Yeah, I know, I should really be doing a write-up on my trip to Portland or finishing those two unfinished entries I still have bumming around my blogspace. But before all that, I did want to do a quick follow-up to one of my earlier entries. I did say that I'd let you know if I heard anything new regarding the Revolution, Nintendo's entry for the next battle in the Console Wars. Well, we have some news. At this year's Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo revealed the much anticipated controller for the Revolution. (As usual, I'm overcautious about grabbing images, so you'll have to check out the link to IGN.)
"So," those of you who are too lazy to click the link are likely asking, "What is this industry defying new controller?" Well at first glance, it looks a lot like a rather skinny TV remote. It's vertically oriented and designed to be held in one hand. Not impressed? Well, I haven't got to the good part yet. The controller comes with a sensor which you place near your TV. This sensor is used to translate movements of the controller in your hand into movements on the screen. The sensor apparently reads not only up, down, left, right, movements, but also forward and backward as well as various twists and tilts.
So what does this mean for actual gameplay? Just imagine exploring a 3D room by simply waving your controller in the direction you want to go. Consider what it would be like to steer a plane by tilting your controller left and right. The demo shown at Tokyo Game Show included a few generally crude demo games suggesting other uses for the controller. One was a crude fishing game suggesting how the player would use the controller like a fishing pole to cast and pull in a catch. (The standard controller is reportedly rumble ready, which should add to this experience.) A slightly more polsihed demo showed how the controller could be used for aiming in a first person shooter.
It's certainly an innovative idea, not what I was guessing at all. (Though to be fair, that dumb hint about the controller having to accomodate games from all Nintendo's past systems didn't help at all.) I'm certainly interested, but I do still have some concerns. The most notably absent feature on the standard controller is an analog stick. I imagine this is designed to force both gamers and designers to use the "point and move" feature to get around 3D spaces, rather than just ignoring it for the more familiar control. Still, the lack of an analog stick out of the box may well put off some gamers. Nintedo has designed two addon peripherals for the controller, one of which is an analog controller with two trigger buttons. Dubbed "the nunchuck" (I'm pretty sure the fans came up with that), it attaches to the main controller via a short cord that plugs into the bottom of the controller. The demo suggests that in a first person shooter, for example, this would control your movements while the pointer would let you aim. The other scheduled add-on is a shell resembling a more standard controller which the remote-styled one can be plugged into. This is probably intended to allow for easier play of your games designed for the earlier systems. Please note that the picture IGN has of this is their own mock-up and not necessarily what the actual controller shell will look like.
My other big concern is on that's been voiced a lot by gamers: Is the Revolution too revolutionary? For various reasons, the GameCube was left behind on a lot of cross-console games. I'm a little worried that the Revolution may suffer the same fate, in part because its creators freely admit it's a less powerful system, and in part because it's just too different. I know virtually nothing about game programming, but I imagine configuring an exisiting game to respond to a pointer-style controller is going to be trickier than just switching the functions of a few buttons. Developers may just ignore the feature, require the anaolg add-on, or skip the Revolution altogether. If Nintendo wants this to work, they're going to have to woo some big developers and/or get a lot of first-party software out there. Hopefully in a timely manner. ("Twilight Princess" is DELAYED?!?? I'm upset, but hardly shocked.)
I haven;t really come to a conclusion about the controller yet. I feel generally positive towards it, but it's not a "i'm sold" or "No way" situation. A lot may depend on me getting my hands on one of the new controllers and seeing how it feels, how easy and intuitive it is to use, and whether the button placement works. Once again, I'll let you know when I know more.
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3 comments:
Wow! I wasn't expecting such a big design change. Though I suppose if Nintendo really wants to recover from the last round and become a trend setter this time they had to do something risky like this. It sure looks cool though! And from a development perspective, that's WAY cool. I wonder if people have any clue how complex the sensing and programming in that thing has to be simply to interpret depth changes, not to mention twists and turns! Please do let us know how well it performs in practice. I'd be very interested to know.
I have to admit the analogue stick 's "nunchuck" look is pretty cool. Of course, if they go for a format that's propriertary to Nintendo, Sony & Microsoft will beat their asses purple.
Me? I'm waiting for the PS3. Wi-fi, bluetooth, and a processor that's going to be more powerful than my own desktop computer will be the schizzle. Of course, it's going to be $400 & it's going to push Blu-Ray heavily (while Microsoft will go with the HD-DVD on the Xbox 360).
If I remember right, Jon, the Revolution is going to run on normal sized discs. At the very least, I remember that it will be able to play DVDs, though only with the aide of a special adapter. On the other hand, it's also going to play the Game Cube minidiscs, so it could concievably run on minidiscs as well. But I think Nintendo has seen that the writing on the wall does not include the word "minidisc". The Revolution seems more like a concerted effort to make their new system the family friendly system rather than simply ignoring all of the current industry trends.
You'll be happy to know that the Ravolution is also utilizing Bluetooth for its controllers.
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