The Wii Classic Controller

you know the classics when you introduce a controller so revolutionary and weird as the Wii remote you do have to offer an alternative for those who just aren't ready to see the light but in reality it turns out that the alternative here was offered for a completely different reason so back when the Wii launched it launched alongside the Wii Shop Channel which offered numerous old school games downloadable on the Wii you can play NES Super Nintendo Nintendo 64. even Sega Genesis stuff and uh for NES games the weird mode suffice perfectly I mean this is one of the most badass things you've ever seen ready watch you could very easily mimic an NES controller with a Wii remote on its side which not only worked for NES games on the Wii Virtual Console but also standard games as well a lot of 2D Platformers you could just play with the Wii remote on its side and uh sure you know you didn't have as many buttons as you would with a normal controller but you know you had a and b there you know and the uh greatest locations imaginable and it did the job but for games like Super Nintendo games and Nintendo 64 games this didn't cut it I mean there's like what like three buns on it you need it to offer people an alternative so Nintendo offered the Wii Classic Controller this was primarily designed for Wii Virtual Console games I mean it's in the name it's the Wii Classic Controller it isn't the Wii Pro Controller which is what you see with the Wii U and Nintendo switch this was designed first and foremost as an SNES controller and then maybe as like a standard modern controller afterwards just you know with the sticks and you know the extra buttons here and there however I feel like this controller was meant for far more and Nintendo eventually did release A variation of this controller that did far more at least in terms of its ergonomics however uh it never really felt like Nintendo saw this as an actual like viable controller for the Wii I mean actual Wii games could support it uh and numerous did you can look up a Giant wiki page filled with all the games that reported the classic controller and also the GameCube controller games that you didn't need to use the motion controls with you could just plug this in and play like a normal video game however uh this was always a little strange to me I found it weird how uh many games supported the Classic Controller but didn't support the GameCube controller and many games that support the GameCube controller didn't support the class controller I'm partially lying about that second part because I don't think many games supported the GameCube controller but not the class controller but I do know one game that did that Sonic Rider Zero Gravity I don't know but there are numerous Wii games that support the Classic Controller just not the GameCube controller I don't know why uh you know you have all the buttons I mean to be fair there is like an extra shoulder button on the Wii Classic drill but how many games actually use that so most of the games that support the Wii Classic Controller uh we're third-party games many of Nintendo's releases barely even acknowledge the damn thing just as a quick example not because I'm shocked this game doesn't include class controller support but you know I just saw it on the shelf and I just felt like ah yeah you know that that would make sense to include class controller support I guess but Kirby's Return to Dreamland 2D platformer uh there's some very very very light motion control use in this game you know it's it's far from necessary at all uh it's pretty much like oh man it's time to shake and that's about it but you could very easily map that to like just mashing buttons but uh yeah uh no classic controller support not even nunchucks support uh games like new Super Mario Brothers Wii and uh Donkey Kong Country Returns support using the nunchuck as a control method so you can just control it like this but you could also you know do it on its side and Kirby's Return to Dreamland only allows you to use the Wii remote on its side and now that I think about it one of the biggest issues with the Wii generation was the lack of options uh we look at things nowadays and it pretty much like every Nintendo switch game known to man supports the Nintendo switch Pro Controller and uh if a game does not support it and there's really no reason why it shouldn't something like Super Mario party uh yeah that's kind of stupid but for the most part pretty much most games that you'd want to play support the Nintendo switch Pro Controller many Wii U games supported the Wii U Pro controller but many didn't I it kind of felt like half and half and it was always very strange it never really made much sense when some games were like no but Nintendo was getting to that point where they were making sure that most of their games supported the the accessories that they would sell to their customers but during the Wii era man like a lot of this stuff just made no damn sense so many games just forced you to use the Wii Remote and nunchuck or just the Wii remote on its side uh when in you could have very easily put classic controller and GameCube controller support in there or you could have very easily offered a solution to not use motion control motion control is fantastic when used properly but many times it's just completely unnecessary and also some people just can't play with motion control for one reason or another whether it's because of a disability or maybe makes a motion sick I don't know there are numerous reasons and numerous valid reasons why people don't like motion control or can't use motion control but during the Wii era Nintendo refused to give people options that's just kind of the main thing you don't have to have this huge list of options where people can tweak every little last thing about your game but no just like classic controller support and does first party efforts very rarely included that off the top of my head uh games like Mario Kart Wii Super Smash Brothers Brawl included it along with a GameCube controller support I believe Xenoblade Chronicles supported it uh games that were like rear releases like Super Mario All-Stars and Kirby's Dream Collection those supported the classic controller and GameCube controller but like why wouldn't they and like I'm running out of things to say here like they just did not support this thing with their modern releases Nintendo probably offered more games in the Wii U era that had class controller support like regular Wii Classic Controller support then during the Wii generation Super Mario 3D World supports classic controllers Mario Kart 8 Super Smash Brothers for Wii U Super Mario Maker Yoshi's woolly World Kirby and the Rainbow Curse they all support the original Wii Classic Controller it's crazy to me so what's the deal with this thing well uh it is technically Wireless now you're probably wondering oh my God what the is that it is a pretty ingenious way in my opinion to keep the cost of this really low while also making it technically Wireless you just plug it into the bottom of the Wii Remote and there you go you're done uh this kept this down to around like 20 bucks or so which was a very good price and yeah pretty much this is Nintendo's modern take uh with kind of a Wii aesthetic on a Super Nintendo controller and honestly this does a really good job uh mimicking that original style while also being kind of its own thing I like how it's a little bit bigger I feel like people that say gaming peaked on like the Super Nintendo or controller design peaked on the Super Nintendo I I don't know how often they go outside I mean yes you grew up with this system and yes the system had some of the greatest games of all time but it's also like you know like we we can do better than this and we have it's really good they did a good job back then but still you know like this has its own this this has its own positives I really like the rounded back it just feels nice and comfortable in the hands and I like the feel of the shoulder buttons which oddly enough are analog yeah which is something that you saw in like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 you know you have levels of which you can push this thing down and it clicks you know down when you push it as far as it goes similar to the GameCube controller similar to you know the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 works well for racing games or first person shooters uh specifically racing games because you know you want to like oh man I'm gonna go on the gas go on the gas go on the gas I'm speeding which I feel like the analog shoulder buttons and also uh this thing showed that Nintendo probably had greater plans for the Wii class controller I feel like there's a chance that they were initially planning to make the weak class controller a GameCube controller as in you could use the Wii Classic Controller to play your GameCube games on the Wii uh which I think would have been incredibly convenient what I really like about the Wii class controller is when you plug this into the Wii Remote and you boot up the Wii menu you can control the pointer with the sticks you can't do that with the GameCube controller I have no idea why not which means that if they would have allowed you to use this as a GameCube controller so when you pop a GameCube disk into your Wii and you start playing it you could play it with a weak class controller uh that that would have been nice yeah since the GameCube controller had these analog triggers uh I find it interesting that uh the weak glass controller has it that's why I have my theory but I also find it interesting that uh they uh just gave up on the analog triggers at Nintendo uh following the revision of the Wii Classic Controller the weak glass controller pro which we'll talk about soon uh and after that pretty much all Nintendo's controllers all their Pro controllers all their Classic Controller type stuff uh never used analog triggers I have no idea why not this might be a classic case of Nintendo wanting to be different and by different I mean uh worse I think they do that sometimes I think they genuinely just want to be slightly different from the competition even if that means their controller is inferior you want to be smug about it they're just like we don't need we don't need analog triggers it's just like well Xbox has them and they're just like well we don't need them those guys so yeah this thing never really used the analog portion of these triggers uh and in addition you know like going with the analog side of things you know that's a very modern feature on this controller uh anything modern on the Wii class controller just doesn't feel very good aren't these sticks just a little too close to each other like if you're just using these with normal normally like you're not even thinking about it there's a very good chance your thumbs are gonna be uh gonna be kissing and then in addition I've been calling these triggers but in reality they are more so shoulder buttons these are more so triggers you know ZL ZR and uh you know they're they're all the way like here that doesn't feel right and then there's the big mystery of this thing this button which opens and closes this clasp shut many people have told me this is for a very specific accessory no it is not it's for an accessory that never released uh an accessory used it but that was an accessory made by a third party so it's not like oh that's what this thing is for that's not what this thing was made for this is a third party company decided to use this thing later on it's not what this was designed for so uh you know cut that from the list but when you're using this thing as a Super Nintendo controller it works great I think this is a great accessory for retro games on the Wii U retro style games on the Wii 2D Platformers shoot em ups all that kind of stuff and especially Super Nintendo games on the Wii Virtual Console or games like Sega Genesis games and whatnot all of that kind of stuff and uh yeah it does the job for modern games like Mario Kart and uh Super Smash Brothers Brawl or Nintendo 64 games but it's very obvious this was designed first and foremost as a Super Nintendo wannabe which opened the door for Nintendo to ask for 20 more dollars from me this is the Wii Classic Controller Pro it functionally is pretty much the exact same thing as the weak class controller and just redesigned to have a more modern feel I think calling it a classic controller is going a bit far because it is very much more so like a PlayStation 2 style controller I think a lot of the changes they made here were definitely for the better to make this a much better substitute for a modern controller on the Wii the sticks are farther apart so they're a lot more comfortable to use for games with camera control and the triggers are actually usable now however we do lose the analog triggers which isn't really a much of a loss because they were never used and also that random clasp thing they put the wire on the top instead of the bottom like the original had ever find it weird when controllers have their cords sticking out of the bottom it's like a Dreamcast at the same problem you know what they did little little Ridge for you to put it up at the top you solved the issue but why was it an issue to begin with I think I think these are a perfect pairing I think the original weak Classic Controller really does succeed at replicating a retro experience whereas the weak class controller pro is much better for modern games you know for actual uh Wii games that support the Wii Classic Controller I think it does a fantastic job at and it does feel like around the time this came out which was around 2010 uh Nintendo was kind of more so positioning the Wii as you know an actual game console rather than something you know the casuals really enjoyed they really pushed GoldenEye 007 on the Wii uh which this special edition comes with a golden Classic Controller Pro and it really felt like Nintendo wanted to show like hey the Wii can have uh stuff for everybody you can have stuff for the hardcore gamer the Casual Gamer all that kind of stuff because around 2010 that's when Donkey Kong Country Returns came out and like I said GoldenEye 007 uh Black Ops released day and date on the Wii it wasn't like something they were heavily pushing but it's obvious that Nintendo did want to see initiate more of the core crowd around this time they wanted to at least throw them a bone on the Wii and I know I mentioned Donkey Kong Country Returns uh and then you know of course that did not support the Wii Classic Controller Pro sure I believe this was mostly pushed with monster hunter try that was a big deal when that came to the Wii especially in Japan you know Monster Hunter is huge over there and uh you know it was it was not as much so over here but uh they definitely tried and uh I I think they definitely wanted to uh release a a better weak Classic Controller uh to coincide with that game's release just so then you know like you actually have like a pretty sufficient way to play a 3D action game like that but I feel like the Wii Classic Controller Pro is actually kind of the start of something even greater for Nintendo because uh this was kind of the springboard for the Wii U Pro controller which then led to the Nintendo switch Pro Controller which everybody owns and they've just continually gotten better and better the Wii U Pro controller is fantastic except for the goddamn stick placement and the Nintendo switch Pro Controller may just be like one of the best controllers out on the market these days it may be one of the best controllers of all time and this family of more traditional Nintendo controllers can really be traced back to the Wii class controller and like I said they've gone better over time uh I I think uh the weak class controller and weak class controller pro can co-exist uh even though this did effectively replace it in stores which I found to be like kind of like okay you're going to call it class controller pro but you're not going to offer the regular class controller anymore okay but they've effectively did the exact same thing so whatever but I do feel like they can coexist and you can kind of feel like using one over the other but overall I think this is a great controller though uh this alongside with the original class controller are a bit light I was like how much do they have going on here pretty much all the tech is going to be in the Wii remote because you plug this into the Wii Remote and uh yeah there's pretty much just an empty shell at this point so it's a bit light it's not too light but I do like some heft to my controllers I I like some poundage but yeah back in the day I kept buying these damn things I bought I bought a black one and then a white one and then I bought the gold one because I saw that like used at GameStop stop and I was like oh my God I gotta get that that's that's the cool one see I have a lot of memories of just buying a bunch of these I don't even remember why I think because like me and my friends like playing GoldenEye sometimes and uh Call of Duty Black Ops on the Wii because all I had at the time was a Wii and my friends really liked Black Ops uh so I was like well I gotta get multiple classic controllers for them to play Black Ops with me at my house we did once I think they automatically thought okay if we're going to Scott's house uh let's just be in a Not Call of Duty mood but for playing classic games and also uh for playing uh games like Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii U because uh the Wii U don't have GameCube controllers ports so uh the only way I can really play uh those games with a traditional controller is with a class controller these work quite well and I believe they deserve more respect not only for really pushing Nintendo in the direction of offering more traditional controllers something that they're still doing to this day but also just for the just for the fact that they allowed this poor to have so many possibilities there have been so many adapters where you can plug in things that allow you to use old school controllers into the nunchuck port and thus you can play Old controllers with any game that supports the class controller but Nintendo themselves released their own class controllers with Wii nunchuck ports like the NES controller and the SNES controller with the NES classic edition and the Super Nintendo classic edition and yeah even though the NES classic Edition released in 2016 yeah you effectively had a brand new Wii class controller with the NES classic edition controller which meant yeah pretty much any game that's aboard the weak glass controller as long as it only used a d-pad start Select A and B like yeah you could you could then use an NES controller with that over in Japan they offered super famicom controllers as Wii class controllers on Club Nintendo so you could effectively do this kind of thing for years before in Japan but uh with the SNES classic edition in 2017 we got officially made Super Nintendo controllers usable on the Wii uh for the first time in North America it was pretty damn cool and it works like a dream so to some extent this does kind of uh make the Wii class controller a little obsolete for using this on Wii games if you want to get that Super Nintendo feel you can't get much closer than this but the weak class controller is still more versatile with the sticks and and the extra buttons here and there so these all still have their place but yeah check this out I got some sealed we class controllers uh some some wacky variations here this one is a classic controller with glove why so I I don't know what's going on with this one so uh so this is distributed by bdagamer.com let me make a BDSM joke here I don't know kind of looks like ah I don't know what do you want from me yeah this is very strange it's like a combo uh with like a third-party accessory and an official like you know like this this is a weak Classic Controller it's made by Nintendo uh but this is distributed by BD and a uh and uh this is their accessory but this is Nintendo's controller uh it's very rare when I see like a bundle featuring like the Nintendo accessory right here and the accessory and the accessories made by a third party and it's distributed by a third party I don't know it's weird but this one uh is a Japanese release this is uh the Wii class controller in uh Japanese packaging that comes with a 5000 Wii Points Card which is 50 bucks so uh you know this was uh this was a pretty penny and look I can see the Wii Points Card right there yeah this is really cool I like this a lot I'll probably keep this uh bundled up uh mainly because uh you know it's really cool to keep accessories like this uh all all nice and shiny especially because I don't need it you know I already yeah I can I can do whatever the hell I want to this thing but yeah this does show that Nintendo was really pushing the Wii Classic Controller pretty much as a virtual console accessory and nothing more really at least that's what how they viewed it they were kind of like the third parties like yeah you can use this thing if we if you want but uh you know they just kind of show why Nintendo didn't really support it that awful much in their own games but damn it I respect you Classic Controller sometimes

Channel: Scott's Stash

Views: 434,079

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Id: NXM_GsfFzj8

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2023