• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Favorite Console Hardware "Gimmick"

Fuz

Banned
d5c995454ecd0191ff826d8f6011b5b7.jpg


NintendoPowerGlove.jpg
 

Fitzchiv

Member
Light guns is a great shout, but I'm going to go back to the OG PlayStation and say the CD player + visual and sound effects.
 

GametimeUK

Member
Not really a gimmick as much as it is a step in the right direction, but Sony really pushed Cross Buy on Vita. You got PS3, Vita and PS4 games all for the price of one game. There was times where you could make use of Cross Save. Inter connectivity between multiple devices is a massive interest of mine and now Microsoft are doing it and the Nintendo Switch is a portable and home console rolled into one. I think a portable home console is a dream gimmick, but obviously held back in some regards to technical limitations.

When it comes to gimmicks I also adore the share button.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
Can I say PS4's share button? Is that considered a gimmick?

I'd say not really since its now standard on all three console controllers. I'm talking moreso about features and gimmicks unique to one specific platform, that are either not utilized as much as they could've been, or are a bit too impractical and under developed to be used often. In which case, the PS4 Touchpad and Speaker are better examples.
 

Kagey K

Banned
OG Xbox music feature. Rip your CDs to the hard drive and listen to your music as you played your games.

I played tons of Tony Hawk and Amped with my own custom soundtracks. Thankfully it’s a feature that still (kind of) made it to this day.
 
The Saturn's revolutionary Clock Battery to Save games on.

Imagine playing Saturn games you love for years, only for it to kill your orecious saves when you boot it up again.

To be fair you can store them on an Action Replay Cart but it's still a stupid gimmick that should never have been implemented.
 
Last edited:

TimFL

Member
XB1 Kinect for the biometric sign in and awareness features (e.g. hand controller to a friend, friend presses guide button, it opens their home screen cause Kinect tied the controller to his ID).
 

supernova8

Banned
Expansion Paks for N64 were kinda odd. Remember you couldn't play some games without it.
(Yes I did just bump this old thread and yes you're welcome)
 
Last edited:

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Just underused... Uhmm...IDK

My favorite "gimmick" was the IR sensor on the Wii.. even though hundreds of games used it..

I'm sorry, I really don't like that term. I don't quite understand it..
 
Last edited:

AndrewRyan

Member
The PS2 Eye-toy came out before the Wii and the company that tried, and failed, to replicate the Wii was Microsoft. Kids these days, honestly.

If I'm remember correctly it was invented by a sole engineer who worked for Sharp Electronics. He showed it to management but they weren't interested. He left the company and showed it to Nintendo but they weren't interested either. Then finally he had success with Sony.
 
Top Bottom