Its only a matter of time before a new game revolutionizes FPS's and shows developers how to make the damn thing like Mario 64's effect on platformers. Though I have never played any of the Wii FPS's (Red Steel, Call of Duty 3, FarCry), it seems like they got alot of things right and alot of things wrong. Basically, all Nintendo has to do with MP3 is fix what those games got wrong and instead get everything right.
But how?
Should they use a big-bounding box like Red Steel? Should they make a small one like Call of Duty? Should they just make it like a PC FPS and have pixel perfect accuracy?
I recall reading an article (I'm not sure where it came from) that explained how using a tall yet very skinny rectangle as a bounding box would improve turning while keeping the versetility of aiming above and below the center of the screen. This is brilliant, yet will not result in the tightest controls. You see, the single biggest issue so far has arguably been turning. No matter how skinny the rectangle, it's going to feel disorienting having a barrier that you cannot see, and eventually you will notice yourself going past your target to simply center your target. That's why I suggest something like this instead.
Besides having a very small zone within the middle (to counter-act shakiness), turning starts immediately if you point left or right. Naturally, the farther you point to either side the faster you spin. This will make turning a breeze, yet retain the strengths of pointing.
Now let's say you are following a player moving from the left of the screen to the right. Since turning doesn't require you to go through a bounding box, you can track their movements at a greater precision than ever before. Also, since the bounding box goes up at an upwards angle, this gives you a triangle of slowly rotating verticle movement. This allows you to precisely move your aim up to their head without ever changing how fast your aim is spinning horizontally.
Now that is great and all, but you must admit that Red Steel's control scheme looks very effecient when it comes to aiming at things that are on-screen. The ability to quickly point at multiple targets while not messing with the camera seems to be more immersive as well as more effecient. And the easier it is to aim at something, the harder, more challenging, and ultimately more fun you can make the game.
So what to do now?
Comprimise. Why not use both a skinny and big bounding box for when appropriate? When running around normally, let the bounding box resemble the one above. However, include a toggle button. When this button is held (the "Z" button), the bounding box will take up the entire screen. The player can now point to anywhere on the screen without the camera moving. And after the player releases the button, the camera will quickly center on what they were currently pointing at.
These two "modes" of control will work seamlessly together, and bring about a new way to imagine FPS's.
For example--------------------------
Imagine running down a tight corridor full of turns, wasting flying and crawling enemies along the way. At the end of the corridor lies a mechanical monstrosity with 4 targets located on its chest. This is where you'll want to hold the toggle button. It slowly approaches and forces you to walk backwards down the corridor. The targets are its only weak points and to defeat it you must shoot the water pipes that run along the wall and force it to reveal one of the targets to you. You must shoot the first target, then shoot the next target that randomly appears before the opportunity ends and the mechanical beast regains control (it ends within less than a second). After you hit all four, it becomes stunned and allows you to get close enough to throw a mine on one of the targets (by flicking your wrist like a frisbee) and blow the damn thing up. After a few series of that, you finally kill it. All the while you'll have to strafe left and right and avoid gunfire.
After you've played like this for awhile, you'll start noticing something. You can literally make the camera jump quickly in any direction by holding "Z" then moving your aim to a spot you would like to center on, and then releasing "Z". If theres mulitple enemies around what you had just centered on, you can quickly hold "Z" again and blast them all away. Or, if you see someone running on the outskirts of the TV, you can hold "Z" and accurately place your aim to his head, take a shot while you let the camera auto-recenter (it won't *&#$ up your aim), and then hold "Z" again and take another pop after its centered.
Combine this technique to the already versitile bounding box, and you would have precision unlike any other.
So what do you think? Yay, Nay?
P.S. Zooming with curtain guns is activated by sliding the remote forward. Aiming is still exactly the same.
P.S.S. This would make for the most intense multiplayer battles, due to true skill becoming a factor. Also, add in a Licence to Kill mode to whatever game uses this control first, and you have bond reincarnated.
A sick FPS for the Wii would literally make millions of Xbox fans buy the Wii.
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