Controller Idea

The design of Project Café’s controller perplexes me. Although Nintendo has not officially revealed what the controller will look like or how it will function, they have all but admitted that we’ve on the right track with a tablet-like design. A 6-inch touch screen makes it nearly impossible to imagine a manageable controller. So, I got to thinking about how a slider design might function, like some cell phones: the body slides open revealing a keyboard – or in this case the touch screen.

The advantages to such a design are obvious: the screen can remain hidden making the controller smaller when games are not using it. However, when games make heavy use of the screen, this type of design will, in effect, double the size of the controller. Furthermore, trying to use both the face buttons and analogue sticks simultaneously with the touch screen will be very difficult. There are certainly ups and downs to a slider design, and ultimately it may be a poor design for games using a lot of buttons, but it’s fun to speculate.

A 6-inch touch screen and traditional face buttons on a single controller seems impossible to execute, but let’s not forget that wireless controllers were garbage before the Wave Bird. Nintendo finds ways to make this crazy stuff work.

I, for one, am hoping for a holiday 2012 release for Project Café. It’d be nice to give the Wii one last spring and summer, and I still have my fingers crossed for some quality software for the Wii this holiday. Plus, it would give the 3DS a year+ to plant its roots without competing against 1st party hardware. It still needs some quality software (which is coming) and some room to breathe. Let’s not forget that in May 2005, the DS got such classics as Puyo Pop and Madagascar. Yup, 2 games.

Top 5 (unannounced) 3DS Games I Want

1. Castlevania – another sidescroller, please
2. Advance Wars
3. Final Fantasy VI – give it the FFIV DS treatment
4. Platformer from WayForward – probably inevitable
5. Mario sidescroller

A lot of 2-D games on my list, but that’s what I like out of my handheld games.

I’ve been loaning out a lot of games lately. Ryan has Goldeneye (Wii), Tatsunoko vs Capcom and Little King’s Story; and James borrowed P.N. 03. I really should come up with a system to keep track of who has what, because Carlos still has my DS Phat and Dementium the Ward. Wes takes copies of my games routinely, but he returns them quickly. What about you guys? What’s your policy when loaning games to friends? It makes me a little nervous because sometimes it’s months before I get them back.