Taking a stab at motion controls in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core for Wii

After what feels like the longest wait I've ever had to endure, I finally hold in my hands a copy of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core for Wii. I've been a huge fan of the series for about four years now, and it's a huge relief to finally have a copy of Accent Core, especially after Slash never got released in the US. I was as surprised as anyone when I first heard that it was heading to the Wii. After all, 2D fighters were the one genre I thought would never work on the Wii. Obviously I wasn't taking into account the Classic Controller and GameCube controller when I thought this…Regardless, Guilty Gear XX AC is finally here, it's on the Wii, and Arc System Works added a special motion control mode exclusively for Nintendo's little white box.

How does it work? Well…to put it kindly, it's a trainwreck. Basic attacks are mapped to the four directions on the D-pad. Movement is handled by the analog stick on the Nunchuk. Dust attacks are mapped to the A button. Force Breaks (new to Accent Core) are performed by holding B while swinging the Wii Remote. And special moves are done by holding either C or Z and swinging the Wii Remote or Nunchuk. Also, holding C and Z simultaneously while swinging the Wii Remote will perform an Overdrive attack. To put it bluntly, this is probably the worst control system for a 2D fighter I've ever come across. Even worse than Capcom vs SNK 2 EO's "EO" system on the GameCube/XBOX. And anyone who's played that can attest to how awful it is. Some things just seem to be impossible to pull off in GGXX AC using motion controls. The whole time I was experimenting with them, I couldn't figure out how to go into Instant Kill mode, how to Psych Burst, or even how to dash. The instruction manual insists that dashing is done by pressing twice in the same direction quickly on the Nunchuk's analog stick. Well, I TRIED that, okay? Okay, amazingly nice looking full-color instruction manual? I tried. It just. Wouldn't. Work. Basically, not only could you virtually never hope to win a match using this control method against even a moderately skilled player using a traditional control method, but you'll also never learn to play Guilty Gear using this method. Nor will you ever get anyone interested in Guilty Gear if you start them off with this method. It's simply too confusing and sloppy to even be mildly interesting.

The long and short of it is, if you're going to get Guilty Gear XX AC on the Wii, please, PLEASE make sure you have a Classic Controller. Or even a GameCube controller. Which, however horrible for 2D fighters it is, it's still better than using the motion controls. But really, this game demands a Classic Controller, as it works wonderfully for this game. As well as any other gamepad I've ever played Guilty Gear with. This game is really the best reason to go out and buy a Classic Controller (aside from Virtual Console games, of course…can't play Sin & Punishment without one!). At $40, it's a little bit pricier than the PS2 version, but if all you have is a Wii, and you have a Classic Controller, pick this up. It's a worthy addition to any Wii library. Just please, don't even bother with the motion controls. That's one control realm that 2D fighters were never meant to venture into.