When it comes to making video games feel more realistic, Nintendo seems to be one of the industry’s leading innovators. First it introduced a vibrating rumble controller accessory for the N64, and then of course it made a buttload of money from the motion-controlled Wii. But a company called Tactical Haptics wants to steal Nintendo’s thunder with a grip-simulating motion controller that promises to accurately simulate how a sword or gun really feels in hand.
Built on a Razer Hydra controller that’s been hacked apart and implanted into a custom 3D-printed housing, the Reactive Grip features a set of four moving mechanisms that slide against your hand providing tactile feedback. When firing a gun, it lets you feel the recoil of the weapon. And when wielding a sword, it can accurately recreate the weight and heft of swinging a long blade. But what’s most exciting about Reactive Grip is that it could finally let the world know what a falling Tetris tetromino block feels like. [Road To VR via Damn Geeky]