Topic: The Second Circle Pad and Kid Icarus: Uprising

[NWR_Neal]

Neal engages in mildly baseless speculation about Project Sora's upcoming 3DS game.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/27711

Moments ago, the second Circle Pad was confirmed by a Famitsu scan. It will be used for Monster Hunter 3G, the next portable iteration in the popular series. The Circle Pad looks like it might be tailor-made just for that game. However, it could very well be a mainstay for the system.

As a lefty, the fact that Kid Icarus: Uprising requires the Circle Pad and the stylus to play is an issue. Perhaps this awkward-looking secondary Circle Pad could be used to alleviate that issue. That could also explain why Kid Icarus: Uprising, originally rumored to be a launch title, doesn't have a set release date yet. Currently, the most recent release date was a "2012" from Europe a month after E3 2011, where it was labeled as "Holiday 2011" by Nintendo of America.

Now the idea of it just being delayed isn't out of the realm of possibility. Project Sora's Masahiro Sakurai, known for taking his sweet time making Super Smash Bros. Brawl, seems to have a propensity for game delays.

But maybe just maybe, Kid Icarus: Uprising will make use of the second Circle Pad to provide players with more control options. You could have a left-handed and right-handed touch screen mode, in addition to a dual-stick touch screen-free mode. One of my issues with Kid Icarus: Uprising is the difficulty I had with the controls, so anyway to combat that would be welcome in my book.

[Enner]

Mm, that's a good thing that I didn't think of.


Hopefully for the next Nintendo handheld, Nintendo will care to have input parity for people of different handedness.

[TJ Spyke]

I don't recall Kid Icarus ever being considered a launch game. Didn't they say it wouldn't be a launch game when they announced it?

[Tansunn]

So it could potentially be used so left-handed people can use the stylus in their left hand while using the circle pad in their right, yet it has no opening to actually remove the stylus from the system.  Either it's still in the prototype phase or that's a considerable design flaw. 

[MegaByte]

I hope this paves the way for Virtual Boy Virtual Console.

So it could potentially be used so left-handed people can use the stylus in their left hand while using the circle pad in their right, yet it has no opening to actually remove the stylus from the system.  Either it's still in the prototype phase or that's a considerable design flaw. 

Everything about it is clunky, but I assume the obstruction is partly due to needing the IR port for communication (hard to tell for sure until we get better pictures) and to provide enough support by the rubber pads to hold the 3DS in.

[ShyGuy]

Good heavens.

[Chocobo_Rider]

I would actually LOVE IT if this game supported a second stick!!!  that's the one thing keeping me from being 100% psyched about it.

HOWEVER, I ain't buying a 3DS and/or KI:Uprising unless the 2nd stick is part of the system.  no flappin' add-ons for this little black duck!

[KDR_11k]

Being a proper-handed person ( : ) I had no trouble with the Kid Icarus demo at CeBit. It felt like a regular third person shooter to me.


But we'll see how it stacks up as a third person shooter against, say, Space Marine.

[famicomplicated]

I'm right handed and I didn't like the controls, but I'm not sure if a second slide pad fixes those issues, unless the turning speed and feel is drastically improved.

[Zeldaguy64]

I can certainly see controls being much easier with a second circle pad, but it's SO ugly and doesn't even fit symettrically. If this isn't a prototype, I'm running miyamoto over.