So you may have heard about Microsoft’s new XBox 360 coming out Nov 22, or even Sony’s Playstion 3 coming out sometime 2006. However, Nintendo’s has been pretty tight lipped about their next game machine, code namedRevolution, and has only leaking bits of information here and there. I mean, we didn’t even know what the controller was going to look like… until now.

Remember how when you were a kid and played Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo system, that if you wanted to make Mario jump higher, you’d kind of swing the controller around wildly with your arms thinking that would somehow make Mario jump higher or go faster? I of course never did that ¹, and would always laugh and mock my friends that did. Well, it seems now with the new Revolution controller that if you wanted Mario to jump higher, you could in fact do so by flicking the controller upwards with your wrist. Or to hit a baseball you’d swing the controller like a bat. Or if you wanted to fly a plane, you can just hold the controller like you would a toy airplane. This all possible because the wireless controller includes gyroscopes to track pitch, yaw, and motion in 3D space. That’s just too cool.

The controller is no doubt a radical departure from conventional game controllers and looks like a ordinary TV or DVD remote control. The design is very clean and kind of iPod-ish, and there really isn’t too many buttons on there. However, pictures or words don’t really do it justice, you really have to watch the demo video² to get a full sense of what kind of games might be possible. And if your reaction is anything like mine, you’d be picking up your jaw off the floor after the demo video finishes.

While the Microsoft and Sony are stuck in a seemly endless battle over who has the more powerful “next-gen” system, Nintendo steps up and showcases what a next-gen system really should be all about: fun.

¹ Might be a lie
² Seriously, watch the video