Hey all, Scott here! I have started a new health initiative to bring awareness to "plastic deficiency". I was diagnosed with it 22 words ago and would like to open things up for people willing to donate to the cause. I was also diagnosed with "lie about plastic deficiency to get a free Wii Zapper syndrome". The Nintendo Wii: one of the best-selling consoles of all time. It's mission; appeal to people outside of the gaming crowd with games and controllers that were simple and intuitive. First everybody, then the WORLD. For a while there, everybody's favorite pastime was buying a Wii and it was all because of its controller. The Wii Remote had motion-sensing capabilities which made things drastically easier for more casual consumers to understand. You didn't have to press A and then X followed up with a bachelor's degree to swing the baseball bat, you just... swung the baseball bat. The Wii was a success due to how simple it was. So why was there so much sh*t you could buy for it? "Oh my god, It's a Wii owner! Sir, would you buy any of this?" "Oh, I'll buy f*cking anything." Releasing in 2006, the Wii was a tremendous hit, specifically with the outsiders. Yeah, those people, People who didn't normally play video games. They had a lot of fun with games like Wii Sports and Wii Play, they were simple to control and easy to understand, primarily because the controls for the games were incredibly intuitive due to them mimicking real-life motions. It felt like you were actually golfing or swinging a tennis racket or killing a duck. But we can't just stop at the Liability Wand, we can make this so much more realistic. We can put it in a wheel! Put it in a Gun! Put it in a Kid. The Wii Remote was pretty much a blank slate. You can do anything with it. How do you make things more immersive? By doing... T H I S Accessories for video game platforms are an inevitability, Extra doodads to make your experience that much better (with a question mark) Some are completely optional, some may be required for certain games, and all are too damn much. I would argue the Wii was the system with the most accessories ever. Just the fact you could swivel the controller and it was a simple rectangle meant you could pop this brick in anything for maximum unnecessary. Whether accessories were made by Nintendo themselves, licensed by Nintendo to carry the Wii branding, or were f*cking garbage, any way you slice it, there were a ton of accessories for the Wii. It would be nearly impossible to compile them all together, but that's exactly what Noah said. I did my best and here we have the world of- oh f*ck oh sh*t So the Wii was a 2006 party platter. In the box, you got a stand, a stand for the stand, AV cables, power adapter, sensor bar, Wii Remote with the jacket, Nunchuk, and a copy of Wii Sports. *TABLE SLAM* Who's hungry for more?! I guess you could consider the Nunchuk to be an accessory, plug it in the bottom of the Wii Remote for games that support it, Boom, you just gained a thumb stick. That's all it takes? We have two more buttons and another excuse for motion controls and the Nunchuk is a necessary evil with life You need it for a good chunk of the Wii library, but I don't know many strictly Nunchuk fans. There's absolutely zero weight to it. It's motion controls are 100% not as good or responsive as the Wii Remote itself and while I didn't have much of an issue with the cord, many did and felt it would get in the way of what once was a truly wireless experience. I'm surprised not that many Wii games supported using dual Wii remotes as an option, You'd have to plug the nunchuck into this here port which offered endless opportunities. So many other Wii controllers use this, there's never been this many possibilities with just one hole! The Wii Classic Controllers were used by those too stubborn to convert. Some games offered support for them, you'd plug them into the bottom of the Wii Remote and you just use them like any other controller. They were primarily created to control classic games you download from the Wii Shop Channel, hence, why the first model looks so similar to a Super Nintendo controller. In fact only available in Japan through the Club Nintendo service was a legitimate Super Famicom controller for the Wii! It works just like a Classic Controller, but it doesn't have the sticks and tic-tac growths. They later released an update, the Classic Controller Pro, firmly drawing a line between people who use the Classic Controller and people who cared. I love when the word Pro is used for products like this. I can't use this, I'm a professional! A tweaked Classic Controller with some button placement adjustments, and of course something to keep your palms busy. These were nice little extra purchases back then. They may not have had rumble or motion controls and they were always tethered to the Wii Remote, but I never personally had an issue with that. All those downsides contributed to an extremely affordable price only around 20 bones for these controllers made them a bit of a no-brainer. Plus they connected to the Wii Remote, You know what doesn't connect to the Wii Remote? Satan. See, these things are amazing. But see. There's even more to this port, and contrary to popular belief, The Wii Remote wasn't perfect. It's okay, who cares about religion anyways? Many would point to the initial trailers for the console where people were using the controllers in exaggerated ways like jumping behind the couch to take cover. See, the Wii Remote needed more "oomph" if it was ever going to come close to detecting more precise hand movements like that So alongside the game "Wii Sports Resort", Nintendo unleashed their next Wii Remote add-on. Let me check my pocket... Oh, yeah, I got one, the MotionPlus. The "Wii MotionPlus" , this attached to the bottom of the Wii Remote and added a gyroscope to further enhance the Wii Remote's motion-sensing capabilities. Like, the Wii Remote did the job before this, but that's all you could really say about it. MotionPlus actually read the precise positioning of your hand, it just comes with the downside of having to recalibrate the controller from time to time. But it does read movements far more accurately and it came with a longer Wii Remote jacket too - I'm welcome! This technology was quickly added into future Wii remotes sold, the Wii Remote Plus Which these are definitely the go-to way to experience MotionPlus, you constantly have to rip off the adapter to use it with other accessories and this thing was complicated as all hell considering Nintendo included a Wii MotionPlus how-to video with all games they release that supported it. Nintendo, why didn't you include a "how to click on the Wii MotionPlus video" video? I have no damn clue what I'm doing here. A good handful of Wii games either offered motion plus support or 100% required it. So thank God they incorporated that technology into future Wii Remotes. This has gone through the laundry five too many times. Here's the thing though, MotionPlus is great, good for it, but it isn't wheel-shaped enough. That's exactly why Nintendo created the Wii Wheel bundled in with Mario Kart Wii- plastic. It's plastic. It doesn't give the Wii Remote any additional features or benefits outside of feeling more steering-wheel-like. It does have a cutout for the IR pointer and an extension for the B button, but other than that, there is nothing the Wii Wheel offers that tape doesn't. Back in 2008, this is kinda cool because like I said, what made the Wii Remote popular were the games that mimicked real life, throw the bowling ball, slaughter poultry! This felt like you were sort of really driving, but it's a wildly unnecessary purchase considering it's just a holder for the remote, all it does is make you feel like your license didn't get suspended. It may be just plastic, but that never stopped publishers from adding "Compatible with Wii Wheel" to their game boxes. Oh, yes, it's compatible with the Wii Wheel! Is it also compatible with a concept of love? But that brings us to the ultimate form of plastics, Wii games taught me what it's like to play golf... They also taught me what it's like to kill. The Wii Zapper, obviously the name is a throwback to the NES Zapper (Probably also because they don't really like to label things as "a gun") For only $20 you got literally the only thing that matters and- this looks like a gun shed its skin. Link's Crossbow Training was bundled in with all Zappers and is a simple high-score based game with a handful of levels based on The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess. You go through three different types of stages, ones where you're just blasting targets and on rail sections, others where you have to stand your ground and defeat the enemies before they get to you, and full-on third-person shooting sections where you have full control of Link. It's incredibly short, you can get through the entire thing in roughly 45 minutes, but it's legitimately fun to try and go for high scores. It's interesting Nintendo opted for a Zelda themed pack-in game for the Zapper considering this isn't the first franchise I think of when the term zap is brought up. Also, Nintendo's pack-in titles for the Wii would generally be generic Mii based games, but to be fair... This is a weapon. This is already mostly aimed towards the core Wii owner, not the people who bought Wii Play, more so the people who bought Elebits. So I think it just made sense to utilize one of their more mature oriented franchises, which just makes me wonder why they didn't do a Metroid Prime shooting range pack-in instead. That would have made slightly more sense. But that's just the game. What about the Zapper? I hate it I never liked this thing, if we look at the Wii wheel, that's as simple as Wii accessories get. Boom. Just wasted 20 bucks. The Wii Zapper isn't as complicated as a science project, but comparative to other Wii accessories it is. Put the Wii Remote here, and then the Nunchuk here, open up this flap, close it shut, take off the back cover, wrap the cord around, have it extend out here put the cover back on, plug into Wii Remote. Why did I do this? By the time I finished setting this up, it fully sets in it that no game needs the Wii Zapper. It's just a shell for the Wii Remote and Nunchuck and to me, it makes things slightly more awkward when I play first-person shooters with it. Instead of being able to hold the Nunchuck independently and move the Wii Remote by itself, these two things are now conjoined. You have to move everything to aim and shoot. Sure it feels a bit more gun-like, but not enough to be a huge boost to immersion. Like, the Wii wheel looks and feels like a wheel, the Wii Zapper is as gun-like as a water gun. This is way too much work required for what ends up being just an OK experience at best, I would always prefer to just use the vanilla Wii Remote and Nunchuk setup. It's more comfortable this way and doesn't require any preparation. Which, that was the mentality behind Wii Speak, Nintendo's solution to voice chat online. No setup, just do it. This was released alongside Animal Crossing City Folk. You plug it into one of the USB ports on the Wii, set it on top of the sensor bar, and talk to your friends or at the very least try to. See, the concept behind Wii Speak was great at the time, You wouldn't have to wear headphones with a mic, no wires, just talk to your TV and hear your friends talk back. It felt like a very Wii way to do voice chat. The problem was that microphone was right next to your TV speakers. So while it would pick up your voice, *screams of the doomed intensifies* It would also pick up the game's audio and your friends voice and their game's audio, non-stop echoing so it was just my favorite definition of not good. They may have said it was designed to mute the game audio or echoes but this is the same company who said, "Let's make the Wii Speak". You can download the Wii Speak channel alongside it "coming in December". It doesn't work anymore, but it would allow you to chat with your friends, this was pretty much the extent of Wii Speak's use. It was compatible with a few other games whether it was for online voice chat or just to give certain games microphone support, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy let you record victory and defeat catchphrases while also letting you speak your answers, it works about as good as I'd say it does. It doesn't. Y'know the Wii Speak is worth it for recording victory and defeat sounds in Wheel of Fortune alone. [Pat Sajak] You got it! *glorious victory noises* *scream of defeat* Wii Speak was one of Nintendo's most underutilized accessories for the Wii. It felt like they wanted it to be used for so much more, but they just kind of made it for Animal Crossing and then pissed out. Look at all these Wii Speak compatible games. I never thought I'd have to squint reading a Wikipedia article. I can at least say this wasn't the case for the Wii Balance Board. Bundled in with Wii Fit, it was a scale that actively insulted you. This definitely got much more support and justifiably so, this allowed you to use your entire body to control a game, not just your hands. Whether it worked properly or not, it was on a case-by-case basis. Some games, it actually worked as advertised, others it wasn't responsive enough or it was too responsive enough. The main games I played with this were obviously Wii Fit and its standalone expansion Wii Fit Plus. It made good use of the board, though sometimes these games felt more like a good use of the board rather than a good way to get in shape. Quite a few games supported the balance board, but they mostly boiled down to other fitness and sports titles and Tetris. While the Wii itself was a very health conscious machine promoting so much not-sitting, the Balance Board truly branded it as gaming Weight Watchers. And Nintendo wanted to do even more health-related jargon on the console which brings us to The Wii Vitality Sensor, it released! Gotcha! At E3 2009, Nintendo fans' worst nightmare was revealed. AH! Much like the Nunchuck or Wii Classic controllers, this would plug into the bottom of the Wii Remote, you'd then stick a finger into it and it would read your heartbeat, people lost their s***. This was announced at a time many hardcore fans were getting tired of Nintendo's greater focus on casual and health-based initiatives and when they revealed something you'd find in hospice... Well, it's kinda hard to get excited over it. Nintendo stated that in 2010 they would showcase games that utilize the accessory, instead, they went for a different tactic and canceled it four years later. No games, no pricing, no release window, the reveal at E3 2009 was pretty much all we saw of the Vitality Sensor. It was said to focus on getting users to relax by reading their heartbeat. The only true experience I thought of that would have benefited from this thing was a horror game. The idea of the horror game that knows when you're scared has so much potential. I like to think the Wii Vitality Sensor was gonna be sort of cool, I did find the concept behind it to be intriguing. The problem was, during product testing, while Nintendo got it to work with 90% of their focus group, they wanted it to be at 100%. And that is pretty much all of the official Nintendo-made accessories for the Wii. 'Course we couldn't forget about the Nintendo LAN adapter or the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB connector for playing online! Wii couldn't. But that's only half the story with Wii accessories. See, if you were a company that knows Nintendo stuffing Wii remotes into random pieces of plastic... Well, let's just say lust takes many forms. Yes, what was Nintendo too scared to make themselves? See, many companies looked at Nintendo cramming this thing into God knows what and said, "We can do that too." That's not to say these other companies made pure garbage. I mean you can't have not garbage if pure garbage doesn't exist, It has value. Some third-party accessories were actually pretty cool, useful, or even got the blessing from Nintendo themselves, such as this wireless sensor bar produced by Rocketfish Gaming but officially licensed by Nintendo. All you have to do is throw four AAA batteries in, realize the person you bought this from left decade-old batteries in and get battery corrosion on your hands and play Fortune Street. But what if I don't want chemical burns and I just want to look like a f***ing idiot? Well, there's the headbanger in-game chat headset for the Wii! Another one officially licensed by Nintendo. Nintendo looked at this and went, "F**k it." Yeah, Modern Warfare 3 didn't support the Wii Speak. I can't believe it either. So this worked with Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 and Conduit 2, I had me at "So." It's just a simple USB headset, it doesn't work with Wii Speak games. Don't shoot me. I'm just the messenger. Games like Black Ops on Wii are still online, so let's give it a shot! *wii machine broke* My Wii U froze, but my biggest concern is I can't try out the headset. We got loads of stands for the system, games, controllers, all of that. And I used to have this media tower right here, but what I have in my hands is an ashtray. I don't know who made this or when it came out, but it has the official Wii logo on it. It has spots for the console, some games, some remotes, but this looks like a pill organizer to me. So the Wii with the stand doesn't fit. Only the Wii without the stand fits, and that barely fits! The Wii has these little nubs on the side that keeps it from sliding in, the games aren't snug at all, and I guess I'm supposed to put my Nunchuck here? I hate this, I feel like my Wii is gonna fall at any moment. Maybe they want you to put it like this. But what I'm here for are the third-party controllers, like this Tatsunoko vs. Capcom fight stick. I always wanted this, primarily for old arcade games I downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel. There was only one way to play NES Pac-Man: not, but this stick would have made it way more fun. I always wanted this fight stick for anything BUT Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom is a great game, but I don't know what those first three words mean. This is a legitimate quality arcade stick. It has superb weight to it, and it plugs into the Wii Remote like a classic controller. Tons of Wii controllers use the remote as a means to power the devices as well as keep them wireless, which was incredibly smart. It helped keep costs down, why cram all that technology into these things when the Wii Remote can do all the heavy lifting? First thing that comes to mind are the music game peripherals: Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments, the DJ Hero turntable. Just pop a Wii Remote in and you're in business! And speaking of music game peripherals, Dance Dance Revolution mats! You'd plug these into the Gamecube ports on the original models, somehow I was expecting this to plug into the Wii Remote, but see, the DDR mats are fine, But what if I want to draw instead of dance and I want this to be a drawing tablet instead of a dancing mat? I'm so lucky this exists. The uDraw gaming tablet created by THQ. You'd pop a Wii Remote in, and, boom! We can finally play uDraw Studio. I was always wondering why you couldn't play this... You need a tablet for it. So here's the thing: for what it is, uDraw functions fine enough, it does in fact work, but not well enough for Wacom to grit their teeth. Left-handed people are a f**king sin to uDraw. This tablet was obviously designed with righties in mind. You use the Wii Remote buttons to control certain elements while the stylus is on the right-hand side of the device attached by a cord shorter than the list of Wii Speak compatible games. The included software is just a simple art program. There's loads of things to do here, like boot it up, draw a horse... The possibilities are endless. You can also play Pictionary. Guess what word I'm drawing? That's right: Arrows. This is alright, but it's not anywhere close to as precise as actual drawing tablets and while THQ tried to showcase how this can be used for actual art, to me, this is nothing more than a toy. THQ released a handful of uDraw required games and also brought the accessory over to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360: this is what killed them. Banking on an art accessory for three systems when you're best known for WWE games, I don't know what they were thinking with this one. Nobody goes to THQ for advice, why did they think they can make this? See, THQ was never really in my eyes a bigger quality enough company to truly make an accessory like this and for it to be successful, so I'll follow that statement up with a sentence I find myself ending everything with these days. What about Ubisoft? Did anyone know this was a thing? The Drawsome Tablet, released about a year after uDraw, was a drawing tablet by Ubisoft. I have never heard of this thing before. It's fundamentally the exact same thing as uDraw but we have two games bundled in for the price of one: Smurf art and not Smurf art. Popping the game in... Where's the stylus? So my tablet didn't come with a stylus. You see, I thought the cord length of uDraw was a negative, but hey, at least the stylus can't be lost this way. I bought this used and it did not come with a pen and I also can't use a uDraw tablet to control Drawsome games, I know, humanity just can't win. But Sketch Quest is playable with just a Wii remote. This is a good time to move on to guns. So the Wii Zapper always looked more like a cousin of a gun rather than an actual gun, so if you wanted a more realistic take, I wouldn't blame you. The Nyko Perfect Shot feels fairly solid, you have a port for the Nunchuck at the bottom. Yep, I feel like shooting! But if you need a Wii gun, this is one of your best bets! Because other than the Perfect Shot, we have... t h i s 2 Blasters + Game, Nintendo gave their blessing to these. This was an interesting proposition. You'd get two Wii Remote guns and a free downloadable WiiWare game: Big Town Shoot Out. So we have to go to PDP's website to get a download code for it. Ok, let's at least try to input this code into the Wii Shop Channel. Alright, let's open up a WiiWare game I have that involves killing. These are very bizarre. We take the battery cover off the Wii Remote, the gun inserts on the back instead, and it took me a while to realize they then want you to put the battery cover on the side of the gun. For the longest time, I just assumed this was how it looked. I mean, sure, this way it's pretty well attached, but I didn't really think that was a problem with any other Wii guns I've used. Like the Nerf gun, bundled in with the Nerf N-Strike games. It's fine. You can also use it as an actual Nerf gun if you're just dying to prove to everybody you bought Nerf N-Strike. But here we have the big boy, the Cabela's Big Game Hunter accessory. This is about as complicated as a Wii Zapper, but this feels much more like an actual gun. There's even a crosshair that you can sync up with the game so you can use it to aim down sights. Alright, it's time to shoot whatever comes up! *monster appears slowly* F**K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I have the exact same problem with this as I did with the Wii Zapper. I just don't like moving this entire thing around, compared to being able to freely move the Wii Remote and Nunchuck separately. Out of all these guns. I probably just prefer playing with the controllers by themselves. But if I had to choose one, the blasters felt the best, what the f**k am I saying? Well, like most aspiring parents, the only reasonable thing to do after critiquing a gun is raise a child. Babysitting Mama, a spin-off of Cooking Mama. This one's all about not shaking the baby. We have this plush doll we slide our Wii Remote in and then we plug a Nunchuck into the baby's back. Fundamentally, we hold the child in one hand and then control various things with the Nunchuck. It's only just a handful of minigames revolving around babysitting. Rocking the baby to sleep, feeding it, all of that. It is very pushy about not shaking the baby, that's a worthy cause, but it also actively encourages Wii Remote implants. But is this really what you think of when Wii accessories are brought up? Of course not, bring in the landfill! Many companies looked at the Wii wheel and said, "People buy anything." Various accessories were put out that really add to the realism of Wii Sports, like how this turns your Wii Remote into a two-inch tall baseball bat and you and your friend can play baseball using two baseball bats. It just works. I have yet to find a plastic add-on for the Wii Remote like this that actually adds to the game. These are all completely worthless. All these do is allow to you, say, "Look ma, I'm stupid!" A skateboard add-on for the Wii Balance Board? Hell, yeah! If people ever asked me if I skate, now, I have to pause a bit before I answer. Boxing gloves! These are basically just gloves that have cutouts for the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Yeah, if you ever get into a fight, hide a Wii Remote in your glove. An airplane controller! I have no game that would work with this in the sense that you use both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk So this is just a very static way to play Wii Sports Boxing. The bowling ball! You pop a Wii Remote in here, and play bowling! Dear god, don't let go of it. What's the point, does this really feel more like bowling than just using a Wii Remote by itself? What the f**k is the point of a golf club add-on if it's just a stubby-ass top to your Wii Remote? This doesn't feel more like a golf club. It just feels like I'm living a lie. What's the point of having these add-ons? They don't matter. The wheel I get because it makes the Wii Remote feel more like a wheel, but the ping pong paddle, during gameplay, I don't feel the core part that makes this feel like a ping-pong paddle. What's the POINT? I'm not a fan, but we do have various other accessories to go over like the Cyberbike! It was an exercise bike that would plug into the GameCube ports and it only worked with one game and is pretty rare. I don't have the bike, But I do have the game and I thought that would make me happy. Maracas, darts, dumbbells, pretty much every form of concrete matter in existence has been transformed into a Wii Remote at some point. Clearly I can't include every single thing made for the platform. Maybe someday we can pick this subject back up But for now, I think I've covered a good chunk of all major accessories... Once I mention the car adapter. Oh, of course, we can't forget about the Wii Remote charging stands. I personally never owned one because I love to support and collect for Duracell batteries. I still have my first Duracells from when I was a kid and in addition to that, my skin cannot get enough of battery corrosion!
Why can't more games let me record my screams?
Battery corrosion!
That zapper was great for House of the dead, really brought a nice in home arcade feel to the console for me growing up :D
Hey scott!!! Im a big fan!
Love that he mentioned elebits!!