EXP Podcast #14: Controlling the Periphery

The video game world is buzzing with the release of Street Fighter IV.  It is a franchise that helped usher a generation of gamers into the fighting genre, and arrives greeted by a wave of emotionally-charged expectations.  Further complicating any attempts at objective analysis further is the fact that Street Fighter is rooted in the arcade tradition.  With the game's release comes peripherals (by the way, it looks like Jorge was right: MadCatz is the pricey one!) that capture the arcade feeling.  Mitch Krpata of the site Insult Swordfighting raises the important question of how to analyze games that rely (either implicitly or explicitly) on peripherals.  We trace a brief history of non-controller pad input devices and muse on their effects on the games that use them.  As always, feel free to jump in with your experiences and thoughts.

Some discussion starters:

-Should Street Fighter IV be reviewed a specific way (either arcade stick or control pad)? 
-How much focus should the hardware have in game analysis?
-What do you think of the "fairness" argument: Should games have a standardized control scheme to ensure a level playing field?  Should developers ensure that third party peripherals do not undermine this?

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Show Notes:

-Run time: 28 min 19 sec
-Mitch Krpata's article: "A Peripheral Concern "
-Music provided by Brad Sucks