The 5 Best Barely Used Features in Game Console History

Online game consoles are not any stranger to bizarre and weird gimmicks. A few of these options unexpectedly grew into system-selling successes, whereas others have been forgotten for a cause. However not each good concept will get the popularity it deserves, particularly when among the finest console options have been sorely underused.

Listed here are among the finest options in gaming {hardware} historical past that went totally under-utilized.

5

The 3DS Introduced Video games to Life With AR

When the 3DS first launched, its augmented reality (AR) digicam initially appeared like one of many handheld’s most promising options. In the event you aren’t acquainted with augmented actuality, it refers to software program that may overlay a digicam show with digital 3D fashions. At its finest, AR could make digital objects and characters seem as if they’re inhabiting real-world areas. This expertise can be utilized in apps like Google Search’s 3D viewer and Pokémon GO.

Among the finest makes use of of the 3DS’s AR digicam is AR Video games, a tech demo that got here pre-installed on the system. By scanning the AR playing cards that come bundled with the 3DS, AR Video games makes use of your environment as a stage for minigames themed round archery, mini-golf, fishing, and quite a lot of smaller widgets. Sure AR playing cards will be scanned to take photos of iconic Nintendo characters—together with your own Miis.

Related AR modes appeared in different 3DS video games, although most of them used the AR digicam as a 3D gallery or a photograph mode for taking photos of characters. Video games like Bravely Default and Child Icarus: Rebellion even launched particular AR playing cards themed after objects and characters from their respective video games, however even these playing cards have been completely utilized in photo modes.

There have been a number of AR video games on the 3DS that did not require AR playing cards. Face Raiders—one other app that got here preinstalled on the 3DS—is a capturing recreation during which you battle flying enemies primarily based off photos of individuals in your picture gallery. Equally, the horror recreation Spirit Digicam: The Cursed Memoir—a by-product of the Deadly Body sequence—requires gamers to make use of the 3DS digicam to {photograph} murderous spirits lurking of their actual world environment.

Though the AR digicam wasn’t used for a lot, the video games it supported have been persistently entertaining. Seeing a dragon come out of your kitchen counter or posing characters for goofy photos by no means will get previous, even after practically 15 years because the 3DS’s preliminary launch. Nonetheless, after the success of Pokémon GO and the numerous video games it impressed, it is abundantly clear that AR is best suited to cell video games.

4

The Wiimote Can Switch Consumer Knowledge

At a time when different consoles have been starting to shift their focus to online gaming, the Nintendo Wii set itself aside with its consistent support for local multiplayer. Together with the console’s huge library of sofa co-op and aggressive multiplayer video games, the Wii distant—often known as the “Wiimote”—carried a handy multiplayer characteristic that the majority gamers ignored.

The Wiimote features a 16-kilobyte EEPROM reminiscence chip, which can be utilized to save lots of person knowledge onto the distant. Two kilobytes can be found for storing as much as 10 Miis, permitting you to make use of your favourite customized characters on another person’s console with no need to recreate them from scratch.

One other 4 kilobytes can be utilized to retailer different knowledge from particular video games. There weren’t many video games that used the Wii distant’s reminiscence chip, nevertheless it was largely utilized in video games that allowed you to create and share customized characters and different user-made content material.

Monster Hunter Tri and Carnival Video games: Mini Golf mean you can retailer avatars made utilizing their character creators. My Sims Racing and Fortune Road characteristic related customization choices, but in addition mean you can entry unlockable content material saved in your distant. Aggressive video games like Pokémon Battle Revolution and 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa mean you can switch full groups into the Wiimote to face off towards different gamers.

There have been different makes use of for the Wiimote’s storage, comparable to having the ability to save a customized controller format in Tremendous Smash Bros. Brawl, however the characteristic was largely ignored all through the Wii’s lifetime. Whether or not it was as a result of rising recognition of on-line multiplayer or the truth that most Wii house owners did not even know this characteristic existed, the remote-based storage by no means returned for Nintendo’s later consoles.

Years earlier than the GameCube and PlayStation 2 tried to ship their very own voice controlled games, Nintendo included a surprisingly practical microphone for one in every of its earliest house consoles, the Family Computer (often known as the “Famicom”). The Japan-exclusive console options two hardwired controllers, one with entry to the “Begin” and “Choose” buttons, and the opposite containing a built-in microphone.

The Famicom microphone was largely used for minor gameplay gimmicks and secret options. For instance, sure enemies within the Japanese model of The Legend of Zelda are weak to loud noises and will be shocked by yelling into the second controller. Equally, you may “negotiate” with retailers in Child Icarus by talking into the microphone. Different Famicom video games discovered equally intelligent makes use of for the microphone.

Though the Famicom microphone was an extremely progressive characteristic—particularly for an 8-bit console launched in 1983—its technical limitations made it a reasonably pointless addition to the controller. The microphone is designed to detect noise, however its usefulness is proscribed by its incapacity to discern particular phrases or phrases. Even for video games that activity gamers with saying particular strains (or singing total songs, within the case of the infamous Takeshi’s Challenge), it does not matter in the event you comply with the directions or simply begin yelling—the Famicom mic cannot inform the distinction.

The Famicom microphone was too easy to quantity to something greater than a gimmick. Most builders selected to disregard it, and the microphone was eliminated totally when the Famicom was launched abroad because the Nintendo Leisure System.

2

The Sega Genesis Supported Hyperlink Cables

The mid-90s noticed the introduction of system-link multiplayer in console video games. They first debuted in 1993 with the Atari Jaguar’s Jaglink cable, and it later took off in 1995 with the unique PlayStation. Nonetheless, one of the vital forgotten early adopters from this period is the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and its “Hyperlink-up” cable.

Genesis might not have been the primary console to assist system-linking, nevertheless it’s notable for being the one 16-bit system to make use of this characteristic. The hyperlink cable was not an official Sega product, having as a substitute been produced by Technopop for its 1994 first-person capturing recreation, Zero Tolerance. Since Sega had by no means deliberate for the Genesis to assist system-link multiplayer, the hyperlink cable plugs into the console by its second controller port.

Technopop’s Hyperlink-up cable was initially slated to assist extra video games—together with a canceled Zero Tolerance sequel titled “Past Zero Tolerance“—however these plans by no means panned out. That is largely as a result of the link-up cable was launched late within the Genesis’s lifespan—just a few months earlier than the launch of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It did not assist that utilizing the hyperlink cable requires two Genesis consoles, two copies of Zero Tolerance, two separate screens, and one other individual prepared to undergo this problem.

The Hyperlink-up cable’s area of interest attraction arrived too late to seek out an viewers, as most gamers have been already eyeing the following technology of consoles. Regardless of its short-lived use, the Hyperlink-up cable is an interesting demonstration of the Genesis’s untapped multiplayer potential. Think about having the ability to play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with out being pressured to share the identical display. Mods and emulators have already made {that a} actuality, however the Genesis would have been forward of its time if it had delivered that have again within the 90s.

1

The Dreamcast’s VMU Is Nonetheless the Greatest Reminiscence Card

Reminiscence playing cards often do not serve every other operate apart from… nicely… storing issues in reminiscence, however the visible reminiscence unit (VMU) for Sega’s Dreamcast is one thing particular. The VMU options an LCD screen and serves as each a standard reminiscence card and a transportable gaming system. In contrast to most different reminiscence playing cards, the VMU plugs into the Dreamcast controller slightly than the console itself. Every Dreamcast controller has two reminiscence card slots at its high, and plugging the VMU into the front-most slot permits it to operate as a second display.

Some Dreamcast video games use the VMU’s LCD display to show helpful data throughout gameplay. Dino Disaster and the varied Resident Evil video games show your character’s present well being and ammo on the LCD display. Equally, the cult-classic bullet hell shooter Ikaruga makes use of the VMU to show a combo counter for consecutive enemy kills. Shenmue—one other Dreamcast cult-classic—helpfully shows the enter instructions for performing newly realized strikes.

When it is not plugged right into a controller, the VMU capabilities as a transportable file supervisor and a handheld gaming system. You may obtain minigames onto the VMU from particular Dreamcast titles, a few of which reward you with gadgets that may be transferred again to the console recreation. VMUs will also be linked collectively to entry multiplayer minigames or commerce gadgets with different gamers. For instance, Jet Set Radio—often known as Jet Grind Radio—allowed you to swap customized graffiti designs, whereas Marvel vs Capcom 2 included an choice to switch unlocked characters and levels to different reminiscence playing cards.

The VMU is likely one of the finest concepts to return out of the Dreamcast, nevertheless it was let down by a scarcity of third-party assist. Though video games like Energy Stone and Sonic Journey used the VMU to ship surprisingly addictive minigames, most builders did not know what to do with the gadget.

These aren’t the one console options which have been undeservedly uncared for. Much more current consoles are responsible of this, with an honorable point out going to the PlayStation 5’s haptic feedback. If I began itemizing each single console characteristic that was undeservedly deserted, we would be right here all day.

Sony DualSense Controller

Providing haptic suggestions, adaptive triggers, a built-in microphone, and ergonomic design, the DualSense Controller is the very best PS5 controller accessible in the present day.

Gaming consoles have solely grow to be extra sophisticated with every new technology, resulting in the introduction of much more experimental concepts that can inevitably be forgotten. That is not essentially a foul factor, and console gaming’s continued willingness to experiment with unpredictable improvements has impressed lots of the biggest (and strangest) gimmicks in gaming historical past.