Since the introduction of dual analog thumb stick controllers on consoles the arcade genre kinda took a backseat as first person shooters & more slow paced games with more sophisticated controls became mainstream. When you look at the mobile platforms one thing you will notice is that new arcade like games are being created all the time (some good some bad) thanks to the simple controls & devs willing to take chances on new types of games. On the console side Nintendo did it's part with the Wii & now Wii U as far as making mainstream arcade games like Mario Kart but 3rd party games have a hard time on the Wii consoles mostly because they are not Nintendo & then there is the weaker hardware part that make a lot of gamers overlook the Wii & Wii U when buying 3rd party games. Which leads me to my thoughts about the DualShock4's 6 Degree of Freedom sensor & the multi-touch touchpad as simple controls for arcade like games.
Sure these games can still be made to play on normal controllers but I think the simplicity of the touchpad & tilt/pointer controls on a small controller will give these games a special touch that will make them fun again. I remember playing the simplest games at the arcade that would be fun just because of the simple controls like the big buttons, trackball or joystick. I can see the touchpad being used like big buttons that you can tap really fast or like a trackball that you can do accelerated swipes in different directions for quick movements. The motion sensing would be perfect for fast-paced rail shooters like all the galaxy defending games that used to be a big deal back in the day.
I know the indies well make lots of arcade like games on the new consoles but I would like to see big publishers start taking it seriously again like when games like NBA Jam & Contra was big deals.
Sure these games can still be made to play on normal controllers but I think the simplicity of the touchpad & tilt/pointer controls on a small controller will give these games a special touch that will make them fun again. I remember playing the simplest games at the arcade that would be fun just because of the simple controls like the big buttons, trackball or joystick. I can see the touchpad being used like big buttons that you can tap really fast or like a trackball that you can do accelerated swipes in different directions for quick movements. The motion sensing would be perfect for fast-paced rail shooters like all the galaxy defending games that used to be a big deal back in the day.
I know the indies well make lots of arcade like games on the new consoles but I would like to see big publishers start taking it seriously again like when games like NBA Jam & Contra was big deals.
