Nintendo's long toyed with motion-sensing technologies, and while
Wii represents the first time the company's officially employed motion control into one of its home consoles, the president of Factor 5, Julian Eggebrecht, has revealed to GameReactor that the Big N originally had plans for the GameCube controller to be equipped with such functionality, long before it ever hit store shelves.
"When we were doing Star Wars: Rogue Leader for the GameCube actually, we had an early prototype of that controller, and that had motion control," he said.
"So we thought for our style of gameplay - especially when it comes to flight - about motion control for a long time, so we were kind of anticipating it, and I was always keeping it in the back of my head."
Factor 5's just wrapped-up development on its PlayStation 3 exclusive, Lair, and the motion-controlled game sees players take on the role of a knight who rides a dragon. Relying heavily on Sony's SIXAXIS controller, players fly the creature via tilt.
"Now, Nintendo kicked [motion control] out for the GameCube; with the PS3, it suddenly was back with a vengeance," Eggebrecht continued.
"And it was great, because some of these certain things made sense in terms of just the flight feeling. Because if you're in a craft, like an X-wing, then you want to have almost a very un-dynamic feeling...a craft doesn't fly very dynamically - it's very rigid, whereas a dragon is a living creature."
Eggebrecht explained that the motion control translated over really well for the flight moments in Lair, but when applied to the ground-based areas,
"it was horrible. It was terrible. Worst thing ever. And we tried to make it work, but at one point, you suddenly have to realise, 'no, the ground controls really feel better on the analogue stick'."
In conclusion, Eggebrecht had one message for his fellow developers:
"Don't force something which is not meant for motion control onto motion control. On the other hand, if you decide 'well this thing really fits to motion control', then take your time with it. If you don't really dig deep enough into it, and really try many, many focus groups [and] many, many different people, then it might not work for everybody."
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