Revolution Q&A (from GAF)-HUGE THREAD

[Hellfire]

Gaming-Age Forum user Kobun Heat got to test the Revolution controller in TGS, so he's done a Q&A thread. I've compiled his answers up until now, it's a lot of work so I hope you enjoy it.I hope the mods don't mind the hugeness of the thread. MEGAKudos to Kobun.
"'I'd be lying if I said I've been following the Revolution thread with interest. By the time the shit hit the fan, TGS had started, and my days were a whirlwind of appointments, standing in line, playing games, writing articles, and drinking/singing karaoke.

I got back yesterday and jet lag hit me HARD; I passed out early and didn't regain consciousness until five hours ago.

This was long enough to notice that there are still a lot of questions and misinformation about the controller. I think my Wired News hands-on has been up long enough that I can talk about stuff without distracting attention from the people who pay me.

Since I'm not exactly sure what it is that people still want to know about the play tests, I'm just gonna go ahead and open the floor to questions. I played several demos, the details of which were on the major game enthusiast sites. Go nuts."
"If I could change one thing about the controller, it would be to put a Z trigger under the B trigger. The nunchuck attachment has two, so I'd like to see it balanced out.

Are you talking about playing Super Smash Bros. Melee? If they retrofit the game design to use the controller, I guess the most obvious use of the pointer would be to do smash attacks. So you'd flick it around to choose the direction in which you want to smash.

However, I doubt that a Revolution Smash Bros. would just be the GameCube gameplay with a different controller."
"The controller and attachment were definitely comfortable; the cord was of sufficient length.


I actually can't speak to the vagaries of the sensor, because it's not finalized and Nintendo was clear that we weren't discussing the nuts and bolts of the tech that day. So I really don't know. I can definitely say that you can point the thing at an angle at the TV, because that's the whole point of the device: you're not moving your whole arm around, you're just making very slight inflections with your wrist.

When you hold it sideways, your fingers (or at least mine) don't slide into the slope on the back where the B-trigger sits. I didn't hold it that way for very long but I doubt it's going to make a difference.

The Revolution controller, much like the DS touch screen, takes away a barrier between people and machines. People loved to post that Minority Report screen as a joke, but that's pretty damn close to at least the thought pattern behind the controller -- you just reach out with your hand and start manipulating things on-screen.

For some people, a DualShock controller is just that sort of extension of their person. But it takes a lot -- some would say a lifetime -- of practice to get there"
"I can't really compare the controller to existing tech. I can say that the learning curve was practically nonexistent. It's light. It's comfortable. It's goddamned precise.

No charging cradle was shown. No battery life or range were mentioned. There were many different tech demos shown, each of which was meant to show a new gameplay style, not so much an idea for a retail product. Certainly the Kuru Kuru Kururin demo could be a winner.

I think the big A button will definitely stay where it is. I'm not sure what the question about D-pads and buttons means.

Certainly I'm really excited about the possibilities of music games on the Revolution. Samba De Amigo would be awesome as-is, with no big, bulky controller required -- just two standard pads. Or maybe even one controller with an inexpensive attachment that could be packed in.

And that's not even mentioning Ouendan, which I wasn't even the first person to bring up in our meeting.

As far as Metroid Prime 2, the honest answer is that it was so intuitive that I wasn't even thinking about HOW the controller was doing it. All I know is that I was easily able to spin in circles. IIRC: if you move it further and further towards the left or right of the screen, Samus will start to spin around, and if you bring it back to the center she stops.

The 3D movement thing: this is mostly speculation on my part but yes, I believe it can keep track of where the controller is in terms of 3D space. Again, we tried a variety of gameplay demos, but there was no specific, detailed explanation of the tech inside.

But you can definitely do all the things they showed in the video since everything -- location, rotation, distance -- is measured."

[Hellfire]

"The Pilotwings demo was just for movement of the plane. No speed control (but of course that's not to say that it would be impossible or difficult).

When you play with a Wavebird, do you stand up and hold it at arm's length towards the screen? No. And you don't have to do this with the Revolution controller. You can sit with your hands in your lap and just move your wrist a little to cover the entire screen.

The sensor bar shown was a prototype, so it's not really indicative of what you'll use for the final product. But the sensors were small and unobtrusive.

For the shooting blocks demo, there was a visible cursor on screen that moved when you moved the controller around. I can't say much about HOW it worked: as far as the actual tech involved, again: I don't know, and neither does anyone else. All I can say is that after a few seconds using it, all I really had to do was think of a place I wanted the cursor to be and my hand moved there.

I don't THINK the triggers are analog."
"
Originally Posted by Gahiggidy:
..in other words, do you have to keep the controller pointed exactly 90 degrees from the tv set to keep still? Or can it be rested at an off angle?

The cursor should be relatively centered. Take a laser pointer and shine the dot in the center of your TV screen and try moving your hand all sorts of places while still keeping the dot centered. Note that the location of your hand doesn't matter so much."

"How much fun do you think I had playing Revolution air-hockey versus Miyamoto?

I'm buying this day one, and I can't wait to see what they put out for it. If the release schedule is as balanced as the DS' -- with mass-appeal titles like Brain Training and Nintendogs going back and forth with gamers' games like Ouendan and Castlevania -- then it'll appeal to everyone.

No new info on shells -- they didn't show any, but they talked about them. I'm not sure whether it makes sense to put the shell in the box, though, because that runs counter to their anyone-can-understand-this mentality. If the shells are cheap enough, they can just pack them in with any game that requires them.

You're not intended to use the A and B buttons for any sort of quick-response gameplay when the controller is vertical. So I doubt any developers will make you do that.

The fishing game was the only one that took me more than a second to grasp, because it uses depth perception. But after I got the hang of moving the rod around in a pseudo-3D space, it got easier.
No, Samus wasn't always shooting the center of the screen. She shoots where you put the cursor. And at the same time, if you're moving the cursor to the edges of the screen, she'll turn to face them -- but at a normal pace, not zipping around wildly at the speed of your hand. That would be unplayable.

You won't hit the home button accidentally.

Though this wasn't specified, the power button almost definitely turns the console on and off. Does your TV's remote control have a button that turns off the power to the remote?

You can use the D-pad like a D-pad when it's vertical. That won't be an issue."

[Hellfire]

"I don't know what sort of impressions other than "Metroid Prime 2 was comfortable and intuitive" I really need to give at this point. The analog attachment was really light. The wire was long enough. Moving, aiming, shooting, and turning took no -- zero -- conscious thought. The only problem I had was remembering which shoulder button scanned and which jumped. But I can't remember that very well on the GameCube either."

"Nintendo actually specifically said that the sensors were not in any way finalized. So be aware that this description may not reflect the final product. There were two small sensors -- about the size of a gum eraser -- that were attached to a small metal bar maybe the size of a ruler.

They were placed under the TV but they said there are many places you could put them. On top, on the sides, on the wall even. It's all very very up in the air, though."

"Shine a laser pointer on your TV screen, then move it around. That's exactly what it's like.

We weren't shown what the controller was hooked up to.

Metroid Prime 3 at launch would kick ass, but again, if you think we were given any sort of info on that you would be incorrect.

Headset: no. Just no.

When I first saw it, they hadn't yet explained what it DID. So I was like "what the jesus is that." Then Miyamoto was like, check this out, and he starts waving it around and shooting boxes and my stomach felt like it had done a flip-flop.

I seriously doubt that you need two sensor setups for multiple controllers. That would not exactly go along with Nintendo's simpler-is-better strategy."

"After Metroid Prime 2, I really loved the airplane demo. It was as if you were holding a toy plane in your hand, and everything you did with it in real life was reflected on the (very nice*) tv screen.

*that's all I really know about the TVs they were using.

And with the Metroid Prime demo, I was waving the controller all the hell over the place really really fast and the cursor was always exactly where I wanted it."

"We didn't play anything for six hours, so I really don't know. I'm not about to go sit on a chair and wave my wrist around for six hours to see how it feels. I think that will be a game design issue -- designing software so that it's comfortable to play.

That sort of issue is always important, though, no matter what sort of controller you have. You don't want to make a game that has you jerking two analog sticks in every which direction while jamming on buttons constantly..."

[Hellfire]

"You can play with the controller in your lap, but you do have to move it about with your wrist to point at different parts of the TV screen."
"I think what Nintendo was trying to stress is that this controller will primarily be used to generate new types of games and gameplay, not as a different way to control the game designs that we already have. That's why Metroid Prime 2 was one of many different demos.

Certainly, if the point here was to create a new controller for first-person shooters then I'd have to say "we'll wait and see if gamers determine it to be a better solution." But that's not the point at all. If we're measuring the controller on how well it does its job of attracting non-gamers, then yes, I believe it is better than other attempts like EyeToy.

If you want to use the standard dual-analog layout for your FPS gaming, I shall point out -- as has been done so many times -- that you'll be offered this option on Revolution. If you want the exact same thing that Sony and Microsoft are packing in their boxes, you can just plug in a Wavebird or use an expansion shell.

I found the controller to be perfectly serviceable for first-person shooting based on the short demo of the one game. Moreover, as a person who's really not an FPS guy, it was for me a far more intuitive way of aiming and firing. Does that mean it'll be the clear preference for everyone? No.

But again: to concentrate on that is to completely miss the point.

The Metroid Prime 2 demo was to show how this controller might be used for an FPS, not to make any claims of its superiority in that specific genre."
"
Originally Posted by Gahiggidy:
What happened when you pointed away form the TV?

The cursor left the screen. In most demos, a little arrow on the side of the screen showed you where you were pointing so you could bring it back.

I didn't go waving the controller around the room because I'm not a jackass."

"Well, I'm sure it would be a very easy thing to program a game such that the little shakes of your hand don't move the cursor around.

I'm trying to illustrate what happens when you tilt your hand around at the wrist. You can touch any point on screen with minimal movement.

The Super Scope was accurate down to the pixel, but there were no games that were like "okay, hit that pixel."

Also, I'm sure there will be enough buttons to play whatever game you're playing. At no point will you be playing a game and say, "whoops, I've run out of buttons.""
"We didn't have extensive hands-on time with the controller. It was about five minutes each with a variety of demos. Standing, mostly, although some of the guys sat down briefly.

I'd say it's about as immediately understandable as a computer mouse or the DS touch screen. As Iwata said in his keynote, everybody is at the same "start line" -- you shouldn't need prior gaming experience to figure out how to use the controller. It's intuitive -- point and shoot."

[Hellfire]

"
Originally Posted by Leatherface:
Kobun, did anyone drop a hint as to when we will hear/see some software, tech specs, finalized name etc for the rev? Surely before E3 no?

Things may have been discussed. Do you think I'm going to say anything about them on GAF, though?"
"
Originally Posted by Leatherface:
Is there some kind of NDA against hearsay or something? heh.

No, but if somebody tells me something in confidence and then I go and WRITE IT ON THE INTERNET wouldn't that, uh, seriously impair their trust in me? Why the hell would I do that?

I'm not harboring any big secrets. But I do expect that more Revolution news will happen between now and E3. If anyone wants to assume that it's some kind of big explosive world-shattering secret and call it SOMETIMEINTHENEXTSEVENMONTHSATON!!!1 then go ahead. But anyone who does is retarded."

[LazyBoy]

Lots to read there, thanks for making the effort Hellfire, appreciate it.

He seemed to like it, good sign.

[dazzybee]

Is that it? I expected to be sat here for an hour reading :)

All good. Its bad though cause it makes me want it more, though a regular stream of information will satisfy me, oh, and online mario kart!!

[Sarka]

Wow, that sounds good. Well, I'll be tired tomorrow but it was worth it to read that, Now I'm more hyped than ever! Also...
SOMETIMEINTHENEXTSEVENMONTHSATON!!!!

[Hellfire]

Yeah I thought it was nice to hear about Revolution in a less formal way. I really can't wait for Revolution.