Revolution's Controller Revealed

1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143782
It looks weird but everybody that has used it agrees in that it’s very comfortable. At first I thought “WTF” but after reading in detail I’m almost sold. It certainly has huge potential. Even at its lowest form, if you consider how games that have already been done in the past could use it, you can basically integrate all sorts of gameplay kinds into a single title.

Imagine a Zelda game where you aim your bow light gun style, ride your horse by tilting the controller around, fish in a pond just like you would irl (well. ok not just like)… Maybe even combat bad guys by moving your “sword” around? And all that without a single extra peripheral needed…
I just hope thrid parties will be willing to properly convert their games to take advantage of the technology rather than go at it the cheap way and make it feel completely out of place…

Originally I had linked to the Gamespot article but I think 1up’s is much better overall. If you guys find other articles feel free to post them if they say anything more or have a nice different point of view. Interesting typo on Pilot Wings here… You’ll see…

I’m only posting one image because the others broke the forums, you can see the rest (showing the analogue expansion/accessory) on the article. Please do not reply unless you actually read the article :anjou_love:
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/news/09/15/revcon_screen002.jpg

Edit: a little something to raise the hype higher…
cubemovies.ign.com/cube/video/ar … _qtlow.mov

Well darn, you beat me to posting it. =D

But I’m hooked. XD This controller should be a blast to play with… might not be the best for fighters but that’s been since the SNES days over at Nintendo. =D So no complaints here.

Check the edit on the bottom… :anjou_love:

The actually “light gun” featur eof the controller looks cool but I think a controller similar to the nunchaku plug-in used as standard would be much better.

IMO this remote screems for a joystick-like design rather than a remote control one.

I couldn’t download the IGN trailer since it asks for insider subscription.

I need to see it in action but if you need to have your arms in mid-air to play the games, it might prove a painful experience.

Overall tho the idea sounds cool.

Well the article does explain many of the issues you talk about. But with your questions, I guess the video would explain some of them too. Keep trying, perhaps try using firefox as it really doesn’t ask me for any registering, it doesn’t even load a page. It simply starts downloading the file.

For the painful experience thing, check the Metroid section of that article again I guess.

I’m really excited about it, even a plain first person shooter would become so much more fun with this… They can basically combine a lightgun game’s aiming fun and a FPS’ freedom of movement (via that analogue add on) with the most intuitive design rather than something chunky as seen in the lightgun based resident evil games… And you can have all those games requiring extra accessories like the fishing games Sega made, or any lightgun game, without the need to buy anything extra… It’s so many things into one. It could be used on its side titled like a wheel for racing games. It could be used standing up as a joystick type device… For the old emulated games they want to have downloadable you simply turn it to its side and it becomes a NES pad… And so much more that hasn’t been done before as the video demonstrates…

Don’t forget that it can’t only be tilted, it can basically understand any kind of motion,tilt, rotation, and even distance… And on top of that the lightgun style aiming… Which can not only be used as a gun but for many other things, perhaps to control the cursor in a strategy game or whatever…

There’s limitless possibilities really… And I’m sure Nintendo will show off all it can do in a big way once they start showing actual games… Now when is that going to be :anjou_sad:

I’m actually using Firefox.I get a page with this message :

“Due to the popularity of this file you must choose a download method.”

And then it presents me with a link to "join IGN Insider."
I’ll try and see if gamespot enables me to stream the video.

I just streamed the “presentation of Revolution controller” from gamespot.
22 minutes.

gamespot.com/news/2005/09/15 … 33335.html

I didn’t actually see the game in action; but the spectator was put in the prespective of the TV set seeing the actual players playing.It looked fun in some cases but most games that were beeing played were things like fishing or playings the drums.I want to see the controller beeing used in adventure/action games or RPG’s or hack and slash agems to see if it actually looks appealing.

I must confess that it doens’t seem much sophisticated to move the controller up to jump in platform games tho…I need some gameplay videos…

No games have been shown yet. That’s just a commercial like video pimping possible functions of the controller (alongside Ninty’s wish to attract people that don’t usually game).
The playable things that some members of the press got to play with weren’t games but simple tech temos designed to show off a certain aspect of the controller each. Ie, tilt, roation, responsiveness, etc. The only thing coming close to a real game was the Metroid Prime tech demo described in the article I linked to.

This was a controller unveiling after all, Ninty is still keeping all the games (and we don’t even really know the Rev’s specs yet) under wraps…

From your responses I’d just advice to be a little more open minded for the possible effects it can have in the fun as well as immersion factor rather than how it will look.

Though again, if you read the article, he claims that for Metroid, you didn’t even need to move around much because it’s so responsive he barely had to move his hand to look around/aim and he rested it on his legs like a normal controller… So, yes, certain games are bound to need a lot of movement because that will be the whole point of it but others can do with a relaxed approach that will fit them better…

I know it isn’t enough to know how games will play, I’m just excited with the possibilities. After all, that’s all we can look forward to from next gen yet. M$ and $ony show pretty pictures and Ninty (for now atleast) shows their unique controller and lets the press sample its functions.

This is totally unexpected but I think a great change of pace for the console market.

I am most excited about the implementations of using it in a FPS like you said. Finally the precision of PC gaming will come to the console arena, if not with even more precise gameplay. I hope Metroid Prime 3 will take full advantage of it since the Gamespot article said that after seeing the controller Retro studios was redesigning aspects of the game that allow for heavier fire fights and aiming precise aiming capabilities.

I just hope games will come out that actually use the features to the highest potential.

The remote is a perfect fit to play classic SNES games however so i’m pumped.

While I can appreciate the innovation, you have to understand the overall impact of such a non-standard control system.

  1. You can no longer play your games however you want. Like to lie down on your side while playing? Ever shift around on your couch? This makes it much harder.

  2. It makes multi-SKU games very difficult to create. While it may be able to emulate a standard controller, the decrease in the number of buttons and whatnot vs the Xbox and PS controllers will limit functionality.

  3. Two words: Power Glove :smiley:

I think the games Nintendo will make for the Revolution will be kick ass and will undoubtedly take full advantage of the unique features of the controllers, but given the lack of success of third party games on the GC, I don’t forsee many developers investing too much into this =\

Just my $0.02.

You mean Minority Report’s ?If you did I totally agree with you.That’s just another design.

I mean this tech is cool but that remote just doens’t look cool to handle.

OH DEAR!

One as to give credit to NCL for having the balls to try somthing diff, but how the hell of bread and butter games like Pro EVo, Madden, RE ect ment to work on that thing

3rd party’s are going to have a nightmare with that controler. It may work for fps, but little esle.

End of an era imo,

What the fucking fuck.

Okay.

Can you turn it sideways to use it like an NES pad?

I don’t suppose anybody here is old enough to have experienced the EXTREME pain that Colecovision and Intellivison controllers caused after extended use.

VERTICAL STYLE RECTANGULAR CONTROLLERS WITH FLAT EDGES CAUSE MASSIVE CRAMPING.

After 20+ years of moving towards ergonomic design styles, THIS is what Nintendo calls innovative??

I’m sorry, this is not innovation for the good of the consumer, this is innovation for the sake of being individualistic, to go against the direction of progress, or the entire industry, or to stand out as fucking “different” JUST for the sake of it.

Sure, it looks sleek and all, but, how the fuck do we play fighting games, FPS games, and the myriad of classics that are going to be available for the Revolution.

I’m shocked, I’m really truly shocked.

I don’t even know what to say.

Some publications have hinted at a “classic” attachment for the backwards compatibility (SNES, N64, GameCube games). I do hope that is only used for the emulated games and not by new games though. I’ll quote something I wrote in another forum, some things are repeats of things I said here though… I’ll try to skip the obvious repeats…

[quote]I agree with the optimistic crowd here. All the naysayers simply haven’t done enough research in my opinion, or have done it and just want to bash anyway.
This is simply the biggest thing to happen since analogue controls. And it’s bigger than that!

As for people saying they don’t want to “sweat”. Please do some research. There will obviously be games that require lots of swinging or whatever because that will be the point, to have outrageous fun. But I’m sure it won’t lack in serious games. Sources (online publications etc) that have played the tech demos, have said for example that the Metroid tech demo was perfectly comfortable to control, resting your hands on your legs like you would with any pad, and barely requiring any real movement because it’s VERY responsive.

Imagine a survival horror game in the style of Silent Hill. I’d probably be glued to the screen holding my “flashlight” and looking around, moving closer to zoom in on some item to investigate better… then when hearing a sudden loud noise flip out, back up to zoom out, wildly swing the “flashlight” looking around trying to spot what caused it. It’s immersion taken not just to the next level but to the level after the next!

There’s really not much more you can do with games without requiring a new visualisation method. This is going to just plain ROCK.

Multiplatform titles will have it bad, I understand. But if the companies are willing to recode the controls to fully expoilt the controller’s uses then even if graphically inferior, I’m sure the Rev’s version will be the most fun of all!

I’d buy this even if it didn’t have ANY third party support really. I don’t buy many games per year and the other home consoles haven’t offered much I want and that I can’t find alternatives on the PC.

The Revolution WILL be something NEW for once (and good too).

No third party support would mean Ninty’s death but they’d go down with a bang much louder than Sega’s for sure (yeah I know Sega’s still going, but in a different way)…

Oh and I’m not a Ninty fanboy but with this, I can become one. I’ve only ever owned the original Gameboy, then I went to the Saturn, PSOne, Dreamcast, PC and stayed there. I got a PSP while waiting to see what next gen console I’d buy, if any, and while the PSP will obviously be graphically inferior, I think it’s enough to sample the gaming experiences I’ve missed with the lack of a current gen console, and possibly of a next gen console aside from the graphics. The Rev on the other hand is DIFFERENT.

Everyone blames it being a gimmick without stopping to think of the immersion and fun factor possibilities really…

Gimmick is the new graphics of the new consoles that come with nearly identical controllers as before and so have the same feel as before aside from graphics, possibly physics. NOT this one.[/quote]

And to add that many developers should be able to use this very well without too much trouble. After all, with the analogue attachment, it can basically be used as a controller with dual analogue sticks… Except the right “Stick” has much more functionality which can replace button functions (though the d-pad could also be used as buttons like on the Dreamcast to make up for the lack of actual buttons).

I think that, with just a little thought, any developer can adjust most any game to it unless they had really gone overboard with using every single button on the dual shock or something.

Only traditional fighting games will suffer I suppose… Maybe the “classic” attachment will be a must for them if anyone makes them at all… But think of all the NEW fighting games you can have with full control over your character’s arm or weapon movements (while still using the analogue to move him around the arena).

Think of morrowind like games, where you’d have the same freedom of movement, but in combat YOU swing your weapons rather than hold down a key, and YOU do your spells similar to Arx Fatalis by shaping runes in thin air with your own hand… It’d just be a whole new experience…

I think, for what it may lack, it can make up for it with something totally new and just as great if not greater.

Yeah I guess from when I made the first post to now, I’ve been hyped up…

Abadd, if by power glove you meant some failed past attempt of a gadget like this I’d like to remind you that they all had very limited motion sensing ability (some of them only a little bit of tilt on each side), and also they tried to work with games that WERENT MADE FOR THEM. This one is the main controller so games will have to be made for it, not just translate a conventional control style to the new controller. This one from reports seem to basically be able to understand any kind of movement and distance change if the developer wishes to…

Edit: Did you even read the article in detail or just checked the pictures Shin? Because, if anything, atleast most everyone, speptical or not, agrees that FPS games have the potential to be much better with this than they have ever been on consoles and possible on PCs… Please read it if you haven’t and maybe search around for more publications’ opinions on it that may offer more than the article above.

I bet that what’s really going to be affected is the expertise of videogamers.If the core of operations is based upon arm control now (rather than finger control) everything will be different for hardcore gamers…

I’d say wrist control for most “normal” games, ie FPS games, not very different from using a mouse. As demonstrated, Metroid (yeah again) was perfectly playable with the hand resting on one’s legs and doing slight wrist motions to look around and aim while the left hand was used as always to move around with the analogue stick.

Arm movement for whacky or simply specialised games like the shocased drumming, fishing, sword fighting of the “ad-video” (yeah my own term :P).

Well it looks pretty wierd, but you’ve got to remember that Nintendo was the first to do things such as shoulder buttons, the analogue stick, etc So they should know what they’re doing when it comes to inventing new control methods. The people testing it in that article said that it was actually very comfortable, despite the way it looks (and I have to admit, it does look pretty uncomfortable).

Unfortunetly I think that most third party developers will be put off by the controller, and in a similar fashion to the DS, most will take this new control method and try to make it act as much like a traditional controller as possible, if they even want to develop for it at all.

Also, while I think this has potential, I really don’t see how Nintendo could think that this will be more attractive to people who aren’t gamers. If anything this controller is much more something that hardcore gamers would want than anything else.

I think it will be more attractive to non gamers because it looks like a device everyone has used (remote control) and they will likely make a range of simple games for it that only use the motion sensing rather than a complex combination of button + motion + analogue attachment. If you’ve seen the video lots of game ideas are there that wouldn’t require much gaming knowledge, such as the fishing, or drumming, or baseball-ing. I mean, who hasn’t used imaginery drum sticks to “play” beats? Now you’ll be able to do that without them being imaginary and with actually producing the proper sound (just don’t actually slam the thing on a table or something!) There’s many many game possibilities for people who aren’t gamers. And just as many and more possibilities for gamers :anjou_love:

Have you actually ever tried to use one of those 3D mice? The ones used in presentations and such where you wave the mouse in the air to move it around? Sure, the programs aren’t necessarily built around that feature, but that’s exactly my point. Nintendo’s titles will be built around the controller experience, but 3rd party titles will not.

As for the examples of games you mentioned, like I said above, I don’t doubt that there will be innovative uses. However, you’re looking at the next generation of games that already cost double the development costs of previous generations. Now, take the already lagging sales of 3rd party games on Nintendo’s console, throw in a non-standard controller into the mix, and voila! Bye-bye 3rd party =\

I am sure Nintendo will be able to carve out their own little niche and live there, and have 2 or so really good titles a year. However, on the grand scale, it’s a bit of a backwards step.

Also, the new consoles aren’t simply gimmicks =\ The level of graphical fidelity that can be reached, as well as the increased processing power will allow for game features that have never been possible. Advanced AI, realistic environmental reactions, higher level of detail saturation, etc. That’s not to say that a new method of controlling games isn’t innovative (in fact, I had a several hour long debate about what I think is a limiting factor with gaming - and my answer was that there were too many damn buttons).

Another unanswered question is the attachments. How many come standard? How many will have to be purchased? Once you have core controller components as sold-separately style peripherals, you kill all chances of widespread support.

As for the Power Glove, I was just being facetious :wink: I know it can’t be as bad as that piece of crap. But, you bring up the point of games that aren’t made for that sort of control. I refer back to my earlier point about 3rd party support.

I’m not saying it’s a failure of innovation or anything. I’m just saying it’s a bad business move on Nintendo’s part.

Some of the harsher and more hyped up words in my quote were meant as replies to some really harsh talk about it in the other forum, sorry about that.

I do think this WILL hurt Nintendo in many ways. But I also believe that they CAN attract the non gamer crowd as they want to do and so make up for the sales losses in the gamer area with sales gains in that area.

Someone always has to be the first to do something for things to advance. Ninty is the first in this area, they will get a hit but it’s needed for the industry to go forward.

As for attachments, well, I think speculation has gone overboard with that. I mean, some people have even suggested lightguns to use in conjuction with the analogue attachment. Why? The “remote” is already a lightgun in itself. I think most any creative game can be created with the standard remote + analogue attachment which according to most sources will be the standard set that comes with the console.

The “classic” attachment some sources have hinted at I hope is ONLY for the emulated games rather than to get other new conventional games working with it. Because I agree with your point about attachments and also want the remote + analogue to become the standard.

And on top of that, with all the different uses the remote alone can have I don’t think there’s any real need for some other weird attachment. I mean, think of al the extra peripherals of the past and chances are they can somehow be worked in the functions of this thing…

I haven’t used those 3D mice but do they incorporate tilt or just motion in 3D space? Because this is what’s great about the rev controller, it incorporates everything. Your game can require moving it around. Or tilting it. Or both. Or more. You can swing it, you can tilt it, you can point with it. Pointing is easy, is it not? There really is so much potential here and I think that from the playable tech demo impressions Nintendo knows what they are doing and are making it as easy to control as is possible unlike devices of the past…

I guess it’s also worth a mention that what is shown is not the absolute final design so perhaps we’ll see the addition of a button or two or whatever other change to the better…