10 Video Games With Insane Features You Never Knew
Awesome video game mechanics you totally missed! Manhunt, GTA, Kirby...
The sheer amount of time that goes into creating even the most basic aspect of a video game is, frankly, ridiculous.
The famously secretive nature of the games industry only underlines the fact that most players have little concrete knowledge of how much work is required to complete a terrible game, let alone a good one, and that even the most minor, insignificant feature can be the result of intense labour.
So it's always surprising when developers go the extra mile to include a feature that's so creative, visionary, and unlike anything else you've seen before, only for it largely fall upon deaf ears when the game comes out.
These 10 features, from deceptively simple mechanics to stunning interactions between hardware and software, and even one bold attempt to make video games a more sensory experience, were largely ignored by players.
Whether due to the developers oddly downplaying the feature or players simply being so thoroughly overwhelmed with the rest of the game, these 10 mind-blowing elements probably passed you by, but you absolutely need to check them out now...
10. It Knows The Colour Of Your Joy-Cons - Pokemon Sword & Shield
Pokémon Sword and Shield's accessible simplicity may have left some fans disappointed, but there's one small-yet-ingenious feature within the game that's anything but simple.
In the player character's bedroom, you'll notice a Nintendo Switch situated on their desk, and incredibly, the colour of your own Joy-Con will be represented on-screen.
This was quite brilliantly tested by Redditor bearfighter666, who demonstrated the phenomenon with two Nintendo Switch consoles side-by-side. And yet, if you've got one of the more "ordinary" Joy-Con colour schemes, you'll probably never even notice it.
But Sword and Shield isn't the only software to make use of this: the Switch's own UI will show the colour of your Joy-Con. Again, though, unless you're rocking non-launch colours, you won't give it any thought whatsoever.
This is a fascinating feature because it makes it clear that the different coloured Joy-Con have to send the Switch slightly different information, reporting their colour in addition to their orientation when they "handshake" with the console via Bluetooth.