw
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to be in the middle of a massive sword fight, to see that one of your comrades is missing his sword, to run over grab an extra sword for him (by pushing a button), and then to fling the sword through the air by literally doing an underhanded toss? The key to executing this game mechanic is enabling 360 degrees of throwing freedom tracked to the movement of the Wii controller.
3. Grab and Flip
Playing off the second idea, imagine being able to lunge at your opponent in a game of Steet Fighter, grab the opponent by his shoulders, and then flip him in whatever direction you wanted by simply doing a quick twist of the controller.
4. For the Girls
If my wife is any indication, girls love things like figure skating and ballet. I could see a developmental RPG where you effectively trained your figure skater and learned new skating/ballet techniques. You’d get full body control over your athlete and be able to execute things like triple and double loop twists by moving the Wii controller in precise ways (imagine that the controller IS the body of the athelete).
5. Advanced RPG Role Capacities
The Wii controller opens up a huge number of possibilities for RPGs. Say you are the blacksmith. You could really pound out and shape your own armor. Say you are the swordsman. You could literally be forced to learn sword fighting techniques. Say you are the alchemist. You could literally have to grab your potions, pour them into your pot, and mix them together. Part of your role might be in literally discovering new mixtures. A whole economy could be built around succesful potions and users would be rewarded for experimenting.
Speaking of collective creative minds… why don’t YOU share some of your creative ideas for the Nintendo Wii system in the comments section below?