When I saw that the DS was getting a “paddle” controller — as seen on Destructoid — I was so excited that if I’d had the foresight to fill my pockets full of glitter, at that moment I’d have done a quick little dance and thrown two handfuls of the stuff into the sky above me. As nice as the touch screen is, it’s never really impressed me all that much. I’ve always found the idea of the dual-screen much more important than the addition of touch. The ability to display multiple views and pass information to the player without obscuring the field of view, especially when screen real estate is so limited, is vital. Perhaps that’s so because there are so few games that have really taken advantage of what can be done with the touch screen, or because the ones that do are lousy at it. Either way, for some games, it just doesn’t quite compare to more traditional control interfaces. For example, although the game being featured with that new paddle controller is “Arkanoid”, I’ve played “Breakout” on the DS before, which is fairly similar to “Arkanoid”, and the touch screen makes for a pretty good interface, but it’s not the most accurate way of controlling the paddle when executing quick maneuvers. Not only that, but sometimes the stylus gets in the way, making it hard to see. A paddle wouldn’t just make the game more “retro” but more enjoyable, too.
