Power Glove vs. U-Force
Before accelerometers and motion detection as in the Wii, and iPhone, the early 90s promised NES gamers new ways of interaction beyond anything imagined. Unfortunately, these promises were delivered through the Power Glove and the U-Force.
Everybody knows the Power Glove, which was made very popular through the 90 minute advert for Super Mario Bros. 3 known as The Wizard starring Fred Savage. The movie’s villain was some evil super-gamer kid who used the Power Glove. In the movie’s most infamous scene, after decimating some opponent the villain kids gives an evil glare and says, “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”
Well it’s no mystery that the Power Glove was bad. But not in that way. It was pretty damn useless for any game other than Punch Out!!, and even then it barely worked. You’d wave your arm around wildly, and events would be triggered randomly, if at all. The technology at the time just wasn’t up to the job.
When I was 12, I couldn’t care less about the Power Glove, until I entered a Super Mario Bros. 3 contest at the North Bay Heritage Festival, and the glove was first prize. Some background: I obtained a Japanese Famicom copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 with adapater about 8 months before it was released in North America – before any kids in town had played it, I knew the game inside and out. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to win the obviously RIGGED contest at the Heritage Festival, since I only came in third place and got some crummy t-shirt.
This annoyed the hell out of me, and made me want that damn Power Glove. So much so that I eventually saved up newspaper delivery money and whined and complained for the rest, and purchased the stupid thing. Well played, Mattel. Well played.
After about an hour, I was sick of the thing. After losing to Glass Joe in Punch Out!!, I realized the Power Glove sucked and was completely useless. I couldn’t admit that though… because that would be admitting that I made a big mistake buying the damn thing. Also, the subsequent bragging I did to my friends at school of how awesome it would be would have made me the laughing stock of school yard video game players all over North Bay… maybe even Powassan.
Things became worse when a fellow classmate got the U-Force for his birthday. The U-Force was the same idea as the Power Glove, but it consisted of what looked like a Battleship board that sat in front of you, that you would perform motions in front of. Like the Power Glove, it too barely worked.
Unfortunately, his pride was at stake too, so he also kept playing up the greatness of the U-Force. This eventually turned into a pissing contest between the two of us, as we both tried to garner support from our schoolyard chums about which was better. Recess debates went something like:
“Why would I want to swing around at nothing? With the Power Glove, I put it on and I’ve got the POWER to control everything.”
“The U-Force is so advanced you don’t even NEED a glove. It just detects your movement, any movement! It’s the future!”
It was a strange situation: we both knew our device sucked, and we also knew the other’s device sucked just as much. It was hard to keep a straight face when arguing the merits of one over the other. The debates would always end with the promise of an epic battle:
“Fine. We’ll play Double Dragon 2-player using U Force and Power Glove. Whoever wins has the best device.”
“You’re on.”
Of course this battle never happened. If it did, time would’ve run out before anybody even hit anybody else. It’d be just two characters on the screen jumping backwards, kicking randomly, or banging into walls.
Fortunately – for the both of us – the SNES was soon released, and the Power Glove and U-Force quickly faded into irrelevance, ultimately ending up in garage sales and pawn shops across North America.
