A lot of this episode revolves around the 30th anniversary of the classic fighting game in this week’s Gaming Flashback, Street Fighter II. The episode also looks at a lot of the hot news around the industry.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
This weeks Gaming Podcast comes out a bit early due to some travel plans and an upcoming trip to Popcap’s Bejeweled Twist launch party. This week in the news we took a look at:
We also take a look back at Pitfall! and cover yet another DRM issue on our soapbox, asking the question, is online gaming the DRM of the future? Our history segment does a bit of history on Popcap games.
Our NFS: Carbon and Saints Row contest has ended, the gang names are in, and we’re giving away the games to the winner. Next, we’re going to give away Project Gotham Racing 4.
So, this episode covers that fact that Nintendo is about to announce their next device, which they did earlier today: the Nintendo NX is now called the Nintendo Switch. The official Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer was also unveiled today too, and the multiplayer aspect is discussed. Jonah advises TJ and Scott to try The Stanley Parable as well.
This week’s news includes:
All this and two Questions of the Week!
The same company that brought us the NES Advantage has proven the Wii control scheme isn’t as bad as critics speculated. The beauty of adding the “waggle” technology is limiting your button count to a reasonable level without overwhelming gamers.
We’re seeing casual gaming on the rise both in the press and in the public. Yet, each “next generation” console brings new features and functionality to the consoles, games and accessories. Since NES birthed the SNES we’ve seen button count increase on controllers.
Nintendo has usually been conservative on buttons, trying to work “shape” over sheer volume of buttons, barring the C button count on the N64 controller. Nintendo controllers change shape with each generation and they’ve evolved, not innovated, their way around with the Wii control scheme. Each function of the controller exists, on its own, in other products but nobody has built a fully functional controller in such a way for a game console until now.
Sony took pieces of this concept in their PS3 controller and its ability to detect “tilt.” Xbox 360 stuck with the beefy controller with lots of buttons and analog sticks. Not just a D-Pad but two analog sticks and a ton of buttons to press, some pressure sensitive as well. What of our next-generation console? Maybe a few new buttons?
Or, maybe a few new motions? Wii evolved the control scheme and Sony validated their decision, what’s next? Are the controllers just too damn complicated in today’s world? Or, perhaps limiting the buttons brings in more gamers, like Grandma and Grandpa, to play your console as well.
