Dave Perry: I’m not anti-Nintendo, but Wii controls are sloppy
Following comments a couple of months ago that implied former Shiny Interactive legend David Perry was anti-Nintendo, the man himself has spoken out to refute those claims, telling everyone that is definitely not the case…and yet he continues to speak his mind about the faults of the Wii.
Speaking in the second part of an exclusive interview with downloadable magazine ‘Disposable Media’, David Perry (who is actively involved with the now resurrected Acclaim brand) has stated that he is most definitely not ‘anti-Nintendo’, but will refuse to ever censor what he says to the media. He says that he feels he cannot say anything even remotely negative about Nintendo without automatically being classed as a hater of the company and people should not over-react like they do.
“I’m one of the few developers that doesn’t have a publisher PR department breathing down their necks all the time. So when I get to do an interview, I speak my mind. I just say how I feel, the press appreciate that. And I do a ton of interviews, so the conversations I have about gaming can go just about anywhere.”
- Perry tells interviewer Rob Crossley in issue 9 of Disposable Media.
This is all in reference to the first part of the interview Perry did with Disposable Media back in July. The man behind old SNES and Mega Drive classics such as Earthworm Jim and Aladdin suggested that gamers may be drawn away from the Nintendo Wii to the “graphical power the [Xbox] 360 and PS3” in the coming years. Clearly this angered fans of the immensely popular motion-controlled format.
“500 interviews go by without a blip, but then if you mention something negative about Nintendo, it’s pretty impressive the passion that stirs. Do I take my comments back? Hell no. I’m in no way a Nintendo hater. I have a Wii, I bought it the second it came out, I play it often. I’ve got all their machines and tons of games. There’s just many issues with the Wii, and the fans just don’t want to hear it. I personally admire how well the Wii has done. I just find it interesting to see how people turn a blind eye to its flaws.
“Games are all about accuracy. If you request something it better happen. The Wii controller adds some slop to the system, and that in turn goes against the golden rule that controls should be tight and perfect, something that Nintendo has lived off for years. I’m surprised how unimportant these things seem to be to people, that a slight inaccuracy is acceptable.”
But it is not just Nintendo that Perry talks about in the interview, with him also moving onto the worrying sign of developers relying far too much on endless sequels, a very valid point indeed:
“I look at some developers who take their time, and slowly and carefully develop a game, and that means when it finally comes out people get really excited. And then on the other hand there are games like Tony Hawk’s. I mean that franchise has been milked beyond belief, it’s abusive, somebody should protect games like that from so many sequels. I’m bored of it.”
The latest edition of Disposable Media can be downloaded, free of charge, in PDF format from http://www.disposablemedia.co.uk/ and also features coverage of the recent Develop Conference & Expo that took place in Brighton, a look at Blast Arena Advance on the Game Boy Advance and freeware title Trouble Witches.
Keep your eyes on Nintendic for even more news updates throughout the day…
There is a lot of room for improvment on the Wii Controlls.
I am looking forward to the Wii light gun games and the retro classics personally, Earthworm Jim would be a blast to play and could work well with the sloppy controlls!
As someone who bought a Wii the minute it came out, I consider myself a Nintendo fanboy. That said, I know what Perry is talking about, and the “sloppy”-ness with the controller is two-fold:
First, the controler uses a RELATIVE pointing system. It doesn’t matter where on the screen you’re pointing it, what matters is where relative to the SENSOR BAR it is. This feature is totally fine, however, because that’s how your computer mouse works too (it accelerates across the screen as your hand does). Also, if it wasn’t relative, you’d need to define it for each different TV it was played on. Overly tedious.
Secondly, the lag time between moving a controller and seeing the result. This millisecond lag is intentional, however. If it wasn’t there, then every last shake in your hand would be radially magnified on screen (move your hand 1/4 of an inch and see the pointer jump 6 inches on screen), but by having this delay it notices that you’re attempting to keep your hand as still as possible, and thus smooths out your motions for you.
All-in-all, saying the Wii is “sloppy” is really overlooking the minute features that make it so appealing to so many people, without needing 12 console variations (I’m looking at you two MS & Sony).
You’d think a developer would understand this.
Very well said Bing, and valid in every way!
“You’d think a developer would understand this.”
Agreed! And to continue- in this case clearly the developers are the cause of any “slop” as Metroid Prime 3 proved beyond debate.
I mean, this is like blaming your toater for burning your toast, instead of yourself for not adjusting the temperature correctly.
The Wii is obviously a step in the evolution away from, for instance, having to aim a crosshairs with a #ucking’ stick! This method is terrible and is only widely accepted because it was the FORCED method of controlling all FPS on consoles (unless you have some 3rd party mouse keyboard controller..) so we simply HAD to figure out how to use it. It never offered ANY advantages but merely was the way the game had to be controlled. It took me a long time to adjust from digital controls to analog- and now that the Wii is out it is painful as hell to play, especially a FPS, with a freakin’ analog controller. And, once again, the Wii is getting compared to the “graphical power” of the PS3 and 360- okay, do we even need to go there? Geez why can’t the Wii just produce the same graphics for $250.00 as a machine that is being sold AT A LOSS for $350.00? Plus, what the hell has Dave Perry done for the last ten years? Yeah, Earthwom Jim was a pretty good platformer- but lacked the graphical prowness of the Atari Jaguar!!!!
Dave Perry? Moar liek Dave FAILURE AT LIFE.
I suppose that there are two things that people bite on the wii about; the control system and the hardware capability. Like the comment above, I personally think that the control issue really depends on the developers’ understanding of it, if we’re talking about it’s “sloppyness”. the controls themselves, I think they’re perfectly fine. The motion sensor control system in electronic games have been around for years, and I personally think that the way nintendo took that technology and implemented on wii is beautifully done. It adds a new possible way of playing game, YET, not getting rid of the traditional way. You can do both perfectly fine. The hardware capability… well, if we’re talking about just the facts, yes. The wii does stay behind compared to PS3 and Xbox360 in its maximum graphical power. If one would use that fact to argue that wii’s a terrible game console because of that fact, I would disagree. I think that it’s been proven over and over that graphics, more specifically the graphics technical power, is not what make a game great. Do graphics matter? of course, it’s a vital factor, but it’s the graphic style and designs itself that enhances the game. Sometimes you need more power to be able to express the style and design one wants for their games. and looking at the games that are out on Wii, I think that it has sufficient amount of power to let talented developer successfully express graphic style and designs. Of course, that’s argueable, but looking at the games that came out for the wii, and comparing it to the games that came out for the other consoles, I don’t think that wii’s hardware is what’s holding the developers back; as a matter of fact, not all, but some of the games that are out on wii is phenomenal! and the praise, or the blame really should go to the developers, I think. Sorry, I maybe getting a bit off-track, but that’s what I think about the wii. I think that it serves its purpose very well, and any power beyond what one really need is excess flash, but it’s not essential. Do you really need a toaster that can raise its temperature to melt steel? if you use your toaster to toast bread, I think that it’s highly unlikely. One can have any opinion about the wii; that’s their freedom. But I don’t think that it’s really valid to simply label wii, or any games associated with the wii, is sloppy, only because wii has a weaker hardware capability compared to the 360 or PS3.
P.S. I’m sorry it got way off-track from Dave Perry. personally, I couldn’t care less about him. He is really, nothing compared to Shigeru Miyamoto, or any other great game developers.
hello im miniose can i know dperry email i need to talk something with him.anywone who know plz let tell me miniose2@hotmail.com