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Twilight Princess Mirrored on Wii
conigs writes "As some of you may or may not know, Link will appear right-handed in the Wii version of Twilight Princess (as opposed to the left-handed Link seen since Ocarina of Time). In order to accomplish this, Nintendo has mirrored the entire game. This includes maps, since they were apparently designed with a left-handed Link in mind." Kotaku says that this will even be true in the GameCube version of Princess, to avoid confusion.
Since some people really will want to play left-handed (I'm a lefty only when writing and eating, so not me), why not just make it a configurable option?
Indeed, or even automatically switchable during game play when it detects you moving your Wiimote from one hand to another for your own little "The Princess Bride" moment.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
This is masking a more serious design problem. A game designed for use with the Wiimote should have a setting that allows the game to be played either left- or right-handed, so as to not exclude anyone. Presumably the player's actions match up to the avatar's (in this case, Link's). Therefore, it should be possible to make Link either left- or right-handed, within the game.
The fact that this isn't possible is troubling for the prospect of lefties being able to play this game the same way righties can.
If they have mirrored the entire game, then why not give an option to be either left or right handed? Surely that would be an ideal solution?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handed
You might be surprised to realize that almost everything is designed with the right hand bias. Most right handed people either don't realize that their design is nigh unwieldable for lefties, or don't want to spend the time and money redesigning for potential use in the left hand.
Nearly every gaming mouse and keyboard rig on the market assumes that you will have the mouse in your right hand, and the left will run the keyboard. This didn't become an irresolvable problem until the rise of ergonomics. Now, mice and keyboards are form molded to fit into the hand that they were designed for.
Try holding that nice Logitech bluetooth mouse in your left hand. You'll find that it's uncomfortable just sitting there. Never mind moving it around on your desk.
But that just the small stuff. Dangerous tools that could maim or even kill if mishandled are only available in right handed form. I've never seen a ambidextrous circular saw.
Ever try to find a left handed firearm?
Easily 90% of the auto loading sidearm designs have all of the controls positioned to be accessed by the thumb of the right hand. Almost every hunting rifle made by man has the bolt actuator on the right side. Revolvers are almost impossible to reload left handed.
So it is frustrating when Nintendo designs a controller that is so obviously ambidextrous, and the software developers ignore it and build everything right handed anyway.
...unless you've never played with a console controller before, it will feel more natural to use the Wiimote in the right hand, since it has the main buttons, which have ALWAYS been featured on the right side of paddle controllers. The nunchuk, held in the left, will have the control stick, just like in traditional controllers.
If you think about it, controllers have always been strangely left-handed. It's our left thumbs that do the precision controlling that is usually associated with the dominant hand, while the right hand does the button mashing more commonly associated with the subordinant hand. Joysticks and keyboards feature directional control with the right hand. Seeing that Nintendo both designed the first paddle controller and featured a left-handed Link, one wonders whether the lead design team was made up of mostly lefties at the time... not that it really made much of a difference in the long run.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
From the summary:
"As some of you may or may not know, Link will appear right-handed in the Wii version of Twilight Princess (as opposed to the left-handed Link seen since Ocarina of Time)."
From the source material:
"Link nodded silently in approval, and left the room after taking a long glance at the altar. Then with a magical sword in his left hand and a magical shield in his right, he set off alone on his long travels."
Instruction manual, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
... that's the first mention in the written text. If you look at the sprite in the first game, it's painfully obvious that link is left-handed.
The more you know!
Take care,
Mark
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