What the f$$k is that?

The Revolution controller is revealed.

This week's Sunday Supplement was set to be headed by the Xbox 360 release date news, but Nintendo have kicked that down to second place with the unveiling of their Revolution controller. To say I was surprised is an understatement. Utter astonishment is more like it, and this seems to be the feeling that many people had upon first reading about and seeing the new controller. "It's a DVD remote," I said to myself after staring wide-eyed at press pictures. It took a little while for it to sink in.

After hastily writing a news article about this one handed controller, I had time to sit and think about it for a while and it might just be the best thing Nintendo has ever done. While Sony and Microsoft battle it out over the same customers, Nintendo can market the Revolution as a truly unique alternative. While Nintendo has stated that multiplatform development isn't going to be a problem, a quick look at the radical design of the controller would suggest otherwise. So, a console that is full of games that you simply can't buy for the other two seems like a very distinct possibility.

For most of this generation third-party developers have created games that will work across all three consoles. There have been a number of exclusives, but for the most part you could own a PlayStation 2 or Xbox and play the majority of games (the GameCube lost some third-party support late in its life). With the Revolution, developers will hopefully make games tailored to the system and its controller, giving the gaming public a console that is home to predominantly exclusive games. Assuming that the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 is first choice for most people, the Revolution could be a true second console.

Before the current generation of consoles each console had hugely different line-ups. Think back to the N64/PlayStation and SNES/Megadrive eras. Second consoles weren't just for a handful of exclusive games; they were for a truckload. I'm quite excited about it. There's no doubt I'll own all three next-gen consoles, but I'm hoping that Nintendo's will offer something totally different to the other two.

Of course, this could all go wrong. Developers may feel that ports of games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with added motion control are enough, giving us a similar situation to how many developers tack on some touch screen features in DS games, without really taking advantage of the hardware at all. This won't be good enough though and would be a real waste. Nintendo are onto something big. Publishers just need to go with it.

This article is part of Pro-G's regular Sunday Supplement feature.