Control Freaks: #4 - Gametrak

While I've been trying to keep it retro for this series, there's one recent innovation in the control world that deserves recognition. Demoed at the Gamestars Live event in November 2003, released in October 2004 and finally killed in 2006 it was the perfect example of right product, wrong time. Welcome to Control Freaks.

Episode 4 - The Gametrak


Real World Golf, still the best motion controlled golf game.

The Gametrak launched at the wrong price and failed to gather support as it slowly inched towards the grave. A new version entitled Gametrak Freedom is rumoured to be in development but with the Wii currently eating all the motion control pie I think its impossible for a device like that to be successful now. At the time however it had the potential to be great, but middling reviews and a high price point kept the Gametrak from any kind of success. There is an upside though, the device can now be found quite easily for quite cheap so if you have a PS2 I highly recommend hitting up ebay and getting one. As a 6th generation peripheral it was derided but it did its job well and if it had been successful could've stopped this generation developing the way it has. In my mind that makes it unique among batshit insane devices, it also makes it a worthy Control Freak.

>NJ