Top Five Gaming Peripherals

Peripherals are becoming increasingly common, especially with Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's Arc controllers coming to fruition later this year. Why not take this opportunity to discuss my personal favorite peripherals of all time? That's exactly the plan with this top five list. Sit back, relax, and gaze upon the peripherals of gaming past and future!

5) The Dance Dance Revolution Dance Mat

Long before there were plastic guitars, drum sets, and microphones, there was a dance mat for a little-known video game known as Dance Dance Revolution. The object was simple: when an arrow went over the direction, you stepped on that direction either left, right, up, down, or one of many other directions. It gave you a good sweat, was fun to play, and was infinitely more deep than the current dance craze video game, Just Dance.


4) Sony's Eye Toy

An innovative little device if I ever saw one, the Eye Toy was a camera that put you into the video game. Of course, the majority of games used for the Eye Toy were simply mini-game compilations, but the novelty wouldn't wear off for a long time. You used your hands to bat away enemies, control Sonic as you roamed through a tube, and much more. This technology could be seen as the predecessor to Sony's PlayStation 3 PlayStation Eye which will be used in conjunction with Sony's new motion controller, Arc.


3) Wii MotionPlus

Here's a cheap device that plugs into the bottom of your Wii remote for added motion control benefits. Near 1:1 gameplay, less waggle, and more fun. Only a select few games use the MotionPlus device currently which is an oversight on Nintendo's part, but the games that do use it well. Wii Sports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, and the upcoming Red Steel 2 showcase just how ingenious the add-on is. It could have been with the Wii day-one, but who knows how much more overpriced the Wii would actually be then?


2) The Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak

Notice how extreme the Rumble Pak is. It isn't spelled "pack". No, no. It's too cool for that! It's spelled "pak"! Now that's extreme! Bundled with Star Fox 64 with its release, the Rumble Pak let you feel the game. Boost? Rumble. Get hit? Bigger rumble. Crash? Huge rumble. It was unlike anything seen before. Now rumble is all the rage. It's been built-in to controllers now with Sony leading the way on this front. Regardless, it will always be Nintendo who brought rumble to the gaming masses. Another one of their many contributions to gaming.


1) The Gameboy Player

I originally foolishly purchased the GBA Link Cable thinking it would allow me to play my GBA games on my television. This wouldn't be the case for many years. The Gameboy Player hooked into the underside of the Gamecube, and it would be run with a special boot-up Gamecube disc. You could play any and every Gameboy Advance game on a big screen television. Very cool. Here's hoping Sony develops an easier way to play PSP games on a television. That would be awesomeness times ten.

Did I leave out one of your favorites? Let everyone including myself know in the comments section!