Gorilla Arms
I consider myself a member of the elite clique of Nintendo Fanboys known as Nintendorks, so it's pretty much my duty to blog about the controller that Nintendo revealed late last week, as the interface for their next gen console, Revolution. So here it is...
So pretty much across the board, the immediate reaction to seeing this thing is one big WTF. Even I felt it. I mean really? A remote? Where's the analog stick? What am I supposed to do with only two buttons? The consensus in Studio 64 was pretty much the same. What the heck were Nintendo thinking?
But slowly, it started to dawn on us just what this control scheme allowed. We started pitching our own ideas for controlling updated versions of our favorite games. There's just so much room to broaden gameplay! Imagine playing Metroid Prime 3, and holding the wand at different angles to determine which gun you're using. What if, in a FPS, you could either throw a grenade with an overhead arm movement, or roll it along the floor towards your opponent? A new Duck Hunt, Mario Tennis, sword fighting in Zelda... Holy shit, can you imagine how insane an installment of Mario Party or Wario Ware would be with this thing?
There are still a lot of nay-sayers, most of whom are asking, "How am I going to play Soul Caliber on this thing?" Nintendo isn't going to forget about cross-platform games, but this is the one aspect of the new controller I'm apprehensive about. Nintendo really needs to include something resembling a standard controller with Revolution, or else the system is going to miss out on a lot of games. Nintendo has said that there will be a "shell" resembling a standard Gamecube controller, with a slot for the wand, but if this doesn't come as standard equipment, well, it's the same problem that the XBox 360 faces with its optional hard drive. If there's a large portion of the market that doesn't have a particular add-on, then it doesn't make much sense to develop games that require that add-on, does it?
If they aren't including a standard controller with Revolution, then Nintendo is effectively removing themselves from the next round of console wars before they even begin. I'm not sure this is really a bad thing, though. For years, fans of Nintendo have chosen their console because they feel Nintendo has must-own exclusives, even if they are lacking in 3rd party, multiple-console software. So far, the developer reaction to Revolution has been entirely positive. If enough developers hop on the bandwagon and start producing top-notch games that can only be played on Nintendo's console, then it could make Revolution a system that a lot of people want to have alongside their PS3 or XBox 360. Nintendo remains the most profitable of the three major console hardware companies, despite trailing way behind Sony and being only slightly ahead of Microsoft in terms of systems sold. Second place isn't so bad from that perspective.
So pretty much across the board, the immediate reaction to seeing this thing is one big WTF. Even I felt it. I mean really? A remote? Where's the analog stick? What am I supposed to do with only two buttons? The consensus in Studio 64 was pretty much the same. What the heck were Nintendo thinking?
But slowly, it started to dawn on us just what this control scheme allowed. We started pitching our own ideas for controlling updated versions of our favorite games. There's just so much room to broaden gameplay! Imagine playing Metroid Prime 3, and holding the wand at different angles to determine which gun you're using. What if, in a FPS, you could either throw a grenade with an overhead arm movement, or roll it along the floor towards your opponent? A new Duck Hunt, Mario Tennis, sword fighting in Zelda... Holy shit, can you imagine how insane an installment of Mario Party or Wario Ware would be with this thing?
There are still a lot of nay-sayers, most of whom are asking, "How am I going to play Soul Caliber on this thing?" Nintendo isn't going to forget about cross-platform games, but this is the one aspect of the new controller I'm apprehensive about. Nintendo really needs to include something resembling a standard controller with Revolution, or else the system is going to miss out on a lot of games. Nintendo has said that there will be a "shell" resembling a standard Gamecube controller, with a slot for the wand, but if this doesn't come as standard equipment, well, it's the same problem that the XBox 360 faces with its optional hard drive. If there's a large portion of the market that doesn't have a particular add-on, then it doesn't make much sense to develop games that require that add-on, does it?
If they aren't including a standard controller with Revolution, then Nintendo is effectively removing themselves from the next round of console wars before they even begin. I'm not sure this is really a bad thing, though. For years, fans of Nintendo have chosen their console because they feel Nintendo has must-own exclusives, even if they are lacking in 3rd party, multiple-console software. So far, the developer reaction to Revolution has been entirely positive. If enough developers hop on the bandwagon and start producing top-notch games that can only be played on Nintendo's console, then it could make Revolution a system that a lot of people want to have alongside their PS3 or XBox 360. Nintendo remains the most profitable of the three major console hardware companies, despite trailing way behind Sony and being only slightly ahead of Microsoft in terms of systems sold. Second place isn't so bad from that perspective.
posted by matthew at 10:05 PM
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