Revolution Controller (and more details about the Rev with video demo)

[Excelsior]

I haven't said that to you, but it's much easier to judge a controller by a picture than it is for a movie or a game.

True, but I could probably write you an essay about why FF XII is probably gonna be the worst one ever. Not so much with Advent Children, I just think that movies gonna be a bad idea, but it could be good. There's so many things wrong with FF XII though, its ridiculous.

[Tidus Andronicus]

Seems that most people, actually like the new controller idea, once they take some time and actually read up about how it works... lol It grows on you! XD

Even so there are still a lot of people that are... unsure about it, to say the least... :rolleyes2

Basically, we wont really know until we can use it, and see the games made for it... it really depends on the games... I'm seriously hopping that Nintendo doesn't release too many gimicky games, and instead focus more on solid games... (unlike with the DS, were most games, at least when it started, were very "minigameish" and novelty)

With the Revolution, I'm starting to want it more than the PS3... I think in the end, for me, it will depend on release dates, as to which I get first... but the PS3 and Rev both have a huge library to start out with... so thats a plus on both ends... The PS3 can play PS1+2 games... while the Revolution can play all Nintendo games, back to the NES! Most will actually be free! Supposedly, games from NES through the N64, that are 1st party Nintendo games, will be totally free to play on the Rev... and as for other games done by 3rd parties, well its up to the them to deside prices.
The Library on the Revolution and cost, as well as the inovative controller, really make me want the Rev more than the PS3 first!
Also Nintendo is most likely to price the Revolution at $200 at launch!! And I would be surprised to see it any higher than that... MAYBE $250.
I will say that I'd really like to see the Rev's graphics before I make a desision... but even without knowing that, I can deal... after all, can you resist the idea of all those classic games for free?

As far as the controller is conserned, yea Nintendo has announced several add-ons for it, including one that would attach to the "remote" and make it more like a classic controller... Imagine a classic controller shape with the motion detection of the Rev! >=3
But even without the controller add-on, the Controller itself still has a TON of possiblilities! Many buttons that we used to need for playing games like FPSs or even party games, can be subsituted by the Motion/tilt detection! To straife in a FPS, you could just tilt/rotate the controller a little to the right or left, for example. Also, for say in game aiming, you wont need a seperate analog stick, instead you can just aim the remote at the TV screen, and a crosshair will assist you to show where your pointing... This allows the player to do multiple actions relatively easilly! Tilt a little right to straife accross a room, while aiming at different enemies and taking them out! ^_~
And can you imagine playing a game like Super Monkey Ball on the Revolution!! The whole game would be played just by tilting the controller! XD
Also, the controller allows for totally new ways of playing games, that was previously not hear of... I dont even know what they will come up with, but that trailer Nintendo created for the Rev controller really makes me think!^_~

All I can say to those that really seem against this, is give it a shot! Please try it before you condem it!

I can't wait for the PS3 and the Revolution, and come next year I'm sure I'll be buying both (even if I'm still uber poor)... It is likely that the Nintendo Revolution will come out about the same time as the PS3, which could be bad if Nintendo doesn't advertize a lot, to prevent Sony from overshadowing them... But at only $200 and such a huge FREE library (and free online services), how can it fail??
Maybe its just wishfull thinking, but I'd be willing to bet that the Nintendo Revolution will sell a lot better than the Gamecube did!

[Maxico]

Tilting sounds like a nightmare to me. It would basicaly mean that you would have to keep your controller completly flat alot of the time. Now I don't know about those people but I move around alot when I play games, I sometimes play lying down and often have to scoot across the sofa to let someone sit down. Now it sounds like if I did any of those with the revolution I would Crash, Tailspin, Stall or send my monkey to a watery death.

[XxSephirothxX]

I thought the Controller Shell mockup IGN made was awesome. The GameCube controller with a better right joystick and an extra shoulder button? God, I'd love it.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

http://lostgarden.com/2005/09/ninten...-strategy.html

Don't worry about the length or the dry tone; you should be able to speed-read and still get the idea. Or, here's a summary courtesy of Jeremy Parish.

To wit: The current direction of the gaming industry is to cater increasingly to a specific group of people, which alienates everyone else and will ultimately prove harmful as genres continue to become overspecialized (thus appealing to a smaller and smaller core group). Nintendo is trying to move outside that shrinking hardcore constituency using hardware innovation. In other words, the company is defining its own terms of success -- especially since games for Nintendo systems cost far less to develop than those on competing systems, meaning developers and publishers can make a healthy profit with fewer sales, thus freeing them to go after less clearly-defined audiences.

This is, I think, exactly why the fanboy press is so baffled by Nintendo's continued existence as a first-party hardware creator. The company increasingly refuses to cater to them. And I guess that's why I tend to gravitate toward its creations, too; at some point I think I fell outside the "primary hardcore" circle of the Venn diagram. I still can't muster up an ounce of enthusiasm for God of War, but Trauma Center looks pretty rad. (Hopefully admitting that fact won't get me fired.)

[Tidus Andronicus]

Wow... that was a good read... very insightful. And I'm surprised how well I understood that!

I suggest anyone that doubts or dislikes Nintendo to please read the article Kawaii Ryûkishi posted!

That really expanded my understanding of Nintendo, and the gaming industry as a whole. It would seem Nintendo has a pretty strong strategy... And after reading that, I hope Nintendo is able to maintain their business model for many years to come.
When you think about it this way, Nintendo does a lot more for the gaming industry than the current 'hard-core' competition between Sony and Microsoft... All they manage to do between themselves is to keep pushing the current hardcore genres higher, which would soon tire out the consumers, if not for Nintendo to introduce new genres.

They've been doing it for years, and although right now, their choices might seem a little outlandish, the industry is once again at a point where a change this radical, at a core hardware level, is needed to keep gaming from slipping into a decline. At first glance, the industry looks like its doing wonderfully, lots of people play games, and a new generation is on its way... But step back and take Nintendo out of the equasion. What happens? The genres become saturated, the core fan base starts to get bored, and the gaming industry begines to decline from lack of interest.(granted that this would be a slow process) With out a company like Nintendo, to introduce something new, at such a core level as a controller, its hard to maintain the industry on current genres alone. As the article says, changes such as a new style of controller are only truely needed once in a while, as that is just enough to allow the new change to grow and mature and become standard. Eventually technology gets better, and allows a new change to come along and refresh things too.
Though, as long as Nintendo remains in the equasion, their surface impact seems quite small, yet their influence goes just deep enough to keep things interesting.
I'd bet that in 6-10 years when this next console generation is over, that all systems like PS4 will have this new motion detection in its controllers...

I'll admit, over these last 2 years, I've greatly lost interest in most games. After reading this article, I can see why the few games I play right now are games like Katamari Damacy, and even why I bought a GC and also a DS (forget that those are Nintendo products, I needed something different), since I was tired of the same stuff on PS2... Heck even Final Fantasy can sometimes bore me these days, cause even with great stories, its still very simmilar gameplay. So I've very curious to see what the Revolution will bring. ^_~

[Destai]

21 pages? pffft screw that

[Tidus Andronicus]

O_o... 21 pages of what? That article is no where near 21 pages... its like maybe 2 pages. xD

[DJZen]

I've read the article and there's a bit more to it than Kishi's quote, but he gets the gist of it across. Now, I will respond.

To wit: The current direction of the gaming industry is to cater increasingly to a specific group of people, which alienates everyone else and will ultimately prove harmful as genres continue to become overspecialized (thus appealing to a smaller and smaller core group). Nintendo is trying to move outside that shrinking hardcore constituency using hardware innovation. In other words, the company is defining its own terms of success -- especially since games for Nintendo systems cost far less to develop than those on competing systems, meaning developers and publishers can make a healthy profit with fewer sales, thus freeing them to go after less clearly-defined audiences.

This is, I think, exactly why the fanboy press is so baffled by Nintendo's continued existence as a first-party hardware creator. The company increasingly refuses to cater to them. And I guess that's why I tend to gravitate toward its creations, too; at some point I think I fell outside the "primary hardcore" circle of the Venn diagram. I still can't muster up an ounce of enthusiasm for God of War, but Trauma Center looks pretty rad. (Hopefully admitting that fact won't get me fired.)

Bullocks to that. This controller is ITSELF like a new genre, in that we will see a broad spectrum of innovative, yet weird titles at first, then we will see a kind of "rennaisance" as developers finally get the formula down. After that the standards will sink in and things will immediately become stale. Was the bongo controller innovative? Well, there's been bemani games before, but it was the first controller of its type to require you to clap, and it was the first to be used for something other than a bemani game. But seriously, how many games can you make for a controller like that? It's just not suitable for every type of game. You could TRY to make a baseball game for it, but you'd be met with marginal if any success.

So really, Nintendo has put a PHYSICAL limitation on the type of gameplay experience you'll get to have. They'll be forced to release an add on just to accomodate traditional types of games (and people whose arms get sore), making the main controller moot.

Innovative gameplay my foot! It's the way in which the developer uses the controller that makes it innovative, not the hardware itself! Sure, anything that hasn't been done before is innovative, but let's look at Dance Dance Revolution for a minute, shall we? The controller idea had been used before. It's just a simplified version of Nintendo's very own Power Pad. However, it was Konami's bemani gameplay coupled with the controller that made it an innovation. Now let's examine the games Pump It Up! and Techno Motion. Both games used a new style of controller (in PIU!'s case, it was a 5 direction pad using the diagonals and center, and in TM's case, it used a 9 direction pad), but the games themselves were immediately seen as knockoffs, and rightly so. They use the exact same style of play. Thus, they are not innovative. This is even why further bemani series (Drum Mania, Guitar Freaks, Keyboardmania, and games like Donkey Konga and Taiko no Tatsujin) failed to generate as much fervor. While the controller was completely new and innovative, the games were all exactly the same.

Nintendo's original controller was so well received because it was simple, but it accomodated any type of game you wanted to play, except for pong clones, but people were sick of those at that point anyway. Actually, what we SHOULD be talking about is the paddle controller. One knob and one button was all you got. Sounds limiting, doesn't it? Well, developers naturally overcame that and produced a pretty good selection of games (including Warlords, which is one of the best games ever). However, there's only so far you can go with an interface like that. It's great for games that only require a limited field of 2D movement, but beyond that it's horrible. The reason that the "gamepad" style of controller was so succesful is because it was ACCOMODATING. It was much better for a much wider variety of games.

Unfortunately, that's not why it's going to be unpopular. It's going to be unpopular because "NintenDUMB is for teh f4gz!!!!!!!11". Oh society... When will you learn...

[DMKA]

SNES Controller > All others since. PS/PS2 Controller comes second since it's so close to the SNES controller.

[ughhis]

I hate Excelsior.
The controller looks awesome, by the way.

[Shadow8017]

.. I have mixed feelings about it and my worst fear is that they'll dedicate this system too much to making lame ass games in an attempt to appeal to people who have never played videogames before ( This has been openly stated by the pres. of nintendo and miyamoto himself as one of their primary marketing strategies )

but on the other hand I understand their move with this. It's no secret nintendo's been gradually losing more and more third party support ( name one exceptional game for the gamecube that wasn't developed by nintendo themselves ) and for that reason it took a 3rd place seat. I think the gamecube was nintendo's realization that the n64 was such a setback that they can no longer compete with sony and microsoft at their own game ... the result in trying to do so is the limited success they had with the gamecube. So now they're trying to tap into a new market with drastic changes to their hardware.

the problem is ... im just not so sure how "revolutionary" this controller is. Didn't basically the same technology exist 15+ years ago when we were playing duck hunt on the nes? I think for true seasoned gamers, the real revolution in gaming right now is online gaming in home consoles, and sony and microsoft seem to understand this better.

[Tidus Andronicus]

Anyone that wants some good info on how the Revolution controller works and what it can be used for, read this:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html
Thats a great peice of info all in one place on it.^_^ Since a lot of people have been asking these questions!

[Shlup]

The teaser makes me laugh every time.

I like it 'cause it caters to all those gamer n00bs that move their whole damn body when they move the controller.

[DJZen]

name one exceptional game for the gamecube that wasn't developed by nintendo themselves

Resident Evil? Viewtiful Joe? Soul Calibur 2? Eternal Darkness? Alien Homonid? Baten Kaitos? Beyond Good & Evil? Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO? Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals? Anything with the word "James Bond" in it? Anything with the word "Bomberman" in it? Starfox Assault? Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes? Dude, have you even SEEN a Gamecube?

and for that reason it took a 3rd place seat.

No it was for several reasons. Mainly it was because the Playstation caused Nintendo to fall so far behind in the market (and the developer unfriendly N64 certainly didn't help things) that people were soured to Nintendo from the getgo. The new school of gamers whose first console was a Playstation had decreed that anything made by Nintendo was inherently "ghey". It probably didn't help that the original Gamecube model was purple. There were some grumblings about the Gamecube's lack of multimedia functions (you couldn't use it as a CD or DVD player), lack of 3rd party support, and complete lack of a killer app (Not that the PS2 had any at the time of its launch. Fantavision? Pffft.). People also had complaints about the controller (as you can still see on this forum). However, one BIG reason that people don't tend to notice as much has to do with corporate reasons. Compared to Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo is a small fry. Sony and Microsoft were huge corporate giants long before either of them ever dreamed of making a game console. They OWN ENTIRE FACTORIES WHERE THE CHIPSETS ARE CAST. If you were to TAKE MICROSOFT'S ENTIRE WAREHOUSE FULL OF XBOX360S AND BLOW IT UP they WOULDN'T EVEN BAT AN EYE. These are corporate MEGA GIANTS who can afford to loose more money EVERY DAY than most of us will EVER SEE IN OUR ENTIRE LIVES. They could BUY OUT Nintendo several times over with no noticeable financial loss. Because of this, they can afford to make crazy new technology at a whim. Notice how Nintendo's entire console is outsourced to other companies? Yeah, there's a reason for that, and it hits them right in the pocketbook.

Didn't basically the same technology exist 15+ years ago when we were playing duck hunt on the nes?

No.

I think for true seasoned gamers, the real revolution in gaming right now is online gaming in home consoles, and sony and microsoft seem to understand this better.

I think true seasoned gamers are smacking their foreheads at how many games are starting to include online support. The REAL revolution will come when people start to realize there's a lot more to gaming than Halo and GTA.