The Nintendo Revolution controller

[Jingus]

This is nothing new. Nintendo has never been afraid to go against all conventional wisdom and design a truly new and innovative product. Problem is, conventional wisdom is usually correct and these new products usually suck the salami with much gusto. Anyone remember R.O.B. the Robot, that running pad for sports games, the Power Glove, that one motion-sensor controller, and of course the Virtua Boy? All spiffy new ideas that nobody had done before. All fell on their asses.

 

As to the touchscreen, I think it's just the latest bad idea. Not only because of the reasons everyone else listed, but consider this: touchscreens are notoriously difficult to get to work correctly. Think about it: how many times have you had to struggle with one at an ATM or a self-checkout machine at a grocery store, just because the stupid thing didn't react to half your touches? Now imagine trying to play Starfox 5000 with the same interface difficulties. Controller, meet your new home: the garbage can. Nintendo, meet your new home: bankruptcy court. (Okay, they've still got Gameboy to save their financial ass, but still, how many fuckups can one company commit before it catches up?)

[Special K]

I'm thinking this has to be an April Fool's joke. Those controllers would be helluva expensive and annoying.

[Golgo 13]

I didn't even notice it was (almost) April Fool's. I hope you're right in that case, although this does go with the earlier rumor about the controller and Nintendo is just crazy enough to do it. In either case, it's not all that long until E3, and we'll probably find out the truth then.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

This is nothing new. Nintendo has never been afraid to go against all conventional wisdom and design a truly new and innovative product. Problem is, conventional wisdom is usually correct and these new products usually suck the salami with much gusto. Anyone remember R.O.B. the Robot, that running pad for sports games, the Power Glove, that one motion-sensor controller, and of course the Virtua Boy? All spiffy new ideas that nobody had done before. All fell on their asses.

 

As to the touchscreen, I think it's just the latest bad idea. Not only because of the reasons everyone else listed, but consider this: touchscreens are notoriously difficult to get to work correctly. Think about it: how many times have you had to struggle with one at an ATM or a self-checkout machine at a grocery store, just because the stupid thing didn't react to half your touches? Now imagine trying to play Starfox 5000 with the same interface difficulties. Controller, meet your new home: the garbage can. Nintendo, meet your new home: bankruptcy court. (Okay, they've still got Gameboy to save their financial ass, but still, how many fuckups can one company commit before it catches up?)

Whoa... the Power Glove sucked, but the Power Pad was awesome. Come on... Track and Field for the NES was an AMAZING game. Who didn't love to long jump a billion feet by just STEPPING OFF THE PAD and then getting on when you wanted to land? But seriously, playing it fair (no cheap jumps, running for real and not just moving your foot up and down to speed run), it was a FUN game. Olympics with six people was GREAT.

[{''({o..o})''}]

The powerpad was just too early. Either that or DDR was too late.

[BUTT]

(Okay, they've still got Gameboy to save their financial ass, but still, how many fuckups can one company commit before it catches up?)

Given that the Virtual Boy is the only system they have released which lost them money, I'd say they're doing just fine. (Yes, there is a widespread belief that N64 was a financial disaster, but it actually made Nintendo more money than Playstation did for Sony, so it wasn't exactly a failure)

[AndrewTS]

I didn't even notice it was (almost) April Fool's. I hope you're right in that case, although this does go with the earlier rumor about the controller and Nintendo is just crazy enough to do it. In either case, it's not all that long until E3, and we'll probably find out the truth then.

It was a little early for April Fools.

 

Then again, I'm under the impression that jokes should have punchlines. Some people don't follow that mindset.