nunchuck
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Kinda crappy controller caddies
Demand for a remote and nunchuck carrying case might not actually exist, but that hasn't stopped other trivial Wii-themed products from hitting the market. The pouch's white cover features some slick, unmarked lineart and the knockoff u-umlaut logo we've all grown to love; it's almost enough to make us overlook its $10 pricing on eBay (shipping included). We've got more photos and packaging shenanigans after the post break, in case you were wondering.
Brando's WeDock: A $19 box
If you've ever considered yourself a person of class, a member of the gaming bourgeoisie if you will, you'd turn your nose up at the idea of keeping your controllers in a plastic bin or wicker basket. That's the sort of practice you'd rather leave to those of lesser fortune and breeding, right?No, your discriminating tastes demand more sophisticated storage solutions. You require something like Brando's WeDock, a product that does very little for its $19 price tag, but does it quite stylishly. The small locker's clean, white design matches your Nintendo Wii along with any Apple sensibilities you might have. Its one-touch, "springboard" slots fit up to two remotes and nunchucks.When guests ask if the WeDock recharges your remotes' batteries, you'll laugh in their faces until they bow their heads in shame. Of course it doesn't. Jump past the post break for more product shots.
Another third-party Wiimote Blaster hits the scene
The Wiimote blaster love just keeps on comin', as cranking out third-party steering wheels, Wii Sports apparatuses, and full-fledged Link suits apparently isn't good enough. We all know the Zapper holds a dear place in most every gamer's heart, and judging by the variety set to be released for the Wii, accessory manufacturers are keenly aware. The latest Wii gun has popped up at GameStop, and aside from a smallish photograph and "Core Gamer" listed as the developer, we're not too sure about anything else. Of course, there's not too much to understand about how this here device will eventually work, but on or around June 26th, you can plop down your $19.99 and find out once and for all.[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]
Wii Warm Up: Do you NEED four?
The Wii is, at least to the generic public, a very multiplayer oriented system. You can't enjoy the flagship Wii Tennis without a second controller ... oh, wait, we need a nunchuk for boxing as well ... but man, three-player would be so cool! And so on and so forth. But Wiimotes are frakkin' expensive. Forty for the main, twenty for the add, you know the deal.Sooooooo, where did you draw the line? Did you pick up an extra Wiimote with Wii Play? Do all of your Wiimotes have nunchucks? Did you drop the hundred and eighty dollars for the full complement, not including any Classic Controllers? And for the love of God, use rechargeable batteries. Mother nature and your wallet will thank you.
Nintendo's Wiimote / Nunchucks to get colorful makeover?
We'd highly suggest taking this one with a not-so-healthy does of salt, but according to "wholesale data" originating in the European market, colorful Wiimotes and Nunchucks could be on the horizon. If you'll recall, this isn't the first speculation that we've seen regarding the Big N and a rainbow selection, and unfortunately for everyone, none of those claims have yet to materialize. The data, however, suggests that Nintendo could be releasing Wiimotes / Nunchucks in silver, blue, and "pearl pink" flavors, and while pricing would likely be lower here in the States, Europeans would purportedly end up paying €40 (about $54) and €20 ($27), respectively. The completely unconfirmed distribution date is listed for June 29th, so unless Nintendo pulls one over on us and looses these early, we'll be waiting some time yet to see if this colorful hunch pans out.[Via Joystiq]
Wii colored controllers and nunchucks finally coming?
Remember back before the Wii launched, and they kept touting that the console and the peripherals would be available in all sorts of different colors? Well, that rainbow never landed, and we've been a captive of White since then. However, that might be changing very soon.Go Nintendo reports that a retailer list they've seen announces the upcoming different colors for Wiimotes and nunchucks, and that they will be made available on June 29th in Europe. No mention of dates for U.S. or other territories.Colored consoles will undoubtedly be coming around the same time, or soon after. There are only colors on the list: Silver, Blue, and Pearl Pink -- which leaves it up to you to color coordinate the best possible setup. We'd still like to see these in jet black, like they showed off in the glass "concept" case at last year's E3. There have been skins from several third parties for both the console and the controllers, as well as an official color change to the Nintendo DS lite, although that also took awhile to get to American shores.So, enjoy it while you can, Europe. You and your fancy colors will be the talk of the town ... for now.
Release dates emerge for Mad Catz Wiimote and "Funchuk"
Sadly, no new pictures of the two Mad Catz controllers, that as far as we know will be the first such 3rd party controllers for the Wii, but at least we finally have an idea when these things might start hitting store shelves. As promised by Amazon UK, the "Wand Remote Controller" will retail for £24.99 ($49 US) and be released on September 28th, with Amazon selling it for a "bargain" price of £19.99 ($39 US). Mac Catz will be hitting with the "Funchuk Controller" on June 29th for a more palatable £9.99 ($20 US), and Amazon UK is promising a discounted price of £8.99 ($18 US). A pretty long wait, to be sure, and given the generally shoddy construction of nearly all 3rd party controllers in the history of man, we're not really on edge here, but we're sure Mad Catz will still find its way into plenty a home with this pair.[Thanks, Afzilla]Read - Wand Remote ControllerRead - Funchuk Controller
Nunchuck LED mod tutorial
We have featured LED mods for the Wii remote in the past, but today we have a tutorial for adding colored LEDs to your Wii nunchuck! Despite the instructional photos and well-documented walkthrough, we wouldn't suggest this sort of hardware hacking to an electronics novice. You won't have much to brag about if you accidentally set your circuit board on fire or unintentionally scar yourself with a triwing screwdriver. Hey, it could happen! "MCWORLD!"If you happen to be skilled with a soldering iron though, this tweak might be for you. Following the tutorial, your nunchuck should have a swank LED glow right underneath the thumbstick whenever you've got it attached to a Wii remote in use. You'll be the talk of the town!
Crafty Wii user creates chocolate Wiimote, nunchuck
If you're even considering making a late night grocery run to stock up on post-Valentine's Day chocolate sales, hold your horses. For those who just so happened to keep the original packaging from your Wiimote and nunchuck as any true geek does, or you need a delicious excuse to run out and grab another set, you're well on your way to edible nirvana. A crafty Flickr user utilized his culinary skills along with the plastic packaging that accompanied his Wii accessories in order to make molds for Wiimote / nunchuck chocolate, which look mighty scrumptious if we may so say ourselves. While we're not experts on creating our own choco bars, it has certainly been done a time or two before, so why not indulge yourself a bit with a little calorie-packed Wiimote after a vigorous round of Wii exercise, cool?
Mad Catz readying its own Wiimote / nunchuck?
If you've managed to secure yourself a Nintendo Wii, and have managed to stay relatively safe while playing, you still might be leading a fruitless search to find yourself a few extra Wiimotes. Oddly enough, some parts of the country are still facing Wiimote shortages, while locales like the Nintendo World store in NYC has just under a gazillion or so. Nevertheless, it looks like Mad Catz just might readying a rescue effort, as a cameraphone-packin' Wal-Mart employee happened to snap a few pics of what appears (fairly clearly) to be a third-party Wiimote / nunchuck combo. Of course, we've no way of verifying Mad Catz's plans, nor any way to tell if these shots foretell the future, but this definitely wouldn't mark the first time a Mad Catz peripheral got leaked way before its supposed release date. Be sure to hit the read link for the full rundown of sneak peeks.[Via Joystiq]
Where have all the nunchuks gone? [update 1]
Nintendo forgot a little something in their Wii launch -- to pack a plethora of extra nunchuks to go with their Wii-motes. If your experience has been anything like this reporter's, than you too are minus any nunchuks to go with your Wii-motes (except for the one that came with the system). Eight stores and two states later, still haven't found one -- Amazon.com doesn't have them either. Now to start making phone calls all over the place, anybody else having this problem?Basic business would have dictated that people would get a nunchuk to go with their Wii-mote, so why wasn't it a 1 to 1 ratio? All the Wii-motes in the world and not a nunchuk to attach. Having friends over and not being able to play Rayman or Wii Sports Boxing has been a very disappointing experience.It seems that some readers are having the complete opposite experience, heavy on the Wii-chuk, low on the Wii-mote. Reader Kevin pretty much sums it up, "Why dont they just package them together???" We'll look into that. (Update 1: Updated due to feedback)
Intec on the Wii accessory wagon
The guys over at Intec are really screwing with us. Do they not understand that we segregate our systems? From what we see, this vertical stand will hold your Wii system, a nunchuk (complete with rockin' black grips), two Wiimotes, two SD cards, two GameCube memory cards and ... two PSP Pro Duo sticks?!? Color us confused. For $30 you can make your Wii wider and more useful for your PSP memory cards than the PSP itself. [Note: we don't really segregate our systems. We love them all equally.] [Thanks Alex ~!]
Wii Sports disappears from preorder lists
With the Japanese Wii event only hours away, even old rumors are new again. There have been rumors about Wii Sports being bundled with the system for as long as we've known about the sports games set, and now those rumors are looking a lot more like facts. A reader tipped us off that Wii Sports disappeared as a preorder option from his local GameStop and we got to work. Though the title is still listed on the web sites (at an exorbitant price, natch) at GameStop and EBGames, our favorite EBGames employee confirmed that the title had disappeared from preorder lists ... and was quick to point out the upcoming Nintendo announcement. It was all very, how shall we say ... conspiratorial?To add fuel to the fire -- at GameStop, several of the other older Wii titles (like Red Steel) have box art images linked. Wii Sports does not. And everyone who is "friends with an insider" seems to be weighing in on the subject. One IGN forum poster claims Wii Sports will be bundled not only because it will sell the system, but to make up for the lack of the classic controller in the launch bundle. Now, we're not at all surprised by this. After all, Wii Sports seems to be one of the best ways to demonstrate the capabilities of the Wiimote for everyone, gamer or not. And Nintendo has relied heavily on Wii Sports in their marketing campaigns -- the Wii site is littered with images of happy groups of families and friends having fun with bighead sports. So it only makes sense. But stick around ... we hope to have all the info very soon![Thanks to TVGenius for originally tipping us off!]
IGN interrogates Miyamoto-san
Shigeru Miyamoto recently sat down with IGN to speak vaguely on upcoming projects and various Wii-related topics. The origins of the Wiimote and nunchuck attachment are discussed, as well as left-handed gamers, the classic controller, and the controller's internal speaker. He speaks of an upcoming game in which all four players will use the same Wiimote, and the speaker will call out player names to indicate whose turn it is.Finally, the article seems to confirm that the nunchuck will come packaged with the console. We really didn't think Nintendo would stiff us like that...after all, their first three huge games (Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, and Super Mario Galaxy) all require its use...but it's nice to know. Head on over for the details.[Thanks, Alex!]
Nunchuck hides a secret?
According to AMN, the recent rumor that hit the net regarding the Revolution's nunchuck attachment is true and the add-on contains an acellerometer, a device which measures the speed at which the attachment moves and its direction of tilt. What does this mean? Well, if this is true, the nunchuck attachment will act much like free looking in FPS games does on the PC. With the recent revealing of Red Steel, should this rumor be true, it would be a perfect fit for the title. Actually, it would be a great fit for just about any other first-person (Metroid Prime 3?!) or third-person title as well, allowing the player to easily control the camera through a flick of the rest. [Via Revolution Report]
