I was recently in touch with the staff at SplitFish Gameware and a lovely demo package was sent our way highlighting three SplitFish products. If you haven’t heard of SplitFish Gameware they are a fairly new hardware company located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Unlike other hardware companies, SplitFish is more than rehashed controllers and redundant gimmick add-ons. SplitFish is on the cutting edge of gaming hardware and one of Canada's premier gaming companies that is ready for an upward climb.
In the future SplitFish plans to release a line up of new controllers for the Playstation 3 and possibly a leap over to the Microsoft side. If one developer can bring tilting to the Xbox 360 and rumble to the Playstation 3, it's SplitFish.. I guess that is a whole other mess of copyrights, negotiations and headaches. Although we're not reviewing the newest buzz creation from Split Fish, we are highlighting three Split Fish devices that give the gamer more options while playing or viewing their Playstation 2 games.
So without further due here is our look at a few of Splitfish Gameware hardware items.
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The main fish in the pond as far as I’m concerned is the SplitFish Motion FX Adapter. In a nonchalant nod towards Sony, SplitFish one ups Sony's new SIXAXIS controller by providing a controller that vibrates along with using sensory controls. Whoever said Sony might have rushed the redesign of their Playstation 3 controller, they might have been onto something. It might be that Sony couldn't craft such a device, but I doubt it. Rush job or not gamers now have new option with the SplitFish Motion FX Adapter.
The Motion FX Adapter fits right onto your normal PS2 force feedback controllers and emulates the new tilt motion that you find in the PS3 SIXAXIS controller, or the Nintendo Wii's controllers. The adaptor looks sleek with smooth rounded edges with a small squared LED cross section in the middle of the adapter. The Motion FX is a simple click on sensor that fastens over the middle of the PS2 controller. The adapter doesn’t restrict any of the buttons on the PS2 controller like your start or select button. Once clipped on to the PS2 controller you have to plug the normal end of the controller into a supplied port and the plug the wire from Motion FX into the same port. Once plugged in the LEDs should flash twice letting you know it’s been connected correctly. It's that easy, it only takes a few seconds to get the sensor hooked on and ready to go.
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Who needs that fancy SIXAXIS anyway? |
Turning the Motion FX on during game is easily toggable by pressing the black button on the bottom of the device. The Motion FX works by swapping your right or left analog stick controls over to the tilt sensor. Since the analog sticks usually act as movement in games this works like a charm. To control the tilt sensor all you do is move the controller in the same fashion as you would move the analog stick. Depending on the control scheme of the game you can toggle the SplitFish Motion FX to the other analog stick as well. All adjustments can be made by combination button presses on your controller along with the led on the sensor.
If it sounds tricky, it's not, surprisingly the Motion FX feels like a natural extension of the controller. The tricky part is finding an appropriate game to use the sensor controls in. It is smart to give yourself a few minutes with each game you decide to try out with the Motion FX because some might take a few moments to get comfortable with. I tried the Split Fish Motion FX out on a few games to get a sense of the controller, Reservoir Dogs from Eidos and Disney’s Kingdom Hearts was also playable. I didn't have too many problems and if you’re looking for a new way to play some old games, the Motion FX will do the trick. The one game I wanted to have work was Katamari Damacy. The thought of rolling around with a motion sensitive controller was very exciting, its too bad Katamari didn’t work because you have to move both analog sticks to move the Katamari around and the Motion FX can only be set for one.
Overall the Split Fish Motion FX is worth the investment, the adapter works perfectly and the motion sensor seems on par with the new SIXAXIS controller. The motion FX is also a synch to set up; Having the demo model up and running within a few minutes is a great relief which means no stress to the end user. If you feel like you’ve been missing out on the motion sensitive phase that is going on at the moment the SplitFish Motion FX s is a great option to get some extra life out of your PS2 games.
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