For those of you who have played video games growing up, this will be somewhat entertaining. But for those of you who haven't, I hope that you can still enjoy this post, anyway. I've decided to talk specifically about video game controllers and their evolution over the past few generations of consoles.
Nintendo, as we all know, has been the one consistent video game company throughout our lifetime. Playstation and Xbox consoles have only been around for about 15 and 10 years, respectively. To start off, I want to touch on the vast change that Nintendo has made in its
controller design from its NES to its modern day Wii. As you can see in the pic on the right, Nintendo has gone from the basic 2-button layout to the motion sensing Wii remote. Both in my opinion were designed extremely well. However, Nintendo did have its hiccups when designing controllers for its other consoles. The quotes next to each sum it up pretty well (I censored the offensive language). Look at the N64 and Gamecube controllers. Why on Earth would you have a "three prong controller"?? I never once used the D-pad on the left. C'mon Nintendo...Lets move on and look on the opposite sides of the Nintendo spectrum. The simplistic nature of the NES controller doesn't really give the user much chance of screwing things up. Move using the D-pad on the left, push A or B to perform actions, Start and Select in the middle for option and menu purposes. Thats it. Nothing fancy at all.
Now look at the Wii remote. Gamers back in the late 80's could only dream of such a beauty. The remote is designed extremely well, keeping simplicity alive, and utilizing the mental models of both a TV remote control and the original NES controller. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wii remote (I mean just the way it works, I'm pretty sure we all know what it is), here's a pic:
As you can see, it has very few buttons, just like the NES controller. People, especially those who have never played video games before, have really enjoyed using this product. The simple and intuitive design makes it easy for anyone to use. Also, one of my favorite things about this design is that you can turn the remote sideways and use it just like the oldschool NES controller! Sweet!
Ok, now onto Microsoft and its start-up of the Xbox. Sorry, didn't notice this is getting a little long (I'm a nerd when it comes to video games), so I'll keep this short. Take a look at the Xbox controller evolution below:
Just look at the first Xbox controller. Does it look like it was human centered? Maybe for Yao Ming and other NBA players, but for normal people? No. However, I applaud Xbox for its redesign because I really love the Xbox 360 controller. It fits in your hands perfectly, buttons are easy to access, and the dual joystick system is awesome for first person shooter games. So that's it from me. I'll leave everyone with a funny pic of the original Xbox Controller:
PS - I don't actually know how to type in 'L33t', I used that same site to translate from English.
Ok, now onto Microsoft and its start-up of the Xbox. Sorry, didn't notice this is getting a little long (I'm a nerd when it comes to video games), so I'll keep this short. Take a look at the Xbox controller evolution below:
Just look at the first Xbox controller. Does it look like it was human centered? Maybe for Yao Ming and other NBA players, but for normal people? No. However, I applaud Xbox for its redesign because I really love the Xbox 360 controller. It fits in your hands perfectly, buttons are easy to access, and the dual joystick system is awesome for first person shooter games. So that's it from me. I'll leave everyone with a funny pic of the original Xbox Controller:
PS - I don't actually know how to type in 'L33t', I used that same site to translate from English.
haha "maybe for yao ming"
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree the GCN controller looks terrible, I don't know why it still ends up being my controller of choice for some games. The whole Wiimote thing was supposed to make games like MarioKart Wii great, but in reality it's just harder to control. I guess the internals limit the function in this case, although the outer form of the Wiimote may be superior.
ReplyDeleteI have never been able to get used to the dual joystick system for console shooters. I greatly prefer WASD + mouse for PCs, or Wiimote + nunchuck.