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Nintendo Revolution Rumours Emerge
In more next-gen console news, ComputerandVideoGames.com has rumourmongering info on the new Nintendo console. Interesting bits like gyroscope sensing controllers and an online service make for intriguing ideas, but no details yet on what's going to make this console a revolution. From the article: "And what's revolutionary about Revolution? The inside source claims that talking about that "would get him into too much trouble" ... He is quoted as saying: "if you think too hard you'll never guess what it is. It's nothing 'new', technically speaking. It's just something that hasn't really been applied to videogames yet."
thumb trackball.
kind of a d-pad + the analog control into one...
just a thought.
One of the rumors mentioned in the article:
Motion and tilt-sensing gyroscopes will be used in the controllers.
Great! Why don't we go and encourage those annoying people who love to swing their controller around even though it makes no difference. Well now it will! I wonder how this would be incorporated into a fighting game...
Actually, just thinking about doing a barrel roll in a flying game makes me want to try this out, silly a feature as it seems.
why? forty-two.
Perhaps Nintendo will decide that in order to gain back market share it needs a revolution in the type of games they release.
The latest Nintendo console was fun to play on, but even given the cheap price I could find very little software that I wanted to buy. Everything halfway decent that got offered was either first-party mascots or available on another console. To me, this is really the way Nintendo needs to revolutionize itself.
Another spurt of speculation about Nintendo's next-gen console splashes onto the net. Full details and stunningly predictable Nintendo response inside
10:47 A fat bundle of Nintendo Revolution speculation has belly-flopped onto the internet, causing fansites across the world to spontaneously combust with excitement.
According to hazy and totally unofficial reports, Nintendo's next-gen console will come broadband-enabled with an online service in the works, feature a hard drive, use controllers fitted with tilt-sensing gyroscopes, allow connectivity with the next-gen GameBoy, and play host to new Mario, Zelda and Super Smash Bros. games. The 'revolutionary' aspect of Revolution is also hinted at - "if you think too hard you'll never guess what it is."
The sketchy information - which we were sent direct last week and have been investigating - originally surfaced on a gaming forum, with the poster quoting an inside source. To be fair to the bloke who broke these rumours, he did preface his speculation with the assertion that his source had been wrong as well as correct in the past, and estimated there was a "65% chance" of the accuracy of these claims.
Here's the rundown of the alleged Revolution information:
- Motion and tilt-sensing gyroscopes will be used in the controllers. They will not come wireless as standard but the Revolution will have four pad ports like GameCube.
- The console will be powered by twin processors and will feature an internal hard drive. Games will come on HD-DVD format discs rather than Sony's Blu-Ray format.
- Broadband online gaming will be available out of the box via Nintendo's own service, which is currently "in development" and will be rolled out first on DS.
- The Revolution will not feature connectivity with the DS but will link up to Nintendo's next-gen GameBoy.
- Work has already begun on new Mario, Zelda and Super Smash Bros. titles, all of which are to be available at launch.
And what's revolutionary about Revolution? The inside source claims that talking about that "would get him into too much trouble" (whereas the rest of this stuff will presumably get him a pat on the back). He is quoted as saying: "if you think too hard you'll never guess what it is. It's nothing 'new', technically speaking. It's just something that hasn't really been applied to videogames yet."He then signed off in deliciously enigmatic fashion with, "Touching is good but feeling is better."
Force feedback gloves? Electrodes attached to dangly parts of your anatomy? A force feedback full body glove made out of lycra? It's a proper riddle - answers on a postcard, or even better, in the forums below.
And it's a riddle Nintendo itself unsurprisingly doesn't have much to say about. When we contacted our spokesperson we were told: "Nintendo does not comment on rumour and speculation."
So what are we to make of this? The information itself does seem fairly informed and - in stark contrast to a lot of rumours that spark on the 'net - relatively sane. It doesn't instantly smack of the deranged ramblings of a semi-illiterate monkey.
But it also has that air of calculated vagueness and educated guesswork that at once lends it credibility and damages that same credibility. Are any of the alleged 'facts' offered about Revolution really anything that anyone with a little bit of knowledge about Nintendo itself and the games industry in general couldn't have come up with?
Not to worry - it looks increasingly likely that Nintendo is gearing up to unleash the Revolution at E3 in May. We'll know the answers for sure then, and as soon as we know, you'll know.
Well, this may be hit or miss. Nintendo's "innovations" have either been huge successes or horrible failures. Some of these innovations include:
My bet is on something with voice-recognition, and I hope that it is a success. If it is voice-recognition, I hope they don't overuse it, like they have overused the rumble feature of controllers.
Note to self: Stop putting jokes in my insightful comments so I can get something other than +1 Funny!
Hasn't this already been proven by games like Rez and sites like GGA? :D
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Here's what my imagination "predicts" about the revolution.
Revolution = wireless DS hub + broadband ethernet.
16 people with DSes sit around a revolution in one city and play on a team against 16 people sitting around a revolution with DSes in another city. a 16vs16 person game where everyone has two screens and a controller. Also the revolution hooks up to a tv to provide the "big screen" for the whole team to see.
And that's taking it to the extreme. If you just keep it simple with something like internet enabled smash brothers with a new innovative control scheme you've already struck gold.
Nintendo is making the video game hardware that is truly revolutionary by innovating the game interface. They started by inventing the first real gamepad (the plus) and now the're taking it a step further. The only problem is that they do not make software that takes full advantage of the potential of the platform. And the quantity of software that takes advantage is not enough. I think it is because they are very protective of their dev kits, unlike Sony and MS who are very open in this area.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I think the most interesting tidbit in this rumor is that the Revolution may actually come with a built in hard drive! Sony's already said they're not going to have one, and Xbox 2 is still iffy on it. I think the hard drive was the best feature of the Xbox and I'm very glad to see Nintendo having one too (if it's true).
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Meanwhile, if we look at what we actually know, this set of rumors has two small details that don't seem that they could be true. So putting aside "sources", here's what we can predict about the stuff in this article based on what Nintendo's actually said and done:
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
have you ever PLAYED a Mario or Zelda game? They're fun and know no age.
sure there is a lot of potential unoriginality in tried and true game franchises, but there are also guaranteed results, and in the case of Zelda and Mario, the results are ALWAYS great.
I see the fact that they'll have Mario and Zelda titles on release to be a very good thing. Mario and Zelda are part of what make Nintendo consoles great.
There are lots and lots of titles on XBox and PS2, but 99/100 of those suck. in fact the only good games for xbox are halo and halo 2. If xbox didn't have Halo it wouldn't have anything. A more powerful graphics processor does not make a good game console on its own. A networked crappy game is still a crappy game.
I know maybe 8 people with Xboxes, and all of them have modded their box to play MAME and NES/SNES games. They rarely use their XBoxes for XBox games, and two of those eight people sold all their xbox games because they were never played.
Games make the console. Nintendo has them, more good fun games than any other game company to this day.
If we're going by the "Touching is good but feeling is better." hint my guess is that it's some sort of tactile force feedback in the controller. Or at least that's my hope. While force feedback can be fun(see Metal Gear Solid for one it's best uses) most games use it for just another effect when your character gets damaged or something basic like that.
I remember reading about these tactile feedback control in video games a few years back. They had motors in the controller that responded to what was going on in the game. For example, if you had a character walking up a hill the controller stick would respond back by pushing in the opposite direction so that you could feel how tough it was going on up the hill. The only big drawback was that I imagine controllers like that were pretty expensive.
I can't imagine the price being much cheaper now but if there's anyone I would expect to try it out in their controllers(even if it's on a really basic level) it would be Nintendo. With the exception of the Gamecube(and some of their portables) they have tried to put something new into each controller design. NES d-pad, SNES shoulder buttons, N64 analog stick, etc. Even if this all speculation, if Nintendo doesn't try this for their next-gen system someone else should.
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
Xbox has about as many decent games as PS2 and Nintendo, they're all about equal. Just Xbox and PS2 crappy game:good game ratio is a bit higher than the Gamecube.
PS2 comes out with the new GTA's first, Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, etc.
Xbox is still new and trying to find their niche. But in the meantime you have Halo, Halo 2, KOTOR, Fable, Ninja Gaiden and they currently have the BEST online console on the market with XBox Live.
Nintendo has Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and now Resident Evil. All are pure classics and make for FUN games.
Violence doesn't neccessarily make a game fun. Heck, look at all of us who played Tetris for hours and hours. Currently I own all 3 systems and play them all equally, they're all good in their own regards.
Call me jaded, but I just don't believe the Revolution is going to have anything that's going to knock our socks off. That said, here's something that might make things interesting.
How about a MMO game that makes use of GPS enabled DS units interacting via hot spots with online Revolution home players. This would be a game that makes use of the whole Earth as its play space. Perhaps Revolution units themselves would be the hot spots. If the Revolutions have hard drives, each one could store some of the game data describing its locale in the game world.
I think there's a Gizmondo game coming up that moves in this direction. But if Revolution consoles are themselves access nodes to the game for mobile units, that would be different. Games that break down the barriers between the game world and the real world would be truly revolutionary, or subversive, depending on your point of view.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Nah - he's just another one who would only admit to liking Zelda if it were full of profanity and sex. It's just not cool otherwise.