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http://gear.ign.com/articles/643/643663p1.html

First up is what we'll call the Nintenball. This entirely made up controller features gyroscopic motion sensors, using for controlling on-screen actions in an entirely analog form. It's also motion sensitive, so it'll know if you're moving it from side to side without twisting it.

The Nintenball features four buttons, three for your first three fingers and one for your thumb. A second thumb button would be located on the other side of the Nintenball, making it useful for right and left-handed gamers.





Our next controller is mostly standard in shape and design, allowing it the ability to play most any game from Nintendo's existing library. It features a large A button and smaller B button on the face, exactly as the GameCube controller has, but minus the X and Y buttons. The triggers are analog, though there are only two rather than four like the controllers that Nintendo's competitors have put together. Nintendo has said that today's controllers are too complicated, relying on too many buttons and analog sticks for input. As such, this controller only features four main buttons, A, B, L and R.

The main feature of this controller is its trackball. We figure that using a trackball for camera movement would be more intuitive for casual and non-gamers than a second analog stick, the folks that Nintendo is aiming to bring into gaming with the Revolution.

This controller's trackball and buttons also provide tactile force feedback. For example, if you were to press A to swing a sword, if you hit a brick wall the button would suddenly stop short. If you were to slice through an enemy, it might start loose and then tighten a bit when contact was made. And if you simply missed, the button would slide with ease the whole way.

Behold the Revolution 720.





Our third controller is designed to be played with only one hand, theoretically more in line with a remote control than a conventional game controller.

The Stick features a single analog stick, two action buttons and gyroscope technology. Movement could either be registered with the analog stick or via the gyroscope technology, allowing the analog stick to then be used for camera control. A first-person shooter might work quite well in the latter configuration.

The Stick is design to be ambidextrous like the Nintenball, allowing gamers who favor either hand easy and intuitive control.





These are the mock-ups of possible Revolution controllers that IGN has come up with. What do you like about them? What do you hate about them? Which one will be closest to Nintendo's final build of the controller? Which one do you like the best?

They all look nice just at this point, but I like the 720 the most just because it seems more plausible and probably closer to what Nintendo has in mind. The Stick seems just not geared to being a good controller for many genres. The Nintenball seems the coolest, but it just kind of seems a little awkward to be holding a ball.

If any of those pan-out in any way, bye-bye third party support. I hate them all.

Originally Posted by FriskyTanuki it just kind of seems a little awkward to be holding balls.

(above text edited for comic reasons)

not like u arent used to that already

I dunno, 2nd one seems most plausable, but I dont see any revolution in the controller though. An orb seems so futurisitc its like some flight of navigator shit. I mean they all look slick but I dislike the 3rd the most it just seems to difficult for gaming except for flight sims.

They stole the last one from the HORI rpg controller. The rest are poop I think. Did monkies come up with those?

Originally Posted by Noodle Pirate! They stole the last one from the HORI rpg controller. The rest are poop I think. Did monkies come up with those?

well it is ign....

They all look uncomfortable and simplistic, if the Revolution controller was anything like those, Nintendo would lose my support forever (which they are starting to lose anyway).

I agree out of those it would be the 2nd but not sure what is revolutionary about it.

If it is anything like those then Nintendo will be waiting a few years before they get my money.

I dont know... the ball would be kind of akward.. but you would get used to it. As for the joystick. Count me out. I hate them.

"Our third controller is designed to be played with only one hand, theoretically more in line with a remote control than a conventional game controller."

whats the other hand supposed to be doing...

Originally Posted by Steve Dave I agree out of those it would be the 2nd but not sure what is revolutionary about it. If it is anything like those then Nintendo will be waiting a few years before they get my money.

You're just jealous because me and Steve Dave are going to be playing naked robber tonight.

I'll have you know naked robber was one of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry's, favorite party games.

well you could be eating or drinking a soda. or if your video game skills are good enough, you could do homework or chat on the cag forums. i heard from a friend that he heard from somewhere on the net that nintendo might make a controller with a sort of touch screen that would allow the gamer to place buttons in a variety of combinations. the only problem i see with this is the pressing factor, since your fingers always rest on the keys, so they would have to also make it pressure sensitive. if they did that with a comfortable design it would be nice.

Originally Posted by tacklebox well you could be eating or drinking a soda. or if your video game skills are good enough, you could do homework or chat on the cag forums. i heard from a friend that he heard from somewhere on the net that nintendo might make a controller with a sort of touch screen that would allow the gamer to place buttons in a variety of combinations. the only problem i see with this is the pressing factor, since your fingers always rest on the keys, so they would have to also make it pressure sensitive. if they did that with a comfortable design it would be nice.

yeah i'd buy a one handed controller just so i can eat potato chips or something while i play hehe. in the past i've used chopsticks to eat chips just to keep my controller clean. some games dont need more than one hand. I played through final fantasy dawn of souls with one hand on my gba.

Some people are putting way too much thought into this controller issue. Nintendo has been de-emphasizing the controller for a while now, and they use the word "interface" much more often.

I think Iwata once even said that people are thinking too hard and wildly. Something along the lines of, "If you think too much, you might miss it."

I'm pretty confident in guessing that the controller will be very similar to the Wavebird, with 2-5 new features added. Iwata and Reggie both said that the controller will work for NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube games. So it must have at least as many buttons as the GameCube. It may even have six face buttons to work better with N64 games.

People are taking the whole "buttons and analog sticks" comment way out of context. It doesn't mean that Nintendo won't use them at all, it means that they're introducing alternate controls for people who find them too confusing. The best example is (as always when the Revolution is being discussed) the DS, with more inputs than the SNES, yet ultimately less complicated, because it uses them efficiently.

Those controllers suck! I really hope they're nothing like one of those...

I think the controller is going to be a lot slicker, like the Revolution itself.

Remember how everyone said that the touch screen on the DS wouldn't work, and how using one hand to hold the system and the other the stylus would be hard for most people?

They were wrong.

I'm thinking that the same thing could very well happen here, provided Nintendo does choose an oddball design like these.

Yeah, but the DS still has a standard SNES-style button layout for the games that don't need a touch screen. If it only had a touchscreen, it wouldn't be able to support Mario Kart, Castlevania, Sonic, Tony Hawk, New Super Mario Bros., Metroid, or many of the other games that rely mainly on "traditional" controls.

The Revolution will still need to support regular games or its game library will be pretty weak. There's no way you could play a traditional 3D Metroid or Zelda game on any of those controllers without some huge changes, which is why IGN's ideas are totally crap. There might be a few good concepts in there, but they've all been done before by non-journalists, and usually with much higher-quality renders or sketches.

These are some of the worst ideas I've ever seen. Seriously, how long did it take IGN to come up with these ideas, 30 seconds? I'd be embarrassed to be part of a site that published anything so craptastical.

I hope that the revolutionary thing isn't a trackball. That would be one of the most useless things ever let alone revolutionary.

I hope Nintendo doesn't get too 'Revolutionary', or they'll be screwed with thurd party support.

Hmm...gets me mor excited about it.

Well they've already got Sega, Ubisoft, and a couple of other third parties support already.
Who knows, maybe the revolutionary aspect of the controller can make it a positive.