If Microsoft's Xbox 360 dashboard is arguably the Lamborghini of console interfaces with its sleek lines and shiny surfaces, the Nintendo Wii is a Volvo. "Boxy but good" to paraphrase the unflatteringly accurate ad campaign imagined for the popular car in the movie "Crazy People."
Only this vehicle looks like it's been invaded by a loony knick-knack collector. The front dash is cluttered with those kooky bobble heads and the rear has more bumper stickers than seems right. And the radio only picks up one station - yeah, you know - that one your mom listens to that's devoted to what sounds like old-school elevator muzak.
Before we go much further, let me just say that I really want to embrace the Wii (despite the inane name). I've had a love/tolerate relationship with Nintendo over the years, and their latest system is a gamble that I believe will actually pay off. In fact, I would not be surprised if by this time next year, the Wii has overtaken the Xbox 360 and becomes top dog for this generation of consoles!
But the user interface, damn. It's so… unpolished. Now I know I came down hard on the Xbox 360 dashboard soon after its launch. But, even though several of those criticisms remain major issues, they feel nitpicky compared to the Wii's clunky control panel.
There's just so much that's wrong here:
1. Clinical look and feel. The combination of a sterile, neutral background and 1960s waiting room music just doesn't communicate that this system is all about having fun. It says, "Try not to fall into a coma. But if you do, don't worry, because our top brain surgeons are standing by."
Eeek! Then again, it does make you want to launch a game quickly!
2. Channel flipping should be zippier. If you're going to use a channel metaphor, then switching between channel features should be nearly instantaneous. Quitting most channels takes 8-10 seconds while the Wii Menu reboots. This reduces the likelihood that you'll want to launch the Weather or News channels too often, since it may take nearly as long to load and then quit as it does to review the channel content you're looking for. In fact, I'd suggest displaying top headlines, weather, Wii system news and polls directly on the Wii Menu, with the option to quickly connect to these features for a closer look when desired.
3. Navigation is inconsistent. Channels don't always follow consistent or intuitive UI design, making it easy for less savvy users to get lost. I counted four different icons and text buttons used to navigate back out of a section, depending on where you are in the interface.
The biggest culprit is the Wii Shop online store, which alternately uses an up arrow and a curved arrow just to take you back up a step. Backing out of the Photo Channel gives you a confusing choice between two destinations ("Return to the Photo Channel Menu" vs. "Continue using the Photo Channel"). Uh, shouldn't the Photo Channel Menu be in the Photo Channel? Please, just integrate all of the Photo Channel features (including photos stored on memory cards) into one place and make it easy to switch between them. You shouldn't need trial and error to find your way around something as basic as a picture gallery.
Button layouts are inconsistent and, in some cases, poorly arranged for usability. Someone at Nintendo needs to test the various UI options with users, write an interface style guide and then make sure all Wii channel designers follow it. Also, some very cool features such as quick access to local news and browsing items in the global view are buried and should be much easier to access. You actually have to browse to find a news item that has a globe location attached to it (not all do), and then activate the Globe button that appears below it.
Oh, and the Wii Options menu shows numbered screens to show how many pages there are, while the Wii Menu doesn't say how many screens it has (four, but more on that in a second). Why not make the numbered screens standard for all multi-screen sections? Just make them clickable, since they look like they should be.
4. Pages of empty Wii channel slots. If a page is empty, why show it? Also, are four pages really necessary? By default, the main Wii Menu page is about half full - the only thing that will fill the remaining slots for now are the occasional new channel and Virtual Console games you purchase from Wii Shop. But giving each VC game its own slot doesn't scale very well, so why not make a single channel for all purchased/downloaded games? Call it the Virtual Console Channel. There, done.
Now kill the other pages until there are enough channels to justify them or, better yet, how about they simply display as needed? Oh, and by the way, if you ever did have enough channel items to fill 48 slots, you'll most likely have filled system memory many times over.
5. Lack of customization. Hey, did Nintendo miss the memo about the "me" meme? We want to make consoles (and pretty much everything else we buy) our own with favorite skins, background images, music, favorites, etc. Yeah, we can browse our pictures from a memory card and pick an MP3 for a slide show, but why can't we pick a background picture and soundtrack to use whenever we're on the Wii Menu? You can even sell us some custom backgrounds and get advertisers to provide some for free, like Microsoft does.
6. Settings are buried and in many cases absent. Navigating the Wii Options menu is bit unintuitive. WiiConnect24, what the heck is that? Is it contagious? Can you tell me what it does, or do I need to actually read the manual? And if it's dependent on an Internet connection, why isn't it under the Internet settings?
Why is there no game autoplay option? Sure, most will want to check the Wii Menu for messages, polls, news and weather first (if they can stand the load times), but some will want to just jump into the game that's already in the slot every time. There's also no easy way to register or manage additional Wii-motes without doing a lot of button pressing on the front of the console and under the Wii-mote battery cover. And how come we can't save downloads directly to an SD card and run them from there?
Also, why does the Sounds section offer no control over your Wii-mote speaker? Shouldn't we be able to turn it down or off if we like? That opening clang from Zelda is pretty loud by default, and we can't do a thing about it. Heck, this feature might even extend battery life. [UPDATE: I found the setting - it does exist! It's not in Wii Options. You have to press the Home button on your Wii-mote, ignore the large Wii Options button in the middle of your screen, and click on Wii Remote Settings. OK, so can we: a) select one term - are they Options or are they Settings, and b) can they all just live in the same place? I'd love to thank a reader for this, but I found it myself while trying to resync a Wii-mote.]
In general, you'll find yourself peeking into options over and over again looking for things (some of which may not even exist). Perhaps there should be a brief description at the top level on what resides in each settings section.
7. Wi-Fi set up needs work. This problem has been well-documented. Either you have an easy time with set up, or you don't. Make it work better for those who don't. Or else they won't use it. And speaking of which, game-specific Friends codes in addition to a separate Wii console code so that your Miis can interact? It just doesn't make sense. If I play my friend on Mario Kart, I'll probably want to catch up with her in Animal Crossing and trade Miis, too. Make it easy to connect or, once again, most of us won't bother. And then you'll have a real long haul building your online community.
8. Wii Shop. If you've downloaded the trial Web browser or any Virtual Console games, you'll recall seeing a silly animation where Mario runs across the screen and collects coins. In a fascinating interview that sheds a lot of light on the Wii's UI design failings, the developers note that "when Mario gets one coin during download, that download's one percent complete, and when he gets all one hundred, the download completes. [..] When he's collecting a lot of coins very fast, that means it's downloading a lot. But when he's only getting a little bit at a time, that either means the line's really slow, or there a quite a bit of data left to be downloaded."
So, let me get this straight: If Mario collects 100 coins, I win and get my download?!
Sure, it's funny and pimps out one of Nintendo's biggest franchises. But this approach fails on a few levels: It's out of place, and it doesn't really communicate download progress very well. There is a progression but it's subtle and inexact. It's OK to make the download meter Nintendo-cute, just don't sacrifice usability.
9. Virtual Console games need trial versions. A tiny screenshot and brief description isn't enough to sell me a game. How about some full-screen screenshots and time-limited trial versions? This is one place where Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade shines. You can try before you buy and unlock the full game from a single download, in some cases preserving your trial game progress. Nintendo has some ground to catch up here.
10. Wii Message Board is a poorly conceived. First of all, the New Message icon on the Wii Menu looks like it's telling you there's new mail, but often it's just your daily usage diary, and it doesn't always go away when you've opened the message. Maybe there's an ancient one I never read... but why are you notifying us about dialtone anyway? Messages should indicate something pressing, not a new diary entry that's created by simply booting your console.
The messages are also a poor substitute for an achievements system: "You played Twilight Princess for three hours and 20 minutes and Wii Play for 47 minutes today, way to go!" Its only real benefit is to help parents monitor how much their kids have played their Nintendo when they should have been doing their homework. But even that isn't fully realized because it doesn't show gameplay by player, since the Wii doesn't even track this.
And do we really want our kids to see what Santa was up to with their consoles in the weeks preceding the holidays? "Wow, I bet St. Nick pwns at Far Cry, Dad! He was playing it two hours every day the week before Christmas."
Wii will rock you!
OK, so I criticize because I care. But I know the fan boys can't help but get their thongs in a bunch over anything that's not a rave review, so let me be clear: The Nintendo Wii is still pretty freaking awesome. It just could be a heck of a lot better.
So let's just move on to the awesome, so we can be clear that I don't hate Nintendo just because I happen to like my Xbox 360. (And my PS2, DS, Dreamcast and PC, for that matter.)
Here are five things Nintendo got right this time:
1. Innovative controls that change gaming, perhaps forever. Yeah, we were skeptical of another motion-control system; our hearts have been broken so many times before by light guns and gyroscope-enabled gadgets that collect dust in the basement. But the Wii-mote and nunchuk combo really works. It works so well that our moms and granddads can pick it up too. And they have.
2. GameCube backward compatibility. This is simply the best backward compatibility for this generation. The PS3 is moving to software-only emulation to control costs, meaning thousands of games will get orphaned. And even their hardware solution (for those who've scored a PS3 with the PS2 chipset included) has its problems. Don't even get me started on the Xbox 360, whose problems in this area are well known (and have been highly criticized here). So score another one for Nintendo!
3. Weather, News and Polls. Adding basic household features and fun polls to the Wii Menu is a brilliant way to keep family members engaged and using the console on a daily basis. Twirling the globe to find weather data and news is just fun. More, please!
4. Miis. The concept of Miis is pretty great. We'd love to see this expanded, with more customization options and places to interact. (Has anyone figured out how to get their own Miis to the plaza? Or you only see other people's Miis there?) Word is that Nintendo has looked at the PS3 Home and is already planning its response. We can't wait!
5. Wii Sports. Packing in a game that's easy to pick up and really shows off the potential of the innovative new system was brilliant. Frankly, not that many people would have picked up Wii Sports at retail, but since we all have it now the only thing that could make it better would be if it had online play. It's been far too long since we've had a good console launch pack-in game that wasn't a retailer-forced bundle (e.g., some game we'd never buy otherwise, designed to jack up the cost of the console). Wii Sports ranks up there with Combat, Sonic and Mario. Good on you, Nintendo.
Now fix the Wii interface, and let the Revolution truly begin.
-=Gamewatcher
