Smash Wii U Is the WiiMote really that awful?

[Kraton9000]

*DISCLAIMER* This thread isn't meant to start flame wars about which controllers are the best, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I just wanted to discuss the viability of the WiiMote as a controller.

I've been playing Smash since Brawl first came out and was fairly young at the time. I come from a household that had very little knowledge of video games, so I simply played with the WiiMote on its side. Over the years, I soon became a very intense and knowledgeable gamer, yet didn't have access to any Gamecube controllers. Regardless, my borther and I had become very accustomed to the WiiMotes, so it didn't really matter, as we were quite good at the game, however, nothing near the competitive level.

During the summer of my highschool freshman, year I met someone who was willing to sell me a couple of gamecube controllers, which I bought in a heartbeat. Now, this was near the end of Brawl's life cycle, it was June 2014. Either way, my brother and I both quickly grew fond of the GC Controllers and saw why they were so loved by the online community.

Skip ahead a few months and we get SSBWii U; however, we didn't pre-order it with the GC adapter, thinking we could just get it later on down the road. Unfortunately, it was short-stocked everywhere. So, we went back to the WiiMotes; now, we both saw that the Gamepad would've been a better choice, but seeing as we only had one of those and wanted theboth of us to have an equal playing field, we shunned it.

Since the advent of the new entry,I have been delving into the competitive scene and have been learning fairly advanced techniques. I do feel quite competent with them and feel comfortable playing with the Wiimote. So, I wanted to ask the community, is the WiiMote a viable option in the competitive scene? Are their certain maneuvers or techniques that are nearly impossible with it (I;m having a lot of trouble with short hops)? Are there possibly any benefits with it?

Just wanted your 2 cents. Thanks for reading all of that backstory.

 

[SilverhandX]

I don't quite play on competitive level, but I definitely play the game seriously and one of the people I regularly play with uses the wiimote and is just as good as I am with gcn. Unless there's an important AT you can't do with it then I don't think it matters. I personally have trouble using it, but to each their own.

 

[Xermo]

It really, truly is that bad in a competitive sense. Movement options are limited, you only get the cardinal and ordinal direction inputs, dashing requires a double-tap, etc.
You can master the controller, but once you step into the scene you'll more than likely get trampled over due to your controller's own shortcomings.

 

[Mythra]

It's not bad; its really enjoyable to use in casual matches; but like it was said, it becomes awkward in high level gameplay to the point you feel that the controller doesn't go with your reflexes.

 

[Spoice]

I mostly use the Classic Controller pro, the one that plugs into your wii remote, and while it's good, there's a certain awkward feeling to it. I have a friend who's pretty good at the game, for our skill level at least, and he uses a wiimote and nunchuck. It all comes down to preference in the end.

 

[Doruge]

Wiimote by itself is useless, it needs a nunchuck

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

My brother plays casually with only Wiimote since Brawl. He kinda hated the GCN controller because it represented Melee fanboyism.
So yeah. Its an ok option. But it will be harder for you if you want to go competititve mode.

 

[ItsMeBrandon]

Like everyone's saying, I think you're totally free to use the Wiimote if you want, even competitively. You might be put at a disadvantage using it in a tournament, but nothing says you can't use that controller anyway.

 

[Marakatu]

I used to play Wiimote+Nunchuck. It was ok in Brawl, but for some reason, it was really bad in Smash 4. I couldn't Smash properly. I think it was because of the lag between the Wiimote and the Nunchuk, but I'm not sure.
Now I switched to Wii U Pro Controller and I'm a happy man again.

 

[DavemanCozy]

I like the Wii + Nunchuk combo.

The Wiimote by itself is... well, if you can make it work, keep doing what you're doing.

I've been playing since Melee with the controller I know and love, and Smash Bros is a very movement oriented fighting game. So when you have this
+ vs

You can make much more precise movements with a Control stick (angled attacks, slight walking, air attacks with the C-stick, etc).

 

[KingChael]

The wii-mote is restricted to the fact that it has a limited amount buttons to press (no individual jump button to press other than the d-pad which should be used for up-tilts/smashes), it is also limited in the techniques that it can execute (eg. iceclimbers chain grab is impossible), and being wireless means it has slower feedback and there is also a chance for it to run out of batteries.

 

[Raijinken]

Wireless is a notable downside, as are buttons (unless you're using +nunchuk). If it's your preferred choice, go for it, but it's not for naught that most players prefer either the Pro Controller or the Gamecube Controller in the long run.

 

[Khao]

No analog inputs.

Can only set three separate buttons. (1, 2, and B, A is pretty much useless due to requiring to release the pad to press.)

Forced use of Up to jump.

No analog inputs.

No right stick.

1+2=Smash is useless considering you still smash anyway when you press attack and a direction at the same time.

The controller itself is extremely uncomfortable to hold, and B button feels really awkward to use from that position (subjective, but subtracts points to me anyway. I can sorta fix the issue with a Wii Wheel).

NO ****ING ANALOG INPUTS.

Even in casual play, I absolutely ****ing hate playing with this thing. If you manage to enjoy it, all the more power to you, but I can't stand it. It's uncomfortable and extremely limited. My hypotetical ideal control setup is also impossible to set, as it would require turning off up to jump. And that would most likely still not make it enjoyable.

The worst offender to me is the lack of analog stick (you probably noticed that already =P). Smash is, at its very basics, a game that was designed to be played with analog sticks, and anything else simply doesn't work as intended. You don't get recognition between smashes and tilts, you don't have a wide variety of movement speeds available, and you have to do stuff like double tapping to dash, or quickly tapping down to get off a platform.

Here's a challenge: Do an Utilt from a neutral position, without performing any other action before it. It's very hard to do, if not impossible.

 

[Shadowfury333]

I tried using this a couple days ago after getting pissed off due to input mistakes and playing some Skullgirls and Guilty Gear instead. I realized that I found the analog inputs more difficult to do consistently than digital stick inputs, especially with dashing (as I'm quite used to double-tap dashing), so I thought "maybe sideways WiiMote is the answer.

Then I found I couldn't up-tilt.