July 14, 2008 - Players wondering if we'd ever see a true 1:1 experience on Wii need to wonder no more, as Nintendo announced today a new plug-in peripheral for the Wii remote, currently called Wii MotionPlus. Details are sparse so far, but Nintendo revealed the first snippets of information in a press release this morning. The following statement is -- in its entirety -- Nintendo's announcement of MotionPlus for Wii:

"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."

What we don't know, however, is how exactly MotionPlus will work with nunchuk controls, as the peripheral would need some sort of pass-through in order to give 1:1 motion to titles requiring analog control. The first shot above shows a small plug in the bottom of the attachment, which looks to be covering just such port, but we'll wait on Nintendo to give the final confirmation. Will we see first-person shooters that can make use of this technology? Will LucasArts find a way to adapt the upcoming Clone Wars game to include true 1:1 lightsaber technology, or could Nintendo beat them to it with a pack-in Link's Sword Fighting game (or news of a new Zelda Wii) to showcase MotionPlus? Will some sort of future "Wii-mote 2.0" automatically include MotionPlus, removing the need for an additional add-on peripheral? We'll have to wait and see how exactly the new technology works, and all signs point to Nintendo's keynote just 24 hours from now.

I got that whole,"That's how it should've been from launch" feeling

Shame on them for not having the technology perfect out of box.

I got that whole,"That's how it should've been from launch" feeling too but oh well what are you going to do? While the Wii is the cheapest console on the market its accessories are expensive. 60bucks for a Wiimote and Nunchuck and now this?

I used to try and defend Nintendo from the kiddie label, I dunno if that's possible anymore.

Yeah, this shit isn't even fun to get drunk and play with anymore. And i'll be damn if I spend another 60 bucks to play the same games I did on my Super Nintendo a decade or so ago.

So how do I load my imports now?
A new application called Gecko Region Free (GeckoOS) was released, and it can be loaded right from the SD card via Homebrew Channel and it will load any retail Wii game from any region. (It does not support burned copies [yet?] of Wii games)