Remember last month when we reported on a child who angered online users by holding a Famicom controller upside down? Well, one group of creative gaming fans have made and released a mod kit which enables you to completely flip the orientation of your original NES controllers. On purpose.
There's actually a good reason for this: originally starting on Kickstarter, the 'Goofy Foot' project was born in hopes of introducing an alternative way of playing your favourite NES games and giving you the option to play the console's arcade ports with the action buttons on the left-hand side. This Kickstarter campaign was actually launched back in 2017 and went on to be a success.
The mod kit uses its very own circuit board, ensuring that the directional buttons still work correctly when the controller gets flipped upside down and allowing the A and B buttons to swap around. You'll need your own NES controller and soldering tools to use one of the kits, but you can see how it's all done in this video below.
If you like the idea of having a fully functioning, upside-down controller, you can grab your own from the project's website. There are a few options to choose from, such as the full and basic kits which provide you with different things depending on your requirements.
What do you think? A clever and intriguing design, or a little too weird to grasp? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Comments 23
There’s something deeply unsettling about that image.
What kind of hell did this mod crawl out of? 😄
This would fit right in one of those "cursed images" videos.
But... Why. And no, NintendoLife, I have nothing more to say.
But why would anyone want to play games like this? If this serves no real purpose other than "because I can" then why would anyone want to mod a good controller?
Yes, because ALL gamers are right-handed, who needs this?!
!enif m'I, sknaht oN
so for 35 years dpad on the right side is fine now some idiot decides to take good NES controllers(which are getting harder to find) and then totally ruins it....i swear this is just another millennial thing they are going to ruin....anyone else notice this they ruin everything it seems.
No. This is not getting anywhere near my beautiful NES Joycons. No. And no again.
@Almighty-Koz Don't be a millennial hater dude it makes you look old and bitter. Abide.
I don't know what crime he can be charged with, but there has to be one. This goes against everything good in the world.
Cmon, y’all, April Fools was yesterday
No way this would make sense for me but the key thing to point out is that did this partly to play arcade ports which in the arcade your directional control is on the right side. So again not something that I would do but it's something I can see to give you a more "authentic" arcade experience. I use that term very loosely.
This makes me mad for some reason
I've always wondered why it's never been a bigger issue that game controllers are so set with one orientation. Is it simply easier for left handed players to just learn to play with the same controllers? Controlling movement with the left hand and actions with the right pretty much feels natural, but is that just because we learned it that way?
Why are people actually mad about this? Jesus. It's actually a neat way to completely increase the difficulty of old games by flipping your brain around.
not even left handers can deal with this hellish pad, christ!
@Dang69 try doing that when you brain is infused with the controller being the right way for 30+ years, you won't get very far.
It's like forcing a left hander to use a pen with their right hand and perfectly write a sentence without mistakes.
As a leftie, I always thought that precise movement with my dominant hand and mashing buttons with my useless right hand was why I've always been really good at Tetris. When analog sticks came out, I thought that being a leftie was even more advantageous for me in some games. I don't know how you righties do it. I was cool with the N64 c-buttons, but when right analog sticks came out, I totally sucked with them (and still do!)
CLEARLY UNCOMFORTABLE
@Yorumi I was going to post a similar thing, though I'm not left handed, so I couldn't be sure. But it seemed odd to me that people were referring to the typical controller layout as "right-handed" since both hands have to do important things. Good to hear at least one left-handed person verify that. After reading this, I tried playing a couple of games with reversed controls and it actually reminded me of what it felt like to pick up the NES and Master System pads for the first time before I developed that coordination. I have a feeling that it wouldn't take long to get proficient playing that way.
Come on guys, this is a WORTHY Challenge!
Just buy a Virtual Boy if you want a d-pad on the right side.
It almost seems like something that might be less affected by the dominant hand issue, but as a guitar player and illustrator, I know I couldn’t pick up a left handed guitar or draw with the left, but I’ve also played plenty of Katamari Damacy, and your thumbs are basically doing the same thing there. And Joy Cons seem to feel like both hands can handle controllers that each have sticks and four buttons.
But for something that has such a familiar and long established layout that always places the same hand controls on things you’d think there might have been at least an attempt at offering a left handed controller option. They can start pumping out special edition colors and designs knowing people will buy additional controllers, but not a flipped one to maybe pull in some more sales from people who otherwise may not even bother with a console because they can’t get a feel for playing most games?
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