“Oops, we missed a bit!”

So Ninty have came out with the Wii Motion Plus – also known as: ‘Does what we said the Wiimote did on its own’ – boasting enhanced movement perception and the ability to make owners of an expensive set of 4 wiimotes and nunchuks cry bitter, exploited tears.

What’s impressive is the bold-faced attempt to make this seem like an achievement. Trotting out footage of Tiger Woods made impotent holding a tiny white toy instead of his usual phallic symbol they’re trying to tell us they’ve made the Wii better, but the problem is how difficult this is to guage. I mean, we’ve never really had motion-sensor gaming to the level of the Wii or even beyond a little bit of tilting here and there and so when they say they’ve improved it we can only nod and agree this is progress. But nevertheless it’s difficult to forget that when they released the Wii they were making the same claims. In fact I’m pretty sure they’ve reused the same Tiger Woods advert but superimposed an extra inch in his hands.

You can lead a child to music, but you can’t make them play.

Now I’m sure these are just unbearably trite complaints from a bitter owner of the afforementioned expensive set of wiimotes (one already broken) and I bet a lot of work has gone in to that extra inch but it’s hard not to feel like this is the kind of hardware problem that if it occured in software would be covered by a free patch. When the 360 had the red-ring-o’-death it didn’t do what it was supposed to (as in: play) so Microsoft ended up shelling out free consoles, so why is it when Ninty finally admit the Wii motion sensor never did what it was supposed to (as in: sense motion) they get to charge an extra £25 a pop for their discovery?