Free Radical Talks Timesplitters on Wii, and more!
A portion of a Game Informer interview with Free Radical creative director David Doak:
GI: You’ve always been pretty high up on the latest and greatest hardware, you’re rolling onto the PS3 with Haze, but some of your biggest fan base was on Nintendo’s consoles, because there weren’t a whole lot of shooters on the GameCube. Are you thinking about putting TimeSplitters on the Wii, as well? What do you think about making a first-person shooter for the Wii?
Doak: I think it’s a good thing to do, and I think we want to put it on the Wii. And I’m sure it’s possible to do a control scheme that works. Also, if you want to start a petition for remaking Second Sight on the Wii, I’d like to see that as well, because I think that game worked really well, [laughs] because of the manipulation stuff.
GI: It probably would. It’s been tried though, and some first-person shooters have turned out better than others on the Wii. How can someone make a good one? I don’t know if you’ve played Metroid yet, but it works.
Doak: I’m waiting. Metroid is on my list. Although they obviously make the circle-strafe lock-on compromise. It’s really funny. When I played Prime and Echoes, I would start playing it, and for the first 15 minutes I would say, “I hate this! I ___ hate this lock-on bit!” but then it goes away. You play, you enjoy it and you forget about it. And then maybe you leave it alone for a couple of days and it’s back.
GI: Yeah, but it’s the platforming in it, too.
Doak: The platforming is good. And also I think the thing is that the pace of the game and the enemy behavior is tuned to the control scheme. I think that’s the mistake you can make. You can say, “Let’s make it play just the same as the other ones.” But you’ve got to look to the timings of things and stuff, because there’s always going to be some imprecision. You’ve got to be focused on it. You don’t do a port. And I think with the Wii controller, one of the things that goes wrong is that you see the over ambition in its use. If the gestural stuff is becoming ambiguous or noisy, you’re fighting a losing battle. If that feature is causing you pain, then don’t do it. It’s better to make a game that’s enjoyable to play than a game that’s got features that don’t work.
