I wonder if Nintendo would use USB fight sticks to brick the Switch. Trust me, I would buy an authorized Thrid Party Switch fiht Stick IF they made a right-anded or an ambidextrous version of it. I remember a company called Beeshu which made right handed and ambidextrous sticks for the NES and Master System. (I don’t know the full story, but I’m guessing) Beeshu made quality joysticks, especially if you use a joystick in the right hand. The joystick had that nice click that wasn’t present in the Advantage. There was literally only one such thing as a Nintendo-authorized NES controller, the Vaus conroller (which is a paddle controller for the NES). The only controllers were the basic pad, the Advantage, the Max, ROB and the Zapper. Later they authroized things which a) passed their quality tests, b) were willing to pay the licensing fee and agree to terms, and c) for peripherals, offered something new that Nintnedo wasn’t making. The U Force and Power Glove were Authorized third party accesories, and there were some blatant ripoffs of the Advantage that brought nothing new to the table that weren’t. Beeshu fell in between.
They were willing to pay for license. Sega didn’t have a licensing process for the Master System until VERY Late (like Genesis late.) Beeshu made the same basic Ultimate Superstick design for the NES, and Master System, (Maybe the 7800, I wouldn’t doubt they were working on one. The 7800 was actually more popular in America than the Master System.) Then they got a Turbo Grfx 16 license for Their version of that stick. Later they made a 3 button verision called the Gizmo for the Genesis, and THAT was licensed.
Those were all ambidextrous sticks with buttons mapped index-to-index on both sides. “A B Stick B A” on NES. One problem is that games don’t let you flip the buttons or the pad 180 degrees, so games like Tutankham on Colecovision, and Side Arms and Pac-Land on Turbo Grafx 16 are backwards firing. But other than those 3 games, and maybe a few others, it was great.
But the Sega-made Master System stick was worse. It was right handed but remapped left-to-left which means if your left index finger is your rapid fire button when left-handed, the Sega made stick makes you “middle finger pump rapid fire” as much as than Stone Cold Steve Austin raises his. And trust me, that is tiring and counterintuitive. That’s why fighting games map light punches and kicks to the index finger: that’s the one you have to rapid fire fast to do E Honda, Chun Li, and Blanka rapid pump moves. Can anyone think of a game on the Master System that would be mapped well left-to-left? My suspicion is MANY more games would have benefitted from index-to-index mapping vs Left-to-Left.
How hard is it to make a system-authorized ambidextrous stick? Are all these companies penny wise and pound foolish? You have to do something to differentiate your stick. People get licensed artwork, but they are all design-wise almost exactly the same. This is an EASY way to dfifferentiate. And if you make it ambidextrous, you don’t have to guess how many will use right-handed left-handed or be a “Switch hitter” (That’d be the perfect name for an Ambidextrous fight stick for the Switch. “The Switch Hitter.” )
If Nintendo bricks my system because I use a right handed stick, (I’m even considering someone pad-hacking an authorized USB third-party Gamepad, like the Hori Pad, to show I’m trying to play Nintendo’s way as much as possible) I’ll sue Nintendo for actively sabotaging a stick and not offering an authorized way to do it.
If Nintendo says the pad is intentionally disassembled, which you need to do to pad hack, the warrantee is gone, (even if you use authorized third party Nintendo parts). The Nintendo Wii orignally advertised that the Wiimote and Nunchuk were Ambidextrous, but after about the first 3 months, they dropped all pretense on anything that isn’t a Party game, a motion-contoelled Sports Sim, or other “non-gamer” game.
Nintendo says Link is left handed in most cases, so if regular fight sticks are supposed to be right handed, would Link complain about the Soul Caliber Game Cube setup on his own game, or would he whoop 90% of us? Twilight princess was sword right, shield left, even though Link would most likely be canonically sword left, shield right. Would Link have trouble playing his own Twilight Princess game? Knowing Link is about 10% of people in the US, wouldn’t it be smart to think like a switch hitter, especially since Nintendo brought the issue up with Link being left-handed?
Its interesting to me. Like I said if they ever go down in price I’ll try lol