Sports Games
Popular examples: Madden NFL 2006, NBA Live 2006, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006
How it might work: Sports fanatics are largely fanatical about their control. Even this year, as EA made updates in its 2006 Madden offering, one of the largest innovations was new passing controls. So this could be one genre that Nintendo has the most challenges in finding a way for publishers such as EA to bring familiar sports titles to the highly unique Revolution controller.
But then again, is it really so tough? Imagine booting up Madden NFL 2007 for Nintendo Revolution and watching your team walk up to the line of scrimmage. You hike the ball with a quick snap of the B trigger, and then you drop your QB into the pocket with the left analog stick. Waving the pointer left and right gives you a quick scan of the downfield receivers on each side of the field. Suddenly you see your man 20-yards down and ready to make his cut to drag across the center of the field. But before you can snap a pass, a linebacker comes crashing through your O line. No problem - hold one of the buttons on your left analog stick to enter scramble mode and break left. Let go and hold the other left button to bring up a passing reticule on-screen. In the blink of an eye, you're able to finely lead your receiver two yards deeper than his route and put the ball just out reach of the cornerback. But rather than hitting a button to pass, simply rear back your pointer and jab it forward at whatever speed you deem necessary to float the pass right into the sweet spot.
Next play -- snap the ball with the B trigger and then watch as your QB hands off to your meaty fullback. While the analog stick could easily function much as previous football sims, now your shucks and jives can be much more intuitive with quick flicks of the pointer. Turbo on the left analog stick buttons, with spins and stiff-arms flowing from A and B. But imagining your quick-steps, jukes, and hurdles coming from quick movements of the pointer seems almost intuitive the more you imagine it. And there's plenty of room for innovation on EA's part here to think outside the box on how a football game has been controlled in the past and how control might become more seamless in the future.
