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When asked earlier this year what I considered to be the most significant new technology to appear in this generation, only one thing came to mind – the Wii Remote pointer. It’s a simple thing, but one that has become embedded into Wii owner’s minds as the only way to select things on screen. While it is true that motion control has changed the way we play games, the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword showed us one key thing about it; the majority of the games released in the past 5 years had in fact just replaced a button press with an action, and had not really taken advantage of the new way to play that the Wii Remote allows.

Realistically, only a handful of games have been changed as a direct result of motion control, Skyward Sword and Wii Sports Resort spring to mind as the key titles along with games such as Red Steel 2, and these all have Wii MotionPlus in common. So what is it that during the years that led up to MotionPlus made us all believe that we were seeing a revolution in game design? The answer is the pointer, and it has become more embedded in the gaming conscience than you would initially think.

Obviously that’s not to say that the motion controls themselves have been completely superfluous in the rise of motion control gaming, as games have evolved to accommodate the new, more immersive, way of playing. But when you think of all the games released, how many of them could not have had the motion actions replaced by simple buttons presses? The recent release of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is a good example of this, as after the advent of MotionPlus, its control scheme feels dated and a product of the past. When done right motion control changes the way the game is played; when done without the precision of MotionPlus, motion control is often just a replacement for button presses, a feature which became something of an epidemic on Wii.

It wasn’t all button replacement though, with Wii Sports being a prime example of a game that used the multiple axis of the Wii Remote to simulate many button presses and actions in one motion. Bowling for example picked up a spin parameter from the rotation of the remote, the swing and the release of the ball, replacing three actions with a natural forward swing. But the accuracy still wasn’t there, and the release of Wii Sports Resort and its attempt at Bowling showed us just how inaccurate the original one was, and eventually proved just what we all hoped and dreamt motion gaming was back at the Wii’s unveiling in 2006.

So what was the big revolution that the Wii brought in if in hindsight, the original motion controls served as little more than glorified buttons. The answer is of course the pointer, and it’s something that has radically altered every single game on the Wii. It’s hard to imagine now, but prior to 2006, getting to one side of a menu to the other required scrolling through various options that you didn’t need to view. The Wii changed all that and allowed a level of control that only PCs (and the SNES Mouse) had before it.

The Wii Remote pointer had a huge impact on gamers, primarily because it was the very first thing you did on your new Wii. It was the first thing you saw, and chances are, the first thing that made you say ‘wow’. I remember my first experience with it fondly, as I spent a good half hour just designing a Mii and being hugely impressed by how easy everything was to control. And it’s that ease that has made the pointer such a key feature of the Wii. Being able to simply point and click at menu options on screen is far more natural than scrolling through different sections and coming across that classic moment where you’re not sure whether you need to scroll down or across to reach what you want to click on – the pointer removes that by giving you direct access to everything at any time. It’s the first thing you use every time you use the Wii, and it now seems no more unusual than a D-Pad or a rumble pack.

The pointer also made its way into games, and beyond being a simple menu selection device, became one of the key distinguishing features that made a game a Wii game. The implementation of the pointer in Super Mario Galaxy made the collection of star bits simple and addictive, rather than cumbersome and annoying as it would have been without it. Games such as FIFA and PES adopted the pointer, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, as a means of controlling the game, showing that creativity was being released thanks to this additional form of interaction. The pointer also features heavily in party games, being anything from a torch to a slicing tool on screen. The potential is incredible, and with the release of MotionPlus, it has become even greater.

The greater motion detection that comes with MotionPlus has already been put to good use in how we play games, even if they are mostly sword/racquet based, but one of the things that Skyward Sword highlighted was how the pointer has now evolved. One of the validations of Twilight Princess on Wii was pointing at the screen to use the bow, but it always felt cumbersome having to point up at the TV screen, especially for those of us with wall mounted devices. MotionPlus changes that, and thanks to some clever tracking built into the device, allows you to mark a centre point as anywhere, and aim from that point. While it may not seem a big change, the result is incredibly powerful. No longer are gamers forced to point at the screen to move the target, allowing for a much more relaxed and comfortable gaming experience, as well as a more immersive one. The potential of not needing the player to be directly pointing at the screen may not be as large as the original introduction of the pointer but it does do one thing – it makes the pointer fresh again and makes it accessible to everyone, and perhaps more importantly, it eliminates the need for the sensor bar.

We’ve come a long way since 2006, where a motion gaming experience was considered to be one that left you physically tired or at the very least made you contort your limbs into an odd shape to perform actions. The dawn of MotionPlus is the primary cause of the more refined and sophisticated motion gaming landscape we find ourselves in today, but we must not forget the key innovation that is still at the core of the gaming experience. The pointer was a huge step forward in gaming, and with its implementation now as natural and simple as a flick of the wrist, no matter where it is aimed, the pointer could prove to be the start of another gaming revolution in the future.