Ultra Hand

Last updated
Ultra Hand
Ultrahand.png
Type Reach extender
Inventor(s) Gunpei Yokoi
Company Nintendo
Country Japan

Ultra Hand is a toy that was manufactured by Nintendo in the late 1960s. It was created in 1966 by Gunpei Yokoi, who would later design the Love Tester, the D-pad, the Game Boy, and the WonderSwan. [1]

Contents

Ultra Hand consists of several criss-cross-connected plastic elements, and operates on the "lazy tongs" pantograph principle. One end of the Ultra Hand has scissor-like handles and is operated like scissors, extending when the handles are pinched together and retracting when they are parted. On the other end of the Ultra Hand are two bowl-shaped grips with which ball-like objects can be gripped when the Ultra Hand is fully extended. Three colored balls were included in the Ultra Hand package, [2] along with stands on which the balls can rest.

Ultra Hand was a commercial success, selling more than one million units. [1] It is the first of several toys developed by Yokoi that helped to save the company from financial difficulties. [3]

In video games

A WiiWare game titled Grill-Off with Ultra Hand! was released in North America on March 31, 2010 as an exclusive to Club Nintendo members. The game features the Ultra Hand stretching out to grab cooked meats from barbecue grills. In single-player mode, the goal is to last as long as possible. In two-player mode, players compete for the most points in 90 seconds. [4]

The Ultrahand ability in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is named after the Ultra Hand, [5] taking the form of waves of energy that allow Link to grab, reposition, and combine objects.

In Splatoon 3 , the shopkeeper of the in-game store Hotlantis, Harmony, can be seen toying with an Ultra Hand shorty after entering.

The Ultra Hand has appeared in various other Nintendo games, including, WarioWare Gold , and Mario Kart 8. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunpei Yokoi</span> Japanese video game designer (1941–1997)

Gunpei Yokoi, sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer. As a long-time Nintendo employee, he was best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the Game Boy, and producer of a few long-running and critically acclaimed video game franchises such as Metroid and Kid Icarus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NES Zapper</span> Video game light gun accessory

The NES Zapper, also known as the Video Shooting Series light gun in Japan, is an electronic light gun accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Japanese Famicom. It was released in Japan for the Famicom on February 18, 1984, and launched alongside the NES in North America in October 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R.O.B.</span> Video game console peripheral

R.O.B. is a toy robot accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was launched in July 1985 as the Family Computer Robot in Japan, and October 1985 as R.O.B. in North America. Its short lifespan yielded only two games in the Robot Series: Gyromite and Stack-Up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triforce</span> Fictional artifact in The Legend of Zelda series

The Triforce is a fictional artifact and icon of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game franchise. It first appeared in the original The Legend of Zelda video game (1986) and has appeared in every subsequent game in the series. It consists of three equilateral triangles that are joined to form a large equilateral triangle. In the fictional history of the series, it represents the essence of the Golden Goddesses named Din, Nayru and Farore who create Hyrule. Imbued with divine power, it is capable of granting any wish to anyone who possesses it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo Tumbler Puzzle</span> Mathematical puzzle

The Nintendo Tumbler Puzzle, also known as the Ten Billion Barrel in English and originally tenbirion (テンビリオン) in Japanese, is a mathematical and mechanical puzzle. It is one of many mechanical toys invented by Gunpei Yokoi at Nintendo. It was released in 1980 under U.S. patent 4,376,537. The patent expired in March 1995 due to non-payment of a maintenance fee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo Research & Development 1</span> Japanese video game developer

Nintendo Research & Development No. 1 Department, was a division of Nintendo, and is its oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video game industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi. The developer has created several notable Nintendo series such as Metroid, Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.

<i>WarioWare: Smooth Moves</i> 2006 video game

WarioWare: Smooth Moves is a party video game developed by Nintendo SPD and Intelligent Systems. The game was published by Nintendo for its Wii video game system in Japan in December 2006, and in Europe, North America, and Australia in January 2007. It is the fifth game in the WarioWare series of games, and the only game in the series to be physically released for the Wii. Like its predecessors, WarioWare: Smooth Moves is built around a collection of microgames that last about five seconds each, and which require that the player hold the Wii Remote in specific positions. The game offers the microgames to the player in rapid succession, by first instructing the player to hold the Wii Remote in a specific manner, and then showing them the microgame. The microgames are divided into several stages, each of which loosely connects the microgames with the help of a story. Additionally, this was the first spin-off Mario game to be released for the console.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Nintendo</span>

The history of Nintendo is from 1889 to the present, starting as a playing-card company to eventually becoming a multinational consumer electronics conglomerate. It has always remained headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wii Zapper</span> Video game accessory

The Wii Zapper is a gun shell peripheral for the Wii Remote. The name is a reference to and successor of the NES Zapper light gun for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is mainly used to enhance controls for shooter games, including light gun shooters, first-person shooters, and third-person shooters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo video game consoles</span> Overview of the various video game consoles released by Nintendo

The Japanese multinational consumer electronics company Nintendo has developed seven home video game consoles and multiple portable consoles for use with external media, as well as dedicated consoles and other hardware for their consoles. As of September 30, 2021, in addition to Nintendo Switch, Nintendo has sold over 863.07 million hardware units.

<i>SPOGS Racing</i> 2008 video game

SPOGS Racing was a racing video game published by D2C Games and developed by American studio Pronto Games for the Wii. It was released as a WiiWare title in North America on July 7, 2008, and in Europe on July 18, 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love Tester</span> Electronic toy made by Nintendo in 1969

The Love Tester is a novelty toy made by Nintendo in 1969. Designed "for young ladies and men", the device tries to determine how much two people love each other. To operate the device, both users grab one of the connected spherical metal sensors with one hand and hold each other's hands with the other; the meter on the device displays their "love score" on a scale between 1 and 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultra Machine</span> Batting toy by Nintendo

The Ultra Machine is a batting toy distributed by Nintendo and designed by Gunpei Yokoi in 1967.

<i>The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</i> 2017 video game

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U. Set at the end of the Zelda timeline, the player controls an amnesiac Link as he sets out to save Princess Zelda and prevent Calamity Ganon from destroying the world. Players explore the open world of Hyrule while they collect items and complete objectives such as puzzles or side quests. Breath of the Wild's world is unstructured and encourages exploration and experimentation; the story can be completed in a nonlinear fashion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game & Watch</span> Series of handheld electronic games by Nintendo

The Game & Watch brand is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, the product derived its name from its featuring a single game as well as a clock on an LCD screen. The models from 1981 onwards featured an alarm in addition.

Amiibo is a toys-to-life platform by Nintendo, which was launched in November 2014. It consists of a wireless communications and storage protocol for connecting figurines to the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch video game consoles. These figurines are similar in form and functionality to that of the Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions series of toys-to-life platforms. The Amiibo platform was preannounced to potentially accommodate any form of toy, specifically including general plans for future card games. Amiibo use near field communication (NFC) to interact with supported video game software, potentially allowing data to be transferred in and out of games and across multiple platforms.

<i>Splatoon</i> (video game) 2015 video game

Splatoon is a 2015 third-person shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. The game centers around Inklings—anthropomorphic cephalopodic lifeforms that can transform between humanoid and cephalopod forms and frequently engage in turf wars with each other and use a variety of weapons that produce and shoot colored ink while in humanoid form, or swim and hide in surfaces covered in their own colored ink while in their cephalopodic forms. Splatoon features several different game modes, including four-on-four online multiplayer and a single player campaign.

<i>Splatoon</i> Video game series

Splatoon is a third-person shooter video game franchise created by Hisashi Nogami and Shintaro Sato, and developed and owned by Nintendo. Set in a far future on a post-apocalyptic Earth inhabited by anthropomorphic marine animals, the series centers around terrestrial cephalopods known as Inklings and Octolings – based on squids and octopuses respectively – which can transform between humanoid and cephalopod forms at will. They frequently engage in turf war battles with each other and use a variety of weapons that produce and shoot colored ink while in humanoid form, or swim through and hide in solid surfaces covered in their own colored ink while in their cephalopodic forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo Switch Pro Controller</span> Alternative controller for the Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is a video game controller developed by Nintendo and produced by various manufacturers for use with the Nintendo Switch console. It serves as an alternative to the Joy-Con controllers.

References

  1. 1 2 Sheff, David (1994). Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World. Vintage Books. ISBN   978-0-307-80074-9.
  2. Goldberg, Harold (2011). All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture. Random House. p. 59. ISBN   978-0-307-46356-2.
  3. Gregory, Tony (2013). Freelancers!: A Revolution in the Way We Work. ISBN   978-1-62516-616-6.
  4. Wahlgren, Jon (5 April 2010). "Grill-Off with Ultra Hand! (WiiWare) Review". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
  5. Dinsdale, Ryan (28 March 2023). "Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Ultra Hand Ability is a Reference to a Classic Nintendo Toy". IGN. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  6. Norman, Jim (2022-08-11). "Random: Wait, Was That A Nintendo Ultra Hand In The Splatoon 3 Direct?". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2024-02-08.