9 Times The Wii Remote Speaker Actually Improved Gameplay
8. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Taking Phone Calls
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was a well-received iteration of the franchise that was in desperate need of rescue after the middling instalment that was 2008's Homecoming. This 2009 Wii title was a retread of the original (and arguably best) Silent Hill released on the PlayStation in 1999.
Where the then next-gen Homecoming was creaky with its combat, obvious with its plot and slightly poor with pacing, Shattered Memories ditched combat in favour of chase sequences through an icy wasteland. It also offered flashlight control with the Wii Remote and tried to get under the player's skin with light-touch psychological testing.
Probably the most famous usage of the Wii Remote in this title was acting as a mobile phone for the player to take calls on, which came through the speaker. The line was awash with static, which rather fitted the poor quality of the speaker onboard the Wii Remote quite well, and the act of raising a phone-shaped controller to your ear to listen was a novel and unnerving experience.
A rather lovely easter egg came in the self-referential phone call seen in the screenshot above: dialling the real-life Konami helpline in the fictional universe of Silent Hill led to the player realising nobody was going to save them.
Not even a Konami call centre.