My brother suffered a brain injury in a car crash when he was much younger. Amongst his many problems, he doest not have the use of his left hand. Unsurprisingly, this limits his gaming opportunities.

For Xmas my parents bought him a wii, which is great for him because he can actually hold the controller properly. Obviously he cant play games that need a nunchuck, but he has been having a great time playing some lightgun games and some of the wii sports stuff.

Anyway, Before his brain injury when he was a kid his favourite game was Sonic 2 on the genesis, and he has been excited to download it to his wii. but, alas, it seems that the people who ported it want you holding the controller sideways in two hands so it vaguely resembles an oldschool controller. Although he can obviously still hold the controller one handed, if he does so the the direction buttons have all been rotated by 90 degrees. Forwards is up, down is forwards etc. I find it hard to play like that, for a guy with a brain injury it is impossible.

I looked at all the menus and could not see a way to rotate the directs so my brother can use the controller. I have considered the low-tech solution of him holding the controller sideways in one hand, but his fine motor skills arent the best, so he finds this tough. Maybe we could bodge it with an elastic band or something, but this is really a last resort solution. So my question is, does anyone know how to fix this issue? ETA It would also be awesome if we could make the trigger button a jump button so he doesnt have to use the D pad and jump with the same thumb, but this is a much lesser problem.

Also I have found a bunch of lists of games suitable for people who can only use one hand, but I am way out of the video-games loop and have no idea which of these games are worth his time. He is 21 and has pretty standard tastes, but in addition to being limited to the use of one hand his gaming skills arent the best, nor is his attention span (fwiw if we manage to fix sonic it is probable that i will have to be sonic and he will play along as tails or something, which he would be fine with), so if anyone happens to be able to recommend one handed simple to play and easy games I would be very grateful.

Thank you!

I don't think there's a way to fix this unless you actually hack the controller so you can reprogram the buttons. Post the list of one-handed games you found.

http://hackaday.com/2010/09/19/wiimo...modifications/

I know on the Xbox side of things that modded controllers are fairly popular, but that's more for getting an advantage over other gamers. There should be plenty of other resources online for how you can hack the Wiimote to suit your brother's needs -- would be a pretty cool project if you're handy with a soldering iron etc.

http://www.amazon.com/tag/wii/forum/...ype=tagsDetail

is one list, also:

Zack and Wiki
Trauma Center: New Blood
Medal of Honor Heroes 2 Arcade Mode
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn**
Mario Party 8 (unconfirmed)
Metal Slug Anthology (can be played one handed with JUST the numchuck as well which might be better for some)
Monster 4x4: World Circuit with Wheel
Need for Speed: Carbon
Rampage: Total Destruction
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Super Swing Golf
Tony Hawk Down Hill Jam
Wii Play
Super Monkey Ball (a few unlockable mini games that a unlock require the numchuck but aren't required to be played)

You might be way better off looking for a one-handed PC controller that will work. Most PC gamepads are user programmable and I'm sure there's a way to get Sonic 2 for the PC.

Edit: I've heard Fire Emblem is a difficult game and Super Monkey Ball is all dexterity and might be too much for your brother.

great link, thank you, i shall be looking through it in detail. I have no skills with electronics but could probably find someone who does.

MP8 has mini games that require "old school" controller holding.

Not sure if this helps or not, but your story reminded me of the YouTuber that plays games with only one hand. He has some pretty sweet CoD game plays on his channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrywpSwrvv0

can't wait for this finish loading (lol @ my internet today) thanks for sharing

does your brother have trouble with social games? (mmorpgs and the like?)
my wow clan leader had only one arm and he was pretty good at sc brood war too (comparable to plat now) and was a very good wow player, rank 14 and stuff.
maybe that can absorb a lot of your brother time

interesting suggestion. i imagine MMORPGS might require too much attention span, but it might turn out to be something he will enjoy in small doses, especially if there is a simplified MMORPG out there

Also Animal chin, that vid is awesome.

I'm also a one-handed gamer (Cerebral Palsy) and I gave up on the Wii because of the lack of quality games for people in my situation.

If it isn't too late I would suggest your parents take the Wii back and get him an XBox. I believe the 4 GB is now the same price as the Wii ~ $200. A majority of the xbox games I have played have options to customize the button layout however you see fit. And actually Just the other day I saw ALL the sonic games were on sale for 50% off, with the most expensive one being Sonic 4 @ $10.

I have had no problems adjusting the controls of many popular games games like FIFA, Madden, Tiger Woods, GTA4, Red Dead Redemption, MLB2k10, and Need for Speed to make them easier to play one-handed.

The only games I have come across so far that I have found it difficult to play one-handed are Modern Warfare 2 and the NHL 11 Demo and to be honest I have not given either of those much of a chance and they might be playable as well with some practice.

If it turns out you have to keep the Wii, you can also get one of these




which plugs into the wimote and can be used with many of the classic mario or sonic games, but I found rthe response time to be pretty sluggish which actually made Mario brothers even more frustrating for me than using the regular wiimote.

i don't own a wii, so forgive me if this is a dumb question. my sister got her bf a motion sensor for xmas. would those work?

wow really great to have some input from an experience one handed gamer. my brother's left hand is so unusable he cant even rest a controller in it, so he cant use a 2 handed controller 1 handedly, however he configures the controls. i am assuming you can use your spare hand enough to rest the controller in it at least. if i am wrong, it would be great to know how you hold a 2 handed controller 1 handedly! thanks a lot for your input.

do you mean a wii motion plus? im a still a wii noob myself, im afraid youre going to have to spell out how this may work for me

I generally play with the controller resting on my leg with my left hand also on my leg basically acting as a back stop to keep the controller from sliding all over the place So if he can hold his hand in place he should be able to figure out a way to play most games with the options to switch the buttons.

Also, I've been thinking about this since my 1st post and a PS3 might even be better for him. I remember the controller for the PS2 being easier to reach the side buttons on with one hand than the Xbox controller is.

yeah after googling that seems to be the name but unfortunately i can't tell you more =[

i'll ask my sister about it tonight or tomrw and give you an update

not wii, but pc related. all graphic adventures are point and click (monkey island and so on). do those kinds of game require too much brain work? if not, i know a ******** i can recommend

New Super Mario Bros Wii only requires the Wiimote and it's probably one of the top 10 games on Wii imo.

Also I'm unsure if you're aware of this, but you can use a Gamecube controller in lieu of the Wiimote or Oldschool controller (that was posted earlier in this thread). Gamecube controllers might be easier for him to use and they are hackable to re-map buttons.

I found this link for you:
http://hackaday.com/2010/08/12/one-h...be-controller/

A guy made a one-handed GC controller for his brother.

Guy is really proficient for playing with one hand, cool stuff.

Can your brother play the Kinect?

I feel like PC gaming would be best suited for someone who can play with only one hand, with a mouse with lots of extra mappable buttons.

Like this:

this might be even better. i own one and it is pretty great for poker/table ninja. i assume it would work for gaming just as well. it looks intimidating to setup but it has a pretty neat interface.

belkin n52:

Any updates?? Hopefully your brother is a level 12 mage or something equivilant to it in whatever games he has.

Also upon re-reading the OP it isn't clear if your brother's handicap affects just his physical abilities. or also his mental ones as well? If he is not mentally handicapped My rec of getting a 360 or a PS3 instead of a Wii still stands, If it affects his mental capacity more than or equally to his physical one. I would still recommend the 360. or the PS3.

Whatever the case is, I hope your brother is kicking your ass in whatever games you guys play.