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Brittany Vincent Profile _ Twitter _ E-mail _ Homepage

It can be difficult to imagine, but in a couple decades from now, some of us will be guffawing with grandchildren, nephews, nieces, or even reminiscing with friends about how much our current gaming products "sucked." We look back on the Virtual Boy with disdain now, and the Power Glove wasn't much better. Sure, they're jam-packed with nostalgia, but they didn't exactly work as promised. You got some splitting headaches if you attempted to play around with the Virtual Boy for too long, and let's face it, the Power Glove was only really cool if you were on an odyssey to Cal-i-FORN-ia. Some of today's "toys" aren't really all they're cracked up to be, either. There have been quite a few stinkers over the years, most notably Sony's original EyeToy. Sure, it might have evolved into what we now know as the Move, complete with colorful lollipops of controllers, but in the old days it was a glorified webcam that needed more light than the dazzling display emanating from Old Gregg's nether regions. Its rudimentary selection of mini-games and fitness programs were laughable at best. Ultimately, it served its best purpose as a low-budget webcam for hanging out with your friends online because you didn't have a more suitable option. And now it's evolved into something completely different. The WiiSpeak was fundamentally useless as well, a strange addition to a world of online gaming that Nintendo couldn't get just right. Rather than a headset, players were expected to place this as a setpiece in the room and "connect" with other players in games like Animal Crossing. As you can imagine, it didn't go over very well, and it's almost as if Nintendo is trying to gloss over the evidence. Can you blame them? Seems like Nintendo is responsible for many of the failed newfangled doodads over the years, but then again they've also innovated beyond belief. It's one reason why I find something to love about every company: they've all got their strong points and their low points, and I associate Nintendo with the "interesting" products that either make you grin at how ingenious they are or scratch your head, wondering how in the world their latest concoction could even fit into the scheme of things. With an eye toward the future and as a member of the gaming community, I have to wonder how we'll view the upcoming Kinect in the few decades I referenced earlier. With our latest technology in our golden years, will be look back upon Microsoft's latest marketing bid as a failed attempt to seamlessly integrate motion control into our games, or will it become a stepping stone for Tomorrow's quite possible controller-free age? Will it truly revolutionize things they way Microsoft has intended, or will it become just another hunk of junk destined for us to laugh at its inadequacies over? We'll have a more concrete idea in a few weeks, and as the heavy-hitters roll on out, you can bet we'll be able to gauge the rise or fall of one of the next "big ideas" to rock the industry. As for right now, what's the worst peripheral or "toy" you've waited for with bated breath over the years or bought out of curiosity only to find that it was inherently worthless or not what it was cracked up to be? As silly as the idea was, Game Boy Micros don't count!

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