What wasn’t, however, was playing video games with one hand tied behind your back.
The promise of being able to, as I remarked earlier, use one’s own fighting skills in a video game proved endlessly appealing. Originally released for Nintendo’s SNES system in 1989, it captured the violent hearts of young children all across the world. The Power Glove is undoubtedly one of the best known, most batshit game controllers out there. Image: Konami LaserScope / Konami The Power Glove – SNES But just like my embarrassing six-year-old self, I wouldn’t change a thing about them. The thing that ties these five retro video game controllers together isn’t just how ambitious they were, it’s how goddamn hilarious they are in retrospect. It never occurred to me how much of a little twat I would have looked to literally everyone else on the planet. I fantasised about how powerful I would be if I managed to get ahold of a Power Glove, or how much further I could get in Sonic the Hedgehog if I could use my real-world punching skills to batter that pesky Dr. They seemed like the future squatting in the unremarkable real-estate of the present. To a youngster whose experience of video games up to that point consisted of a Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo, and arcade machines, these bizarre and expensive creations captured my imagination. I have vague memories of a number of these bonkers inventions, mostly from television commercials and pop culture references, but what I really remember is the way that they made me feel. It’s difficult to talk about retro video game controllers without talking about nostalgia. Here are 5 of the craziest controllers ever made.
Retro video game controllers are a hilarious portal back to the hopes and dreams of an industry that tried to fly well before it could properly walk.