A few months before the Wii's original launch, the limitations of the system and its motion-centric controls finally dawned on me: tethered to the controller's infrared sensor, there were distinct limits to how "aware" the system could be as to the Wii Remote's orientation. My dreams of one-to-one lightsaber combat were dashed.

When Nintendo revealed its plans for the Wii MotionPlus accessory yesterday morning— almost a full day before its E3 press conference proper—I was a little confused. If this was truly the improvement that it was billed to be, wouldn't it be better suited as the show-stopping announcement to close out the company's list of announcements?

The demonstration alongside Wii Sports Resort had piqued my interest, so I made my way to Nintendo's conference room this afternoon with weighty expectations. After a solid half-hour with the peripheral, I'm pleased—and somewhat surprised—to report that the device offers fidelity of motion unrivaled by any controller currently available on the market, so much so that I've got Jedi on the brain all over again... Read more

Nintendo has revealed Wii Sports Resort, a follow-up to the Wii's packed-in launch title.

The game will include the previously announced Wii MotionPlus accessory, which improves the precision and accuracy of the Wii Remote.

Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway demonstrated the game and accessory on stage at the company's E3 2008 press conference, where a number of the game's activities were shown off. Wii Sports Resort includes such activities as the fencing game Sword Play, the jet skiing game Power Cruising and a frisbee toss game known as Disc Dog.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory drastically improves the accuracy of the Wii Remote, and appears to bring 1:1 motion to the hardware rather than relying on the Wii Remote's infrared pointer.

Both the game and the Wii MotionPlus attachment are due for release in the spring of 2009.