E3 Previews — Lego Star Wars Complete Saga and LittleBigPlanet

Nintendo's success has marked a refocus on games for the sake of fun, and nothing exemplifies this trend better than the Lego Star Wars series. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will be the first game to offer the functionality gamers have wanted since they first saw a wiimote: motion-controlled lightsaber battles. It's not dueling, but it is a lot of fun. In the same vein, with even more creativity added in, is Sony's imaginative LittleBigPlanet . With Media Molecule finally opening up a bit of the user based content-creation process to journalists, 1up offers one of the first hands-on with the game's core mechanic: "Fusing various pieces together can forge entirely new objects. Place hinges and wheels on a pile of wooden blocks and suddenly you have a makeshift jalopy rolling through the stage. With a tad more work, you can transform that car into a massive (yet ridiculous) rolling wooden dragon. We didn't have quite enough time (or experience) to bust out a run-and-jump rally to put Super Mario Bros. World 8-2 to shame, but we can't wait to get our hands on the open beta due out later this year."

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[east coast]

wiggling the Wii controller back and forth has replaced hitting the 'x' button. Wiggle it up and down for the 'y' button.

So you're saying that if you coud tape the Wii controller to a paint mixer like they have at Lowes that you'd kick ass?

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[lpangelrob]

As I discovered in a Super Paper Mario minigame a couple days ago, it turns out the controller knows what "level" is. There's a minigame where you tilt the controller left and right to control Mario (the island is what tilts as you tilt the controller) as he tries to grab things from the sky that are falling, and avoiding thwomps and other bad things that are falling from the sky. If I hold the controller perfectly horizontal to the ground, Mario doesn't move.

In addition, one of the items you can use requir

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[Khaed]

There's a game in Zelda like that, called rollgoal. You have to roll a ball along these little blocks, like some sort of cheap game you'd buy for a kid you didn't like on a road trip, to get it from start to end. It is easily the most annoying part of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I'm not sure how they did that in the Gamecube version.

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[FleaPlus]

And based on the above, I'm guessing the accelerometer measures tilt in 3 dimensions, so it provides an absolute reference that way as well.

Yup. The accelerometers can measure the 9.8 m/s^2 downward acceleration from gravity in order to determine which way the ground is. The Excite Truck game also uses this quite a bit, as the primary control is tilting the Wii Remote left and right like a steering wheel. It works remarkably well.

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[account_deleted]

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[pushing-robot]

But I don't have to be a pilot to play Heroes of the Pacific, a skilled sharpshooter to play Rainbow Six, or a pro racer to play Gran Turismo - yet the games seem to be just following my own movements. Games are designed to let you perform relatively amateur tasks and make you believe that you are actually a professional. There's no reason a swordfighting game would be any different; it would translate the relatively wild swinging of the player into more skilled movements by the onscreen character, subtly

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[iNetRunner]

What I think pushing-robot was saying that having the game just perform two or three basic/static swings, while you are wildly swinging the controller would not feel very good. Also the impression I got from your first post was that that should be how the games handle, i.e. only a few moves. Sure there are the limitations that only using some accelerometers has is that the game wouldn't probably be able to interpret them to make the game character hold the sword in exactly the same place you do.. So realist

Harder than you think

[alvinrod]

The problem really isn't mapping where the sword should be or how it should move. Eventually someone will figure out a good way to make this possible and you'll be able to wave your Wiimote around and have the coresponding on-screen sword follow its motions very carefully. The real problem comes into play when you have another sword, or anything to deflect its blows added into the mix.

For example, I'm fighting an enemy with my sword and swing at him. He counters, meeting his blade with mine, causing both to bounce back from the force slightly or to slide against each other. However, my actual hand has met with no such resistance and has followed through as though my blade sliced through his sword, body, or anything else in the way as though it were nothing. On screen I'm locked sword to sword with my foe, but my hands suggest that I slashed through him. How is the mapping handled from here? Should the position that my hand ends up in be the new centered location for determining the swords next move, which would make further attacks awkward and unrealistic, or should the blade on the screen magically move to the position my hand suggests it's in, which doesn't make for a very realistic game.

The best idea I've ever heard for this solution is to have the controller respond with some type of feedback, a rumble, a sound, or something else, to notify the user that their blow was deflected. The user would then be unable to attack further until they managed to sync the remote position with their hand with what is displayed on the screen. Assuming the feedback is powerful enough and the player manages to learn to anticipate the deflection enough, eventually they will serve as their own feedback, stopping their swing as soon as they feel it has been deflected. To use the above example again, as soon as I were to feel a rumble from the Wiimote or hear two swords clashing, I would halt my downward motion and position the controller as though my blow had been met, allowing me to once again regrain control and continue with the battle.

While there are a lot of programing difficulties to be worked out, it still requires a lot of time for the player to become accustomed to the system and actually care to become familiar enough with it to enjoy playing the game. I don't forsee this as being something that casual players would be interested in taking the time to accomplish, and I'm not entirely sure if the hardware available now can offer all of the necessities in order for this to succeed.

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[buffer-overflowed]

It's just waggle in Lego Star Wars. I'd be hitting the button instead of swinging all the time.

Don't worry though, apparently Mario & Sonic at the Olympics has a fencing mode... so there might be hope there.

The Baseball bat in Wii Sports actually tracks pretty accurately, it's just there's a lag to it, and if you make quick movements it glitches. There's bounding or something involved.

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[Altus]

yes, it is bounding, you cant knock the bat on home plate. The bats movement is restricted to a standard swing and any back and forth movement becomes a swing, with the speed of the movement determining the power of the swing.

Its not bad, but it could be better. I wouldn't mind a baseball game that allowed you to swing high or low or reach out for a pitch off the plate, but thats a bit much to ask of a tech demo like Wii sports. Heck, baseball doesn't even have base running in it. Maybe when EA gets aro

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[rkanodia]

the baseball bat in Wii Sports, the remote is terribly inaccurate and loses track of where it actually is

What are you talking about? The baseball bat in Wii Sports tracks incredibly well.

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[Phorion]

if watch one of the few games that actually tries to follow the remote, like the baseball bat in Wii Sports, the remote is terribly inaccurate and loses track of where it actually is unless it's pointed at the IR bar.

Actually, no. On my Wii, the baseball bat tracking in Wii Sports is spot on. When I'm batting, I even sway the Wiimote around a bit (like you do with a real baseball bat before taking a swing) and watch as the Mii batter on screen does the same thing. Oh, and the IR bar doesn't even participate in these actions; it's only used for the pointer, not the motion sensing.

However, it's funny you should mention this, because I went to a friend's house for a Wii Party and we ended up playing tennis a lot. I'm

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[LKM]

Every time someone says motion controls for the Wii in a game with a sword or lightsaber, everyone thinks the lightsaber on-screen will follow their movements. So far, I have yet to see this happen.

Check out the swords in Red Steel until you actually hit something, or the baseball bat in Wii Baseball before you actually hit the ball. Which, by the way, has got absolutely nothing to di with the IR bar. If you think pointing it to the IR bar did anything at all, you were on drugs.

Dueling

[EMeta]

I think you misunderstand us, gamemakers. We would like to fence, to parry, to thrust, to judge the distance and openings in our opponents. There's that little flaw of being able to move your controller through the space it would have been blocked, but that's not too hard to deal with. Make the screen flash when you're out of sync with your actual sword & it'll just penalize you (by not letting you move it anywhere else) until you bring your sword back in line. It'll be similar enough to real fencing in that you can't overestimate where your sword will end up or you'll be a few movements behind. It will take some time for players to get used to, but hey, we're smart, we can.

The same kind of adjustment/penalty will have to apply for inertia effects of weapons for how strong your character is, & then you can use all kinds of weapons.

Get on this developers! Millions of people have the hardware, you just have to code it now!

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[g4pengts]

What you propose sounds like a reasonable way to solve the blocking problem. But there is another problem I see with sword fighting. If our movement makes a 1:1 translation into a game, doesn't that means in order for me to be good at the game, I actually needs to be good with a sword?

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[Babbster]

You also have to be the same size as the character on screen. Sales of huge-screen TVs will go through the roof!

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[EMeta]

It's still a model, but far more related than performing a dragon punch. I learned to move my fingers in some strange ways for Guitar Hero, so I bet I could learn the basic mechanisms of two-handed sword fighting as well. The trick would be to have a lot of different skill levels to let all different levels of players have fun gameplay. But to be able to improve, even marginally in swordfighting by playing a game? That's the ticket.

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[k_187]

Yeah, give Jack Thompson more ammo. You'll have kids taking swords to school and impaling themselves. Think of the children!

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[HalAtWork]

One problem: The Wiimote can't determine its absolute position. It only knows direction of motion, acceleration, and orientation (whether it's upside down, vertical, etc). The only way the Wiimote can be accurate in determining where in space you're holding it is if you a) point the IR sensor at the bar on top of your TV, which means always holding it facing your TV (you can't swing around), or b) constantly requiring you to calibrate it. Option B is ridiculous in a realtime sword fighting game.

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[grapeape]

Thats the big question, so far everything I have seen shows more of a digital sandbox than a game. It looks great but is there a point?

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[buffer-overflowed]

It[Little Big Planet's style of play] is new to consoles to my recollection.

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[ToasterMonkey]

Viva Pinata is a child's game. But don't take my word for it. review [ign.com]

By the way, Halo is 'just' a bunch of polygons with pretty graphics and the same "game mechanics" Doom had in 1993.

Are you even old enough to have PLAYED Excitebike or did it just show up in your googling? You couldn't share those tracks buddy.

This is sweet!

[eln]

My 5 year old daughter loves the GC version of the Lego Star Wars games. Actually, we bought these games, she became obsessed with them, and because of them decided to watch the movies. Unfortunately, she watched Episode I over and over again because she loved Jar Jar Binks (I guess she's his target demographic), but eventually graduated to the original trilogy. Now, she'll tend to watch Episode IV more than the others, but she's seen them all several times. Strangely, she was not impressed with the Ewo

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[JDAustin]

My 6 year son is the same way. He has already completed Ep. 1,2,3 & 6. He also likes Empire Strikes Back the most of the original trilogy. Luckily, the only exposure he has had of Ep 1-3 is through the game. I won't let him watch the movies (why ruin a good thing).

Nintendo, Apple, Google

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep getting free advertisement here.

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[fractoid]

Oh noes! We'd better stop talking about all commercial products, companies, and for-profit organisations!

This thread is now about fluffy bunnies and kittens. Discuss as you wish, just don't kill the kittens.