were a rebellious pre-teen looking to dominate a video game tournament in Las Vegas, you

had to have a Power Glove. Gesture-based gaming never looked so... actually, I can’t even

talk smack. Though it really, really, really hurts to use this thing for an extended period

of time, the Power Glove makes significantly more sense as an input device as, say, the

woeful U-Force. Up, down, left, and right are tracked by three sensors that cradle the

top-right of your TV and communicate with your gauntlet by ultrasonic frequencies. The

action buttons are handled by your hand itself, where by default the A button is your thumb

and B is your index finger. On the back of the glove itself are a battery of buttons,

including a complete copy of an NES controller, a centering button to calibrate the mitt,

and a bevy of program buttons that control input mapping and rapid-fire capability. But

how does it work? LET THE SCIENCE BEGIN.

No peripheral should be made that can’t at least deal with the iconic NES platformer.

The Power Glove makes controlling Mario fairly handy, with a fist clutch to jump and fairly

comfortable lateral control. 1-1 was a breeze, though I ran out of time in 1-2 when I got

cocky and tried to jump to the top of the screen. Shotgunning goombas with the trigger-style

control on the fireball was kinda cool, though.

This puzzler was a bit tougher, since the command to jump is on the up button. It almost

felt like I was throwing Dana around the maze, though the pain in my arm was beginning to

creep up on me. Still, cleared the first two stages pretty easily, though the timing in

the third was more than I could manage.

While the Power Glove was responsive in all four directions, as well as kicking and passing,

the difficulty here is in keeping your arm still in mid-air if you want to, y’know,

keep your Kunio-kun dude actually still on the field. I’d call for a pass, try to rest

my hand as the ball made its way to me, and all of a sudden I’m in Zagreb or Minsk or

somewhere geographical. It’s at this point that I wanted an icepack.

Kirby’s Adventure is a very late, very detailed game, and the difficulty in maneuvering the

pink puffball with the Glove is quickly apparent. Especially in the underwater sections, the

difficulty in standing still makes itself known, and with everything you have to do

simultaneously, you’re better off just playing it on your arm if need be.

Yeah, I know the Power Glove has its failings, but... honestly, Paperboy felt the best out

of all these games. Raise arm to speed up, lower to slow down, thumb to fling a paper...

the mechanics of the game actually work well with the device. I shall now report my findings

to Bryan S. of Pennsylvania, who will probably use the document to prop up his massive Virtual

Boy collection. Which he’s totally gonna lend me sometime. Right?