Revolution Controller PICTURES!

[Jeff]

http://cube.ign.com/articles/651/651320p1.html

Coming ASAP.

NOTE: THEY STOLE MY IDEA!




A FOOKINGMAZING!

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

o my god the page is taking forever to load the suspense is killing me

[Jeff]

This is going to be copulate amazing...

# Revolution controller looks like futuristic television remote.
# Glossy white design.
# Looks Apple iPod inspired.
# Controller is held in one hand. Attachments in the other.
# Attachments connect to the bottom of the controller. Iwata shows analog stick attachment.
# Thinking about packing Revolution with the main controller and attachment, Iwata says.
# Controller acts like a mouse in real-space 3D. Pefect for FPS games!
# Future attachments planned.

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

meh not to excited about the one hand thing

but it loaded and i wish they had pics god i cant wait for the rev

[Jeff]

Just put up first pic.

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

there is a pic when your in the GC pages too i saw and all i can say is nintendo can do better i mean meh is all i have to say maybe i will cram it int a GC controllor somehow

[Jeff]

I think its the best.

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

i dont see how it can make it easier to play the games i think it may make it more difficult but i think i will probly change my mind by the time the rev comes out and end up agreeing with you

[Motoman]

Um .... me no really like..... How the hell are you going to play n64 games and SNES games with 4 buttons. More importantly, how the hell are you gonna play next gen games with 4 buttond!!!!

BTW so the revolution basically looks like a DVD player/TV functions as a DVD player/TV and has a remote like a DVD player/TV......[/b]

[MilkMonster]

well happy birthday to me, best present ever getting to finally see the rev's controller.(yes it really is my birthday)

[Jeff]

Expansion port maybe?

[Reaperman@home]

can't stop laughing...
I suppost the first revolution "mod" will be an adapter for the Gamecube controller...

It looks like the remote off of one of those heated massager chairs.

[Triton]

the onle line that i cant quite figure out is "Controller acts like a mouse in real-space 3D" what the HELL is that supposed to mean?

[Turbo Tax 1.0]

i know look if you turn it on its side its like a NES controllor that might be it i could play NES games with that and that may also be the reason for 2 A buttons

and i bet there will be specialty controllors or you can probly use the ports for the GC controllors for some older ports

[Jeff]

Expansions guys.

Btw.

To show off its features, Nintendo designed a series of crude gameplay demos. Since it did such a good job of helping us understand how the controller works, we'll describe them in detail in the following paragraphs. None of them ran on the Revolution graphics hardware. They were strictly to demonstrate certain features.

Demo #1: Point and Shoot
Like a laser pointer, the main controller was used to move a simple cursor on the TV screen and shoot square blocks for points. It was simple, merely colored lines in 2D, but effective. It was easy to get a feel for just how sensitive the device is -- it responded to all the movements quickly and smoothly. We did feel the need to use two hands, however, to steady it and improve accuracy, but that only lends to the idea of just how sensitive it is.

Demo #2: Fishing
Much more advanced than just a simple cursor, this revealed how the controller can navigate a 3D space, moving an object on the TV screen not only left, right, up, and down, but also forward and backwards with depth. Users simply use the hand cursor on the screen to pick up a fishing pole and dip its line into a pond full of fish. Like nearly all of the demos, this was very crude, so don't go imaging even fishing on the Ocarina of Time level -- this was like a coloring book with flat fish in the water. The visual medium wasn't the point, though. It was pretty intuitive to just reach forward with our virtual hand, pick up the rod, and then dip the hook into the pond and dangle it there. When a fish finally bit, the remote rumbled, which was the cue to tug back on the controller to catch it. As it was only a prototype controller, it was wired because rumble was not in the wireless versions yet.

Demo #3: Shock Stick
Like the first, this was to show how you can point and move something. It was a bit like the board game Operation, only instead of navigating tweezers you navigated a rotating stick through a two-dimensional cave. The skill was to keep a steady hand, collect coins, and don't hit the walls. Small springboards on the side would change the direction of the spin of the stick, which aided in creating a strategy for navigating around things.

Demo #4: Air Hockey
This blended basic pointing with something new: twisting. As you might imagine, players hit a puck back and forth by maneuvering their "hockey sticks" with the controller. The catch was that by twisting your wrist, left or right, you could angle the stick to send the puck in another direction. Twisting, in addition to hitting was actually pretty difficult in this demo. It worked to a point, but it also lacked the intuitiveness that a real table would have. It seemed mainly aimed at familiarizing us with the notion of twisting the remote to turn things.

Demo #5: Basketball
Again, this focused on laser pointer style controls. The game was to simply move a basketball around on the court, not by bouncing it, but instead dragging it by pressing the B-trigger in back of the remote to create an indent. The ball rolled into the crevice, and you could drag it towards the hoops. Then, with the A-button, you could reverse the indent, creating a hill and pop the ball upwards toward the hoop. It was a simple two-player game, but worked to show off the sensitivity of the cursor and how it was interacting with another player in the same space. Surprisingly, it was easy to keep track of where you were on the court, allowing for blocks and steals.

Demo #6: Toy Plane
Set in the watery hub of Mario Sunshine, this demonstrated that not all controls are created equal. The remote could be held like a toy airplane, fingertips support its base, which allowed the player to tilt it forwards to dip down, back to gain elevation, and twisted left or right turn. The objective was just to steer the plane through rings in the sky. Of course the first thing that came to mind was Pilotwings, so it's easy to see how these simple applications of the controller could be grown into something more complex. It was pretty intuitive to pull off dips and quick turns. Miyamoto joked that you could have a controller peripheral shaped like a toy plane to really make it interesting.

Demo #7: Where's Pikachu?
One of the crudest demos, the screen displayed a flat map with many Pokemon characters crowded together on it. It was a spoof on Where's Waldo, the famous find-the-needle-in-the-haystack illustrated book. The controller lent the ability to look left and right by just pointing the cursor across the map, but also zooming in by moving towards the screen (or zooming back out by moving away). One can imagine how a sniper rifle in a first-person shooter might take advantage of those kinds of controls.

Demo 8: First Person Shooting
So, we lied -- not all of the demonstrations were completely crude graphics. For the final demo, the one that most represented how a game might feel with the Revolution controller, Nintendo displayed what was apparently a test by the team at Retro Studios for what they could do with Metroid Prime 3. They stressed it was just a test, quickly thrown together in just a few weeks. For this, the analog control stick peripheral was used. We held it in our left hand to control the forwards, backwards, and side-strafing motions, as well as having access to triggers in back for scanning; meanwhile, the right hand used the main Revolution remote control to behave just like a mouse on a personal computer. It was a very natural application and felt pretty smooth, but since it wasn't a polished game it did feel a bit awkward at times, making us wonder what kind of things a developer could do to calibrate these kinds of controls for users. Nonetheless, the potential is huge for the FPS genre.

A Bold Move
This concluded the demonstrations. At which point a mix of excitement and confusion set in. This is a bold step for Nintendo. It will seemingly exclude the Revolution from a lot of third-party release. They'll all have to be tweaked if they hope to work well at all. So, this creates a rather large uphill battle for supporting the system with a consistent flow of content. However, the exciting part is that most games that are actually made for Revolution will be very unique and that's what Nintendo is aiming for. Unfortunately, as the DS has proven, unique doesn't always equal better gameplay. Nintendo will have a lot to prove when it finally chooses to reveal real, polished software that's supposed to represent how Revolution will play. That is going to be the crux of Revolution entirely, because without a consistently fluid experience, this could also easily be a flash in the pan or something altogether frustrating. We have to wonder how it might be holding your arm in the air for an hour or more, and if that will cause any frustration.

On the flipside, though, the demos set our minds abuzz. It's easy to imagine why Nintendo is so heavily invested in the idea. There is such great potential to do so many unique things. Playing a real-time strategy game like Starcraft would be extremely fluid and intuitive. Mario Party, we're sure you can guess, will finally be a completely new experience. What of Zelda or Mario? No word yet, but imagine swinging your sword in Zelda instead of pressing buttons. Or, in Mario, imagine having to grab blocks and build platforms. Also, since the controller flips on its side to work very much like a NES pad, it would be interesting to mix up gameplay and throw in an old-school challenge.

This doesn't even explore the possibility of accessories. Nintendo wasn't making any announcement, but as an example Miyamoto commented you could hook it up to bongo drums or something else. Everyone agreed a Samba de Amigo would be perfect as well, to which Miyamoto-san confirmed, "Mr. Naka [at Sega] really likes this controller." What if you could use two controllers at once for Fight Night or a new Punch Out? How about if Namco release a gun peripheral for a new Time Crisis, where you moved with the left analog and lifted, aimed, and reloaded your gun as if it was real? The list could go on and on, but we're sure you're already starting to gather your own ideas.

Finally, you'll want to take some time to examine the main remote. We got to handle this prototype, which Nintendo says is pretty close to the final design. It feels very comfortable and, as you can see, looks sleek too. Nintendo was unwilling to comment on what the "Home" button does, but it's likely a place to manage classic games you've downloaded, online games, and hopefully much more. Also, if you're wondering, there's no set limit on the distance one can use the remote yet, but Nintendo has tested it on up to 80"-100" screens and says it works fantastically. It can be used on tubes, LCDs, plasma, projection or any kind of screen because the sensor is connected like a flat antenna under the display. They are still working on the details of what kinds of options users will have for placement. So, there's also no reason HDTV wouldn't work with this technology -- here's hoping Nintendo decides to support it in the final system.

It's all about real games, though. Nintendo itself has always said that it's the software that's most important. We'll take the optimistic side and assume that Nintendo has really nailed the technology. If it has, playing Revolution should be unlike anything else out there. Mario will never be the same. But it's going to be up to these real games -- like Super Smash Bros. -- to prove why this is a revolutionary step and not just a way of being different. At the very least, starting right now, the development community is going to have a lot to think about. Whatever games are on Revolution, are basically guaranteed to provide a totally different experience. And for that, we're beaming with anticipation.