GDC 10: This lefty isn’t worrying about the PS Move

Notebooks, guitars, and Wii remotes are a small collection of items not intended for the left dominate. Notice I didn’t mention the PlayStation Move.

In San Francisco this week I used Sony’s new motion control device, a near pixel perfect 1:1 take on Nintendo’s casual controller, with two games: Farsight Studios Brunswick Bowling and Zipper Interactive’s SOCOM US Navy SEALS 4. I’m left-handed, and in both games, I didn’t have problems.

I experience subtle, sometimes overt disconnects with most Wii titles. Reticules jiggle or snake across the screen because I hold the remote in my dominant hand. Cameras zoom and pan around 3D worlds while my hand remains firm and centered.

In action adventure games like Zelda the inputs can be confusing for me: the green-garbed adventurer Link holds his sword in his right hand, his shield strapped on his left arm. My left-hand then becomes his right.

I expected a similar sort of issue with Brunswick Bowling, a simple debut PS Move title that features right-handed bowlers spilling fiberglass spheres across a lacquered lane. But the Eye didn’t lose me, I didn’t need to re-sync, and the throwing motion didn’t feel awkward.

During an impromptu PS Move session with SOCOM 4, Zipper Interactive’s resurrection of a series that Slant Six might have turned people off from, creative director Ed Byrne shot me nervous glance when I told him that I was left-handed and would only feel comfortable if I could use the PS Move and sub-controller in that inverted style. Byrne then said he was excited to see if the game took to southpaws.

SOCOM 4 is an over-the-shoulder, cover-based shooter. It’s also a simulation that requires you to be aware of your surroundings and react as a viper. Speed and precision are more vital as they are in Zelda. And the lead protagonist, like Link, uses his right-hand to assault.

No worries. After a brief hiccup with the PS Move hardware — the device is still in the pre-Alpha stage — I was able to maim, pan, and destroy just as well as I imagine my right-handed cohorts were able to within the darkened, sequestered booth. I wasn’t thrown off by the action, nor did I feel handicapped because of my genes.

I need more time with the hardware to be able to definitely say that there won’t be any problems. And more than likely it’s up to developers to sculpt an experience that works well for both right and left handers, but in my limited time with two different games, I can say that I didn’t have issues.

And considering that I still can’t roll with bosses in Zelda, that’s saying a lot.

Zipper Interactive’s SOCOM 4 is due out this Fall. The PS Move integration that I used was in a pre-alpha stage and the team had a mere six weeks of serious time with the device. Color me impressed and eager to see what else comes. Look for my full impressions of the game with the PS Move later this afternoon.