The Nintendo Wii ignited a popular fascination with gaming. Its motion-based controls appeared to be the future. With Microsoft and Sony both developing their own answers to the Wii, it certainly appears that motion controls are now going to be around for a long time.

While many are excited for this, real gamers are left weeping. To real gamers, the idea of having to deal with these gimmicky devices is as appealing as rubbing shards of glass in one’s eyes.

With that painful imagery aside, let me just say that classic controllers > those things that make you move and wave your hands in an awkward fashion. That is not fun. That is just stupid.

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I clearly remember the first time I heard of the Nintendo Wii. At E3 2006, legendary video game producer Shiguru Myamoto traipsed on stage holding a fancy white remote. He promised ingenuity and unparalleled creativity in gaming, and that players would be more involved and in tune with the experience. He played “Wii Sports,” an admittedly impressive demonstration, showcasing the potential for the remote on a 3-dimensional plane. He swung the remote like a racket when playing tennis, held it like bowling ball when bowling, and kept his guard up when boxing. I still felt some lingering skepticism, but my interest piqued and I could almost sense the public hype meter rocketing upwards.

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The key to every video game console is how the player is able to interact with it. This makes the controller design a crucial factor in a console’s hardware development. Brilliant designs such as Sony’s DualShock have proven that they can carry themselves across generations of platforms. However, most other companies have not been so lucky. Here are the five biggest design failures…

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I stopped trying to be on the cutting edge of technology years ago. Every time I picked up a “new” gaming system, it turned out to be a big let down. Die-hard gamers think that if it’s new and expensive, it must be good. That’s what you think before you pay $180 for a Virtual Boy.

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