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Are Our Control Schemes Holding Up Our Games?

Are Our Control Schemes Holding Up Our Games?

For a while now, professional Smash Bros. players were worried that the new Smash would be completely unplayable. Why? Well, it appeared as if they couldn’t use the Gamecube controller, the chosen controller of choice for Smash Bros. competition, on the Wii U. The Gamecube controller was usable on the Wii due to its built in Gamecube controller ports but the Wii U had no such thing. So what were Smash players to do?

Luckily, Nintendo has made it so that we don’t have to answer that question. They have unveiled a brand new Gamecube Controller Converter that connects to the Wii U via USB that will allow you to use all your old Gamecube controllers. Not only that, but they will be re-releasing the Gamecube controller to give new Smash players a chance to play with what is perhaps Nintendo’s best designed controller ever.

But how long will this last? Sure it works for the Wii U, but what about when the next Nintendo console comes out. Will we need yet another Gamecube controller converter? Will they re-releases the Gamecube controller? What about when Gamecube controller supplies start to dry up? What will we do then? Will we just stop playing Smash Bros. all together?

Actually, there is a bigger question here. Are our control schemes holding our video games back? Look at it this way: is playing a game on the Wii U’s virtual console the same as playing it on the NES? I would argue that it’s not. Heck, some games are completely dead. Look at Duck Hunt . It doesn’t even work with our new TVs. Then there are online games. MMOs die and never come back when their communities fizzle. Games that were released as recent as a year or two ago are relegated to offline only because companies have begun shutting off servers for the new generation.

Are Our Control Schemes Holding Up Our Games?

It makes you think that a lot of our games are completely and utterly dependent on how we control them. What if Virtual Reality becomes the norm? Will controller based games fade into the background? What if tablets overtake computers? Are our keyboard and mouse based games obsolete? Does the first person shooter genre hinge on the dual analog stick? Isn’t the fighting game genre still hinging on the arcade stick? Players will drop 200 dollars or more just to get a lap top stick that mimics the feel of an arcade cabinet.

For now, Smash remains a live game. But if gaming actually does hinge on control scheme as much as it appears to, our favorite hobby may be dethroned by the next big touch device.

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