Have you ever thought to yourself, “Wow, I love Nintendo Switch, but I wish it had Power Glove support?” Yea? No? Well, worry no more, as YouTuber Will It Work? managed to connect the infamous NES accessory to a Switch, and the results were surprising, to say the least.
Will it work? demonstrated that with an NES to USB controller adapter and some technical knowledge, it is possible to play games on Nintendo Switch with the Power Glove accessory.
The video shows for the first time the gameplay of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, what will it work on? is able to use the Power Glove to move the player’s character, displacing the accessory in various directions.
The main event, however, is decidedly more impressive. Will it work? shows Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, played with the Power Glove, steering the kart as if holding a wheel. This is especially impressive considering that Mario Kart Live makes use of real toy karts during gameplay.
Is the Power Glove really that bad?
It’s remarkable that someone was able to make such an old peripheral work on modern hardware, but it’s worth noting that for most people, connecting a Power Glove to a Nintendo Switch is far from a walk in the park. A good chunk of the YouTube video is devoted to the setup process, which is fascinating but clearly requires a degree of programming knowledge to work properly.
Perhaps the best use of the Power Glove we’ve ever seen. The infamous peripheral turned heads in 1989 thanks to its unique look and premise. It literally fits like a glove and is one of the first examples of a motion control peripheral brought to market.
However, despite being an official Nintendo controller (and heavily promoted by the company itself), the Power Glove certainly doesn’t have the best reputation. The device setup process on the NES was pretty obtuse, and eager young gamers quickly learned that it just didn’t work that well with most games, quickly going back to the simpler, rectangular controllers.
Still, while notorious today, the Power Glove is arguably an iconic device in Nintendo’s long history of hardware experimentation. And if nothing else, it’s a charmingly eccentric controller that was perhaps a little ahead of its time.