Phyrfight Intel

In case you don’t follow gaming news religiouly, as I do, I’m going to bring you up to speed on how Nintendo has been pushing their next-gen platform, codenamed “Revolution.” They say that they don’t want to be part of the console war that Sony and Microsoft are in. They want to be unique and have innovative gameplay. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Innovation is great. However, one thing that Nintendo claimed to be their show-stopper at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in May, is the controller for the new system. They wouldn’t say how, nor show anyone what the controller looked like.

Well, the Tokyo Game Show is happening as this is being written and Nintendo has just revealed their “amazing” new controller.

Ta Dah!!

I’m sorry if you disagree, but I think that is the dumbest thing that I have ever seen!! Nintendo wanted a revolution, but I think they got stuck half way around and ended up going backwards. The company has successfully ruled out ANY third-party support for their console because it is just going to be too damn hard to control the games. It’s just a glorified, wireless NES controller for God’s sake!

Now to their credit, it does have certain functionality in which the player can point the controller at the screen and the game responds accordingly. In one demo the player actually turned the controller sideways and held it like a model plane, using the tilt of the controller to steer a plane on screen. But can a franchise be built off of a novelty item?

As far as I am concerned, Nintendo got what they wanted. They are nowhere near Sony and Microsoft. They’ve gone the way of Apple and created a perfectly impracticle yet expensive device that their niche consumers will eat up with a spoon while most people pass without a second thought. One IGN editor put it best when he simply stated, “I’m not playing Legend of Zelda on that.”