Unique controllers for videogames are all the rage these days now that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have shown that a game can sell profitably despite requiring them. Why stop with music games though? If a game needs a special controller for it then it should have one. Conforming to a platform's given controller is sooo last year. To hear Kenichiro Imaizmu, one of the Metal Gear Solid producers, such was the thinking of Hideo Kojima when he was first developing MGS4. The dev team tried coming up with a plethora of different ways a person could interact with the controller Imaizmu said in one of a series of videos Microsoft released showcasing developers talking about Natal.
"We tried running electric shock waves, install a pulse reader ... we also tried to build a controller that's receptive to the strength of the [player's] grip," he divulged. "We tried a lot, even a transforming controller." Given the Metal Gear series' penchant for involving the player in unique ways this isn't that far off the beaten path, but if Kojima was considering a pulse reader it makes Nintendo sound a whole bunch less crazy. Of course I think their use of the technology would have been/is completely different.
And since I rarely get to combine my love of videogames and my love and James Bond I really must add that Kojima's theoretical controller would have been shocking. Positively shocking.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
3:00 PM on 09.26.2009
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Fuck yes.
Oh well, twas a good game anyhow.
If kojima or anyone else wants to make their own specialty controllers then they better plan for the long term and plan a good list of games that will support such a thing; each of which players will play for a LONG time...
It was flat-out one of the most brilliant examples of interactive storytelling I have ever encountered.
Just think if Kojima had a mechanic other then button mashing for that sequence.
& @ Maxxthepenguin
Difference is that Nintendo said, here's the perhipheral, and people can do things with it. Kojima said, we had some good systems, that could be better with a new control option that complemented them.
"Aw, dammit!"
"What?"
"I wanted to play MGS4 but I can't find its controller."
"Uh, can't you just use any controller for that?"
"No, you see...*explains*"
"...that's really stupid. Why not have one controller for everything?"
"Innovation. ;_;"
Ran-into-ground example, but every gamer would need to have a space to store and maintain all sorts of controllers for just one game each. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people have GH/RB. Don't all of those things take up room, especially the full RB set? I'm sure plenty of games could justify having big controllers (Steel Battalion says hi). Imagine the space needed to take up 15 similar games and controllers.
I do agree, it'd be an interesting project, if an ill-fated one. I'm still sad that there's not a gun-shaped Wiimote instead of a shell add-on. It can work! And I'm sure they'd figure out how to swap around controls so it'd be easy to use like a regular remote...
POPCORN BUCKET CONTROLLER!
Ahem, anyway.
It would look like a pistol with the silencer painted to look like a cigarette.
Yes, that was your head exploding at the awesome thought of it.