Gaming accessories that are destined for the dustbin!

Gaming accessories always seem like a fantastic idea when they’re in the concept stage. Developers must be so confident that unlike almost every add-on gizmo that came before it, their new bit of kit won’t just end up a gimmicky piece of trash that gets escorted to the bin within 2 weeks of purchase. However, optimistic as the big gaming companies often seem to be, video game accessories do have a tendency to suck.

There have been some successes, of course, and Nintendo in particular have managed to make ideas like the Wii and DS actually work really well. Nonetheless, the majority of these bright ideas have turned out to be totally pointless. This week, it’s time to name them and shame the worst of them. 

Contents:

• Sega Activator (Sega Genesis)
• R.O.B. the Robot (NES)
• Kinect Game Boat (Xbox)
• Power Glove (NES)
• Wii Sports Pack (Wii)
• Camera and Printer (Game Boy)
• Power Pad (NES)

Sega Activator (Sega Genesis) 

The Sega Activator was a kind of forerunner to Microsoft’s Kinect project, released all the way back in 1993. If you thought Kinect was a disappointing mess, you don’t know the half of it. Marketed as a way to play games using just your body’s movements, it actually ended up being just a big plastic ring with infrared beams that (sometimes) recognised when you swung your arm through them. 

Rather than actually tracking your movements, each beam is mapped to a button, which means you’d be much more comfortable (and look a lot less ridiculous) just sitting down and playing with your trusty old controller.

R.O.B. (NES)

The first of several entries released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, R.O.B. the robot was designed as a little mechanical pal that could help you in two-player games if you were struggling on the friend front. Born in 1985, the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) burst onto the scene with two games he could (allegedly) help you out in. Unfortunately, though, he wasn’t much help at all.

Slow, unresponsive, and not the brightest banana in the bunch, R.O.B. just didn’t have the get-up-n-go energy you need when you dive into a bit of two-player action. On top of that, his banter was severely sub-par. R.O.B. eventually found his calling as an unlockable character in the Mario Kart series.

Kinect Game Boat (Kinect)

The Kinect system itself has just managed to avoid being slapped on this list, as it functioned relatively well and could entertain you for more than 20 minutes. The Kinect Game Boat, on the other hand, deserves pride of place on the wall of shame.

It’s literally just an inflatable raft that you put on the floor in front of your Xbox and sit in when you play Kinect Adventures! As if that wasn’t already an outrageous waste of space and money, it also allegedly smelled really bad.

Power Glove (NES)

Another case of sky-high expectations being brutally dashed, the Power Glove was another disaster brought out to supposedly level up gamers’ experience on the NES. The idea was that the glove would enable you to control your on-screen character using your hand movements – particularly cool for driving and fighting games.

However, as is tradition with NES accessories, it just didn’t work very well. It may look cool when you first put it on, but it’s a lot less so when you’re flapping your arm around increasingly desperately as you try to get your character to do anything. 

Wii Sports Pack (Wii)

The Wii is one of those few examples of a gimmick that actually works. The system’s mechanics and controllers work smoothly and it had plenty of great games tailored to its specific controls, including the incredible Wii Sports. 

What it probably didn’t need, however, was a smorgasbord of ridiculous attachments for the Wii remote and nunchuk shaped like various pieces of sports equipment. 

These range from the steering wheel – makes sense for driving games – to baseball bats, tennis rackets, swords, guns and endless other bits of plastic that add precisely nothing to your gaming experience and are just destined for the bin from the moment they arrive.

Camera and Printer (Game Boy)

This is one of the more admirable attempts at greatness on this list, but all the same it ended up being just a little bit rubbish. The idea of having a little camera you could attach to your Game Boy and use to take selfies before they were cool was a neat one, but could the picture quality match expectations?

Of course, it couldn’t, and the result was pixellated black and white “photos” printed out on what was essentially receipt paper. This useless gizmo did make its way into the Guinness Book or Records as the world’s smallest digital camera in 1999 though. 

Power Pad (NES)

Wrapping things up is yet another piece of pointless tat that was tossed unceremoniously at NES users for them to volley directly into the trash. The Power Pad was released in 1988 and is a mat with buttons that you can step on to – theoretically – make your gaming experience more active. 

Who would have thought that stamping around on an unresponsive crinkly rug would get tiresome? It does very quickly though, and users soon got sick of this absurd gimmick. Leave the stomping to Dance Dance Revolution.