Gadgetory

the switch has some weird accessories but something that at least Nintendo hasn't really done a lot of yet that kind of surprises me and honestly even disappoints me a little it's stuff like these controllers or at least plastic molded things you could put controllers into they give you an interesting and kind of weird way to interact with games next Nintendo is messed with this idea a little bit they released a steering wheel from Mario Kart and then there is all of LeBeau which is kind of its own separate category in my mind so it's coming down to a lot of third-party companies to do things like this gun and fishing rod I forgot what a fishing rod was called for a moment okay so first we are going to try the fishing rod out are there two different cabins and I didn't make either of them and then we wait for it to load forever with a ps2 style loading screen let's okay that's reverse that's not forward that's forward okay so this game uses limited motion controls like it still relies heavily on using the buttons and everything but you're gonna use much controls for at least casting which you know having the fishing rod shaped thing works for and then for reeling in which is why this is shaped this way so let's actually get to a spot to fish Nate Beck I didn't do it heavy enough and then freaked out okay try this again trans get ha I didn't go very far then we're in the ocean I don't see any fish though I'm just gonna slowly reel in huh anything here we just reel it in is this even almost wonder if like it's not enough set still no fish in you where okay so next let's try out the rival which does use a little more precise motion controls at least a little more naturally cuz you're you have to aim the gun just a little bit the game still not great but uh at least the motor controls are working here sadly it's not like the we where just because how the motor controls work differently it's not situation where you know you can point a name somewhere on the screen and that's where you hit instead you're still using a stick to look around but you can make little adjustments it's kind of like aiming a bow and Zelda okay look guys neither of these accessories are particularly good well at least the game is there for it's not really their fault that they're just designed for stuff that is this way but you know it gets me thinking though about all the stuff you've seen in the past that enjoys the idea of using a controller inside of something else now normally when people think of this concept they think a lot about the Wii because there was a lot of we accessories that were built around that whether it's the wheel or other gun attachments like this or even the bowling ball that existed for some reason but actually when it comes to Nintendo this concept goes way further back than that the first time Nintendo actually had an accessory where you put a controller inside of something else to get a bizarre and weird way to control the game was robbed the robot and to actually show you guys this we actually need to go get one so let's go right now so we got lucky and found the robot we're looking for it was in great condition too so let's get back to the office and check it out nowadays a lot of people know Rob the robot from his appearances in the Super Smash Brothers series of games but I find that a lot of people don't actually know what Rob the robot is you know they know that it's a reference to some kind of old-school Nintendo thing it's a product they sold but they don't know why he exists or what it even did for the old school systems and it's actually very interesting so Rob actually stands for robotic operating buddy and the entire concept is that he plays games alongside you where you'll give him commands by doing stuff on the screen and then he will hit buttons on the Nintendo controller through a very indirect method that we're gonna actually show you in a little bit but the reason why he exists is because it was basically a way for a Nintendo to tell people that the NES wasn't a gaming system see back when Nintendo was first coming over to the u.s. to try and sell their systems the artsy's wasn't very happy with video games there was a major crash back in 83 and all the major companies are around for the US and gaming just did not do well so there was this very heavy stigma attached to gaming consoles just not being a good investment or something that people should really buy so to try and combat that Nintendo instead marketed their system as a very advanced toy so you're buying the NES but the actual thing is Rob the robot he's this toy that plays games with you the games are really the focus don't worry about that you have to buy this with it but the robot is really the focus when you master Rob the video robot and meet the challenge of gyromite with but it was gamble that really paid off and eventually got it into a lot more households now despite the fact that robbed robot was the really heavy focus of how they advertised the Nintendo early on there's only two games that actually make use of him gyromite which we have hooked up and ready to go right now and then a game called stack up now each of these would use different attachments under op and would interact with them in different ways but we're gonna actually take a look at how you would play with Rob in gyromite so the way Rob would work is actually very similar to a light gun that you use for something like duck hunt we're using this controller I'm gonna input different commands in the game and the game's gonna flash certain lights the Rob is gonna see recognize and do that command so here we are on the map right here and so the entire goal of this game is you're trying to navigate around it and you're trying to raise and lower these colourful pipes so first let's move this blue pipe which is gonna take a lot of work he's not on first we have to pick up one of the spinners pick it up there we go this is all to raise one single pillar by the way it's gonna take a second we gotta get spinning because if this people stand on its own go take it back up and drop it down and there we go and that hits mutton all of that now let's say you wanted to be able to also hit the red button right after but sub the blue button press down well that's why the spinner is important because we can let go of it and it's still gonna stay in place though as it starts to lose momentum it's gonna eventually fall off and that's a whole another problem so as you can see it takes a lot to be able to actually play this game properly with Rob almost a little too much to be honest this game is a lot of fun with to actual people but with Rob it's a little hits alone knowing and tedious over time but it's still a really interesting idea and just for its time this was such cool tech now obviously I don't think Nintendo necessarily needs to make a new Rob the robot for the switch but this all goes once again to the idea of just really interesting accessories that involve docking controller and some different method and I really think the switch can benefit from more design ideas like that because right now we basically just have a steering wheel and robots are cool