Anyways, today at Comic-Con they had the above controller on display, a Tatsunoko vs Capcom themed Fight Stick. Sure, it may have the same hardware as the Street Fighter IV Fight Stick (you know, the one that was notorious for breaking) with some Tatsunoko vs Capcom artwork slapped on top. But it’s the novelty that counts, right?

No word on pricing or availability but considering Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars is expected to drop for the Wii towards the end of this year, you can probably expect it then.

via Destructoid

Enter, Band Hero DS which is exactly what you woudl expect, Band Hero for the Nintendo DS. The game will be developed by Activision owned Vicarious Visions and will come bundled with a guitar peripheral along with a never before seen drum peripheral.

For gamers who liked the previous Guitar Hero DS games, this is for you. As for the rest of you, move along.

via Kotaku

There’s not much to say about this set besides the fact that it’s, well, a drum controller. Although, it will apparantly allow for use with 2 kick pedals if you’re into that kind of thing.

Guitar Hero 5 will be made available for the Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and Wii on September 1st, 2009.

via Joystiq

This all comes from the mouth of producer Cameron Rains, with Rains adding that since in these early stages of the peripheral most companies are focusing on sports related titles we have yet to see the full potential of the device. That’s a pretty no-brainer statement of course, since it’s rare that any gaming system or new peripheral/control scheme is executed perfectly in its first few offerings.

In an industry where boasts and gigantic egos are fairly common it’s refreshing to see that Rains doesn’t follow it up with a claim that they’ll be the ones to deliver on it.

Sony has recently announced that they will be expanding their licensing program thus allowing more third party manufacturers the ability to produce pretty much anything they want for the PSP, PS2 or PS3.

Apparantly if a company decides to enter the licensing program they will have to comply with “qualifying SCE standards and requirements” after which they will be given the technical knowledge behind creating Playstation products. Of course they also get to slap the Official Licensed Product logo onto their products.

Read (Joystiq)

We first heard about the Wireless Xbox 360 Microphone back in the beginning of April when Microsoft unveiled some new Lips DLC.

Well, it seems that Microsoft has again set their sights on the wireless mic as they have said the peripheral, which is compatible with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Lips, and even Disney Sign It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year, will ship to retail this fall.

The Wireless Microphone is expected to cost $49.99. Hey, you didn’t think a Microsoft developed product would be cheap, did you?

Read (Ripten)

What you see above was recently introduced by Nintendo during their E3 presentation, the Wii Vitality Sensor.

What this peripheral essentially is, is a heart rate monitor that you attach to the bottom of the Wii controller just like you would the Nunchuk attachment. Nintendo says this attachment will “expand the appeal of video games” and sense a players pulse along with “a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world.”

So, exactly waht they will be using this attachment for? Not a clue but knowing Nintendo they will probably come up with something good.

Read (Kotaku)

It was intended to translate a gamers hand movements into control inputs, but due to its imprecision and lack of dedicated games it didn’t really catch on, and was regarded as a gimmick, but the concept has remained popular. Films like Minority Report, Johnny Mnemonic and others have showed extreme fascination with the concept of controlling a computer via hand inputs.

The Peregrine is an attempt by Iron Will to bring this generally science-fiction concept into real life. MMOs and RTS games are notorious for complex control schemes that require endless numbers of key shortcuts for success and to fumble one in the midst of a raid or skirmish can destroy your slim chance of victory. The Peregrine promises to offer over thirty key shortcuts by tapping your thumb to various points on your fingers. Of course the control options are customizable and luckily for those prone to long, long gaming sessions the sensor disconnects and the glove itself is washable.

We first saw the turntable inspired controller for DJ Hero earlier this month but it was only half of the controller not to mention just a rendering.

Well, during a E3 preview special aired on spike there was a brief segment with the hostess, Amanda McKay, holding the full controller cross-fader and all. Even with the missing counterpart it’s still had to determine which game has the cooler controller, DJ Hero, or Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

Either or, Activision says that DJ Hero is set to drop sometime before the end of this year.

Read (VG247)

One of the more interesting features though is that the Wand allows for electronic emulation of existing buttons. With the Nintendo Wiimote if you want some sort of alternate control scheme i.e. a light gun style controller, it can only operate the buttons in an analog fashion. The Wand is set up so that a peripheral plugged into the port on the end can have its own buttons.

There are two packages available, the ‘core pack’ which comes with a Wand and vibration enabled wired Kama; then there’s the ‘Action Pack’ which includes a Wand and a light gun accessory. It’s obviously styled after the Nyko Perfect Shot but functions a little differently. Before slipping the controller into it, you remove the battery cover. It also includes the mandatory orange bit you stick on the ‘barrel’ to indicate it’s a toy, though why you’d take it outside the house is beyond me (well with the exception of maybe bringing it to a friend’s place to play, but then just stick it in a bag).

The Wand is now available in stores for $34.99, the Core and Action packs are available for $49.99

When I first saw the announcement trailer for Tony Hawk: RIDE I wondered how the hell that skateboard deck shaped controller would work. Well, thanks to Kotaku, we now know — The controller itself will include two accelerometers and 4 motions sensors (which you can see above) all serving their own purpose.

The accelerometers, as you could have guessed, will deal with turning and spinning. As in, you tilt to the left your character turns left, tilt right he turns right, just like a real skateboard.

The real fun, however, comes with tricks like kickflips and tail grabs in which you will utilize the motion sensors. You’ll have to actually move your feet over said motion sensors just like you would if you were doing the trick in real life. Nonskateboarders don’t fret as there will be 3 difficulty the hardest of which will require “a ton of motion control from the user” with the two easier settings catering towards those who are less skateboard savvy.

Up until now I’ve always look at the Wii Balance Board as sort of a gimicky peripheral. I mean, everything you could do with it (besides Wii Fit) you can do with the Wiimote easier. However, the control scheme for Punch-Out!! has recently been reveiled and the Balance Board looks to be a welcome addition.

As you can see, the player can apply pressure to both feet to duck and pressure ot the left or right feet to dodge either way. Pretty cool, huh? Definitely a step up from Wii Boxing which was bundled with Wii Sports.

Punch-Out!! is set to hit shelves for the Nintendo Wii next week.

Read (Kotaku)

The 3-in-1 Virtual Retro Adapter will plug into the Gamecube controller port and accept inputs from the original NES, Super Nintendo and N64 Controllers. It’s compatible with both 1st and 3rd party controllers and is set to launch June of this year, with an MSRP of $19.99. It’s manufactured and designed by Komodo and distributed by Innex

Just yesterday Activision gave us a first look at the controller for their upcoming DJ Hero title. Today, Kotaku has gotten their hands on some press images of the controller for competiting title Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

As you can see, the controller is somewhat similar to DJ Hero’s since it has a turntable and a cross-fader but it also includes 5 colored buttons and was created by actual turntable maker Numark. Oh yeah, that turntable is also free spinning and touch-sensitive.

Now, there’s no telling when Scratch: The Ultimate DJ will be out but if it does actually hit store shelves DJ Hero is sure to get a run for its money.

Penguin is creating a new peripheral for the console that hopes to correct this issue, the CrossFire Remote Pistol. It’ll be a smaller, more compact device with the A, B and D-pad buttons are all repositioned for easier access. Of course the B button is located in the trigger position, with the A and D-pad buttons located right next to the thumb. It also features enhanced vibration function and more powerful speakers. Of course since it’s simply just a modified Wiimote with the same buttons it’ll function with normal games. The new peripheral is set to be debuted at E3.

The above peripheral may look like nothing more than a peice of plastic to the untrained eye. However, to avid Nintendo DSi users, Thrustmaster’s T-Standee Charger could prove to be a handy add-on.

The above pictured stand, entitled the T-Standee Charger, is a secure docking station that allows users to view their DSi from a horizontal or vertical position all while charging the devicce.

The T-Standee Charger is expected to sell for €12.99 with no word on when we’ll be seeing this thing statside. Then again, you can probably find something that serves the exact same purpose with a little bit of searching.

Read (Kotaku)

“It truly is giving you that one-to-one control movement of your arm motion and then mapping it directly to that one-to-one movement of your character on screen,” said Singleton.

The peripheral will be bundled in with Wii Sports Resort, due out later this year. It will also be available for purchase separately.

“At times it’s overly responsive. It had so much fidelity that at times we have limited that fidelity to make it a compelling experience and giving you full total control.”

Other games to support the Wii Motion Plus include Red Steel 2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis will be hitting retailers on June 18th across North America.

Read (TechRadar)

The title is planned as a first entry into a new permutation of the FPS genre as the press release calls HellRazer: Triple Helix the ‘debut title’. It’s a squad-based tactical FPS game, which on the surface doesn’t sound like anything impressive at all. Where the importance of the partnership comes in is the control scheme. Razer is developing a brand new peripheral dedicated specifically to this game and any developed after it. Ironically while many hardcore gamers are calling the Wii a gimmick, Razer’s new peripheral is going to be a motion sensing controller, which is currently under development in their Singapore labs and the company aims to make it the first true 1:1 motion sensing controller.

“Razer is extending its vision by partnering up with Valve on this exciting new collaborative project,” said Razer president Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff. “For the first time, PC gamers will be able to experience a more integrated, immersive gameplay in a first-person shooter game.”

Oh and by the way, April Fools. Check the website for the official press release, which is hilarious. It’s almost tragic that this is a joke, because there are certain features of the game that sound actually enjoyable, like multiplayer modes where certain events can cause players to change to a different team altogether.

While he wouldn’t reveal any details, G4 speculates that the new device is a keyboard. The studio had previously revealed that players can use the guitar controller to map out keyboard units and drum machine programming in the editor.

The fourth game in the installment is in development for release this Fall on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.