Creators Love the Revolution, Will Gamers?

Nintendo's big gamble is hitting home with game creators, but it's gamers who will decide the console's fate.

Nintendo has taken a huge gamble on the Revolution controller. By upturning the standard design it helped introduce in the mid '80s, the company runs the risk of alienating many gamers. Game creators, on the other hand, seem genuinely excited about the possibilities it opens up.

A recent survey of top Japanese developers by Nintendo Dream magazine, as reported by IGN, shows that most are upbeat about the radical redesign.

Almost unanimously, the developers saw their initial surprise or puzzlement melt into excitement once they got their hands on the controller.

"Just as input with the Nintendo DS pen gave birth to new game contents, there are great possibilities hidden in this remote-like controller," said Pac-Man creator Tooru Iwatani.

The DS has paved the way for the Revolution

This echoes what most Japanese feel about Revolution right now. A recent poll found that most of those surveyed were intrigued by the idea but that they wanted to get their hands on it before making the final call.

And it's the success of the DS that is giving Nintendo the confidence to forge ahead. The DS brought gamers a new way to control games, levelling the field so that young and old, neophyte and veteran could play together.

But the DS, as Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai pointed out, also made things more complicated in some ways, as players had to juggle the stylus and the D-pad and buttons.

There are also fears that Nintendo could go too far in the other way to rectify what it calls overly complex games. And the Revolution controller, seemingly designed with mini-games in mind, makes this a distinct possibility.

"A number of basic ideas come forth," said Yasuhiro Wada, creator of the Harvest Moon franchise, "but placing those properly into a game and making players have fun is difficult."

So that's the Japanese taken care of, but what about Western developers? Nintendo will need to bring them on board if it hopes to compete, at any level, with Sony and Microsoft in the next generation.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games