CrashText

Every once in a while, a company out there will surprise me. Instead of going for the tried and true formulas, they try something new. It is rare – but sometimes you do see something new under the sun.

I know, I know. The preacher would think me vain for saying so. But the preacher never played Nintendo.

You see, Nintendo revealed the new control pads for their currently-in-development game system, Revolution. Take a look at the pictures below or this movie and check it out for yourself.

Where as every other games system on the planet has always used a standard D-pad or Thumb-stick on the left, buttons on the right layout, the Revolution controller is completely different. It looks like a remote control. But it can sense when you move or tilt it and will react accordingly. So no more pushing buttons to swing that bat or wield that sword. Go ahead and swing, Baby. Swing!

So while there is danger for Nintendo in creating such a non-standard component (because it will make development harder for cross-platform titles who made just decide to skip the effort), I think it is great. It is refreshing to see someone in the game industry who remembers what it means to play.

The same can be said for the current generation of handhelds; while Sony’s PSP has bigger numbers (in sales and raw computing power), the Nintendo DS introduces the concept of using a stylus and motion sensitivity to games.

So way to go Nintendo! Keep the imagination flowing. Don’t try to differentiate by increasing the pixels per inch or microprocessor speed. Innovate to differentiate. (That rhymes, so it must be true.)