One would think that the left-handed Shigeru Miyamoto wouldn't let things like this happen.
Not all games are for all people. This obvious statement somewhat less obviously pertains to more than just matters of taste, physical dexterity or tolerance of bad voice acting. It also pertains to handedness.
The left-handed wing of Kotaku discovered this yesterday when trying to wield DSi stylus in the appropriate southpaw position while playing new DSi game Art Style Base 10. The results have been photographed.
Art Style: Base 10, a number-adding riff on Bejeweled, shoots numbers across a DSi that is held bookstyle. Numbers fly into position from the non-touchscreen on the left to the touchscreen on the right. Playing this game right-handed would allow one's hands to cover very little of the screen.
But playing this game while left-handed results in massive screen blockage.
Alas, Art Style: Base 10 offers no "lefty flip" option, something that was offered in other DS book-style games such as Brain Age and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.
Left-handed people have had to deal with rubber-handled kindergarten scissors in kindergarten and spatulas that are slanted and plenty of other design choices that favor the righties. But video games have posed few obstacles to the lefthanded gamer. In fact, some might argue that the placement of the primary movement stick under gamers' left thumbs biases those who favor that hand.
But Base 10 joins a DS Spider-Man game I played a few years ago as one of the only games I would deem significantly unplayable for lefthanders.
If other games toxic to southpaws are out there, gamers, please warn your left-handed friends. This is a hard enough life for the sinister set.