In a roundtable Q&A session last week at E3, the head of Nintendo's game design department told the press that the game would use the $20 add-on, which adds greater motion-sensing capabilities to the Wii Remote. But he said it wasn't yet decided whether the MotionPlus would be required or optional.Speaking exclusively to Wired.com, however, he said that he's pushing the game's developers to create a Zelda experience that requires the extra features.
"The goal at this point is that we would make Wii MotionPlus required in order to play Zelda," he said.
It's reasonable to assume that Zelda's use of Wii Motion Plus might depend on how many of the devices Nintendo sells between now and the game's far-off release date. But Miyamoto says that's not actually the case.
"The bigger hurdle for us is not really whether people have a Wii MotionPlus or don't have it, it's whether or not the experience is one where people will think they want to have a Wii Motion Plus in order to experience it," he said.
Later on, in the interview he had even more to say about Wii Zelda:
Well folks, appears that Wii Zelda is in a rougher state then we thought. If I had to put money on it, I'de say that Wii Motion Plus will be required. As for the delay of his intial 2010 prediction? What else could you expect? It was a estimate on an unannounced title. The most interesting tidbit I take out of this interview is the talk about how the game's development has been focused strictly on gameplay to this point, which contridicts several reports last week about how the game was being built around the story. Still, the remarks may have been taken out of context and intended to be talking about how the past Zelda games were worked on.Miyamoto realizes that Zelda players might not want an excessive amount of motion controls in their adventure game, which has typically been about puzzle-solving and storylines rather than too-intricate action sequences.
"There may be a group of people out there who look at people playing motion control games and have a hesitancy to try to play those because they're worried that they might not look so cool, swinging a Wii remote around. But in watching people play New Super Mario Bros. Wii, even though it's just a simple shaking motion, I'm watching people play (it) with a big grin on their face."
"So I'm hoping that we might be able to create a similar-feeling experience for Zelda," he said.
Miyamoto went on to say that the game is still in a rougher state of development, which is why Nintendo declined to show any of it at E3.
"The development of Zelda has been focused strictly on the gameplay structure at this point. We haven't devoted much in the way of efforts to things like graphical representation, and story, and those types of production elements," he said.
Miyamoto said at E3 that although the current goal is to release the new Zelda in 2010, it could be pushed back.
However, we have been treated to some nice little tidbits from Miyamoto. Seems like he is pretty excited over Link's next adventure on the console. I know I am.
Categories: Zelda News
Building gameplay around a plot is one of the biggest mistakes a game developer can make. It's counter-intuitive and Miyamoto knows that.
Zelda plots have always been subtle with their thematic undercurrents, like Majora's Mask for instance. One may get the impression the scripts are relatively straightforward (they do have the same basic skeleton), but there's a lot hidden. The plots weren't superfluous, or complicated. TP on the other hand, seemed to try a bit more with the plot, and just tried too hard really.
Bring back Koizumi. :(
I thought as much, I don't think we'll be getting Zelda for awhile, maybe 2-3 years. I'm expecting it anyway. I hope they bundle Motion Plus with Zelda, would be the easiest way to make sure everyone has it then.