Nintendo Boss Explains Demise of the Wii Vitality Sensor

[Yopaz]

Oh yeah, I remember this... Always wondered what happened to it...

I thought it was already out just irrelevant like the Wii Fit board.

Frankly, I don't know what use they had imagined for this device. I suppose for exercise games, monitoring heart rate isn't a bad idea. But people exercise without monitoring their heart rate all the time. So this would be a niche product for a niche within the niche of people who use their Wii to exercise in the first place.

Yes and how many people still do that, how many still have wii balance board.

Also I don't see much use for it in "scary" games. It could have a few uses but to be fair it all would be just extra stuff. It wouldn't be the main part of the gameplay.

Trauma center could be a good fit for it I guess. Using the player's heart rate as a way of setting the patient or the surgeon's conditions. Personally I'm not really disappointed. The idea had some charm, but it is the charm of something you won't use more than a few times.

 

[Deacon Cole]

If you play 3DS on the bus the first person view vibrates which is even more annoying

Oh, I don't use the 3D on my 3DS. I don't bother with gimmicks that don't work.

 

[Innegativeion]

And from this point forward, all Nintendo-related news posts will refer to them exclusively as "Shiggy" and "I-watz."

Seconded.

At any rate, I didn't know anyone even expected this to go beyond a wii fit peripheral.

 

[Nazulu]

"It is difficult to decide the time to announce a product. If we announce a new product just before the launch date, we may hear some fans say that they cannot purchase it because the announcement was so sudden," he explained. "However, if we provide too much information well before the launch date, people will become so used to hearing about it that they may even feel as if they have already played it and experience déjà vu when we finally do launch it."

What!?

There is such thing as providing too much information now that it creates an illusion that people have used it before? Is there some majority I don't know about?

 

[Vivi22]

However, one application I was wanting to see if it was used for was horror games.

Imagine getting scared out of your mind, the game sensing your stress levels, and adjusting itself to make it even more scary. thats what I wanted.

Honestly, careful pacing is such an integral part to making an actual horror experience that I don't think it would work, though I wouldn't be opposed to being proven wrong.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

I'm a bit dissapointed that Bowser, King K., or Ganon wasn't talking about this... these are the people I think if when I hear: "Nintendo Boss". Yet another misleading title!

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Narrower than imagined, eh? Begs the question of what they thought they were going to do with the player's heartbeat. What I immediately imagine is a horror game that identifies which parts of itself are scariest to the player and becomes a nightmare as you play, but then again, you've got a stupid tacky thing on your finger, and it's on the Wii, so there's only so much horror you can prodcue in that situation. -_-

 

[Dryk]

If you play 3DS on the bus the first person view vibrates which is even more annoying

Oh, I don't use the 3D on my 3DS. I don't bother with gimmicks that don't work.

Works fine more me. But what I meant was that because of the bus shaking the first-person view in Luigi's Mansion thinks you're trying to look around and the camera shakes.

 

[WWmelb]

Gutted.

Absolutely gutted.

Nah but seriously what was the point in it anyway?

Wii Fit.

Zumba.

any of the "weight loss" games that have been around with the release of motion controls.


However, one application I was wanting to see if it was used for was horror games.

Imagine getting scared out of your mind, the game sensing your stress levels, and adjusting itself to make it even more scary. thats what I wanted.

Interestingly enough, after my mother had a (slightly botched) hip replacement, i bought her a wii and wii-fit to help with her rehab and it worked wonders. She still uses to this day as it keeps her doing her no impact exercise and keeps her joints and muscles working well.

 

[Souplex]

Since touch screens have trouble acknowledging I exist, I get the feeling I would be one of the people it doesn't work for.

 

[Bonk4licious]

I think it would have had it's shining moment in horror games but you would probably have knocked it off of your hands so many times during gameplay (whether a horror game or an updated Wii Fit) that it would have eventually proven useless. Glad it got cancelled, now I don't have to stress about being called 75 years old by the Wii for an actual reason.

 

[Deacon Cole]

The Wii fit board should have more basic game support because it's like a joystick for your feet.

Yeah, but it's like the old Power Pad for the NES. Try using it and you just wind up sitting on the floor to use it. Wii fit and this vitality sensor thing is the sort of thing you buy because you need to get in shape so you get it to get in shape and then a month later you either stop using it or don't use it properly anymore because you stopped caring about getting in shape when you found out how much work it was.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Bazinga!

More than anything else I had thought, when it was originally shown, "who would want that thing clamped on their finger for more than a minute?"

I mean, I've been hospitalized several times while various organs have betrayed me, and I can't say that the finger clamp made my stay any more fun.

I mean its not as annoying as those leg cuffs that squeeze your legs automatically all fricken night long, but I can't imagine myself paying for said peripheral to play any game I would WANT to play.

the sad thing is that M$ claims their new kinect can basically read your pulse through your face or something like that anyways so...there is still hope for whatever ideas people might have had for this tech.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

While the sensor seems kinda completely useless, I would KILL to get a horror game that would use the sensor to scare the crap out of me.

Okay, I doubt I would buy it if it wasn't rather cheap just for that one game, but I would love to play such a horror game.
Just imaging the game screwing with you every time you get relaxed.
Glorious.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

Figuring out all the things you could do with this device and realizing there aren't that many is something you could have done in one day, after sitting down and writing the idea down on paper for the first time.

Not after conceptualizing it, producing prototypes, announcing it, and then putting it through large scale testing.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Wait, who were these people who actually noticed when the wii vitality sensor didn't come out? Did someone who saw the announcement tell their friend about it as a funny anecdote and then google it to show them that it was a real thing only to find out that it never came to fruition? Also who is this explanation for? Were there legitimately people who could not fathom how the wii vitality sensor got scrapped?

 

[ThunderCavalier]

I guess it's admirable that Nintendo decided to scrap the project rather than push it and shell out money like a lot of gaming endeavors have been doing recently.