Kinect and EyeToy
The supreme way to look stupid while playing video games is with the Kinect and the often-forgotten EyeToy, both of which were devices that enabled you to “become the controller!” What this essentially meant is that it was a way to get you and your friends and family to jump around the living room in front of your TV. Don’t pretend that you didn’t think about shutting your curtains whenever you set one of these devices up. Now, there are some games for the Kinect, like Child of Light or Fantasia: Music Evolved that don’t make you look like a complete moron, but then there are games like Sonic Free Riders and Kinect Adventures that require you to leave your dignity at the door.
When it comes to EyeToy, every single game will make you look ridiculous. Except for EyeToy: Chat. Doing an online video call in 2005 would have made you the coolest.
Any Music Game With a Peripheral
Music games are some of the purest fun in video games (so long as you’re not trying to pass Through the Fire and Flames on Expert), but some plastic instruments can leave you looking a little silly. Everyone knows about the guitar and drum games, so I suppose you can get away with those —it’s the more obscure games that people will question you over. Samba de Amigo come to mind. The small and colorful design of the maracas just makes them look like a child’s toy.
You also can’t count out the plethora of singing games: SingStar, Karaoke Revolution, Lips, Boogie, and loads more. Going out, getting drunk, and embarrassing yourself on the karaoke is a socially acceptable way to let off steam. Wailing at your TV, on the other hand, not so much.
Splatoon Wii U Pro Controller Strapped to a Wii Remote
Who would have thought that this control input was an official method encouraged by Nintendo? Literally strapping a Wii remote to your Wii U Pro controller.
For some Splatoon players, myself included, motion controls are essential for aiming well in that game. This presents a problem when playing the first Splatoon on Wii U in local multiplayer: only one Gamepad can be used per system. Unlike the Switch’s pro controller, the Wii U’s controller didn’t have any motion control functionality built in. Nintendo’s solution: strap a Wii remote to the controller, allowing the game to detect the motion of the Wii remote while you use the buttons of the Pro controller. This actually works, go try it. No doubt, this led to massive fights over who got to use the Gamepad.
Tony Hawk Ride
Activision, the publisher of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, weren’t satisfied with leaving the oversized plastic controllers with the music genre, they had to branch out into another. Thus, the Tony Hawk Ride skateboard controller was born. Yeah, it’s as stupid as it looks. The motion sensing technology and sensors basically made it a Wii Fit board that you can tilt forwards, backwards, and side-to-side. It’s bound to get a lot of laughs. Slipping is a staple of physical comedy, after all.
The only way you could look dumber while playing a Tony Hawk game is if your friends caught you playing Pro Skater 5.
Actually Using the Resident Evil 4 Controller
The Resident Evil 4 controller for GameCube is a sleek controller that doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the excellent standard GameCube controller, and it can be praised for its minimalist design.
The Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw controller, on the other hand, is a monstrosity of a controller if there ever was one. I’m assuming that the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw controller was supposed to be a display piece only, because as a controller, it’s one of the most uncomfortable things that you can hold in your hands. Show up to a Smash Bros. tournament with this —I dare you.
Still more comfortable than the Atari Jaguar controller though.
VR
The current state of VR technology is extraordinary. Being transported to a different world and getting to truly walk in the shoes of another being is really something else. But to other people in the room, you look a bit silly.
Essentially, you’re strapping an oversized pair of goggles on to your head, shutting yourself away from the world around you. Say you’re grandma walks into the room. She may think you’ve got something stuck on your face. Then there’s friends or siblings. They could be flipping you off right in front of your face, and you wouldn’t have a clue. There’s also the possibility that you could severely hurt your hand or the TV if you get too into the game.
VR is a great piece of technology, but it certainly has its caveats.
WarioWare Smooth Moves
In an Iwata Asks interview, Yoshio Sakamoto, the producer of WarioWare: Smooth Moves, said that a main goal of the development team was to have players say “this is ridiculous.” It’s safe to say that that goal was achieved.
WarioWare: Smooth Moves asks players to hold the Wii remote (or, as it is called in game, Form Baton) in different forms. One of these, the Elephant, requires the Wii remote be held in front of your nose. One of the microgames to use this form sees you shooting fruit from your face into a giant, destructive nose. The final microgame sees you waving your arms in the air like you just don’t care and is surely the inspiration for Just Dance.
NES LaserScope
The NES had an ungodly amount of stupid accessories: the Roll ‘n Rocker, the U-Force, and who can forget the Power Glove. But none of them compare to the ridiculousness of the Konami LaserScope.
It’s a light gun for NES that functions similarly to Nintendo’s own Zapper but with two fundamental differences: it is head-mounted and voice-activated. It was originally designed for the Konami game Laser Invasion, which is played by looking at your enemies and shouting “fire.” It is also compatible with any NES light gun game. If you wanted to, you could pop in your copy of Duck Hunt and scream “die ducks, die” and you’ll be golden. So long as your neighbors don’t call the cops.
Hey You, Pikachu!
Speech recognition is a pretty interesting feature in video games, especially in the late 1990s and 2000s. In SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs, you could appoint tasks to you teammates with your voice. In Seaman, you could talk to your weird, Leonard Nimoy-voiced, amphibian pet. The differences between those games and Hey You, Pikachu! is that they actually worked.
Hey You, Pikachu! is controlled almost exclusively with the bundled Nintendo 64 microphone accessory. Players would have to speak to Pikachu to get it to fish, collect ingredients, and perform other tasks. The problem isn’t the microphone accessory —it’s Pikachu himself. Pikachu’s A.I. is designed in a way that it will sometimes just ignore the player and do whatever he pleases. Playing a game with speech recognition isn’t inherently stupid, but this particular game and its irritating mascot definitely make a fool out of you. Perhaps they should have replaced the “hey” in the title with a certain four letter word.
1-2-Switch
Disclaimer: Even if you don’t dress yourself in farmer’s gear like the guy pictured above has, playing the Milk mini-game in 1-2-Switch will still make you look stupid.
1-2-Switch is, and will always be, a very strange game considering that a few of the mini-games don’t even require the screen. The Eating Contest mini-game, for example, requires you to point the controller at your face and make a biting motion. That’s about all there is to it.
It’s like they took the same “this is ridiculous” goal from WarioWare: Smooth Moves and applied it to this game. The main difference between the two is that WarioWare’s layer of fun is much greater and more long-lasting than 1-2-Switch’s. If you really want to look stupid while playing a video game, you can’t go wrong with 1-2-Switch.
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