Nintendo's Gaming Prosthetics

It is no secret that accessories are a major goldmine for any company in the electronics and entertainment business. In a market where most hardware and software is increasingly commoditized, very healthy profit margins are found on things like protective cases, docks, chargers and other things that are typical add-ons to today's electronic ecosystems.

Nintendo has always been a frontrunner in this trend. Oldschool gamers will certainly remember R.O.B, the lightgun, the powerglove and other Nintendo accessories that were supposed to enhance the gaming experience of the early consoles of the 8-bit and 16-bit era.

But certainly the worst offender in this regard must be the Wii. Thousands of white plastic strap-on accessories have been produced for gamers to attach to their Wiimotes in order to make motion gaming seem less like uncontrolled stick waggling and more like a genuine sword fight (or a gunfight, or an exciting fishing trip, etc.). Many of these accessories came from Nintendo themselves.

Obviously, the only proper must-have accessory for the Wii is the Classic Controller - which makes controlling some Wii games quite a bit more bearable. But I digress...

There's nothing particularly wrong with this business model. But you know that something is fishy when accessories are used to 'fix' obvious design flaws. I'm referring to the Circle Pad Pro, of course. Even before the 3DS was launched, most gamers noticed the glaring omission of a second analog control on the handheld. What was Nintendo thinking? Had they completely ignored anything they could have learned from the PSP? As great as the PSP was, many gamers agreed that having only a single analog nub was a huge handicap in a world where every relevant gaming genre depends heavily on dual-stick controls.

Of course, the DS got away with it because it was too underpowered to provide a proper 3D gaming experience. But the 3DS is supposedly designed around the experience of 3D environments.

Certainly Nintendo could not be so foolish to omit the controls needed to navigate the typical 3D world? In fact they were... And they admitted as much by making the CPP. A horrendously ill-thought-through accessory to make up for the lack of a second stick on the 3DS.

The Icarus Claw


I will discuss the flaws of the CPP in another article. So let's move on to Kid Icarus where things get really painful. Literally. For those who haven't played the game or the demo yet: Kid Icarus is a 3DS game that suffers from a rather bad control scheme. This has been known for a while, and most people assumed that Nintendo would be on top of this and fix it in time for release - or use the CPP to provide a working alternative to the standard controls (which are in fact unusable for left-handed people and give right-handed people painful hand cramps, hence the "Icarus Claw").

Nintendo's solution, however, was to give gamers a plastic stand. Yes, you read that right. They actually produced a piece of plastic that lets people fumble with the 3DS while sitting at a desk or a table instead of doing the easy and logical thing: fix the software.

What I would like to understand is: what goes on in the minds of people managing these projects? Why would a respected company like Nintendo let a game with a game-breaking control scheme go to market and set up a production-line in a factory to produce a plastic accessory as a workaround for the problem?

If you happen to be a Nintendo shareholder, please make sure to question the decision-making process over at Nintendo HQ at the next shareholder meeting!