Revolution Controller Revealed

[keilbaca]

This is a IGN mockup of the standard controller.

 

 

I seriously hope they go with this route. Don't get me wrong, the controller already is pretty cool, but that'll be better for things like Super Smash Brothers.

 

EDIT: Even though that is a mockup, there WILL be a standard controller, that the free-hand controller will plug into.

Edited September 17, 2005 by keilbaca

[cimerians]

This is a IGN mockup of the standard controller.

 

 

I seriously hope they go with this route. Don't get me wrong, the controller already is pretty cool, but that'll be better for things like Super Smash Brothers.

 

EDIT: Even though that is a mockup, there WILL be a standard controller, that the free-hand controller will plug into.

933029[/snapback]

 

 

Excellent! That looks really good compared to that DVD player controller\trigger travesty. It does kind of stick out a bit from the top but who cares.

 

I mean if certain games will use it great, but please give people a choice if they want a more traditional controller. I'm sure if Nintendo doesn't a third party will so I'm not frettin' about anymore....

 

thanks for the pic

[keilbaca]

Again, its a mockup, its not a design from Nintendo. The Hands-free and the analog stick in the first picture will come packaged with the Revolution. The controller addon will be seperate. As I said, that's a mockup, that's not anything at all from Nintendo, that's just a IGN mockup. But, there WILL be a controller.

 

And, I honestly hope the controller is like that. I heart Gamecube controllers.

[+Random Terrain]

"Oh my, I keep misplacing my remote control! What should I do? I know! I'll store it in the middle of my controller! It won't be awkward or slip out during intense play or anything!"

[JB]

"Oh my, I keep misplacing my remote control! What should I do? I know! I'll store it in the middle of my controller! It won't be awkward or slip out during intense play or anything!"

933055[/snapback]

*chuckles*

 

In practice, there's gonna be a lock of some sort to keep it in.

Partially because it's still the "brains" of the unit, as well as the transciever.

[Clint Thompson]

The mockup looks nice!

[shep]

I heart Gamecube controllers.

933046[/snapback]

 

Me too my friend, me too.

[+Sauron]

The REAL function of the new controller:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v507/mousedown/revo.swf

[Dones]

ROFL

[sega saturn x]

Have you tried it? Because it seems you've already formed an opinion about the controller, so that must mean you've tried it.

 

Or are you trying to say if someone has formed a somewhat negative opinion, they should wait until they try it out before forming that opinion, but if you have a positive opinion you don't need to actually try it out to know its a good idea?

 

Does this work with everything or is it just specific to Nintendo products?

 

As of right now I'm optimisitic it could be horrible who knows, i don't but it's an interesting idea so I'm trying to keep an open mind. And though i can be wishy washy i do try to keep an open mind on most things. I try to play all of what's out there. And as odd as it may seem i was also looking forward to the PSP a short time before i saw everything on it. Tried to keep an open mind but then i saw all the games for it and played one. I didn't like it, so that was pretty much it. Ghost and goblins and katamari look nice though so who knows what else coudl come.

 

I'm still optimistic the 360 will get some games i like, kameo looks promising. Regarding the ps3, i don't know i have only played 3 games on my ps2 since 2003 so I'm not realy looking forward to the ps3. but maybe it will get some games that astound me in ways i never thought possible, or it could be just what i think it a more powerful ps2. It's hard to judge the next gen since i know so little about it I'm only goign on the games i have seen and news i ahve heard.

 

So were you just trying to politely call me a fan boy or were you trying to prove that people can form opinions without knowing everything about a subject? I already said it was possible and people do it all the time, i just said give this a chance. I try to give most things a chance at one time or another.

[RangerG]

It is nice to see Nintendo take chances and risks. First the DS and now this Revolution controller. They seem to sincerely want to innovate while also having a product that appeals to current non-gamers. They have a point that current controllers have so many buttons and games have gotten so complicated that they may be alienating potential gamers. There will be plenty of third-party controllers to appease those that want a more traditional looking controller - I like seeing new ideas!

[ferrarimanf355]

I'm shocked by how many snap judegements get posted in this thread, espectially considering that AAers are generally an intelligent bunch.  Predicting the end of Nintendo based on somehting no one's touched seems a tad outrageous to me. 

At the end of the day it all comes down to 5 things for me

 

1.  Controllers have had the same set up for 20 years now.  Is it the best?  Maybe, but probably not.  In an industry that has changed so much in the past 2 decades, I'm relieved to see that someone is at least capable of re-thinking a tired old industry standard that's yet to be seriously questioned.  Coming from Atari to NES, we all thought D pads were ridiculous, remember?

 

2.  Gimmicks are the single biggest thing that advances this industry, embrace them.

 

3.  As I said prior to the DS launch, it's high time we had a good shake up.  Having 3 consoles that are basically identical to the non-gamer and hardcore alike is retarded. 

 

4.  Anyone who is unwilling to try this thing with an open mind is the kind of gamer I feel has been poisoning the waters for the past ten years.  "Don't try it, don't buy it and stick with what you know"  That's all fine and dandy, but a whole new generation of gamers are coming up who care not for a 13 button monster of a controller.  Like non-adopters of the DS and Nintendogs, you may well get left behind

 

5.  The industry needs more gamers.  Video game sales are up, because gamers are getting more hardcore, but there are actually less of us playing than there was 18-20 years ago.  Why?  Controllers are too scary.  Could be this is the one to change that and that's certainly a great prospect

932595[/snapback]

Um, I don't see what's so scary with current-gen controllers. Can you enlighten me?

As for the Revolution's controller... I can now safely say that the Xbox 360's controller is going to end up being the best controller for the next gen, I'll say that much. The Rev's controller looks to be a colossal failure. How in the hell are you going to control traditional fighting games with that thing? Madden NFL? NBA Live? If anyone's expecting third-party support, I need to call the authorities, because whatever you're smoking must not be legal...

[awsomo3000]

Im very disapointed in this controller...This may change my desicion on getting a revolution

[Dones]

Porting of 3rd party top titles may be difficult

In theory, if companies port their games properly, they would use the inherent abilities of this controller for their advantage. In the long run, the Revolution MAY provide a completely different experience for some of these games. Sports games would be a perfect example here.

You are forgetting how lazy developers have always been in this area. Most PS2 ports to the gamecube have always been an almost exact translation of the X, O, square and triangle buttons to GC's A, B, X, Y buttons. Some games actually play worse because devs did not give tought to map these buttons to better accomodated gamecube's controller. For example in Everything or Nothing, you are constantly pausing the game to change guns with a shoulder button push. In gamecube's version of the game, EA directly mapped this button to the purple 'Z' button. The game has you constantly pressing this uncomfortable and inaccessible button making this simple action a shore. Another example: In Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, the devs map the start button of the dualshock to Gamecube's Start + A (yet when you press Start alone it does nothing).

 

What makes you think developers will treat the revolution's controller any different? Either they will rethink the whole game input mechanics, or just be lazy like always and try to do the most simple and direct button implementation they can. Guess which one they will try first? The controller alone will open to 3rd party multi-platform game makers a third option: just drop support for the Revolution entirely.

 

Don't get me wrong, I wish Nintendo the best of success in their endeavors, but you have to take into account their past behavior. Being realistic: if the revolution doesn't turn profitable, then 3rd parties won't bother investing additional time just to port it to their console. If this controller turns out to be too niche to quickly and easily port games without requiring extra development costs then you can bet they won't even consider porting games in the first place. If the gamecube's history is any indication, most 3rd party publishers will look at how much more money it will cost them before actually thinking to support a tv remote.

[Ze_ro]

5.  The industry needs more gamers.  Video game sales are up, because gamers are getting more hardcore, but there are actually less of us playing than there was 18-20 years ago.  Why?  Controllers are too scary.  Could be this is the one to change that and that's certainly a great prospect

Um, I don't see what's so scary with current-gen controllers. Can you enlighten me?

I don't know if I'd call them "scary"... but let me relate an experience I had just a while ago:

 

For some reason, I received a copy of OPM in the mail with a free demo disc (Sony randomly advertising? I don't know). I popped it in and tried out Destroy All Humans... to my dismay, the control was absolutely terrible. You run around with the left stick, try in vain to aim with the right stick, and doing pretty much anything in the game involves pressing two buttons at once. Combined with the atrocious voice acting and (in my opinion) lame humour, I gave up on that one. Then I tried playing the demo of Rise of the Kasai, and was again treated to Sony's diagram of which of the 10 buttons does what... I played for about 15 seconds before giving up on that too.

 

I've been playing games for about 20 years now, but it seems like it just takes too long these days to learn the controls for a game, especially if I only want to play it for maybe 10-15 minutes. It never seems obvious what buttons on a dual shock controller are supposed to do what. Different games use different buttons for pretty much everything. At least with the Gamecube controller (and presumably with this Revolution controller) you get a big A button that's obviously going to used for the most common action (jump, shoot, accelerate, whatever), and the Z button is obviously only going to be used for obscure things that you won't be doing very often. I never managed to get into games like Rainbow 6 or Splinter Cell mostly because the controls always seemed like a giant mess.

 

Hopefully with this controller, everything will be a matter of "move the controller left to move the character left" and stuff like that. When things are like that, you don't NEED to spend 20 minutes learning how to control your character, you just turn things on and play and the controls will be mostly obvious. That just seems more fun to me, while figuring out all the controls on most PS2 games is more of a chore. I'm all in favor of Nintendo's push to simplify games. I guess this makes me a "casual" gamer after all.

 

--Zero

[Dones]

Good points. I think the tv remo-lution controller will play well for very simple games. I have my doubts about more complex games though.

 

On the other hand, the same strenghts you mention can be viewed as too gimmicky or too niche to be learned by the masses. In other words, the same simplistic nunchuck approach might turn off gamers because they are expecting a more traditional experience. It seems backwards, but think about other examples when people complete reject new things because they don't adhere to familiarity. That's without taking into account how tireing will be to do the slashing/jumping/tapping movements, or how accurate the tv-remote will be.

Edited September 17, 2005 by Dones

[sigma]

This is a IGN mockup of the standard controller.

 

 

I seriously hope they go with this route. Don't get me wrong, the controller already is pretty cool, but that'll be better for things like Super Smash Brothers.

 

EDIT: Even though that is a mockup, there WILL be a standard controller, that the free-hand controller will plug into.

933029[/snapback]

Site your source please. I can't find where that was said.

[CPUWIZ]

Site your source please. I can't find where that was said.

933356[/snapback]

 

http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html

[sigma]

Site your source please. I can't find where that was said.

933356[/snapback]

 

http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651559p1.html

933359[/snapback]

Thank you. Geuss I didn't look hard enough.

[+davidcalgary29]

Question: do players of modern systems really base their purchasing decisions based upon the system's official controllers? I have to say, that of the two systems that I purchased this year, official controller quality was the last consideration on my mind...and I can't think of a time in the past when this seemed to be more than a minor consideration for me. Has something changed?

Edited September 17, 2005 by davidcalgary29

[joeybastard]

Question: do players of modern systems really base their purchasing decisions based upon the system's official controllers? I have to say, that of the two systems that I purchased this year, official controller quality was the last consideration on my mind...and I can't think of a time in the past when this seemed to be more than a minor consideration for me. Has something changed? 

933373[/snapback]

 

Most of the time, I wouldn't be worried about it either but this is more than just button placement or handgrip size. I can see people wanting to try it first, while I think it looks like fun, for some people it might be too radical a change from the universal idea of a gamepad. They might just not enjoy playing games with this method.

[Atarifever]

That could be any star wars fan wet dream, what star wars nerd hasn't dreamed about having a sim light saber battle?  I would kill for a game like that, you could use the trigger to manipulate the force and such.  If they do it right they could have a lot fo star wars fans on there side, but I'm only dreaming so who knows. 

932800[/snapback]

I can already see the commercial. It would start with the Star Wars music playing and you'd be looking at some guy holding the controller and facing the TV in an over the shoulder type of view. First the guy would be running (in the game using the analog) and using the remote to line up his blaster and blow the brains out of some Storm Troopers. Then it'd switch to a scene where the controller is being swung around to control the guns on the Falcon (working up and down and side to side). Then it'd cut to Darth Vader walking up to the screen and startng his light saber. The guy playing would tap the A button and his light saber would come out on the screen. Then he'd give a big two handed swing and vaders sword and his would be just about to meet and then the commercial would cut to the release date. As a Star Wars fan, at that point I'd suffer a heart attack and then sell whatever I had to to buy the Revolution.

[liveinabin]

I remember loads of people hating the D-Pad when Nintendo invented that. "It's nowhere near as good as a joystick" etc..

I can't wait to use this thing. I hate the way that games hardware has stagnated over the last 2 decades. Gaming needs stuff like this.

It's going to be great, if the modular add on's are relatively inexpensive, they could bundle all sorts of custom devices with different games. Just like the dedicated control systems of old arcade games!

Damn good anti piracy measure too. No-one's going to copy the disc if it needs a unique control device to play that game (that only comes packaged with that game).

[JB]

Good points. I think the tv remo-lution controller will play well for very simple games. I have my doubts about more complex games though.

I think it'd work great for some classes of game.

 

I've never seen an intuitive way to get more than 2 axes of information in before.

The Rev does 6(move left/right, up/down, in/out; tilt left/right, up/down, in/out).

 

Taking the FPS example...

So you point the device to aim, right? We're moving up/down/left/right with the wand. 2 axes. Let's keep the thumbstick for motion, as it'll likely be more intuitive than mapping that to the rotational axes of the wand .

 

Now if you shove forward... you zoom your gun in.

Tilt it left, and your character leans over for peaking around corners or an alternate method of dodging.

Tilt down, and you duck.

The in/out twist could be used for changing weapons. IMO, it'd work better than a shoulder button.

 

Also possible is the left/right/up/down tilts could be used for quick "roll" evasions.

Tilt left/right, and you spin to the side. Down rolls forward, up does a backflip.

 

 

On the other hand, the same strenghts you mention can be viewed as too gimmicky or too niche to be learned by the masses. In other words, the same simplistic nunchuck approach might turn off gamers because they are expecting a more traditional experience. It seems backwards, but think about other examples when people complete reject new things because they don't adhere to familiarity. That's without taking into account how tireing will be to do the slashing/jumping/tapping movements, or how accurate the tv-remote will be.

I strongly suspect it won't be very tiring. I'd bet it reads very small motions so instad of requiring large arm gestures, you can just flick your wrist.

And accuracy... I just assume Nintendo wouldn't roll it out as a primary controller if it wasn't. This tech's been evolving for over 20 years(you just don't see it much, because it's not commonly used at the consumer level).

 

The rest of your concerns are shared here.

 

 

I remember loads of people hating the D-Pad when Nintendo invented that. "It's nowhere near as good as a joystick" etc..

It ISN'T. I've tested, and on a game where fast and precise directional input matters, I consistently last longer and get higher scores with a joystick.

 

D-pads are great for games where you can kick back, relax, and take your time.

But they suck for fast action.

 

The d-pad was not created to be an excellent input device. It was created to be small.

 

I can't wait to use this thing.  I hate the way that games hardware has stagnated over the last 2 decades.  Gaming needs stuff like this.

Agreed, actually.

I think the market is ready for another shot at VR input.

 

And this will probably work better for gaming than a glove will.

Edited September 17, 2005 by JB

[Atarifever]

I think it'd work great for some classes of game.

 

 

933442[/snapback]

I think people are missing exactly how great this will be for fighters. They act like that's the prime example of how it will suck. Think for a second. Circle motion + shove forward + trigger 1 = fireball. Circle motion + pull back + A = Dragon Kick. Circle motion + slash = sword charge. That's just using the wand. Add the analog which can do the normal forward forward back type moves (and movement) and the fact that a weapon slash will be simple with the wand and Nintendo could release an awesome fighter unlike anything that we've played before.