You Take My Self Control

Nobody was interested in my homemade spinner post, eh? Okay, let's try this instead. I saw this Twitter post from Stealth, which suggested that the detachable controllers of the NX could mean specialized controllers for specific games, similar to the plastic steering wheels and tennis rackets for the original Wii. Here's an artist's rendering of how that could look. (And no, I don't know the artist. It could be Stealth, but it certainly wasn't me.)

I would tend to think that a touchscreen would offer all the customized, context-sensitive control a player would ever need, but we'll see what Nintendo's got planned next month when the NX is finally unveiled. (And no doubt given a less appealing name.)

While on the subject of controllers, I picked up one of the redesigned Xbox 360 pads with the transforming D-pad, and... uh, this was supposed to be an improvement for fighting games? Because this is what I've been getting, and that's with the D-pad raised.

Swirling the D-pad gives you nothing but cardinal directions unless you crush it with your thumb, making fireballs and even jumping backward impossible. Here's what Ken does when you try to throw a Hadouken:

That's right, nothing. Ken does nothing, except punch frantically at thin air and invite an opponent to jump kick him in the face. Lowering the D-pad doesn't help, so unless you planned to sprain your thumb every time you play Street Fighter IV, don't expect the new Xbox 360 controller to improve your game much. Even Sony's Dual Shock 4 is more accommodating for fighting game fans... sure, the split pad makes it uncomfortable to throw fireballs, but at least they come out.

Oh, there's one other thing. I finally coaxed my Xbox 360 E to play classic Xbox games, so maybe I'll finally get around to playing Shenmue II. Just as soon as I get to all those other games I've been neglecting. Stupid backlog.