Really? I think it's pretty clear that this game would work absolutely flawlessly with the Wii-mote. It certainly feels as if it were designed for it.
Already thought about it. I think here'd still be problems.
The game levels and pacing seems designed for the ability to quick turn and spin 180 on a dime, especially in multiplayer. The stylus controls are effectively already a Wiimote.
With a Wiimote + nunchuk I'm not sure how you could avoid a 'distracting' gesture, swipe, or extra function key to quick turn, and spin.
It's the same prob folks have pointed out with FPS using Wiimote. It's fantastic for IR pointing, but unlike a keyboard and mouse, you cannot just flick the wiimote to spin instantly then pick the mouse up and recenter it. This is why the analog bounding box system is used in Wii and PS Move shooters instead of locking the cursor 1:1 to the IR pointer.
The stylus is much more like a mouse. The game could have used a straight Metroid Prime Hunters interface and I think that would have soothed much of the controversy.
It sure seems the game concept though, is combining a free targeting gun-game shooter with a 3rd person free roaming action game. That's almost completely unique, but it does introduce oddities in devising a control scheme.
Yeah the controls are a clusterfuck. 2+ hours in and... ugh. I have hand cramps FFS. Big handed guys will have issues with the game, especially since the 3DS is such a piece of crap ergonomically. I like the game a lot, but the controls are a disaster. I honestly like them for the flight sections (aside from the hand issues) but on foot? God damn what an amazing clusterfuck. I dread going to the ground and fighting more than 3 enemies at once.
Such a shame, the game has amazing potential. If you have big hands, don't buy the game. Really. I shouldn't have to buy an accessory to play a game comfortable, even more so a handheld game.
It's a prob because the ergonomic issues of holding the system shouldn't be conflated with actually learning how to play the game. A lot of people are probably doing the typical thing of assuming everyone who says "I played it a while and figured out how to play" are liars are "nintendo fanboys" or the usual shit people toss out when they are convinced something is objectively horrible and everyone should hate it. (See: the 15 different Skyward Sword threads of people swearing the Wiimote only works 1 out of every 100 sword slashes.)
If the game had supported a "backup" dual analog with CCP mode, I think that would have diverted a lot of the usual knee-jerk Nintendo game responses so that a rational discussion could be had about the merits of the stylus mode. Sadly, the fact that the learning to play the game well will be married to physical discomfort for a number of people is just going to screw the whole deal.
Here's a point: before the game was out and I tried it, I thought that it needed CCP support as the primary way to play the game. I was skeptical when I found out it didn't support a true dual analog mode. I even worried that this was a scheme; that Nintendo had insisted Sakurai not introduce that one option to not make a 1st party game seem "crippled" without dual analog controls.
Then I played the game, and after a couple of hours realized what a mutant freak of design it was, but a good freak.
I went in a hostile critic worried that the game would be broken, and came out more or less convinced. That's entirely apart from the unavoidable comfort issues of holding the system which varies wildly depending on one's personal ergonomics. (Personal ergonomics is why I said CCP controls should be included! Even if playing that way didn't show off the true uniqueness of the game.)
I have to chuckle a bit, that hardcore gamers are apt to complain about every game being the same, but deviate from current dominate base design in a game, and
they'll be the first to gripe that they shouldn't be forced to waste their time "learning how to play". <---- this is not targeted at any one person on GAF, but is the widespread reaction happening in many places.