Official Wii Speak Microphone
by Nintendo
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: NintendoAudio: English (Unknown); German (Manual)
Format: CD-ROM
Published: 2008-11
Release Date: 2008-11-16
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Model: RVL A MU
Publisher: Nintendo
Product features:
- The microphone sits atop the sensor bar and picks up the conversation of everyone in the room to encourage a more inclusive experience
- Compatible with Animal Crossing - City Folk
- Requires an on-line connection
Video Game Reviews of Official Wii Speak Microphone
Customer Review: Cumbersome, unwieldy, and overpriced
Summary: 3 Stars
(6-01-10 Edit)
After trying Wii Speak with a total of 3 games now, Animal Crossing, The Conduit, and Monster Hunter Tri, i can confidently say that, while WiiSpeak is a horribly designed, difficult to use, and expensive device, it can work....at times.
Having played Monster Hunter Tri online, ive found (on several occasions) that those using WiiSpeak MUST turn down music and SFX volume in order to use it effectivly. See, the music/SFX are easily consumed by the "echo cycle" described below, so turning down the in-game volume yeilds great results. If BOTH parties have said settings, WiiSpeak works well enough. The voice quality is still low, there is still the second lag, and you still cant communicate with more than 1 person at a timewithout confusion, but it works.
I've edited by score by one *, since, through heavy, long, and oft frusterating alterations, the device can work. It still has a small usable libray, required friend codes for most games, and all the technical faults i already went over.
Only those really interested in communicating w/o a keyboard should buy it, and then of those only the ones willing to investigate and alter your games volume settings (and have the patiece to manually troubleshoot) should buy this. Its a hassle, but it is the only way to speak online on the Wii.
Nitendo's Wii Speak is a device with little potential. As a "family friendly" alternative to a microphone head set, Wii Speak is designed to allow groups of people, not individuals, to communicate online. It does this by picking up on the noise created by anyone/anything in its vicinity, be it intentional or otherwise.
And that is where the problems begin.
The microphone is intended to receive the voices of several people, and in that effect it attempts to receive a wide range of noises, including those from your TV speakers. What this does is create long echoes. Noise sent from one Wii Speak is received by the other, is produced by the others TV set, and is received by Wii Speak 2 and set back to Wii Speak 1. This vicious cycle never ends.
This is a massive problem that should have brought Wii Speak right back to the drawing board. It makes the device practically unusable in most games, as any sound effect produced by the game is set into the echo cycle described above.
To make matters worse, Wii Speak is THE ONLY method to communicate online available. Despite its mostly broken functionality, its priced at $30, well over the price of moderate head set. Add insult to injury with the fact that as of this review (2-6-10), only 5 games even support Wii Speak (and one isnt released until April).
Along with the prior devastating problems, Nintendo's infamous friend code system hampers most use of it. Even if players are to spend an overpriced $30, sit through its extremely spotty performance, and find a game that supports it, the friend code system demands player swap 12/16 digit codes to even use it. Thats right, if you dont know anyone who has Wii Speak, you cant use it.
Having tested WiiSpeak with both Animal Crossing and The Conduit, i can say that the device barely works. Animal Crossing, a game with hardly any sound effects or loud background music, has a suitable use of WiiSpeak, and communication with 1 person works well. As soon as more than 2 people begin to communicate, the game gets bunched up and voices become indistinct. Since there about a single second lag between saying something and having that reach the others, speaking with multiple people becomes confusing and almost impossible.
The Conduit hardly work at all with WiiSpeak. A sci-fi action game, The Conduit uses loud noises that play directly into the "echo cycle" described before. It better than a keyboard, but not by much.
Wii Speak is a severely disappointing "solution" to the lack of voice chat on Nintendo's Wii. It hardly functions, has poor support, and costs too much. I would only recommend this to gamers looking to chat hands free in games like The Conduit or Monster Hunter 3, since it is the only way to do so on the Wii, but is hardly better than a keyboard. Be aware that a MAJOR amount of patience is needed to work with this device.
Description of Official Wii Speak Microphone
With the new Wii Speak Accessory, it's like you're all in the same room. The microphone sits atop the sensor bar and picks up the conversation of everyone in the room to encourage a more inclusive experience. This is compatible with Animal Crossing: City Folk. The Wii Speak accessory requires an on-line connection.Revolution Games
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