Yes, you heard correctly, Nintendo showed off Revolution's Controller earlier this evening, or morning for those in Japan!

Mr. Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo's Key Speech at TGS 2005 (Tokyo Game Show 2005)
Warning: it is 47:17 minutes long so make sure you've got at least that much time to give to it. Though it lets to move back to a certain place so if you can't that's ok too.

Revolution Controller at a glance
Revolution Teaser Video
Hands on the Revolution Controller
Revolution Controller: The Possiblities
Iwata's Keynote
Roundtable: Edtior Comments on the Controller
Revolution Developer Comments
Revolution Branding Gone

It's much much different then I ever thought of. It turns out I'm just as set in my way of thinking as Microsoft and Sony are. There is a lot of speculation on how practical this will be for Nintendo but it doesn't really matter since Nintendo is still keeping their support for GameCube and Revolution has controller and Memcard ports on it so if all else fails it'll be a GameCube that went on a diet and ate a DVD Player. (Thank my buddy Ryan for that one ^_^) Though I'll also beable to play older NES, SNES, and N64 games so it almost like it ate the previous systems too!

It's pretty intersting though, since the system will beable to detect where "The Pointer" is so it adds a new depth to gaming, not quite Holo Technology but certainly a step towards it. Speaking of graphics, people say that the lack of HD support is a stupid move on Nintendo's part, which maybe people will be less inclined to buy the system because of that, but then again if those people are only looking for graphics Revolution isn't for them in the first place.

Revolution is about inovations in the way we play games, not a holo-deck like in Star Trek but a step towards it since you'll beable to move with much more freedom then with a normal controller like X-Box, Play Station, and even GameCube. I'm sure a lot of you move the controller around 'hoping' that you'll move faster if you move it in the direction you want, I know I do. With Revolution doing that will actually cause something to happen!

Taking things into the FPS (First Person Shooter, eg. Halo) relm, Retro Studio's did demo Metroid Prime 2: Echos with the controller, though they whipped it up in just a couple of weeks so it was far from perfect. Basicly you move forwards, backwards, and strafe left and right with "The Pod" and point in the direction you want Samus to face. This could bring a whole new level of precision to FPSs on consoles, especialy if Nintendo gets things right with how sensative the controller is. One problem I'm not sure how they'll tackle is moving the view since no matter how far out you move the Pointer if you move it back to the center you'll still be facing where you started. I have faith they'll get that perfected though, after all it is Nintendo we're talking about and they have a history of high quality stuff.

Think about GameBoy with me for a second. There is one main reason it was better than every other handheld console at the time even though it was still black and green and many of the others were color. That reason is battery life, well that and it had Tetris, but you could play for far longer than all of the other handheld consoles. Nintendo maybe not have been top notch graphicaly but they new what would be the best in the long run. They never tried to sacrifice qaulity for technology and the same rings true today.

Looking at the DS, in my opinion it's better than Sony's PSP, and not just because I hate Sony. Battery life is again an issue, on the minimum settings the PSP has about 6 hours of juice in it while the DS under normal conditions has roughly 15 hours (I've tested this) on a full charge. The drain rate does increase signifcantly if you use the wireless feature but it' still got many hours of gameplay in it. Now true, graphicaly the DS isn't on par with the PSP but it's got inovation with the touch screen to back it up.

Now lets look at Revolution, keep thinking graphicaly for me please. They've opted out of adding HD support to their latest console, but look at their history with something inovative like the GamyBoy, it was one of the first handhelds out there and it thrived with it's low quality graphics. I feel the same thing is going to happen for Revolution, in a sense, it may not beable to show you the pimple on that guys face over there, or the tiny cracks on a stone pillar, but if the games on Revolution are more fun to play because they're new I'd rather play something fun and new yet lower on graphical power then something old yet graphicaly intensive.

Overall after reading up about it I'm rather excited about the potentals Nintendo has created for the game world. Maybe it'll flop but maybe it'll create a gaming Revolution like the name suggests. If it does what the XBox 360 claimed to do, "Turn the gaming world 360 degrees." then maybe Microsoft and Sony will adopt features similar and create another competition pushing the idea ever forward.

One thig is for sure though, I'll have one and I'll be along for the ride where ever Nintendo takes us. Why? Because I believe in Nintendo, I trust them not to lead us into a hole in the ground and leave us (though I'd blindly follow even if they did!). I know there's a bunch of topics I totaly left out but I wanted to get the information out to you and my thoughts on it. I may write some more in-depth "reviews" about the many different facets of the doors Nintendo is opening, but untill then I'll leave you to drool. Chao!

Your brother in Nintendo-dom,
Patrick, a.k.a. Pakattack1*1, a.k.a. Hawk McKain.