While we try not to oversaturate the 'stiq with article after article on Tetsuya Mizuguchi, this tidbit from a Eurogamer interview made us chortle. The famed Rez developer admits that the infamous Trance Vibrator was his idea. No sexual meaning. When Rez was released in Japan, it came with the Trance Vibrator -- a device you can plug into the PS2 that vibrates in rhythm with the game and shakes violently in between the 10 sub-levels of each stage. As Jane from Game Girl Advance noticed, "it seems to have no other purpose [her emphasis] than to act as a masturbatory aid.
Rez HD: extra controllers double as trance vibrators (seriously)
Rez Trance Vibrator - Crappy Games Wiki Uncensored
That the very first comment on our very first Rez HD post asked if the updated shooter contained support for the infamous trance vibrator peripheral should come as no surprise. Though Mizuguchi says the device wasn't meant to be sexual , ever since that game girl advance post buzzed its way onto the internets, the vibrating peripheral has become a thing of gaming lore. While they're not releasing a new peripheral for the XBLA release and they're not enabling support for the USB original, we did learn of another option at a Microsoft meeting at CES this morning: you can enable trance vibrator support through an additional Xbox controller or three — you can use all four slots. How long before someone switches the guts from a controller and a trance vibrator? Our guess: not long. Buyer's Guide.
Inspired by the work of Russian painter, Wassily Kandinsky , the game was developed under the working title K-Project , and was conceptualized and produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Rez is notable for replacing the typical sound effects found in most rail shooters with electronic music. The player creates sounds and melodies as they target and destroy foes in the game, leading to a form of synesthesia. The game's development team contained several former members of the disbanded Team Andromeda , [2] the Sega development team behind the Panzer Dragoon series. Rez Infinite , the latest version of the game created for virtual reality , was released to widespread acclaim, and is widely considered to be one of the best VR games to date.
Fifteen years ago this month, the beautifully synaesthetic Rez was released for the first time in the United States. Beyond the Tron -esque aesthetic that helped it become one of our absolute favorites , though, the game was notable for its unforgettable peripheral: something called the Trance Vibrator. The odd little battery-pack shaped device was never released in the US; it was the sort of strangeness that was, at the time, entirely the purview of the Japanese side of gaming. The Trance Vibrator's only function was to buzz and bump in time with the on-screen music, delivering haptic feedback alongside the audio track's bass. But in doing so, it became the flashpoint for a discussion of sexuality in games that not only stands as one of the finest pieces of videogame writing, but casts a shadow over the discussions that have followed.