Throughout the history of video games, there have been several odd creations, strange controls, and peripherals that were either well ahead of their time or impossible to use. With the intention of innovating and surprising players, companies have designed all kinds of extravagant controllers, sometimes with mere anecdotes or collector’s goals, others to offer a different control method or try to emulate a specific sport or activity.
Controllers being our physical connection point with video games, these have always been a very attractive object for players, and a controller will inevitably be questionable. While there are different tastes for different gamers, just like there are for online casino ratings, some weird and eccentric controls and peripherals have appeared for gamers over the years.
Game Boy Pocket Sonar
The Game Boy Pocket Sonar was an accessory for Nintendo’s most mythical laptop that Bandai developed. The idea of this peripheral was that we would submerge ourselves in the sea with the Game Boy.
Thanks to its sonar, gamers could find fish up to 20 meters deep. It was only available in Japan, and its extras included a fishing game. It was new and strange for being the first peripheral to have a sonar and wanting us to get into the sea with our console.
Handy Boy
Another Game Boy creation was the Handy Boy. Known as the “all-in-one accessory,” it wanted to make gamers‘ lives easier by adding two external speakers on the sides of the handheld console, a square-lighted magnifying glass, and button enhancements, as well as the joystick. In short, an accessory that took up almost more than the Game Boy itself and increased its weight.
Let’s Tap
Long before the release of Nintendo Labo, the company was already flirting with cardboard. In 2009, SEGA published Let’s Tap for Wii, a game with a peripheral in the shape of a cardboard box in which players had to drum to overcome different missions in its five game modes, Tap Runner, Rhythm Tap, Silent Blocks, and Bubble. It fizzled more than it bubbled.
Chainsaw Control
There’s nothing better to play Resident Evil 4 than with a chainsaw controller and kill the zombies. Manufactured by Nuby Tech, it was available for the GameCube and PS2. Very beautiful, spectacular, and useful for real life but quite uncomfortable for a video game. Of course, Resident Evil 4’s chainsaw controller is one of the weirdest ever.
neocon de Namco
On September 29, 1995, PlayStation was released in Europe. That same year, Namco launched neocon, a controller that could be twisted and specially designed for speed games that the Japanese brand was developing for the Sony console.
Lacking a peripheral steering wheel, they decided that the best option was for us to twist the controller so that the cars move from one side to the other. Undoubtedly, it’s one of the strangest peripherals in the world of video games.
Power Glove
Another of the strangest controllers or peripherals in the history of video games is the Power Glove, a glove with which you feel like Iron Man or Robocop and with which Nintendo wanted us to control the characters of the NES games. The result is a command that is very curious in its design but inaccurate in its handling.
R.O.B.
In the purest Pixar Wall-E style, this robot is one of Nintendo’s most iconic peripherals and, simultaneously, one of the least used that has been released for a console. Only two compatible games were released in which you received signals and thus interacted with them.
Sega Activator
Before Nintendo released the Wii, Sega beat it to it with Activator. A kind of hula hoop that was placed on the ground and was capable of capturing the movements of the players. It was a peripheral ahead of its time, and even though it had cutting-edge technology, not surprisingly, it went largely unnoticed.