During the unveiling of the Nintendo Revolution controller at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo displayed a number of fairly limited demos that showed the possible uses of the technology. They showed journalists demos that allowed you to cast a fishing line by pulling the controller back over your head and casting as you would with a real rod, and a ball game that allowed you to steer a basketball with the pointer by creating a path for it to roll. While this spiked interest, they didn't show us any concrete ways this was going to impact games. How will the Nintendo Revolution change Zelda, Metroid, or Mario? What are the real possibilities behind the Revolution's controller?
Dual Wielding:
When I first saw the video Nintendo showed off at TGS 2005, I was not very impressed. It looked to much like a remote, too little like a useable controller with face buttons and functionality. I didn't really become excited about the system until I thought of the same thing that thousands of Halo 2 players already know by heart: dual wielding kicks ass. Having one controller that detects its own location in 3D space is one thing, but there's no reason that a second controller with similar capabilities couldn't be used at the same time. Or a third or fourth, for that matter, except that it would get expensive owning so many controllers to play a single player game. If a publisher can make a game that allows two players to control different elements on the screen, there's no reason that the same couldn't be implemented on the Revolution for one person. Normally that would be too complex, but humans are much better at moving their hands independently, the way the Revolution let's you play, than we are at battling with analog sticks. The thought opened a number of personalities:
- A little light in the dark:
Nintendo has failed to show people anything yet that universally wins over players - for the most part, people are reserving judgement, shrugging their shoulders and sitting back to watch. For me, I fell in love with the Revolution on a single, imaginary image. Survival horror games like Resident Evil 4 and Eternal Darkness have helped push the GameCube out of its stereotyped "kid's games" role and into a more mature realm. Imagine playing such a game on the Revolution, with your character wandering down some dark deserted corridor with a lantern held high above her head. The dim light from your lantern cast shadows on the floor around you. You, in your living room, are holding the Revolution controller in your right hand, up above your head like it's the handle of the lantern. In the game, the character is holding the lantern in the same position relative to the body. As a sound comes from your left, you turn, holding the lantern in that direction. The light dances crazily as your character moves the lantern to the left side of the body, just as you did in your living room. The same concept could apply to a flashlight. Imagine playing Resident Evil, a flashlight in the left hand, controlled by a controller in the left hand, the pistol drawn and ready in the right. Include a dark room and a good surround sound system, and it suddenly becomes a real experience.
- Give me a sword and an opponent:
Another experience I long for is an online arena. The Nintendo Revolution is certainly going to be more online friendly than the current GameCube, and the Revolution controller seems to fit well into that spectrum. I want to be a gladiator, controlling a shield by raising my left hand in front of my face, and attacking with a sword in my right hand. Or twirling a ball and chain, battling some other gladiator from some ancient place like... Cleveland. Depending on how well the Revolution can detect the controller's position in 3D space, opportunities for precision control open up.
There are some potential drawbacks, though -->
