News last week that a line of bendable phones from Samsung will launch as soon as next year set gadget heads atwitter, but also got us thinking about the possiblity for bendable screens in gaming. In 2010, researchers from a Canadian University showed off a demonstration flex-screen gaming system that involved a shoulder-mounted computer-projector, but Samsung’s announcement makes clear a flexible device with processing and display in one unit is months, not years, away. 

So who is going to be the first gaming concern to twist and shout? It all seems very Nintendo. In this space, Jeff Ryan recently specaulated that Wii U is merely a stopgap system while the Japanese giant irons out a light-based, hologram conosle. Imagine a side-scrolling Mario game which requires bending the screen into various contortions to make sure the plumber makes it from platform to platform! Or a Kirby game that asks the player to flex and relax the screen in rhythm to the pink-puff-clouds breaths! Or a tablet gaming system that can be bent into a crescent to play more considerately on the subway! So many ideas! We’re like halfway to a TED talk!