Three Nintendo Wii accessory owners loved (and two they hated)

The Nintendo Wii, released in late 2006, was the company’s casual video game console, following the GameCube. While there were many games that only used the built-in Wii Remote and nunchuck, some required a completely different style of controller or encouraged the use of plastic trash wrapped around it. When Nintendo released the Wii with this simplistic motion controller, I don’t think anyone predicted the current flood of landfills that would invade our homes.

The Wii had a ton of weird attachments and accessories, but it wasn’t that bad. In fact, most of the accessories I’ve personally liked often come down to memories of the game tied to it, but we’re also being pragmatic here. I may not have enjoyed everything Nintendo offered the Wii, but I most certainly found a set of accessories that kept me ride or die between 2006 and 2012.

This is also not to say that there weren’t obnoxious devices. For those who didn’t spend much time in game stores in their heyday, some sections of them had what looked like bargain store toys littering the shelves. Instead of a few dollars for a fake tennis set, it would cost a ridiculous amount of money and provide no benefit other than alerting everyone around you that you have no imagination when holding the Wii Remote.

What the Wii lacked with its revolutionary controller was having a base to build on. A regular controller for those regular video games. Nintendo released it, with the classic controller, but its flat back and squashed shoulder buttons weren’t ergonomic. After a few years, the Pro version came out, and that’s what opened many gaming doors for me and others.

“Monster Hunter Tri” was now actually comfortable to play, no longer crippled by the Wii’s weird controls or the uncomfortable classic controller. The Wii Virtual Console’s entire library of retro games was also suddenly a lot more playable. It helped solidify my love for old games, with “Gunstar Heroes” and “Super Castlevania IV” quickly rising up the ranks of the most successful games on the Wii.

It also doesn’t matter that the Wii doesn’t have analog triggers, unlike the current fare of Switch and Switch 2 controllers. Why didn’t that matter? Mainly because games released for the Wii were either reworked based on hardware constraints or simply never released on the platform. Meanwhile, many games, like “Star Wars Outlaws,” have some minor driving issues because it’s just a digital switch instead of a progressive pull.

You know what’s really good for a 13 year old’s self-esteem? His video game console tells him he’s fat. Additionally, I also paid $90 for this. The Wii Balance Board highlighted something truly spectacular about the Wii: how quickly fashions evolved, how much plastic there was now in my room, and how rarely another game developer would manage to decipher the magic of Nintendo’s weird hardware.

Outside of Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, aside from maybe a few games, the board has been left to rot in a hole of various exercise games. It’s rare that teams use the hardware necessary to create something truly interesting, opting instead for “Big Beach Sports 2” or “G1 Jockey 2008.” If you guessed standing on the board for balance and jumping with minimal effort, you guessed right.

The Balance Board was essentially the tipping point for the console. It was home to some of the best games and helped Nintendo revive or revive franchises (“Donkey Kong Returns” and “Xenoblade,” for example), but the Balance Board was indicative of the years to come. A growing amount of crappy games that never lived up to the potential the Wii could have achieved, all packaged into a giant piece of plastic that will be gathering dust in a few weeks.

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers received a fully wireless guitar controller in their box. Wii owners got a lightweight, comfortable, and sturdy controller adapter that housed the remote. I think the Les Paul “Guitar Hero 3” for the Wii is probably the most comfortable of these controllers – alongside the 360 ​​and PS3 versions – especially since the race heated up less than a year later with “Rock Band” and its mushy controllers.

“Guitar Hero 3” was overwhelming at the time. Not because it was that good, but the music she infected me with remained my taste for a good majority of my life at this point. All of this, along with the Wii guitar controller case, created some legendary memories. Have you ever impressed a girl in high school because you can play Metallica’s “One” in a video game? At the time, I thought I had done it.

It wasn’t as comprehensive as the others, but picking it up again in 2007 allowed me to finally play the far superior “The Beatles: Rock Band.” A truly special moment that video games rarely accomplish, fundamentally changing the player to their core, my core, all through a controller.

A symbol of uselessness, the game “Babysitting Mama” was a spin-off of “Cooking Mama”, which had already infested the Wii with various plastic waste. The game includes a plush toy representing a baby, into which the Wii Remote is inserted and used to imitate on-screen movements. It seems cute on the surface, but it was ultimately a microcosm of the Wii’s problem.

You see, “Babysitting Mama” is not a good video game. Some circles might even consider it shovelware, cheap software for the console. While the “Mama” series lasts quite a long time in 2026, by 2010 it felt like the series had already completely died out after just four years of flooding onto the shelves of the DS and Wii. The stuffed baby was literally just a way to hide the fact that you would probably be pushing a button or two, maybe wiggling a little.

There aren’t many actual sales numbers, just numbers inherited from VGChartz, but it appears to have changed by about half a million units. Although the game was poorly received and the toy was used as a Trojan horse to convince parents to buy it, it actually commands a pretty high price on eBay. The doll itself costs between $20 and $50, while a “New in Box” version goes for $100. Good luck to this seller.

It’s simple, straightforward, and yes, it’s a piece of plastic, but do you know how many arcade or rail shooters have been released on this system? It’s a shame they never combined them with the Balance Board for a cover system like in “Time Crisis”, but the Zapper added just a little extra to those games. “House of the Dead: Overkill” and both “Resident Evil” light gun games felt much better with both hands around the fake gun.

The Zapper was one of two plastic accessories released by the company for the Wii. Besides the “Mario Kart” wheel, the main difference between Nintendo’s light gun controller case and others on the market was that it felt premium. It also came with a game, “Link’s Crossbow Training,” which was just enough to justify the cost. Swinging it around and landing that last shot to beat the level is part of the reason I love light gun games so much.