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Talking 'Bout A Revolution 164
Now that the weekend has passed, folks from all over have had their chance to speak up about the revolution behind the Revolution. Hugh Williams writes "The blokes at Next Generation decided to ask a bunch of game designers, media and analysts what they thought about Nintendo's new Revolution Controller. Some were a little skeptical. Others were downright in love." Additionally, Heartless Gamer writes "Heartless Gamer blog has initial comments up regarding the Revolution controller, but more importantly comments on the various reactions around the internet regarding the controller." Finally, LATRINE! writes "Whether you like it or not, the Nintendo Revolution is on the way. Brittlefish has an article discussing some of the challenges Nintendo will face in gaining acceptance in the market."
Lost Garden (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Lost Garden (Score:5, Interesting)
His attempt to claim that all of the onus is on the game players is very far off-base. Also, his talk about Nintendo and how they "create genres" in the early stages because it is the most profitable is so wildly untrue it stopped me dead. Nintendo may use a fairly (on the surface) basic look, but that is a sylistic artistic direction and is NOT "cheaper" than creating a game with ultra-realistic graphics. In fact, if you take the time to look, Nintendo tends to utilize EVERY hardware feature in every game as far as graphics are concerned. Also it is just plain false that to create the first in a genre is cheaper because it is simpler and has less content. Totally false. Innovation carries a much higher cost than simply following suit and making a few improvements.
I'm sorry but this guys work gets passed over because it is not backed by any credibility or factual insight. It is just my opinion, but a genius he is not.
Re:Lost Garden (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think he was talking about your average clone game, I think he was talking about the big names. Certainly EA isn't spending millions upon millions of dollars every year adding another layer of polish to their latest Madden installment, but that's not really what he was talking about. How long did it take for Valve to finish Half-life 2? How many dollars did they spend on that? It's a great game, no doubt, but it's really just an evolution of the original HL. It has much fancier graphics, meaning it needed much fancier models, and much fancier textures, and better sounds, etc. etc. I can imagine Nintendo reusing a lot of the artwork within their franchises, and instead using their time to work more on the ideas and the gameplay. Which, i think, is one of the reasons that their fanboys are at least forgiving, and often supportive of Nintendo's constant use of franchises.
Although as a sort of relevant note, Nintendo no doubt understands how cheap it is to do a quick update (see the pile of crap that is Donkey Konga 2). So they do do that too sometimes.
Re:Lost Garden (Score:2)
Actually you miss the point (Score:2)
Now if the consumers gobble up all this new content, the competitor has upped the ante for Ford. Ford can either spend more and more to implement even more content for his Model T, getting stuck in a content "arms race"- or he can leave his competitors behind with their expensi
Re:Lost Garden (Score:2)
Making something realistic is only hindered by the system resources (Disk Space for textures, graphic rendereing, texture rendering, streaming, ect.), whereas a very simple and clean design using minimal resources becomes a very difficult exercise.
Re:Lost Garden (Score:2)
Look at Konami or Namco. In Japan there are 8 versions of Taiko Drum Master for the PS2 and 11 versions of Beatmania for the Playstation and 8 versions of Beatmania IIDX for the PS2. It's all about the additional music and songs. Even in the US you can look at something like Karaoke Revolution or Dance Dance Revolution, they both have three versions for the PS2.
Re:Lost Garden (Score:2)
With the original, they picked a wide variety of music types. Some of the songs are pretty stupid if you ask me, but with just a couple exceptions, the bongo-ing seems to fit. Konga 2 is missing that, in my opinion.
Of course, one could argue that after Rock Lobster, any
Oh get over yourself (Score:3, Interesting)
You on the other hand, have no numbers, no analysis and no insight other than "Totally false." Things aren't just true because you say they are. He explains
Hah (Score:2)
-No one is arguing that Nintendo is or isn't streamlined or profitable. Don't think I'm bashing your new favorite company and react badly.
-Nintendo's development costs, by your own numbers, are less than half of Microsoft's. Where do you think MS is spending all that extra money? Well, even my basic knowledge about video game budgets tells me that the lion's share of that is going into art, sound, cinematics and all that other stuff we
Re:Hah (Score:2)
A personal threat is not discrediting you in any way, it is an honest statement. In real life, if I had the chance I would kick your whiny ass up and down. You are simply the type of person I can't stand. And BTW I'm 6'3" and since you want to bring up credentials I was also Golden Glove ranked... not a fat slob whiny geek. So your pasty, pimply ass wouldn't stand a chance. Lucky thing, that internet anonimity.
You keep making attacks toward
I'm the one bringing up credentials? (Score:2)
-You're the one throwing your credentials around like anyone gives a damn. Frankly your background as a magazine video game reviewer doesn't automagically make you an industry insider or marketing analyst.
-Similarly, your self-described physical credentials are just as pointless for the discussion at hand, but I guess I'm the childish one.
-Show me where I called you a Nintendo fanboy in this thread.
-Nintendo's art isn't abstract. It's cartoon. There's a difference. Cartoons are indeed much easier
Wow you got me there (Score:2)
Oh wait, no it doesn't. It just means you're a creep who is more interested in threats, ad-hominem attacks, and intimidation than actual argument and discussion.
So you go right ahead and stick to your threats, and I'll keep calling you out when you make reactionary claims with only your crappy writing credentials to back them up.
I'm not going to play your stupid little game and start discussing myself.
Re:Wow you got me there (Score:2)
Crappy writing credentials. Yep, that's all I got. I guess playtesting, market analyst, editor in chief, sales, and design don't count. Oh, yeah that's right, you simply dismiss those too as mere child's play. I do claim to be an expert, because I am, not to boost my ego or show off... but to lend a different perspective to the same usual replies that stories around here get. Notice how I don't use an account name or l
Keep it coming. (Score:2)
Come on, Mr. Expert. Time to "showcase your skillz" of rhetoric and discourse. Let's go over this again:
Does or does not Nintendo abstain from competition within a genre to keep development costs down? If they don't, please show me where by providing an example of one genre with quality big name competition th
Re:Keep it coming. (Score:2)
Zelda. Paper Mario. - RPG
Super Smash Bros. - Fighting
Mario Baseball Allstars/golf/tennis. - Sports
F-Zero. - Racing/wipeout
Battalion Wars. - RTS
Advance Wars - Turn-based strategy
I can go on with more from every genre available if you would like me to. Not only that but in almost every one of those examples Nintendo not only offers the base standard but a ton of replayability and extra "content" over their competitors.
There is no such thing as a company trying to abstain from compet
Re:Keep it coming. (Score:2)
Re:Keep it coming. (Score:2)
FPS = Halo, Nintendo's response? Metroid Prime, about as non-traditional FPS as you can get. An excellent example of Nintendo opting for niche appeal rather than brute competition. Compare the budgets and come back to me.
RPG = Final Fantasy series. Nintendo's response? Again, about as far from traditional RPG as you can get. While other companies try and fail to top Square/Enix with bigger and flashier, Nintendo opts for innovation. Again, look at the savings for Nintendo by avoiding the
PS (Score:2)
Re:Lost Garden (Score:2)
Ultra-realistic graphics are "cheaper" than sylistic artistic direction?! Holy crap! Why the hell are so many PC gamers paying out of the nose for cutting edge, high-end video cards just so they can turn the resolution up on modern PC games then?!
By your logic, console gaming should've died during in the mid/late-90s when games like Quake,
Re:THINK TWICE BEFORE MODERATING PARENT UP (Score:2)
Re:THINK TWICE BEFORE MODERATING PARENT UP (Score:2)
Um, yeah it is. Sometimes you do a little fiddling in Photoshop if the source image wasn't perfectly suited to it. It's certainly a lot quicker than trying to conjure up something stylized and making it from scratch.
cradle/shell (Score:5, Informative)
Linky:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html [ign.com]
I wonder why I had to find this info by chance, considering all the coverage around this.
Re:cradle/shell (Score:5, Informative)
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Nintendo WILL be releasing some kind of shell, and even if Nintendo did not, some third party would within about two minutes.
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Which would satisfy the people that like to play fighting games but hate the way the Nintendo control is setup. An official Nintendo fighting shell with the standard 6 button setup like old school street fighter. That would be nice.
Re:cradle/shell (Score:4, Insightful)
My first thoughts on that remote were:
"That's pretty damn cool. I wonder what a lightsaber game would be like with it."
My second thoughts were:
"How the hell am I going to play an action game with that? I don't think anyone is going to develop for the system with those restrictions."
This cradle just alleviated my fears. I have shyed away from Nintendo since I got burned on the 64, but if this lives up to it's potential - it will get me back.
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
I think it's because the description of the controller described its reciever as going under and beside your TV, that seemingly denotes a tracking based system.
The whole interface design will be overhauled. The question is, will this new control scheme work better than the old one. It's hard to say at this point.
That is a big ass jump. To redesign established control schemes for estab
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Actually, in football, I'd be thrilled with a tilt sensitive passing. Tilt right and QB throws a little to the
Re:cradle/shell (Score:2)
Mind you, an addon that is needed for backwards compatibility, and is available at launch, might succeed. Come to think of it, I guess that's what Microsoft is counting on too.
Whether it works out or not.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Whether it works out or not.... (Score:2, Insightful)
The DS as a prime example. It's undoubtably inovative, but I haven't seen a compelling game for it yet (defined as one that would make me go out and get a DS to play it.)
Inovation is not an end in itself. Games that are fun to play are essential if the inovation is to be adopted.
Re:Whether it works out or not.... (Score:2)
Ok if you purely define it as games that make *you* want to go out and buy it then fine, but the DS has been an incredible success, and its innovative games are getting rave reviews.
my plan (Score:2)
Re:my plan (Score:4, Funny)
"Need money for drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, or gas? Sell that old, outdated XBOX your parents bought you!"
Hey, I indirectly got a GBA from a girl who wanted drinking money. Best $10.00 I ever spent.
Re:my plan (Score:3, Interesting)
These two new systems are the equivalent of a Ferrari or Lambo. They are mad fast, contain all types of whiz-bang features, look flashy... but have to be driven at 1/3rd their capacity due to road conditions/police/speed limits/weather. The average person (even if they had th
Re:my plan (Score:2)
Re:my plan (Score:2)
Odd people quoted in Links (Score:5, Interesting)
Since when did Sun have a games division?
Re:Odd people quoted in Links (Score:2, Informative)
I believe this started when they decided Java should try to stake a claim in game programming territory. There was some initial talk of positioning Java as a cross-platform solution, and I think that worked out for them in the mobile space, rather than the console space where everyone was talking about it.
Has anyone heard of any console titles using a JVM? I'm curious.
Re:Odd people quoted in Links (Score:2)
Sun? (Score:5, Funny)
Chief Gaming Officer at Sun Microsystems? That's got to be one cushy number. Sign me up for that.
Then again, I suppose crappy Java games for mobile devices don't just write themselves! :-)
Will it really work? (Score:2, Insightful)
I've tried experimental controllers like this before that work spatialy, and they never feel quite right. They just don't have a solid enough feel - sometimes it is because of latency issues, other times you just don't get a good sense of the bounds of movement like a analog pad gives you.
But having said that, if any company can get it right and move the whole industry in a different direction, it is Nintendo.
Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it looks like a DVD remote. Which is a good thing for most non-gamers because it is familiar.
This argument is driving me crazy. Are there really people out there who look at a video game controller and say "oh my god, that's so scary, I cannot possibly fathom it! run away!!" Maybe. Are these people capable of playing a video game, even with the simplest of controllers? Doubtful.
Humans are fantastic at mapping thought to motion. Typing, playing musical instruments, walking, dancing, swimming, driving a car: give us feedback for a minute motion, and we learn bloody fast.
I'm fine with using spatial mapping as a controlling scheme, it sounds awesome. But stop pushing it like they're trying to lure all of the retarded monkeys they can possibly find into gaming with the magic non-scary stick.
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know anyone who's 'scared' of gaming controllers like they describe. Everyone is willing to try out a controller, even old people. Of course the results are mixed, but as long as you don't use a Gamecube controller, you get used to it pretty fast.
I think their only problem is not giving the player more buttons and sticks. You want these guys to design games that will not only stand up to the modern market, but also attract non/casual gamers, and you're only giving them two buttons to wo
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2, Insightful)
At least early on, my parents played with me, when typical games were like Pac-Man and Frogger. After all, the first video games were marketed to people my parents' age -- mid 50's now.
But they quit playing when games became complicated. I suppose a large part of that is the mid-80s video game crash. What seemed like a fad to th
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:5, Insightful)
Even I get frustrated sometimes, and I've been playing plenty of video games for almost twenty years. It took me a couple hours to get comfortable with the controls on Halo 2, and i still hit the wrong buttons often enough. It's entirely complex, and if you haven't built up the muscle memory over time, it's got to be overwhelming.
I am capable of using a controller with a whole bunch of buttons, but I'd rather not. There's nothing immersive about it, it's not particularly fun. I think Nintendo's really got a great idea here, and if the implementation is solid, it'll be a ton of fun. And that'll make people less afraid of it. Even retarded monkeys like to have fun.
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
Has your obvious reason anything to do with the included rumble pak feature?
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:4, Insightful)
You bet. Lots of them.
Are these people capable of playing a video game, even with the simplest of controllers?
Of course they are. One might certainly ask how much money is to be gained from those people (mostly 30 and over) regardless of the simplicity of the controller. But there are plenty of non-moronic people who find a Playstation or XBox controller intimidating
Humans are fantastic at mapping thought to motion. Typing, playing musical instruments, walking, dancing, swimming, driving a car: give us feedback for a minute motion, and we learn bloody fast.
Yeah, it's not like anyone has ever looked at a piano and said "Gee, that's too hard to learn." Look at all the "musicians" who have embraced "mash-up" crap as an alternative to learning a real instrument. Are they all "retarded monkeys"? OK, they are, but nonetheless there are non-morons who are scared off by overly complex gaming.
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
Even my parents aren't intimidated by the controllers. My mom tends to be intimidated by games like SSX where she has to press 5 buttons at the same time while simultaneously using both the D-pad and the analog stick, but that's something else entirely. Give her a nice platformer and she's fine. Did
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
My point isn't "poeple ovr 30 r 2 old 2 use teh computarz lol!!11". It's "I have trouble getting my fellow oldsters to play with me, as a lot of them grew up on Atari 2600s and are intimidated by new controllers."
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
I agreed with the rest of your post, but this deserves a hearty "FUCK YOU". I don't judge the music you create (written any good concertos lately?) so don't judge what I do.
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
Sort answer? Yes. There are actually people on this planet that want to have fun while playing video games and want to have that instantly, not after 10 hours getting used to the controller. Heck, even myself, with a good solid 20 years of computer and video gaming, needed a few hours to get adopted to the XBox controller, and I am still pressing the wrong bu
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhm. No. But lots of people don't want to play games because they have never used a controller and are afraid of embarassing themselves. Seriously, modern controllers are not easy to learn. If you started out on, say, the SNES, moved to the Playstation and eventually to the PS2, you never had to learn a lot of new stuff. But somebody picking up a Gamecube controller who has never had a controller in his hands right now needs to learn a heck of a lot of stuff right away.
First of all, there are three "direction controllers" on on a modern pad (the cross and two analog sticks). Then you have your normal assortment of buttons and between two and four shoulder buttons, some of them analog.
Whenever people are around my place, we usually play games like Mario Kart: Double Dash. Fortunately, you can have two players on one kart, so experienced players can help out new players. But even so, if you want to, say, switch position after the first lap, it's confusing. "Press the Z button" - "What button?" - "It's the small button above R" - "R???" - "Where your index finger is, R is for right, L is for left." - "There's no button where my index finger is!" and during all of this, they have to keep controlling the game.
Lots of people just go "Oh, you play, I'll just watch, I'm too bad at games.".
Having a controller like this will make it a whole lot easier to get into gaming.
Re:Controller Intimidation Factor (Score:2)
We had a New Year's party where someone noticed our DK bongos and decided we should all play. One of the guys at the party was a drummer, and so he thought that he would totally own at the game...but then we got to the bit with the controller. It didn't respond the way he expected a real drum to respond, and then he had to CLAP? What kind of shit was this? He lost one round to a girl who was experienced at the game and sulked in the corner the rest of the night, mumbling about
It scratches an itch, a big itch (Score:5, Insightful)
Notice the stories just today on the massive numbers of casual gamers and the demand for casual games? This is no fluke. This is the true gaming market. I know for us hardcore gamers it is difficult to see that the world does not revolve around us, but it does not. This market is booming, yet has no real major companies targeting them. In comes Nintendo. If you need 27 buttons and 3 analog sticks to feel "right" playing a game, then the Revolution is not for you... and it also isn't targeted toward you. *Gasp* a gaming company doesn't care about you? but your a "gamer" you wait in lines for a new release, you have every issue of CGW/EGM/whatever hardcore gaming mag, etc. Yep, you are not the target. Hard pill to swallow, and the cause of most of the ire.
I use the story quite often, but it is the perfect illustration of this. Last year one game/system outsold ALL videogame sales for the entire Christmas season... The small "retro" controllers that contain 6-12 games built in that hook up to a TV. They outsold ALL sales for the entire game industry! That is no small number, and those games don't feature eye-bleed graphics or complex strategy or gameplay.
People are clamoring for simple, fun, fresh, enjoyable experiences. Nintendo is looking to provide exactly that, while at the same time wooing back a lot of smalled developers and expanding their content to reach even the hardcore gamer. Since they are in no direct competition it affords them the freedom to make their own path and even innovate, fail, and try again all while still being successful overall. This is a position Sony and MS would kill for, so instead of looking at things though the normal gamer tunnelvision... step back and look at the big picture.
Amen - My wife likes to play too. (Score:5, Interesting)
Just over a month ago we picked up a copy of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (SMBD) and have fallen in love with the mini-racing game (think Mario Kart, but you're a monkey in a ball). The game is wonderful! My wife and I can play together (or more accurately, against each other), the controls are very simple to learn, and we can play in short bursts. We've played SMBD every night since we got it, and we're still having a blast.
So here's the problem, we can't find any other games like it - racing games are too focused on photo-realism and don't support the under-dog (it sucks if you're in second place and have to wait for the person in first to make a mistake - missiles and bombs make the game much more interesting for everyone involved), FPSs tend to have a high learning curve and shooting people tends to turn off potential gamers, and fighting games tend to go overboard on the gore and have an extremely high learning curve. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm seriously considering putting my Xbox in the closet and replacing it with a Game Cube (and Revolution when it comes out). I want to play games with my wife. My wife wants to play games with me. I want to have people over and be able to play games with them, even if they've never touched a console before. Seems to me, Nintendo is the only company that gets this.
Re:Amen - My wife likes to play too. (Score:4, Interesting)
Go for the GC and some non-gamer games and you'll have much more fun than a solo run through any 1-player game. I find myself dying to play the GC when I get home now, where my PS2 has had a layer of dust build up since Katamari Damacy lost it's luster with me.
Re:Amen - My wife likes to play too. (Score:2)
Re:Amen - My wife likes to play too. (Score:2)
Just reading that was like chewing on tinfoil with fillings. Thanks a heap!
Re:Amen - My wife likes to play too. (Score:3, Interesting)
I have to keep the PS2 around though. She loves DDR with the dance pad controllers.
Re:Amen - My wife likes to play too. (Score:2)
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Re:It scratches an itch, a big itch (Score:4, Informative)
First observation is that it has less buttons. Does it make a difference? I don't know - most ps2 games don't use all of the buttons on the controller. Nintendo could add more buttons before release, and you could certainly have a "shell" or a nunchuck with more buttons. Assuming that they don't do those things, dock them a point for number of buttons. Dock them another one because the small a and b buttons don't look very accessable when holding the controller vertically. They might only be usable when in certain "modes" - like you jump in a vehicle and turn the controller on its side to use as a steering wheel.
Now the big difference - 2nd analog stick vs. position/orientation. Will it work? I say yes. In fact, I think it will blow existing control setups out of the water completely. There's a lot of speculation about new kinds of games that you could play with the controller, but it looks like the perfect controller for existing games - especially the FPS. I think a lot of people are hesitant to try something new, but this thing could revolutionize the console FPS. If you have a hard time picturing it, here's my imagination of how it would work:
1. Analog stick is WASD, basically your move forward/back/left/right/diagonal. Just like WASD on a keyboard/mouse setup, only analog.
2. You use the revolution controller to freelook, but it works differently from a mouse. Assume you have a crosshair on the screen. There's a region that takes up most of the center of the screen where pointing the controller moves the crosshair without moving your view. Your character's hand moves to point to the target, but the torso does not rotate.
3. When you point outside of that region (including completely off of the screen), your view rotates at a rate proportional to how far from the center you're pointing. The crosshair, however, never moves outside of the center region. In other words, you can still shoot at things on the screen while your view is rotating. This allows you to immediately point and shoot at anything on the screen, and also to circle strafe, which is an absolute requirement for the modern FPS.
4. The best part, though, and the huge advantage over the dual shock, is when using melee weapons. Hold down the melee button (say A, maybe - B is obviously the Fire button) and your controller is your melee weapon. You go from a 1 button control that makes your character take a swing, to a piece of plastic in your hand that you can whack somebody with!
I don't know if you can see it, but I can picture kicking some major ass with that setup... it's all in my imagination, though, so if you see any flaws in the setup then point them out. As you can tell I'm pretty stoked about the controller, but I'm not a fanboy that can't discuss the tradeoffs. It certainly has room to grow, but that just makes it that much more exciting - think of what this kind of controller could do in a generation or two!
Re:It scratches an itch, a big itch (Score:2)
Re:It scratches an itch, a big itch (Score:2)
I agree with your original post, that this controller will be excellent for the casual gamer, and that you can create all kinds of really fun games that use only the main controller held in one hand.
The point that I was trying to make is that the setup shouldn't be discounted for more complex games. With the analog stick addon, I really do think you could
Re:It scratches an itch, a big itch (Score:4, Informative)
And for the record most of those units sold for $24.99-$39.99 in the States... about the same as the cost of a new console title.
Incorrect (Score:2)
No, the console games are twice that much. ($50-$60) Portable game titles (GBA, DS, PSP) are around the price you mention.
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The Best Reason for this Controller (Score:5, Interesting)
So while I'll be able to buy GTA4 for either X-Box 360 or PS3, Metroid Prime 3 will not only be a Nintendo exclusive, but other games by 3rd party developers will become de-facto exclusives since porting the control scheme will be so difficult.
Basically, Nintendo is making itself a unique product so that it's not so much competing as becoming a new good in the market.
The Other Side of the Sword (Score:2)
Nintendo might not get many 3rd-party games (again) because the interface is different.
Game devs will put out a game for the other two systems, and totally ignore the Revo because their game just doesn't work with its style of control.
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jump! (Score:5, Funny)
Game Design Director, EA LA
he's gonna make you JUMP! JUMP!
Re:jump! (Score:2)
I started laughing because this was funny, but then I stopped when I realized how sad it was that I actually know what you are talking about.
Re:jump! (Score:2)
Don't be wigety-wigety-wigety-whack!
Last comment (Score:5, Insightful)
"However, the concern with something new like this is that it will appeal mainly to an enthusiast crowd and alienate the mass market who can be very reluctant to change their comfortable game playing habits."
Maybe I'm wrong here, but from what I've seen the mass market dislikes the complicated controller of the newest generation. This guy seems to have it all backwards.
Re:Last comment (Score:2)
Heh. I saw it from a different perspective. Right now, FPS's are the current fad in gaming. This controller is a pleasant step up from Sony and Microsoft's controllers. If anything, Nintendo's catering to the biggest market. Anybody who has played San Andreas knows how painfully limiting modern controllers are.
Re:Last comment (Score:2)
I don't know what gives you this idea. 100 million PS2s sold? PS1s? GBAs? SNESs? All of these have basically the same controller layout, give or take a couple face buttons or shoulder buttons.
Nintendo seems to be under the mistaken impression that videogames are still new and unfamiliar to most folks, and that somehow the mass market needs introduced to them. The mass mark
Re:Last comment (Score:2)
A console for the masses (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of people fail to see the big draw that a remote will have for the common plebian (read: non-gamer.) On the one hand, you have this massive controller, with 8 buttons, two joysticks, and more. Even I, a casual gamer, thought the Gamecube games would be hard to control with so many buttons and knobs (I was thankfully proven wrong.)
Using this remote, Nintendo will give people a reason to glance twice. A remote control is a familiar object- walk up to any person on the street, and there's a good chance they'll have used a remote. Since it will be a common object, with a different layout, they'll be whimsical. Initially, they'll pick it up and try to use the D-pad to play something. But as soon as they get angry and shake the controller, they'll understand just how interesting this new device is. (Obviously, there will be motion instructions by the demo, but, having worked in an electronics store, I can tell you that not everyone reads the instructions.)
It will be more less intimidating for new users to pick up, while giving us regular gamers a whole new (and quite innovative) way to plays games. Nintendo has it right this time.
The biggest gripe that I've heard from all sides is how it will play other games, or porting games to it (due to having to retool the interface to work with the NRV.) It's already been pointed out in a previous post [slashdot.org], but this needs to be mentioned again: the controller will have a shell [ign.com] that will work like a "regular controller". (Note that the mockup on the bottom of that page is NOT THE OFFICIAL MOCKUP, but it gets the idea across.)
Not only will this remove the need for the Gamecube controllers for backwards compatibility (though there are GCN ports on the system,) but it will allow developers to port the games without having to do a lot of modifications, if they are that lazy.
From its shape and means of use (Score:2)
Lightpen, anyone? (Score:2)
Where this controller should evolve to (Score:2)
Most importantly, if the gloves and external sensors monitor the motion, we could have Mechwarri
Let's see some retro gaming, too (Score:2)
A bit full of himself? (Score:2, Funny)
President/Creative Director, Oddworld Inhabitants
An interesting innovation for the "small handed" segment of the market. Hopefully a larger version will be available for the larger hand endowed audience that is likely to be more carpal tunnel prone.
I know he was getting at ergonomics, but, when you start to read this quote next to this picture [next-gen.biz] it just sounds creepy. Something tells me this guy drives a H2.
"Sure, this is nice for guys with small units, but what about us guys with huge
Media Comments on the Controller (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Two Words (Score:2)
I take it you've never played NES controller numchucks with your friends when you were growing up either? Well damn. I could have been rich since 1988.
Re:Two Words (Score:5, Funny)
Unless, perhaps, you were refering to some sort of suit, made of law. Like a "law jacket" and some "law pants".
Re:Two Words (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Two Words (Score:2)
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The only thing I hate more than a hypocrite is a person who hates hypocrites.
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Mod parent up (Score:2)
Or not. (Score:3, Insightful)
If they whack someone, it's their own damn fault :)
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"Man, when the day comes, count me in with the robot smashers." - Anonymous Coward
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Re:Or so (Score:3, Funny)
Cuz you know, sometimes you just gotta grab a bite.
Re:Two Words (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.gyration.com/intl/uk/pr-nintendo_uk.ht
Re:We Are Down To A Two Console Race (Score:2)
Re:Disc compatibility? (Score:2)
Re:Disc compatibility? (Score:2)
Re:Gyration (Score:2)