Subtitles section Play video
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“It’s so bad.” Three words that meant something very different in 1989. But if you
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were a rebellious pre-teen looking to dominate a video game tournament in Las Vegas, you
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had to have a Power Glove. Gesture-based gaming never looked so... actually, I can’t even
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talk smack. Though it really, really, really hurts to use this thing for an extended period
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of time, the Power Glove makes significantly more sense as an input device as, say, the
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woeful U-Force. Up, down, left, and right are tracked by three sensors that cradle the
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top-right of your TV and communicate with your gauntlet by ultrasonic frequencies. The
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action buttons are handled by your hand itself, where by default the A button is your thumb
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and B is your index finger. On the back of the glove itself are a battery of buttons,
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including a complete copy of an NES controller, a centering button to calibrate the mitt,
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and a bevy of program buttons that control input mapping and rapid-fire capability. But
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how does it work? LET THE SCIENCE BEGIN.
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No peripheral should be made that can’t at least deal with the iconic NES platformer.
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The Power Glove makes controlling Mario fairly handy, with a fist clutch to jump and fairly
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comfortable lateral control. 1-1 was a breeze, though I ran out of time in 1-2 when I got
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cocky and tried to jump to the top of the screen. Shotgunning goombas with the trigger-style
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control on the fireball was kinda cool, though.
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This puzzler was a bit tougher, since the command to jump is on the up button. It almost
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felt like I was throwing Dana around the maze, though the pain in my arm was beginning to
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creep up on me. Still, cleared the first two stages pretty easily, though the timing in
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the third was more than I could manage.
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While the Power Glove was responsive in all four directions, as well as kicking and passing,
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the difficulty here is in keeping your arm still in mid-air if you want to, y’know,
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keep your Kunio-kun dude actually still on the field. I’d call for a pass, try to rest
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my hand as the ball made its way to me, and all of a sudden I’m in Zagreb or Minsk or
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somewhere geographical. It’s at this point that I wanted an icepack.
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Kirby’s Adventure is a very late, very detailed game, and the difficulty in maneuvering the
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pink puffball with the Glove is quickly apparent. Especially in the underwater sections, the
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difficulty in standing still makes itself known, and with everything you have to do
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simultaneously, you’re better off just playing it on your arm if need be.
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Yeah, I know the Power Glove has its failings, but... honestly, Paperboy felt the best out
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of all these games. Raise arm to speed up, lower to slow down, thumb to fling a paper...
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the mechanics of the game actually work well with the device. I shall now report my findings
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to Bryan S. of Pennsylvania, who will probably use the document to prop up his massive Virtual
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Boy collection. Which he’s totally gonna lend me sometime. Right?