“I’ll never, ever push a button to throw a block or make a hard tackle ever again.”
That’s what popped into my head as I played a Striker’s Cup match in Mario Strikers Charged the other day. It took until this afternoon to recognize just how important an “a-ha” moment this truly minor event really was.
I’ve called this Wii thing a paradigm shift in the past, but that’s kind of bombastic. Instead I’ll say it’s like my mind just clicked. Pushing a button to do something like check an opponent feels primitive to me now, like picking up an original Tiger LCD game and expecting to have fun.
The thing is I’ve been playing Strikers for the better part of the past two weeks and I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when pushing a little circular button became so unappealing to me. Instead of me being in control of the game, a button press makes it feel as though I am asking permission to do something in-game. What surprised me, though, was this didn’t happen with Wii Sports. Wii Sports was revolutionary, yes, but it took an arcadey GameCube-inspired game like Strikers to show me that even the “run of the mill” titles will also be changed by the Wiimote. I know the ferocity of my waggling doesn’t affect the hit (or does it?), but now at least when someone’s being really cheap I can let out a little more frustration than what a button press would allow me to do. Regardless, I’ll never play a bowling game that doesn’t allow me to fake bowl ever again either.
I imagine that, for many people, for a variety of reasons, this moment hasn’t come yet. That’s too bad. Hurry up and jump in, the water’s fine.