"We were at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam, and Mr. Iwata pulled it out of his pocket, set it on the table and asked us what we thought," says Nintendo VP Perrin Kaplan.

It was the new Revolution controller.

"He always has something in his pocket," she continues.

"What did you think?" I ask her.

"It wasn't as elegant and larger. It hadn't been refined yet."

Mrs. Kaplan is sitting across from me. She has her shoes off and looks exhausted. "I haven't slept in days," she confesses. Nintendo has been going full speed in preparation for the unveiling of the new controller here at the Tokyo Game Show.

"The whole theory is that this controller is so easy," she continues. "It's not that cool looking, that's the thing. It's cool, but it's not a Ferrari."

It might not be cool looking, but it feels cool in the hand. Natural. When Iwata-san showed me the controller, I wanted to start moving it, playing something on it. It was light and well designed. Gone are the days of hot yellow controllers. Nintendo is growing up.

So far, reaction has been mixed. Gamers and journalists have already forgotten the initial repulsion to using a touch pen. That same repulsion has long faded, and the interface has been absorbed into our gaming vocabulary. Expect the same to happen with the Revolution controller.

While Sony and Microsoft engage in gaming's "Cold War" with both trying to out muscle each other, Nintendo is moving a different direction altogether. The N is not focusing on power, but on creativity. This focus has already paid off in the portable market.

"We've got the DS, the Micro and the SP. We know portable better than anyone else. And we're gonna keep on truckin' into Wi-Fi," Kaplan tells me. "It's the same with MP3 players and all these iPod knock-offs. But Apple just one-upped them with the Nano."

"It must be exhausting," I add.

"It is."

Touching the Revolution Controller

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