Friday, December 15, 2006

Wiimote Battery Life

Hey, is anyone else out there finding that Twilight Princess drains the Wiimote battery a lot faster than titles like Rayman or Wii Sports? I don't know whether it's the nunchuk use, or the amount of sound that comes out of the controller, or just that I'm playing for longer periods, but it seems like Zelda is really chewing through the batteries.

By the way, for those who are caring, I've just finished the chase sequence/jousting fight that happens after you learn sumo, spent some time rushing round the village to ascertain the fate of the character involved in that sequence (happy results!) and am now about to tackle Death Mountain. Lots of fun.

I'm glad I've played Ocarina of Time though, as it seems like the game's assuming I have a lot of the Ocarina legacy skills, and is developing them all to their next logical extensions. For example, horse riding is the same as Ocarina - but with more depth. The boomerang is the same as Ocarina - but with more depth. Et cetera. Plus it's cool to see a heap of the Ocarina musical cues being worked back into the game (most notably Epona's Theme).

UPDATE: I'm not the only one blogging on battery life. Curmudgeon Gamer has something to say, too. 35 hours a remote seemed reasonable based on the drain I saw back when I was playing Sports and Rayman, but 15 is much more on the mark for what I've been getting out of Zelda.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure it's the amount of audio that Zelda pushes through the Wiimote. I'll absolutely be buying a charging solution when it's released.

Oh, and I finished my first Zelda playthrough last night!

Greg Tannahill said...

Woot! Go Corvus! (No spoilers, please.)

Anonymous said...

No spoilers from me, not even in my post today on the topic.

Anonymous said...

I bought some rechargeable batteries for the Wiimote for this very reason. I do find that Zelda drains batteries much faster than other games. It may partly be due to the sound, but I think rumbling may also be a factor. Zelda seems to employ rumble a lot more than other games. Given Nintendo's past sterling history with battery life, I was hoping they could do better, and that's rather disappointing. Maybe they'll release new versions with built in rechargeable batteries.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and you are about to see some of the most moving cutscenes in the game. You'll know what I mean.

Greg Tannahill said...

Ooh, excellent! I look forwards!

Anonymous said...

Yes, definitely. Played just with WiiSports over the holidays on the original batteries supplied by the Wii and the extra WiiMote pack we got..2 weeks maybe? Then started Zelda, and it seems like I'm constantly swapping my NiMH rechargables...

Anonymous said...

I am writing this on a wii that kills batteries in 20 hours...

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Anonymous said...

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kamagra said...

I also experienced the same thing with Zelda, at the end I never knew why the batteries never lasted enough.

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