The video game industry has made unbelievable strides over its most recent generations, and the advancements experienced between different gaming generations are sometimes substantial enough to completely change the industry. Video games, as well as their hardware and gameplay, have reached a stunning degree of immersion and realism.
Creative risks have been taken to provide gamers with unique experiences, some of which become entrenched in the industry while others are quietly forgotten. Decades of video games have resulted in some truly bizarre peripherals, many of which had good intentions behind them but failed due to sloppy, confusing execution.
10 R.O.B. For The NES Blurs The Lines Between Peripheral And Pal
Nintendo has an impressive history with unconventional gaming ideas that are designed to push the industry to new places. Not all of Nintendo's strategies to revolutionize gaming were met with success, and the early 1980s marked the debut of R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy, a gaming peripheral that's in the shape of a friendly robot companion.
R.O.B. is a very bold idea, and even though it's quite adorable for a peripheral, it only functions with two NES games, Gyromite and Stack-Up. Nevertheless, R.O.B. has more recently found new life not as a peripheral but rather as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series.
9 The NES Power Glove Turns Bad Gaming Into A Fashion Statement
The feature film The Wizard is one big advertisement for the NES Power Glove, an odd hand accessory that falls short of its promise to allow whoever wears it to "play with power." The button layout on the Power Glove isn't very practical, and the limited motion controls that it advertises are questionable at best.
The original Power Glove was more of a joke and gaudy fashion accessory than a legitimate advancement in gaming, but that didn’t stop the idea from being attempted again generations later with the equally-problematic glove controllers for the Nintendo 64 and original PlayStation.
8 The Dreamcast Fishing Rod Excels And Is Full Of Surprises
Sega's Dreamcast was a groundbreaking video game console that took some impressive risks, especially when it came to its fresh peripherals and features. Sega Bass Fishing was a significant Dreamcast game, and the console expands upon this experience with its official Fishing Controller peripheral.
There is surprisingly a lot built into this piece of technology that genuinely enhances the handful of fishing titles that are available for the Dreamcast. Additionally, audiences later discovered that this peripheral allows for rudimentary motion control gameplay in non-fishing games like Soul Calibur and Virtua Tennis.
7 The Game Boy Camera And Printer Help Bring Out The Gamer’s Inner Shutterbug
Nintendo revolutionized the handheld gaming industry with a long legacy of impressive products, but it all started with the original Game Boy. The 8-bit handheld console had its share of peripherals, but one of the biggest innovations of the decade was the Game Boy Camera and its corresponding Printer.
The Game Boy Camera's 128x112 display and four-color palette scheme leave a lot to be desired, but it provided players with unprecedented portability in photography. The addition of a Game Boy Printer helped seal the deal, and it could even be used to print accomplishments from certain Game Boy games.
6 The SegaScope 3D And Famicom 3D Glasses Only Prove How Far Away Gaming Was From True 3D
3D gaming adds an extra level of immersion that not everyone is interested in, but it's frequently touted as the ultimate evolution of the industry. The Nintendo 3DS tackled 3D gaming without the use of glasses, and VR gaming only continues to grow more accessible.
However, Nintendo and Sega both experimented with 3D technology during the end of the 1980s through the SegaScope 3D and Famicom 3D Glasses peripherals. These sleek shades make use of Field Sequential 3D tech, which was decent for the 1980s, but it was still too early for this technology to take off.
5 The Nintendo U-Force Is One Of The Company’s Earliest Struggles With Motion Controls
Nintendo finally cracked the motion control formula with their Wii console, but it’s fascinating to look back on how Nintendo has been trying to implement this type of gameplay as early as the original Nintendo Entertainment System. The Nintendo U-Force is an early and ineffective attempt at motion controls.
The peripheral resembles a laptop or a game of Battleship, where the U-Force’s screen reads the movements of the player’s hands and attempts to translate them to the screen. The Nintendo U-Force was supposed to make games like Punch-Out!! easier to play, but no one was going to knock out Mike Tyson with the help of this oddity.
4 Rez’s Trance Vibrator Captures The Rhythm Of The Music
The musical rhythm genre of gaming has taken huge strides over the past few decades. Rez is one of the more inventive titles in the rhythm genre, and it made waves on the Dreamcast before it was later ported over to the PlayStation 2. This port also incorporated one of the weirdest gaming peripherals, the officially licensed Trance Vibrator.
This piece of technology pulses along with the rhythmic music that enhances the game's addictive gameplay. The Trance Vibrator can be kept in the player's pocket, but the peripheral's name hints at the niche peripheral's alternative uses.
3 Nintendo’s Roll 'N Rocker Gives The Player’s Hands A Rest So Their Feet Can Flourish
Dance Dance Revolution and even Tony Hawk: Ride found some decent success by allowing gamers to put their whole bodies into the experience and put more emphasis on their feet rather than their hands.
The Roll 'N Rocker is a problematic peripheral for the NES that's designed to have the player stand on top of it and control the game's movement by leaning in the direction they want to move in. The Roll 'N Rocker deserves points for effort, but it makes the NES Power Glove look like a powerful piece of technology in comparison, which is saying something.
2 The Sega Activator Turns Disappointment Into A Full-Body Sport
The Sega Activator is basically the Genesis' clunky motion control equivalent to the regrettable Nintendo U-Force. The Sega Activator is an octagonal grid that the player stands in and is able to trigger 16 different actions through the Activator's distinct regions.
Decades later, Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move were still experimental works-in-progress, so one can only imagine the frustrating nature of the Sega Activator. Specifically designed to enhance fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Eternal Champions, the Sega Activator was supposed to be compatible with all games, which it's definitely not.
1 Resident Evil 4’s Chainsaw Controller Is A Clunky Tool For Carnage
The Resident Evil series is still going strong, but Resident Evil 4 was a groundbreaking entry in the franchise that’s still regarded as one of the best video games of all time. One of the more intimidating enemies in the survival horror game attacks the player with a chainsaw, which became the odd inspiration for a peripheral.
There’s an exclusive chainsaw-shaped controller that was made for Resident Evil 4, which awkwardly fits the standard controller’s buttons on the cumbersome peripheral. These chainsaw peripherals were made for both the PlayStation 2 and the Gamecube, but it’s quite a shock to see a Nintendo peripheral that’s covered in blood.