Cube pad drove us to Wii - Miyamoto

By Tom Bramwell Published 31 January, 2008

Oh grow up.

Nintendo superhero Shigeru Miyamoto says that the Wiimote was originally a response to how utterly rubbish he thought the GameCube controller was.

Speaking to Famitsu in an article quoted and summarised by 1UP, Miyamoto said of the Cube controller: "We made it as a culmination of everything leading up to it, but it really underwhelmed. 'This line of thinking doesn't give us anything else to shoot for, does it?' That's how I felt."

The moment of realisation came when Nintendo became conscious that it was designing games around the standardised controller, he said, and that "the market was disappearing".

Not a problem the company seems to have these days, with Wii as the market-leading home console and DS having sold more than 60 million units. A quick glance down the UK All-Formats Top 40 reveals Nintendo games in ten positions and Wii or DS exclusives in a further seven.

Read the rest for more, including Miyamoto informing the interviewer with a laugh that he's making all the Mario and Zelda games.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • wa_uk #1 4 years ago

    he's wrong. the wavebird was actually very good. the z button position and size was fucking stupid though.

  • AcidSnake #2 4 years ago

    I thought it was very comfortable...though not revolutionary...

  • Artemis_Matsas #3 4 years ago

    The cube controller is fine and i still use it where i can. No need to bash it in favour of the Wiimote .

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #4 4 years ago

    I think this is a EG hatchet job on his quote. I don't think he's saying the cube pad was rubbish per se. What he's saying is he felt it was a dead-end, that it was the end of the line with convential controls because there was little room to change them.
    Edited by 1 at 31/01/08 @ 09:37

  • RoddyCool #5 4 years ago

    Hmmm....I thought the GC pad was the best of all the last gen pads....as for the wiimote I can't say I'm a big fan

  • thebuzzard #6 4 years ago

    I dont think he means it was a bad joypad, he means joypads themselves are limiting in their possibilities where as the wiimote is less so.

  • Wyrm #7 4 years ago

    The pad was designed specifically. But for Nintendo games, they went into this idea of having only a couple of buttons to do everything after having buttons all over the place on the N64. It was never designed with the 3rd party stuff in mind.

  • MBar #8 4 years ago

    I think this is a EG hatchet job on his quote. I don't think he's saying the cube pad was rubbish per se. What he's saying is he felt it was a dead-end, that it was the end of the line with convential controls because there was little room to change them.

    What he said. Nowhere did he say the pad was rubbish, just that it was limiting.

  • bad09 #9 4 years ago

    I have to agree. While it done the job I thought it was a terrible controller!

  • seasidebaz #10 4 years ago

    the pad was definately the best of last-gen, although the damn z-button was crap! playing through many games i even forgot said button existed!

  • Weezer #11 4 years ago

    Been playing Zak & Wiki and I have to perch on the edge of the sofa, arm outstretched to get it to register with the Wii. After an hour or so my arm's killng me. For any subsequent controllers, Nintendo need to give this thing some damn range...

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #12 4 years ago

    @ Weezer

    You can adjust the sensitivity of the controller in the settings menu

  • KingOfSpain #13 4 years ago

    I thought it was the best of the last-gen controllers. The 360's is now better but the cube pad is still way better than the any pad that has appeared on any Playstation including sixaxis/DS3

  • tapper #14 4 years ago

    "This line of thinking doesn't give us anything else to shoot for, does it?' That's how I felt."

    So.. how does EG get "utterly rubbish" from this? He just said it was the end of the line of that kind of input design.

  • alimokrane #15 4 years ago

    I agree. the GC controller S**** big time. Right now, the Xbox 360 controller is my favourite... it even beats the PS2s for me.

  • sabreman #16 4 years ago

    Love the Gamecube controller. Use the Wavebird now for VC games on the Wii.

    The 360 controller though, is by far the best controller made to date.
    Edited by 1 at 31/01/08 @ 11:23

  • Charroux #17 4 years ago

    The game GC pad was great - unless you needed to use both analogue sticks at the same time, or use the Z button a lot. Easily my favourite of the last gen controllers, though. Words cannot express the mediocrity of the Dual Shock design.

  • Triggerhappytel #18 4 years ago

    "I thought it was very comfortable...though not revolutionary..."

    +1

    I really liked the Cube pad.

  • Zomoniac #19 4 years ago

    The Cube pad is ergonomically wonderful. But, like the Wii setup and the N64 before it, it's perfect for games designed specifically for it and horrible for everything else.

  • L42yB #20 4 years ago

    I thought the GC pad was the best of all the last gen pads

    No, no, no... The S-Type Xbox controller was definitely the best pad of the last generation. And I reckon the Xbox 360 controller is the best of this gen. Esp. since I can plug it into my PC :)

  • Dafridge #21 4 years ago

    Games should never be designed for a peripheral, they should be designed for playability. There are too any games now that just use the wii mote because it is perceived as the selling point of the wii. Which is rubbish and leads to great first party titles and everything else being mediocre.

  • Muddtallica #22 4 years ago

    Agreed on the "Cube pad good but limited" front. I applaud for not simply laying out all the buttons and sticks for you in a unimaginative, inorganic way like the DualShock, but the problem was that the philosophy they used to streamline it were too idiosyncratic; Nintendo made judgement calls on control priorities (ie, that the left stick is more important than the right, that the D-pad and Z-button are unimportant, that games should be designed with a "main" button) that suited their own games well, but simply didn't tally with the ideas of most other developers, which meant third party titles, multiplatform ones in particular, felt ill-fitting on the Cube pad.

    Then again, the "Nintendo-type pads for Nintendo-type games" idea is an issue that's been present ever since the N64 days, and the Wii is perhaps the ultimate expression of that; still, at least they're being upfront about it now...

  • Grayvern #23 4 years ago

    The 360's ergonomic stick position is good but you also get used to the sixaxis after a while allthough as always the sticks could be more sensitive, but a lot of the time Ireckon its just lazy developers, as with oblivion PS3.

  • Bonus #24 4 years ago

    What was wrong with the Oblivion PS3 controls?

  • erp #25 4 years ago

    But the Cube joypad is my favourite joypad...! Hmmm.

    I'm not saying it was perfect, but it was the best yet in my opinion, and definitely the most ergonomic by a large margin.

  • FenderMaster #26 4 years ago

    Zomoniac nailed it

    The Cube pad is ergonomically wonderful. But, like the Wii setup and the N64 before it, it's perfect for games designed specifically for it and horrible for everything else.
    ignore poster

    same goes for the Wii

    and the Wii hasnt exactly lead to a revolution in innovative new software has it?

    in principle the Wii remote is great, but in reality its just too limited, it needs 1 to 1 controls

    in golf or baseball it cant even distinguish between the back swing and forward swing!!

  • Lemming81 #27 4 years ago

    Kind of surprised, as I think the Cube controller was the best one of last gen. Actually, I still think it's the best now.

    The Z button placement was fine as it wasn't supposed to be an oft-used button. Like for a game map or something.

    It's true that some developers didn't see it that way when designing their game controls though.

  • smelly #28 4 years ago

    @Weezer:

    If your arm is aching due to holding a wiimote.. then may i suggest you do some excercise?

  • smelly #29 4 years ago

    "Each new incarnation is exact the same as the first games he done 20 years ago! "

    *sigh*

    yes of course it is.

    Lets look at (say) halo.. each of those are so unique and individual from each other.. it's like playing a different game each time.

    Now lets look at mario 64/sunshine/galaxy together .. Wow.. They're IDENTICAL arent they! They play the same, look the same, control the same..

    Wow! You've really got a point there!

  • polymorph #30 4 years ago

    @ smelly,

    + 1,

    and did shig even design sunshine or galaxy? Im sure it was the new guy!!

  • robson_wii #31 4 years ago

    The Cube controller was the best for me last gen however Halo controls on XBox were also excellent. I like the Wii-mote and if you have problems with its range then try using the sensor stand. I added another 3 metres (approx 10 feet) by doing this which is nice as I have a 44" screen and before doing this I had to sit a little close. Now I can sit on my sofa at the ideal distance.

    There's also a link on YouTube somewhere of people playing Wii sports in a cinema with a converted sensor (it's quite funny to watch)

    I think the fact the Wii-mote is ambidextrous is interesting and works really well as one of my non-gaming friends is a lefty and he took to it instantly.

  • Ryze #32 4 years ago

    @Weezer

    I'm sure that moving the sensor bar a little closer might even help you out.