I have grave concerns about the future of the Nintendo Wii. I absolutely love it, thus far, but there is a distinct lack of quality games available at this point. Game developers still seem to be so in love with the very idea of what can be simulated using the wiimote that they fail to think about their product beyond a very superficial level.

As an example, look at Hudson’s latest release, Wing Island. The entire game plays out as though someone at Hudson thought about the Wii and said “flying! Flying would be so cool on that thing, the wiimote is like the control stick in an airplane.” At that point, they put together a very rudimentary game with an airplane in it, played it for about 90 seconds, and then stopped. Mission accomplished, the wiimote can be used like the control stick on an airplane. The game was then released, without further tweaking.

On one level, they’re absolutely right, the wiimote can be used as a control stick, and it is, for about 90 seconds, pretty neat. After that, a gamer looks for a little more depth than what Wing Island has to offer. 

The game is organized in a simplistic fashion. The player is Junior, a young pilot. He has a little company he runs with the help of Puffin, his mechanic. Junior goes around various islands, performing what he likes to call “missions.” These range from popping balloons to photographing trees to putting out fires. By completing the missions within the time period allotted (faster is better) and without mistakes the player earns money which can be used to purchase new planes or upgrade and repair old ones.

The major problem with the game is that the missions that Junior goes on simply aren’t that interesting and have no depth whatsoever. Missions tend to give the player three minutes to complete the task, and virtually every task only involves going to the right location and pressing the B button. Need to capture cows? Press B near a cow. Need to put out a fire? Press B to release retardant over the fire. Need to destroy rocks? Press B to release your bombs. Some missions, such as the incredibly annoying (and repeatedly appearing) balloon-popping race, don’t require you to press any buttons at all, just fly around trying to hit tiny objects with your plane. Others, such as photographing trees, are nearly impossible given the size of the level and the fact that there are only three minutes to find and photograph the three trees. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make the game player photograph a specific green tree on islands full of green trees was grossly mistaken.