Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal recently appeared on the CNN program American Morning to discuss all of this business about Manhunt 2 and its gruesome acts of violence. What is most odd, Croal reports, is that the interviewer (Kiran Chetry) was reasonable and didn't have "an ax to grind." She instead asked Croal a series of reasonable questions.

Of course, she still brought up the whole "kids acting out murder" thing. Croal, however, brought up the common sense argument, stating that the game is rated "M" for mature, and isn't designed for children. Of couse, some kids are still going to get their hands on it, but he believes (just like many other sane individuals) that it is up to the parents to keep their kids away from material that isn't appropriate for them.

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, who you may remember hating for his shockingly-worded preference of 2D Metroid, still really likes Metroid Prime 3. In fact, he likes it so much he came up with an alternate button placement on the Wiimote for ideal Prime playing, one that puts the - and + buttons around the A button like the GameCube's layout. He even suggested, during the same discussion that sparked the original outrage, that Nintendo could have shipped such a 'special edition' Wiimote with the game. He backed up this discussion with a Photoshopped Wiimote that Newsweek put together.

We think that's a pretty fun idea, despite being a collector's nightmare. If the function of the thing doesn't really change, why not let people spend their money on weird one-off controllers? It's no different than, say, the Guitar Hero controller or the $200 Steel Battalion doodad, except that it could still be used with other games.

The latest "Vs. Mode" exchange between Newsweek's N'Gai Croal and MTV's Stephen Totilo compares Metroid Prime 3 with BioShock (a.k.a. the game that people won't stop talking about). They're up to part 3 now, which mostly covers the morality of the two games. Almost in passing, Croal makes the following remark: "'Metroid' is a franchise that should never have made the jump from 2-D third-person to 3-D first-person."

He goes on to say that the first-person format works best for games involving forward motion (shoot, go through door, shoot, etc.), and that the Metroid games' trademark backtracking is most easily conceivable in a side-scroller.

And even though we can almost hear you rummaging in the closet for your Indignant Commenter hats, we mostly agree. While Metroid Prime is a great series of games, they aren't great Metroid games. The emphasis on storytelling (via scanning) and the reduced platforming required of a first-person game make for a fundamentally different experience from a real Metroid game. We admit we have big problems with the 3D maps, too, which hampers exploration significantly. For Croal, the change is enough to keep him from making progress in Prime; for us, we can enjoy both independently, but at no point do we really feel like we're playing a 3D Metroid.

This is yet another confirmation of what every gamer has been waiting for since the first time we saw the Wii controller. At the Hollywood & Games Summit, panel moderator N'Gai Croal asked LucasArts president Jim Ward about the possibility of a Wii lightsaber game.

Ward's response was very encouraging. "We're all over that, and internally we have already played a lightsaber game on the Wii. It's a lot of fun, and we'll get there." He went on to say that "some stuff" would be out this fall. Start practicing your blind Force-guided waggling now.

[Via NeoGAF]