Manuals, as I’ve mentioned before, have been in steep decline for many years.  Now, as manuals generally serve the purpose to telling the player how to play the game, it’s pretty clear that something needed to take their place.  By and large, the in-game tutorial has stepped up to the plate to fill this void.

In-game tutorials have taken many forms in my experience – some are as plain as a big ol’ “Tutorial” button ala Civilization IV, where a guide takes you step by step through the various concepts you need to understand to play the game.  Some take the form of introductory levels that aren’t called tutorials per se, but introduce game concepts one step at a time, such as in the Advance Wars series.  Sometimes the tutorials are even more ingrained in the game, popping up only when needed to introduce a new mechanic to the player (Shadow Complex takes this approach).

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I will readily admit that several years ago when Nintendo first unveiled the Wii, I was one of many who sat back, impressed, and boldly stated “this is going to revolutionize gaming.”  Looking back on things now, it seems clear that the Wii has changed gaming, but not really in the ways we expected.

The promise of motion-controlled gaming has always been an elusive one; touted as the next evolution of interactivity, we are all often inclined to think that its mere existence will make a game better.  The Wii, I think we can agree, can easily demonstrate that this isn’t always true.  Motion controls, when implemented poorly, can seem far more of a burden than a benefit.

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