Nintendo has revealed the controller for its upcoming Revolution console. It’s different. It’s one-handed. It has sensors that detect its position and orientation.

…you could slash an in-game sword by actually swinging the controller from side to side, turn a race car just by twisting your wrist, or aim your gun in a shooter by pointing the controller where you want to fire.

I like the idea that the new features (i.e. sensors) can allow game design to go in new directions, but I’m not sure the new directions are going to be all that desirable/revolutionary. It’s not like other sensor-based gaming input devices (like the eye-toy) have taken off and revolutionized game design, have they?

I don’t like the fact that they’ve reduced the number of buttons even further, even though with this one-handed design you can only use one thumb on them anyway. Plus, you may think this is an exagerration, but I actually think that using only one hand to control the game will make it a much less immersive experience.

I feel like once again Nintendo is panicking, unable to compete with XBOX and PlayStation on the same grounds of sheer power. Instead they are resorting to gimmicks like they did on the DS. The DS is a handheld gaming device with two screens, the bottom one of which is touch sensitive (hey, I write for non-gamers, ok?). Problem is, it’s really hard to design a game that takes advantage of the two screens, because you can really only look at one at a time. Sure, you can put a map or HUD elements (like points and meters) on the second screen, but this doesn’t exactly add much to the gameplay, does it? As for the touchscreen, well… you can’t touch it AND use the buttons to control the game at the same time.

No, I’m not sure this will fly… In fact, it’s only when I ask myself, “well, what do you do with your other hand?” that new ideas for game design come to mind.