Zeemote Bluetooth Mobile Game Controller Hands-On

Posted on Feb 18, 08 07:32 PM PDT

[GDC 2008] You might have seen the Zeemote during Mobile World Congress last week, but the company will promote the software development kit (SDK) at the Game Developers Conference being held in San Francisco.

We meet Beth Marcus, the founder and CEO of Zeemote and we had the opportunity to play with it, and to make a long story short: it’s pretty cool. To be honest there was some skepticism when we saw the device in a photo. But we also know that playing with a phone’s keyboard provides a bad experience.

The Zeemote feels good in the hand and it works well as a one-handed game controller. It is also surprisingly light (47g). The Zeemote has an analog joystick, even if most mobile games are built for a digital controller. That will give developers more options when they create their games. Developer John Chasey from Finblade told us that integrating the Zeemote code is easy. Ultimately, the Zeemote success will be measured by the number of games supporting it.

The current prototype might not represent the final product, but there are plans to create face plates (or I should say side plates). My favorite game was Heli Strike, and the cutest one was the Tennis (2 human players). Sonic is also cool to play with – if you’re a fan of the Series. There’s also an adaptation of Tomb Raider.

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