9 Times The Wii Remote Speaker Actually Improved Gameplay
4. No More Heroes: Phone Calls From Sylvia
Boasting a strange mix of encouragement, taunting and threats, the phone calls you'd receive from Sylvia Christel (voiced by Paula Tiso) just before ranked battles in 2008's No More Heroes (released late 2007 in Japan) were quite bizarre.
You'd have the Wii Remote vibrate in your hand like a typical mobile phone and Travis would automatically take the call. Raising a video game controller to your ear to receive a phone call was a surreal experience and would be repeated in a more menacing way with 2009's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
Part fourth-wall breaking - asking the player/Travis if they/he needed a bathroom break - and partly serious when giving advice about the foes up ahead, Sylvia was a mystery until the very end of the game. Her calls became increasingly flirtatious and outlandish when telling you your percentage for chances of survival. The use of the Wii Remote speaker here was original and took it far beyond simple sound effects and provided a level of immersion not previously seen in Wii titles.
No More Heroes is definitely a game worth checking out even today. It's even available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as an enhanced port. Best to take advice from Sylvia herself: "Trust your force, and head for the garden of madness!"