Officially Licensed GameCube Controller Wannabes for Wii U and Nintendo Switch

i must look into alternatives for something i already own super smash brothers for wii u i absolutely adored this game when it came out and obviously now with super smash brothers ultimate there's not much of a reason to delve into this one again though that doesn't mean that ultimate necessarily replaced this game not dead but it's still its own game in the smash brothers series you know like it has modes and features that you won't find in ultimate you know the characters are different in this game albeit some of them are very slightly different some of them have changed dramatically but this game when it came out in 2014 was the game of the year for me i could not wait for this game the entirety of 2014 and the majority of 2013 was spent just you know predicting things and speculating on what will be in this game and you know throughout 2014 it was just so entertaining and so exciting to be a wii u owner then one of the only times i could actually say that and something that just felt like a monumental reveal a monumental moment for this game was the reveal that it would support gamecube controllers that was revealed around like may of 2014 right ahead of e3 2014 this is when nintendo was announcing further details on the super smash brothers invitational uh for e3 2014 when uh they made this big video showing which smash brothers players were going to be competing in the event which smash brothers commentators would be commentating the event and at the very end they showed that yes there is a gamecube controller adapter that would work for the wii u that allowed you to use gamecube controllers because gamecube support was stripped out of the wii u um mainly just because nintendo wanted to i believe technologically there's literally like no reason why the wii u could not be able to play gamecube discs but at least like you know like uh spec wise obviously you know like the the hardware doesn't support gamecube controllers or memory cards or disks but if nintendo put in like a gamecube disk disk reader and put in gamecube controllers uh controller ports in there there's theoretically no reason that the wii u should not be able to play those games uh but uh they just decided no which i mean let's be fair here you know like it was like 10 years old at that point uh you know gamecube was not viable to support for that long you know it's just like obviously it would be great if you could support that for as long as possible but there was there was really no like reason to other than uh people like me would have liked it kind of but they did not support it on wii u and because of that they had to release a usb adapter alongside smash brothers uh and unfortunately it only supported smash brothers uh you know like even like the uh the box itself right here you know this is the box that uh came separately you know like this is the special edition uh release that was uh really hard to get this was only uh kinda really hard to get and the the the wording on this box is very odd because it says uh the gamecube controller adapter allows you to connect up to four nintendo gamecube controllers to a wii u system and play specially designed wii u games such as super smash brothers for wii u so that kind of implies one that may imply two things one that this thing only works with games designed specifically for it but two games as in there's multiple usually with the wii u system look on the back of wii u game packaging to see which games use the gamecube controller adapter and gamekeep controller so of course uh you could infer from that that while this is only designed for smash brothers for wii u there may be some wii u games that support it in the future never happened only smash brothers fair enough i guess i mean smash brothers was the only one designed with the gamecube controller in mind uh and i think that is the reason why these things were impossible to get for a while there uh gamecube controller adapters for the wii u were incredibly limited in quantity you know a lot of people just couldn't get them for the longest period of time this was during a weird era for nintendo during the wii u uh wii u generation where you know uh they were kind of limited in stock for uh products such as this and collector's editions like the majora's mask 3d uh special edition and uh infamously amiibo that was the big thing at least in north america where the stock was incredibly limited of course you know for some characters obviously you know like how many of we fit trainer do you really expect nintendo to make but i'm sure they thought the same way about uh the gamecube controller adapter how many people are actually gonna want to buy that how many people are actually going to want gamecube controllers for smash brothers when you can just use a wii u pro controller or a weak uh class controller pro or something like that which worked perfectly fine turns out a lot of people wanted this thing and uh these were incredibly difficult to buy the gamecube controller wasn't that hard to find though uh probably because you know obviously you're only gonna really buy one or two of these uh you might buy four of these and even if you aren't interested in smash brothers these are just standard ass gamecube controllers so you know at least there's like what 21 million people out there that might be interested in this on top of the 13 million wii u owners one of the coolest things nintendo did uh during this time was re-release the gamecube controller of course this is smash brothers brandon but uh by all means this is a gamecube controller you know just new brand new and this is like my preferred controller to play uh gamecube games with even if it's not smash brothers uh just because you know like it's literally a gamecube controller that is new you know you don't have to worry about the stick being kind of funky from years of wear and tear um this is just a gamecube controller and it has an even longer wire than the original ones released uh during the gamecube generation as a longer cord it's new it feels quality it's a gamecube controller it's it's a gamecube controller at the end of the day this is obviously the definitive way to play super smash brothers for wii u with a gamecube controller is with the smash brothers edition re-released gamecube controller however like i said those gamecube controller adapters were very difficult to come across back in the day even now you know like nintendo isn't producing those things anymore so you know if you really want one it may be a little harder to find it's not going to be as expensive or elusive as it was back in 2014 early 2015 but you know it's a little harder to come across thus the third parties had us covered oh this was something that was announced before nintendo officially announced themselves that they would be re-releasing gamecube controllers and releasing a gamecube controller adapter for the wii u uh it was announced that a company called pdp officially got the license to make gamecube like controllers for the wii u and this is what they were talking about this is called the wired fight pad and these are pretty much all themed around specific nintendo characters mostly mario ones uh and i just kind of bought this on a whim around early 2015 at gamestop because i saw it this was around 25 bones and it was metal mario and it was metallic and it's kind of cool and what this pretty much is is a classic controller pro for the wii so this plugs into a wii remote but it's designed to look a lot like and feel like a gamecube controller and for many people around the time smash brothers wii u was hot this was kind of their gamecube controller solution and yeah you know what it's not that bad uh in fact this was pretty much my solution to playing wii games on the wii u with a gamecube like controller there's a lot of wii games like mario kart wii and smash brothers brawl that you know obviously i would kind of prefer playing with a gamecube controller and you know i preferred the gamecube controller layout to that of a classic controller pro classic controller pro had you know like this stick down here and the standard button layout where sometimes you know like hey you know a gamecube controller layout works a lot better and yeah you know this obviously isn't as quality as a gamecube controller but it's close enough and it's good enough pdp did take a lot of design liberties and i'm not necessarily against them uh the big one here is that both the sticks are the same size which hey you know that's pretty good they also added uh actual shoulder buttons here instead of just one z button on the gamecube uh but overall you know like while the controller feels fine obviously i do prefer the feel of the official nintendo one the buttons feel really kind of like cheap plasticky hollow uh that's the best way to describe them not that you know these buttons don't feel plasticky but they just feel a lot more quality they feel like they have just some oomph to them where these feel like kind of you know cheap third-party controller buttons not bad but you know they're just not as good as the original gamecube controller the d-pad feels a little uh just a little more easy to just kind of like mess up a button press on the gamecube you know it felt more defined as in like which direction you're pointing in for this one it feels like you know like you can kind of just go in any direction you really want to but just by smashing down on this i don't even know what i meant by that it's hard to describe why a controller isn't as good as another controller while also admitting that it's not bad by any means this is a totally serviceable and okay controller overall i'm just trying to figure out exactly what makes it not as good i guess the triggers are a little more mushy feeling uh where these feel a little smoother going down uh i don't know you know for 25 dollars though this was a pretty okay solution to having a gamecube like controller to play for smash brothers but also wii games in general you know this is straight up a classic controller pro you plug this into a wii remote and it functions as a classic controller so you can use it across uh all the different games on the wii u that use the class controller because none of the wii u games outside of super smash brothers for wii u support the gamecube controller so if you want a gamecube like controller this ain't a bad option and of course like i said for wii games that support the classic controller uh you know playing them on the wii u you can't use gamecube controllers and for that this is pretty good but while it is like a gamecube controller you know it does take a lot of its own liberties it does redesign something some for the better some that are a little more questionable so if you want a more authentic gamecube experience bam hori the hori battle pad i never saw this in stores it was always the pdp wired fight pad this one was a lot harder to come across i'm not necessarily sure why uh possibly because pdp is just a lot more of a widespread manufacturer of accessories where hori kind of tends to be a little more niche uh you know i'm not i'm not sure you know but i i know hori but you're probably gonna see pdp products a lot more in uh game stores so i'm not sure why this wasn't as uh widespread but that's just me assuming but i wish this was more widespread because this is literally like there's a gamecube controller however i think it looks more like a gamecube controller but because of that the differences really kind of make it stick out like the triggers like the these are not analog like the original gamecube ones these are these are digital you know you just press and press and press them you don't you don't hold them down you can't have a degree of movement like with the gamecube controller and they're they're just little things that just add up to this being kind of weird like you might be able to tell how uh this portion of the controller uh the analog stick is in a different location not not like crazy different but it's different enough where it just looks a little weird the d-pad feels a lot kind of cheaper than the original gamecube and uh like i said the the analog triggers uh now on the hori pad being digital uh you know they're not bad here but it it it definitely gives you a bit of whiplash it looks the part and it generally feels the part but uh there's just enough differences that just make this feel really weird like playing around with it it generally feels like a pretty stock gamecube controller but uh just with how the buttons feel they feel very close but they're just different enough where you're gonna kind of notice you know just a little bit cheaper feeling uh nothing crazy but you know not the same but this is an excellent alternative to using a gamecube like controller as a class controller pro on we your wii u and hori did a very similar thing to pdp they released numerous variants that were themed around different nintendo characters you know we have mario and then we have a zelda themed one there is also a pikachu related version and these are definitely really really cool controllers for wii and wii u they definitely give you a gamecube like feeling uh though they're not 100 there they're close enough they're definitely closer than the pdp fight pad but that controller i think gets a little too much hate i'm of course assuming things i don't know what the current political climate around this controller is but it's definitely cheaper kind of tackier looking and feeling than the hoary version or just using a regular gamecube controller but i feel like this one actually takes some steps to make the gamecube controller a little better i don't know where this one isn't trying to be an exact copy of the game controller this one is more so inspired by the gamecube controller and because of that i feel like the changes they made aren't as like noticeable they aren't as like jarring whereas the hoary one is trying to be an exact copy of the gamecube controller and because of that where it differs it feels a lot weirder you know like the d-pad just is not great on this controller and it feels stiff and cheaper the triggers you know like it's fine that they're digital um in fact i'm not i'm sure this one is digital as well um but you know like they at least make it look and feel like it's an analog trigger like the gamecube one where this one you know they're they're doing their own thing uh but they're trying to make it like oh man this is exactly like the gamecube controller but where it isn't it just kind of feels more jarring than where this one is honestly i'm not sure which one i choose i probably would go with the hoary one but this one isn't that bad all things considered you know i feel like there's kind of merit to either or and they're both officially licensed by nintendo so that should say something how it's just like hey you know these might not be as good as a gamecube controller but they're good enough for nintendo to say sure but those are pretty much the smash brothers for wii u related ones but that's not the end of our story because when super smash brothers ultimate release we got the power a gamecube controller this one being wireless i believe there was a wired variant you know definitely a bit cheaper but this one is wireless and it functions pretty much like a standard bluetooth wireless controller on the nintendo switch it isn't going to be like an official pro controller where it just like instantly is like bam you know you can use it immediately with the system it's made by nintendo so the entire you know user interface is designed around the controller now this is you know this functions like any other third-party albeit licensed uh controller that is wireless you know it is going to be a bit cheaper now it's not as seamless as something like a uh pro controller would be and it also has some features missing from regular nintendo switch joycon pro controllers it says right here does not support hd rumble the ir camera from uh the joy con or uh an nfc reader now that stuff doesn't matter one the pro controller doesn't have an ir camera two who's using amiibos with this thing hd rumble is kind of the big uh ah that's kind of a shame but kind of unnecessary and hey uh it's wireless there's motion control in this thing uh this is pretty well this is pretty full feature and yeah this is pretty much the closest i've seen in terms of a third-party uh gamecube like controller that is in fact officially licensed by nintendo you know you have the nintendo switch logo here and uh you know it even has nintendo switch branding on the box and it even can say it's nintendo gamecube style and this is probably the best gamecube like controller ever released of course not everything is 100 there uh you know like the the sticks don't feel exact uh the buttons do feel very close the face buttons feel incredibly close where i would probably if you blindfold me i wouldn't really think these are any different the d-pad is much stiffer though and uh the triggers while the closest of the uh three that we've i've talked about today uh they are definitely a bit different they they feel like they uh they don't go down as far as the gamecube one and uh they just feel a tad different the shoulder buttons are definitely uh not the same uh they do look the part and uh you know they i i don't really know how many people are gonna be that upset over the z button being uh not the same kind of clicky z button as before this one goes down a little bit more um but you know we do have a set of two this time and uh they feel pretty good i think the main difference for me is kind of the sticks and the shoulder buttons but hey this is pretty damn similar and if you want a wireless solution like a a gamecube like controller that is wireless and it works on the nintendo switch so then you don't have to keep your usb gamecube controller adapter plugged in then this is an excellent solution but the nice thing about the nintendo switch is that you can just straight up use uh you know the gamecube controller adapter you plug that in you plug the gamecube controller in and the gamecube controller just works across everything uh it works on the menus it works in different games uh and that is a huge step up it does make this controller a bit more irrelevant compared to the previous two so there's definitely some pros and cons to every single one of them here where the original uh wii u ones that i talked about the pdp and hoary ones uh yeah those had some problems and those definitely didn't feel exactly like an original gamecube controller however those had a purpose in the fact that you know you could use them across your wii games and wii u games anything that supported a classic controller pro you know you had now game keep like controllers whereas this one is definitely the closest to a regular gamecube controller however on the nintendo switch the gamecube controller adapter and gamecube controller work across pretty much everything um and while this is wireless and all that um it just kind of makes it a lot less necessary when the game controller just works across all nintendo switch games pretty much however this one does have all the features that you'd really need to make it compatible with uh all different nintendo switch games um because you know the regular game controller doesn't have two shoulder buttons it doesn't have motion controls it doesn't have any of the extra features that this one does you know you have a home button here you have a capture button uh this does function as a wireless nintendo switch controller and because of that it works across most games that support a pro controller this one is similar it'll work across a lot of those games but you know you may run into some compatibility issues where this one is a lot more fully featured however the fact this one works at all it does kind of undermine this a little bit where i'd say you don't really need this but it is a cool thing to try out and with that that's pretty much all of the officially licensed gamecube third-party controllers solutions whatever you want to call these i just found these interesting because these were always cool uh to me just going into a store and seeing some officially new third-party controllers that mimic the gamecube controller and while we can still use the gamecube controller officially in smash brothers for wii u and all of these nintendo switch games via the adapter it is really cool to get these third-party solutions that mimic the gamecube controller because they do serve a purpose you know you can use these in wii games you can use this across pretty much all nintendo switch games that support pro controller and i think that's worth something not a lot because i have a gamecube controller adapter but something

Channel: Scott's Stash

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Id: IxbvdUrHCWI

Length: 21min 11sec (1271 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 04 2022