The Nintendo Revolution Controller

I don't see why everyone hates this new Nintendo controller. It must be a similar phenomenon to people hating the automobile during the time of transportation by horse.

The second wrongest gaming quote this year was "Everyone loves Marvel Nemesis, it's getting a huge response here at E3. In fact, not one person has said anything negative about it." That was said by an EA representitive right in front of me at E3. I have actually never heard one single person say anything good about it.

But the #1 wrongest gaming quote of the year is "The Nintendo Revolution controller is too limiting." Let's think about that. A normal console controller offers you either 2 degrees of freedom (on the left analog stick) plus several buttons, or 4 degrees of freedom (both analog sticks) plus just a few buttons. Up/down is one degree of freedom and left/right is another. Both of these options are very limiting, and I have been constrained by them for years and years, and I'm tired of it.

Your hand naturally has 6 degrees of freedom: translation along the x,y,and z axes, as well as pitch, roll, and yaw. The Nintendo controller (held in one hand) has the first 3for sure, and it appears to have 2 of the last 3 also (I think you can rotate it along it's long axis as well as twist it left/rigth). So it probably has 5 degrees of freedom with just ONE hand. That's more than your grandmother's dual analog could muster in two hands. You also have access to 2 buttons during all this. Furthermore, you can use another one of these things in the other hand for a total of 10 degrees of freedom and 4 buttons. Or, you could use one controller in one hand and the analog stick in the other, for a total of 7 degrees of freedom and 4 buttons.

No matter how you slice it, this input device allows a whole universe of games that could not otherwise exist. Not only that, but many existing genres will be improved by it. Real-time strategy games on a console are damn hard to design control-wise. Pikmin is the best example. Imagine how easy it would be if you could move your one-handed controller around to select units and point them where to go. Use gestures on the other controller (and/or buttons) to build units. Or think about a squad-based fps. Tap your solder on the shoulder with a gesture, then point him where to go. Or a fishing game, or a surgery game, or musical game, etc, etc. There is so much you can do with this thing that I wouldn't even know where to start.

And the real killer is that there will also be an enclosure that's a more traditional console controller with this new controller inside it. It would be like using a PS2 contoller that also had 5 additional degrees of freedom (you can still move the controller around or rotate or twist it). It's stricly superior to the PS2 controller in that regard.

Is change that frightening to everyone that they just instantly reject this thing? Nintendo was the first console with an analog stick. It was the first with vibration. It was the first to ship a first-party wireless controller. And this is a new first.

Just one last question. Do you *really* think that in 12 years when you're playing your PS5 that the only input options it will have will be dual analog sticks and some buttons? Do you really think that's the future? Or, more likely, will your kids look at your dusty PS2 controller and wonder how their dads had any fun at all on such antiquated equipment?

--Sirlin

Evolution tournament experiences

I'm about a month late in reporting this, but better late than never. This year's Evolution tournament was in Las Vegas, and it was great. I entered the Super Turbo Street Fighter 2 tournament and the Guilty Gear XX #Reload tournament (aka ST and ggxx).

I know it's bold to say this, but going in the ST tournament I knew I had an actual shot at winning the whole thing. I have it within me to beat everyone there and I have beaten all the big names before in tournaments, it's just a matter of doing it this time. I finished first in my qualifying pool, and this included a match against the Japanese player Mester. He plays Vega (claw) and finished in top 8 before at Evolution. I told Kuni (my friend, another Japanese player) that I would play Bison against Mester even though I was playing Vega the whole tournament. Kuni said "to counter Mester's Vega?" I said "Well, this is America." Kuni nodded, understanding. (In the US, we often pick counter characters but in Japan players devote themselves to a single character.) Anyway, I completely smoked Mester and beat him 4-0 in rounds. I know that match very well and Mester didn't seem to know it at all.

I watched a very good Balrog (boxer) play another good Balrog and I would play the winner. I whispered to Kuni that I was considering playing Honda for this match. Kuni was surprised, saying "You play Honda?" I nodded. He has been my secret weapon for years. Kuni said "It can work." The better Balrog player won the mirror match, then I stepped up with my Honda. Using some "old man techniques" I won the match. My next opponent was two-time US national champion Jason Cole. I've beat him before, it was just a matter of doing it now. We did double blind select and to Cole's great surprise, I picked Honda. Cole picked his main character, Dhalsim. I beat him the first game and this put him in a very bad position. If he switched to Guile to beat me, I would easily beat his Guile with my Vega (claw) and win the match. Cole considered this for a while, then decided to stick with Dhalsim for game 2. It was a good choice because he barely won it. He also barely won game 3 and the match. Close, but the win went to Cole. He had better knowledge of that match than me, so I have no gripes about the loss. In fact, I learned a few things from it.

As an aside, I'd like to point out that I went to another player for advice before the tournament. I call him "The Ancient One," because he has secret knowledge of the ages about ST that exceeds even my own. (His actual name is James Romedy.) I asked The Ancient One, "If I have to play against a Honda player, who should I pick?" Romedy scoffed, saying that there could be no such player. Only Bob Painter plays honda of any US players there, and no Japanese players at the tournament played Honda. I asked him to answer anyway. He said "Is the theoretical player better or worse than Bob Painter?" I said "Assume worse." He said in that case I should pick Bison. The match is *hugely* in Honda's favor, but I can...rely on a certain tactic to beat any non-expert Honda. I said, "Fine, but what if he's better than Bob?" The Ancient One said "Then you should either play DJ(!?) or possibly tough it out with Vega, just don't get behind in life."

The reason I asked him any of this is that I feared losing to Honda more than almost anything in the entire tournament, including playing people like Cole or Choi or whatever. Romedy made a good point when he said that there could be no such Honda player though. So who was my next opponent? A random Honda player that no one had ever seen. I took the wise advice of The Ancient One and picked Bison and did my stuff. The Honda endured. Hmm....he seemed much better than a random scrubby honda. I could play DJ, but it seemed like too ridiculous a move. At this point, I did the losing move of the match: I hovered my character select box on Ryu but did NOT pick him. Instead, I picked Vega. I figured I could tough it out in that silly match, but Vega cannot come back from being behind. I got behind, I lost. Smoked by a random Honda out of no where. My worst nightmare realized. Why didn't I just pick Ryu to counter? That was a really bad loss. I know everyone talks about "would have, could have, should have," but I really think the tournament results would have been a lot different if I could have just avoided that one player. I'll have to actually be able to beat Honda next year. (That guy made top 8, btw.)

In ggxx, I got a few wins and finishied first in my qualifying pool, but I eventually lost to two solid players. One was Alex from Texas who plays Slayer. He absolutely smoked me at Texas Showdown 5, and he did very well against me this time as well. I missed a guaranteed sweep that would have won me a round, but perhaps the overall match result would have been the same. I picked Potemkin against him in game 1 for the character advantage (Alex is a known Slayer player) but he destroyed me so bad that I ran back to my main character, Chipp.

My other ggxx loss was to ID. He's one of the best ggxx players in the US and he beat me fair and square. I have no gripes, and in fact the very first thought that entered my mind when he beat me was "I really have to never play Chipp again if I actually want to win at this game." I had prepared a little bit with Faust, but I was not confident enough to actually play Faust against ID or Alex. Next time maybe, if anyone ever practices with me.

That's all for now.

--Sirlin