I’ve tried out a few of these gun-like controllers in my time, from the silly (just a controller shaped like a gun) to the awesome (pico-projector built-in), and of course everyone loves the Redneck Techie and his Game Gun. But variety is the spice of life, and this Mag Gun has a different system than all of them that may make it worth a look.
The Mag Gun is compatible with 360 and PS3, and has buttons all over it which correspond to the face and trigger buttons on the controllers. The left analog stick is there under your left thumb, but the right analog stick (usually used for aiming) is simulated by a system that’s so simple I’m embarrassed Nintendo didn’t think of it first.
The controller has a wide-angle camera in its tip, and to calibrate it, all you have to do it point it at the center of the TV. It then (if my analysis is correct) simply tracks the luminance image of the TV (it’s a distinctive rectangular shape, obviously) and uses that to determine where the gun is pointing. That’s very smart! It has all the same drawbacks and advantages of the Wiimote, which just uses IR instead of the TV’s visible spectrum. It’s actually a very smart system, I’m impressed!
The Mag Gun just passed through the FCC, so it’s not really being marketed or branded yet, but depending on its real-life performance, you might actually see these at your local Toys R Us or GameStop.
