Nintendo's weird unveiling of the Wii Vitality Sensor was certainly a head-scratcher. The device is designed to clip onto gamers' fingers and keep track of their pulse rate. Why this is a good idea is anyone's guess, of course, and the whole thing becomes even more mysterious when you realize that similar technology has been around since the days of the Nintendo 64.
The "Bio Sensor" was produced by Sega in 1998, and worked by clipping onto your ear. But other than the difference in clip point, it did pretty much what the Wii Vitality Sensor is designed to do: Took your pulse.
Sega's Bio Sensor was released with Tetris 64 and integrated into the game by changing the difficulty based on pulse rate. So, for example, if your pulse rate speeds up a lot while playing the game, the bricks would drop faster and faster. Presumably, this would force you to relax while you fit your little squares together.
As you might expect, the Bio Sensor was a Japan-only product, and did not cause a big splash there. Tetris 64 was, as far as I know, the only title that used the technology.
I realize most of the gaming community thinks Nintendo has gone a little nuts with this, but I'm fascinated with the Wii Vitality Sensor. Here's why: Before the release of the Wii, if you had told gamers that the next generation of consoles would be won handily and completely by the console with the least power, the worst graphics and the most primitive games, they would have said you were crazy. But that's what happened.
Nintendo is very, very good at creating video game systems and peripherals that make a lot of money and do a lot of things that have never been done. So I try to maintain hope that the Wii Vitality Sensor will turn out to be as awesomely innovative and useful as a Wiimote -- Nintendo has proven themselves smarter than the gaming cognoscenti before, and they just might do it again with this piece of gear.
But, on the other hand, when I try to actually come up with a single use for the Wii Vitality Sensor in a game, I draw a total blank. How about you? Is there any game that you think needs a Vitality Sensor? And if so, how would you use it?
Comments
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Galen20K
N64 WAHOoey!!!!
Hrolf
LOL, Nintendo has to go back to previous useless tech to try to make a buck now.....
cmdluke
fitness games are the only use I can think of for it.
dzzy
i think that it could be used combined with wii fit the board already tells you measurements and fat loss. if they have you take the vitality sensor before a workout and after it the game could create a workout more suitable for you to get the most out of your workouts kinda like when your working with a trainer and they do test for pulse and how much your muscles are used to create a program for you
Crisus
Sounds like it could work well with like a horror game. Like you're stuck in a house, there's a serial killer after you and you have to avoid it throughout the game. When you're calm, it's hard for the killer/monster to find you, but when you heart rate increases, it's easier for the thing to find you. And throughout the game, there are things that are put in there to increase the heart rate and give away your location. And it doesn't have to always be a scary thing to increase the rate. It could be like a timer for a puzzle that causes your heart rate to speed up because you want to finish before time runs out, but by rushing, the monster is sorta like picking up your scent. All this could really make a really good horror game. And wow I wrote too much lol.
IcemanMX
Mr. Johnson;
While I applaud your inherent cautious optimism, I feel the need to remind you of Nintendo's group other peripherals that I believe this vitality sensor will fall into:
- Power Glove
- R.O.B.
- Virtual Boy
- Power Pad
- Super Scope 6
- Wii Zapper
Do you still believe that Nintendo is "smarter than the gaming cognoscenti"? Or could it be that they are the victim of the occasional luck?
-M
Tman88
@dzzy
True.
El_Diablo_Jefe
Make a sequel to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and use the Vitality Sensor to control the Fear meter. Pulse goes up, the more messed up the game gets...
treyboog
maybe,just maybe.........this will suck. stop working on peripherals and get developers to make better games.
Blue_Vortex
No way in hell am I buying this Nintendo
sion8
the Wii Zapper is doing good IcemanMX.
sion8
the Wii Zapper is diong good IcemanMX.
RyuSensei
I'm probably not going to buy this, but I will reserve judgement until I see how the device is incorproated into games.
Also, this artical hit the nail on the head, Nintendo knows what it's doing. In fact, most of their failures have resulted from not waiting for the technology to catch up to their ideas (EX: Power glove, Virtual boy). In fact, the WiiMote can be call the perfected version of the Power glove. Perhaps the vitality sensor is an attempt to perfect the old bio sensor.
The reason Nintendo is so good at way they do is that they have never forgotten that they are a TOY COMPANY!
Smashbro_Brawl01
Dumbiest thing shown at E3 from Nintendo. Please Nintendo show us Pikmin 3 or Star Fox or even F-Zero on Wii.
K_BIT
Only possible uses for this device I can think of are for games like Wii Fit and an Eternal Darkness game for the Wii. Other than that, this thing is pretty much useless.
Oh well. At least we have the new Metroid game to look forward to. An announcement for a new Star Fox or F-Zero game could've been mentioned instead of the Vitality Sensor, but I'll take what I can get.
Bigburito
hmm...lets see..
Silent Hill: Shattered memories - as your heart rate goes up the game makes more random noises like feet shuffling or whispers ect.
Dead Rising 2 (if they actually put it on the wii) - as your heart rate increases more zombies spawn near you
any generic shooter - as you become more aggressive the enemies also get more aggressive
SpooderW
To get better feedback on fitness titles and adjust the difficulty of the "workout" accordingly.
Fresca619
I think that this is just another step closer to what Reggie described as "a more physically immersive" video game. You could implement this into any adventure game where your heart beat affects how strong your character becomes. Why doesn’t someone make a sick fps that would let you take more hits when your heart rate is up, or let you have a better accuracy when it is down! Or a boxing game that your performance based on how well you can stay calm/get pumped up at the right time.
It may seem like "another peripheral" right now, but I view this along with wii motion plus to be huge steps towards what i think many older and hardcore gamers really want. Because in the end, don't we all play video games to play as our character? Wouldn't you love to be fully immersed playing as your favorite video game character? These new devices, if used correctly, and built upon correctly, will bring us to a new level of video games next generation that step up immersion to a new level.
D351
@IcemanMX But Virtual Boy could've been so cool if they'd just had it strap on rather than use a bi-pod.... that and if it didn't kill your depth perception.
btonkinson
I'm surprised no one has mentioned that this is a poor design choice if used with the wii mote. One wrong wrist flick and you have yet another wii projectile headed towards that pretty flat screen.
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