ONM Remembered – #448
“‘Where’s the D-Pad?’ we hear your cry. It’s sneakily concealed behind the centre panel, hidden by the tasteful Williams F1 logo.”
from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 123 (December 2002)
Seeing such elaborate gimmick controllers were still being made in the new millennium continues to astound me. Video game steering wheels are always big pieces of kit, but was anyone asking for one with a dozen different face buttons, bumpers, triggers, gear sticks and a secretly stowed-away D-Pad? If nothing else, I’d be keen to see if it’s possible to play Mega Man X using it.
Frankly, it disappoints me that there was probably no game that made the absolute best out of the steering wheel’s functions. As impractical as it was, I almost wish more games took a leaf out of the original Steel Battallion and made games built solely for enormous, complicated (and expensive!) custom-made controllers. The age of Guitar Hero filling cupboards with giant peripherals didn’t nearly extend far enough for my liking.
