Miyamoto talks about Wii's Nunchuck, Wii games
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Miyamoto Shares Wii Secrets
The origins of the nunchuck, Miyamoto's Wii games, and more.
by Anoop Gantayat
July 21, 2006 - Nintendo game master Shigeru Miyamoto, speaking with
Japan's monthly Nintendo Dream as part of the magazine's 10th
anniversary festivities, has shared a few intriguing details on the
Wii, its controller, and his upcoming games.
Miyamoto first spoke about the origins of the system. "It was very
important to have it become 'something that would be best to have
there,'" he said, speaking of Nintendo's desire to make the Wii an
attractive machine for households. Miyamoto feels that game machines
had the status of a desirable household item at one point, but they
lost it. The change happened when games "lost their fundamental nature
as pure entertainment."
Wii development started with thoughts of "what kind of machine would
make for a console that one wants to keep in the home?" The answer was
something that doesn't get in the way, something "not frightening." The
Wii project also began with the notion of making something "anyone can
play, simply using one hand."
Of course, every Wii includes, in addition to the Wii-mote, the
nunchuck accessory. Miyamoto explained the origins of the secondary
device and its name. When Nintendo first made demo units, the
development staff referred to the device as a nunchuck simply because
it looked like one. American staffers referred to the device as
nunchuck as well, so it became a development code for the device.
Eventually, Nintendo investigated the copyright status of the term
"nunchuck," learned that it was free to use as a standard word, and
went with it.
Nunchuck isn't the precise name for the analog expansion unit that will
ship with every Wii, though. Anything that's attached to the Wii-mote
in similar fashion to the analog expansion unit is said to be in a
nunchuck style position. Anything that's fixed to the remote similar to
the gun expansion that was shown at E3 is said to be in zapper style
position.
Earlier in development, the Wii-mote was referred to as the "Core
Unit." The devices that attached to it were referred to as the
"Peripheral Unit." This naming originated when Nintendo came up with
the idea of splitting the controller into separate units. The biggest
cost to the controller comes from wireless functionality and power
consumption. Nintendo realized that by placing these costly
capabilities into one device, the Core Unit, they would then be able to
make and release a variety of Peripheral Units at cheaper cost to
users.
Miyamoto also touched upon one of the last areas of the controller's
functionality, its speaker. "We had a lengthy discussion on the
matter," said Miyamoto about the decision to include either a speaker
or a microphone in the controller.
There was apparently even some consideration of including neither in
order to keep the controller from becoming too complicated, but this
was vetoed. "Because you're using a wireless, rod-shaped remote control
to play, it's important to have feedback and reaction to the actions
that you take," said Miyamoto. "Controllers until now have used rumble,
but we felt that rumble would be insufficient, and ended up keeping the
speaker in."
He let out one bit of information, confirming first if it was okay to
reveal it. Nintendo is making a game in which four players play
together by passing a single controller around. The controller calls
out player names in order to indicate whose turn it is.
He also suggested another idea, a game where the controller quietly
gives out secret information to individual players as their turn comes
about.
One of the main driving forces for the inclusion of the speaker was
third parties. Nintendo actually considered removing the device for
cost reasons, but found third parties requesting that it be left in.
Interest wasn't as high inside Nintendo from the start. "When we first
started talking about the speaker, there was absolutely no reaction,"
revealed Miyamoto. This changed when people heard the sound effects
generated by the speaker while swinging a sword in Zelda and noted that
it sounded like swinging a Light Saber.
Asked about reactions from E3 which claimed it difficult to go back to
using a standard controller after having used the Wii controller,
Miyamoto said, "That's because once you've gotten used to free style
using the remote control, going back to a controller where you use both
hands, you're unable to move your hands and end up feeling a lack of
freedom. However, I have absolutely no intention of being negative
about current controllers. We are, after all, preparing a standard
style controller in the form of the Classic Controller."
Miyamoto feels that some games will actually work better with the
classic controller. He mentioned F-Zero as one such game.
The dialogue turned at one point to, of all things, left-handed and
right-handed gaming. Miyamoto is left-handed, and he said that he's
recently been trying to get used to using the remote/nunchuck pair in
the "reverse" way -- that is, the remote in the left and the nunchuck
in the right hand. While he's been getting used to playing like this,
he feels lefties who've grown accustomed to playing games the current
way will have an easier time of playing Wii games like everyone else.
In practice, regardless of game, you'll be able to play with either
device in either hand. Miyamoto actually expects kids who've never
played a game before to hold the remote in their left hand and the
nunchuck in their right hand.
One of Nintendo Dream's closing questions for this interview asked
Miyamoto to list the games in whose development he's directly involved.
"Wii is the main [platform]," he said, "and I'm working on a number of
titles, but there are some that have yet to be announced so I can't
give an exact number." Pausing to think for a bit, he concluded that
he's working on "a lot of games." "Of the games that have been
announced, I'm working fully on Zelda, and also working on Mario Galaxy
and Wii Sports. I'm also working on the product that was referred to as
'Remote Pointer Demo' at E3."