Wii's wee secret

Tuesday 2 May 2006
It is becoming more and more likely that the nunchaku part of the Wii controller will have a built in accelerometer, allowing it to detect motion, as now an EA chief has let slip that this capability will play a major part in the Wii version of American Football game Madden.

Last week there was growing speculation that thenunchaku not only had an analogue stick and trigger switches but also had motion sensor capabilities, similar to the main wand part of the controller, but there was no official confirmation of this.

Now EA Canada's senior vice president and group studio general manager, John Schappert, has let slip in an online interview that tilting the nunchaku part of the controller from left to right will allow players with the ball to dodge or "juke" out of the way of the opposition tacklers during EA's Wii Madden game.

When asked specifically about the nunchaku, Schappert said it will "use the trigger buttons, and it does use the accelerometer in the unit for juking as well".

He also stated that once the pass from a quarterback has been made, and the ball is in the hands of the receiver, the control of the game switches to the nunchaku unit: "when you receive the ball, you run with the analogue stick on the nunchaku and, if you want to juke, you use the nunchaku to gesture it; if you want to stiff-arm, you use the wand."

While there is still no official confirmation from Nintendo about the nunchaku's inbuilt accelerometer, we've less than a week before Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference where we can expect all Wii's secrets to be revealed.