I just had this idea on how Nintendo can resuscitate the Wii U. First off number one don’t do a Nintendo direct for this. Do an actual press conference, someplace very public like Sony did in NYC to unveil the PS4. Nintendo should hype this idea up a lot. Launch a worldwide ad campaign all alluding to a mysterious new thing. Give the ad campaign a tone more accessible to an older audience. The final ads should read something like this, “This fall Nintendo brings the power back! Will you be ready?” then they show a release date. People across the globe freak out, speculating are they bringing back Nintendo Power magazine?!” Nintendo lets everyone simmer for a while.
After maybe six weeks or more of intolerable silence Nintendo holds “THE” press conference. Lots of build up, dark lit rooms, fuzzy images, news press EVERYWHERE. Then we get an extended video with high energy, maybe even with celebrity cameos all asking, “are you ready for Nintendo to bring the powerback?!” of course they all say yes! Then lights fade to black in the convention center. They start playing the theme from Terminator 2, duh duh duh duh……duh duh, duh duh duh duh…..duh duh! Everyone freaks out, partly just because everyone loves Terminator 2. A spotlight comes on the catwalk there is someone walking down it with a suitcase handcuffed to him. The music builds mixed with the intro for “Blind” by KoRn. At the end of the catwalk there is a table and a second person pulls out a key for the suitcase and unlocks it. Their back is turned to the audience and cameras as they reach inside. At that moment the song breaks and the lyric “Are you ready?!!!” blasts across the PA system broadcasting into millions of homes around the world and the person turns around and reaches up with their hand held high. On their hand is the Powerglove! Words across the video read “for the return of the POWERGLOVE!!” But not just any Powerglove this is the Powerglove 2.0 completely redesigned and overhauled for the Wii U. Laser lights shine and the music changes to complement an energetic montage video of people having fun playing Nintendo games with the Powerglove 2.0.
Powerglove 2.0 has the screen like the Wii U tablet controller built directly on to it with touchscreen funtionality. All the expected features for motion gaming would come built in including actual 1:1 hand gestures just like the original Powerglove promised 25 years ago. Seeing how Nintendo banks so heavily on motion gaming this seems like a no brainer. Think of the possibilities available now with this kind of hardware. You can literally make a first person Iron Man game where you actually use your hand to shoot his blaster. How cool would it be to get messages and videos from in game characters on the screen on your arm. Better yet how great would it be to play online games and actually interact with your friends by talking to them on the forearm of your Powerglove? Combined with use of the regular Wii controller the applications are limitless. How cool would it be to actually summon a fireball with your hand in a game or dialing in codes and lock combinations you have found in the game using the touchscreen on the Powerglove 2.0?
For the horror fans imagine a game like Outlast about a reporter who hears strange sounds from a nearby abandoned insane asylum and decides to investigate only to discover, as many would have guessed, was a very bad idea. OK so now picture playing a game like this with some of your friends. All of you are sneaking around inside this asylum in different areas. Each of you can find objects and information to help each other escape. The catch is you have to physically tell them what you know. You have to send a message to your friend from your Powerglove monitor alerting them that you have important information to help them progress through the asylum. Maybe even make the glove vibrate whenever you get a message so as to add to the stealth element. Either way the alert lets you know that both of you need to get to a “safe” area so that you can relay the information. This could add so much to a horror experience. Think about guiding your character to an empty closet while your friend is hiding in a locker and the two of you are whispering details back and forth on the Powergloves monitor because speaking too loudly can alert enemies to your location. Maybe as you progress you can upgrade your abilities and do stuff like take in-game pictures and videos and send recorded messages to each other in the game using the Powerglove’s forearm monitor. You could even base the whole game around the Powerglove like in the game its some kind of tool given to you by your captors. They find the hunt more satisfying if their prey has a “fighting” chance. ( Powerglove aside this is a game I would like to play )
To be fair though videogame development is not cheap let alone hardware development and to expect such an elaborate game based on a piece of hardware you would have to have an install base considerably better than that of which the Wii U itself currently has. Research and development for a piece of hardware like the Powerglove 2.0 I just described would not be cheap for Nintendo. That being said though the reappearance of the Powerglove would be huge in the gaming community not just for Nintendo fans. There is a huge demographic of people who grew up when Nintendo ruled the world. Many of us still remember the “Nintendon’t what SEGA does!” days and no matter what console you played on everyone knew Nintendo and what the Powerglove was. Even though I am pretty sure only three games ever came out specifically for the Powerglove and the hardware was notoriously a functional disaster many people look back on the device with nostalgic fondness. Even though it didn’t work very well the glove still looked cool. The technology exists today to actually make the Powerglove everything it was supposed to be, and then some.
Ultimately the biggest consideration for a piece of hardware as elaborate as the Powerglove 2.0 is how to make such a piece of hardware affordable to consumers and have the hardware still be profitable. How much are you willing to spend for something like this? $100? $150? $200? If the controller was made well, functioned like I described, was sold at a reasonable price and was supported properly I think Nintendo could gain some serious ground against the upcoming PS4 and XBOX One. The nostalgia element alone would have lots of older gamers going and buying it. I would consider buying one just to have it and I don’t even have a Wii or a Wii U. If you could use the Powerglove 2.0 as a standalone game player for Wii, Wii U and Nintendo DS games and the glove is priced respectively to the console and DS markets it would considerably increase the value of owning the Powerglove 2.0. You could even play augmented reality games like laser tag with your friends. The applications already exist and the Powerglove 2.0 would be an ideal vessel for many of them.
In all likelihood under the current conditions of Nintendo and its newest console I would have to say the appearance of a new and improved Powerglove is not happening anytime soon. If done properly the Powerglove 2.0 could potentially be a huge hit for Nintendo. The cost of research and development for the Powerglove 2.0 definitely makes it a financial risk for Nintendo but if done right I think it could be one of the greatest gaming devices this generation. Overall something crazy like the resurgence of a new and improved Powerglove and targeting a slightly older audience are elements that could give Nintendo the spark it needs to excite console gamers again. In this era of the Oculus Rift where we are on the verge of having actual virtual reality in our homes something like the Powerglove 2.0 has the potential to give Nintendo a much needed relevance boost in the current console market.
-Z3R0TH3RT33N
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