Advertisement

Another round of Nintendo touch screen controller rumors

nintendo ds demo video

Ready for a second round of rumors about how the controllers on Nintendo's next-generation Revolution console are going to ditch the buttons and pads in favor of a configurable touch screen? Some speculation about all this was already going around back in December (and then there was that something or other in January about them coming with built-in gyroscopes), now a magazine called Game Informer is absolutely convinced that the Revolution will have a "touch screen as its controller" that has "no analog stick or shoulder buttons," and that the "touch screen on the face of the controller is designed to be fully customizable." Sound familiar? Whether they actually have some inside dirt or are just recycling December's rumor isn't totally clear, but it seems inconceivable that Nintendo would completely abandon actual physical controls (think of the hand strain!). Yeah, we get that the touch screen on the Nintendo DS (pictured at right) has its fans and that Nintendo is clearly enamored with the whole idea of touching, but even the DS has a d-pad and actual buttons. Note that while Game Informer says there isn't an analog stick or shoulder buttons, they don't mention whether there is a d-pad or not, so even if the controller for the Revolution does have some sort of touch screen, it still seems more plausible that they're planning some sort of hybrid controller rather than something that is going to look like a Palm with a cable running out of it.