Revolution’s “revolutionary” controller

So, Nintendo has released details and pictures of their revolutionary controller for their next-gen console at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. There’s been masses of mockups and rumours, ranging from tilt controlling controllers to some absolutely absurd ideas courtesy of HowStuffWorks. Well, now its here. And it looks like an iPod-inspired remote control. Seriously, what the hell?

Have you ever tried playing those crummy little games on the digital television sets? If it’s going to be anything like that, it’s going to suck. The control also comes with a small expansion socket, where a second controller can be attached that includes a swivelly control stick. In a sense, this would make the more convential games still playable, but its mighty bizarre. There are some more pics on 1up’s article which show every side of the controller.

My thoughts? Well, to be honest, I’m still confused. But perhaps I’m too stuck with the more convential ideas. Nintendo certainly did say they were doing something outright “different” and they wouldn’t be following the pack (ie, Sony and Microsoft) in the next-generation console race, and they certainly are right. Whether its going to be a good thing is yet to be seen. At the conference at the TGS, Nintendo showed off how the controller works with “crude” demos, but I’m going to wait until we can see how it performs with games before I can make any comments.

Pretty much every popular gaming news source has already covered this news, so looking for professional opinions is easy. You might even want to check Google’s latest venture, the new Blog Search service, for “revolution controllers“.

Games blog Kotaku has posted a roundup of the impressions on the Revolution controller on their blog linking to some of the bigger gaming sites reporting on the news. IGN has created a mockup over on their site on how a “shell” controller might look like to enable more traditional gamers feel much more at home. Of course, it’s completely unofficial, but it gives you an idea of what Nintendo might be planning.