Revolution Controller Blowout!

IGN has the video presentation.
thoughts from nintendo power writer Steve Thomason
and of course, The Powet forum

While the world is still collectively reeling from this and everyone has blogged their opinion, I’ll toss in mine as well.

It is quite obvious to me that Nintendo has given up the battle with Sony and Microsoft. They cannot win playing by the rules that they themselves established 20 years ago. They went back to the drawing board and released the DS, which is literally a drawing board. It took some time to take off and start to find its niche, and it looks like great and inventive games are out or coming out soon for the DS. They’re truly making the PSP look like just a portable video player or just a portable playstation.

So now theres their new console, which they’re losing ground to the imperially established Sony and the increasingly aggressive Microsoft. They took a look at the competition and realized that if they couldn’t beat them they could at least shake up their own future enough so that they don’t even appear to be in competition anymore.

And thats whats happened. Nintendo is out of the race and in a class by themselves now. Third Party support for the gamecube was dwindling because the cube wasn’t capable of anything the PS2 or Xbox was. So now they have a console and a portable that make direct ports to other systems impossible! And, any game ported over from another system will have to be heavily reworked to make use of unique control schemes. This is it! Back to the days of the NES and Gameboy where the entire lineup is exclusive.

Weird control configurations are now standard in Arcades now. Sure, Tekken 5 is munching quarters without having anything original in control (hell you can plug a PS2 controller into the cabinet to use instead of the stick!), but the rest of the arcade is sit down racers, gun games, and dance games. And skee ball. But all of those offer control and experience unavailable on a home system (home racing wheels and guns are never as good anyway, and standard dance mats are considered a joke). Its that “I can’t play this at home” thing that keeps arcades open now, and Nintendo is going for an audience that will quickly realize that “hey, this game is not possible on Xbox 360 or PS3!”

Of course we still haven’t seen a Revolution game. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed this controller wasn’t premeired with a new Mario or something. And thats the only thing that can prove the concept. Possibilities are endless, but I remember how Mario 64 proved the analog stick to be a great idea. Revolution still has a chance to prove to the haters who say Nintendo has lost their minds as well as satisfy those who have been smoking the company dope for years. And if Nintendo has their way, they’ll also get people who’ve never gone into gaming before.