Nintendo Reveals New Wii Controller 89
IGN reports that Nintendo has unveiled the Classic Controller Pro, a new input device for the Wii of a more typical design than the Wii Remote. "From the info we've already got on the PRO, we know it's a larger controller, not only in thickness, height, and width, but it also makes use of one of the more well-received concepts out there, which is the extension grips, which gives it a GameCube, Xbox Controller S/360 look. As you can see, the Z buttons (Z/L and Z/R) are larger now, and placed like the R1/R2, L1/L2 setup found with Sony controllers. The PRO even borrows from the Nyko Classic Controller and Click Grip."
Um (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Um (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't look like a Wiimote replacement. If anything, it's a Classic Controller with grips slapped on. The summary makes it seem like it's to replace the Wiimote.
What part of "the Classic Controller Pro, a new input device for the Wii of a more typical design than the Wii Remote" was lost on you?
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What part of "the Classic Controller Pro, a new input device for the Wii of a more typical design than the Wii Remote" was lost on you?
Actually, if you want to go splitting hairs, it's really a new input device for the Wiimote, so the OP does have a point about the description being a touch misleading/inaccurate. ;)
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It should read "of a more typical design than the Classic Controller". You do not use this to replace a Wiimote. You use this to replace a Classic Controller (or Gamecube controller - but not for Gamecube games).
To be honest, it seems a bit pointless to me. Having a classic controller around for SNES and other 8- and 16-bit era games is nice, since the form has the nostalgia value, as well as a proper button layout (A/B/X/Y in the proper places for SNES games). A Gamecube controller works very well for N64
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The Classic Controller doesn't replace the Wii Remote. It simply plugs into it.
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You need to re-read the summary then. Because, it doesn't say what you think it does. Also, if you would have RTFA, you would have seen this, "Behold the new Classic Controller PRO from Nintendo". So, hardly a replacement.
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Yeah, it's a classic controller with grips. It looks better then the old classic controller, but I wish they'd just reintroduce the Wavebird instead. I have one and it's much better and more convenient then the Wii Classic controller..
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Dual-shock? Good?
You, my friend, and deluded. The fact that both analog sticks rest at the bottom but the buttons are at the top right corner is evidence enough that it sucks giant donkey nuts. With a gamecube controller I can move and shoot. Can't do that with a dual-shock.
The Gamecube also managed to put in two L/R buttons: press down for one, and click for a second.
The only bad thing about it was the Z button, but games barely used it.
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I think the Wii beats it, though... not because of the motion detection, but because of the three foot cord between the left and right hand. My ideal controller would be something like a gamecube controller, but with the sides split so you don't have to hold your hands together in front of you.
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They were ahead of the game by offereing 4 ports as standard as well, plus with games like GoldenEye allowing a single player to use 2 controllers at once by holding the analog stick in each hand, giving analog movement and analog aim.
Smash TV (Score:2)
[Nintendo] were ahead of the game by offereing 4 ports as standard as well, plus with games like GoldenEye allowing a single player to use 2 controllers at once by holding the analog stick in each hand, giving analog movement and analog aim.
Williams beat Nintendo to that punch a long time ago. Robotron: 2084 (1982) and Smash TV (1990) had a setup with one joystick for movement and one joystick for aiming years before Goldeneye was a film, let alone a game.
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Erm...Robotron wasn't analog, it was 8-way, and the move/aim mechanic for Goldeneye (FPS) differs greatly from Robotron (2D shooter). If you are only considering "that punch" to be "two sticks," then you're right of course. In that case, Williams even beat Nintendo on their own console with Smash TV [wikipedia.org].
Incidentally, if you like Robotron or Smash TV as well as beat-em-ups like Streets of Rage or TMNT, there's a PS2 game worth cheking out called The Red Star [wikipedia.org]. It is, as you can guess, a hybrid beat-em-up and s
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Re:Is that a joke? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony just doesn't care...
The dualshock wasn't the worst controller in history, but they really should have corrected its mistakes somewhere along the line... E.g., don't put the !@#% digital pad in the sweet spot, when nobody uses it for the main controls (the sony dpad was a horrid dpad too, literally painful to use for any length of time).
Even worse, they repeated their mistakes with the PSP -- putting the dpad (and it's the same painful dpad as the playstation) in the sweet spot, and cramming in the analog control in an awkward and uncomfortable position -- despite having the opportunity to design the controls without compatibility concerns.
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The dualshock wasn't the worst controller in history, but they really should have corrected its mistakes somewhere along the line... E.g., don't put the !@#% digital pad in the sweet spot, when nobody uses it for the main controls (the sony dpad was a horrid dpad too, literally painful to use for any length of time).
Did it ever occur to you that not everyone shares the same anatomical configuration? I've always felt the PS-series controllers were quite nice to use. Not that I'm a hardcore games, but none the less...
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IMO the DS2 controller's configuration is pretty good. My gripe with it is that the thumbsticks are both too sensitive and not sensitive enough, if that makes any sense. Try playing a game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and aiming your guns with the thumbsticks, and contrast that to aiming in $FPS with a keyboard and mouse.
Maybe it would help if Sony shipped a utility in their consoles to adjust sensitivity and dead zones that overrides anything in the game.
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frankly i defy you to come up with some kind of rationale to backup your rabid anti plastic hate.
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Correct to a point.
The PS3 and 360 are for the 'guys' between 14 and 44 (older is fine of course you older gamers)
The Wii is MARKETED towards children, housewives, grandparents and extremely casual gamers.
It does have some use in a purely casual party environment with the hardcore demographic too, it's a social console if people are around, yet online, it's FAR from social.
The Wii doesn't appeal to the 'normal' gaming demographic and frankly the fact that large amounts of gaming development budget is starti
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I want a second one to hack/homebrew.
Can't you just use a PC, a Wii Remote, and a Bluetooth receiver for that?
Re:What do environmentalists think of the Wii? (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing has gimick controls, it SHOULD have had motion plus at launch, it won't even play a DVD it doesn't have fcking optical audio output or HDMI (low res or not, no HDMI out in 2009!?)
Funny how everybody scrambled for motion-controls after Nintendo did it? And I wonder if you called the dpad, analog stick, etc., "gimick controls".
Motion-plus isn't really needed. It would have just bumped costs for nothing. There's only one game coming out that supports it, The Conduit, and it's not likely you'll see a whole bunch using it.
Everything in my house plays a fucking DVD. Do you really think I want another device burning its DVD drive just to play some movies? My laptop, my desktops, my DVD player all play DVDs already. (hey, who would have thought people bought these? what would you do with it if you had a wii? throw it out?)
Not everyone has optical audio. I don't. I want a car to come with my console. Does that mean I need it? HDMI is a terrible connector interface, the worst I've ever seen, with so many licensing issues, it's just a botched "standard". It's a good thing they didn't go for it.
"Gamers" make me fucking sad. You're the same pricks who bought PS2s back when the Gamecube was the only console putting out 480p over component, and was by far the strongest console of the last generation. Now that Nintendo realises it's a fairly useless title, you guys start bitching?
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HDMI is a terrible connector interface, the worst I've ever seen
You've never seen a SCART connector then.
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You've never seen a SCART connector then.
Well, that's French engineering, of course it is terrible.
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The Dreamcast could do 480p in 1998, albeit via VGA which wasn't available on TV's at the time.
Gamers, the kind you're talking about, are just like any other group of people waiting to slurp up the latest marketing drivel. They think games are neat but aren't attentive enough to realize resolution and graphics power don't make a video game. Their interest is sparked by cool "new" things like WiiFit; they just don't realize the same thing was made for the Amiga in the 80's because games weren't "cool" then.
S
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Also, the Wii can play DVD, just not under the standard firmware, under homebrew mine plays DVD's.
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And I wonder if you called the dpad, analog stick, etc., "gimick controls".
Dpad and analogstick have well over a decade of gaming history to show that they work quite well, the Wiimote so far has none of that. Even after two years most games don't manage to produce more then a half functional waggle control and thats not because everybody is lazy, but simply because the device just doesn't have enough sensors to make a decent motion sensing device. Even Nintendo seems to have realized that and now brings us MotionPlus, which should at least reduce the problem a lot and allow deve
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Don't hold it in, tell us how you really feel!
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How many stupid bloody plastic toy accessories are going to be released for this fad of a console?
I don't know, but I'd expect the total volume of plastic used for accessories to the wii to be maybe 0.0000000000000001% of the total plastic humanity has made.
So once the environmentalists have recycled all the billions of plastic bottles (maybe they will put a roof over the state of Washington or something) then wii accessories might be a priority.
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How many stupid bloody plastic toy accessories are going to be released for this fad of a console?
Soon it will be a 1:1 ratio of games to controllers available for it, all the while your consumers snapping them like wildfire.
I'll stick with my PS3 and maybe buy a 360 again when Jasper Elite finally comes out.
Better than "buying a 360 again" when a game comes out, eh?
New? (Score:2, Insightful)
Still wired to wiimote (Score:2, Insightful)
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Clearly it is YOU who doesn't understand that "technology" has been leaving cables behind for controllers for quite some time.
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Why switch from a completely wireless gamecube pad for that?
Tetris Party, Dr. Mario Online Rx, and probably several other WiiWare games are compatible with the Classic Controller's protocol. They are not compatible with that of the GameCube controller.
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Do you want a $20 joypad that plugs into the wiimote you already have, or a $40 wireless one with non-removable added battery weight to hold (batteries which you'll either need to buy an extra set of or swap from/to a wiimote incessantly)?
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Do you want a $20 joypad that plugs into the wiimote you already have
I own two Wii Remotes, and the games support four. So if I'm not going to be using the Nunchuk or MotionPlus accessory with any 4-player games, I'd almost rather buy two Classic Controllers with integrated remotes (the way the Balance Board does it) at $40 each than two Wii Remote + Classic Controller bundles at $60 each.
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I don't think Nintendo has a magic stick with which they can beat developers into creating games you specifically like.
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That 'stick' is called money and Nintendo has more then enough of it at the moment.
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I rented the new Super Smash Bros game. I got bored with that after a couple hours. Having movies of the characters I liked was cool (though way too darn fast),
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You've gotta be kidding. You have a Wii and you haven't bought Super Mario Galaxy? That's so absurd I don't even have a snarky remark for it. Quit reading Slashdot and buy Super Mario Galaxy (and maybe Super Paper Mario) now.
I agree with your overall sentiment, though. The Wii isn't just a fun system for party games and sports - it's also got a very good shooter interface, better than consoles, and certainly more intuitive than a mouse and keyboard. I wouldn't play Unreal Tournament with it, but for the afo
Topical? (Score:2)
You've gotta be kidding. You have a Wii and you haven't bought Super Mario Galaxy?
Topical? Super Mario Galaxy is a Nunchuk game, not a Classic Controller game.
The Wii isn't just a fun system for party games and sports - it's also got a very good shooter interface
For shooters like Ikaruga, what's so much better about the Wii controller than, say, an Xbox/GCN style controller? Sure, Wii Play demonstrates that the Wii Remote's pointer works well for games in the vein of Duck Hunt or Time Crisis. But a 720p TV makes Metroid Prime 3 look chunky, and the companies with money have tended to prefer the output side of the interface over the input side.
I can't help but look at most of the blockbuster games (i.e., the ones that rise to the top on Metacritic) for the Xbox and PS3 and think, "Well, I already beat that on my computer, with a better control setup." And I just got a new laptop, so I don't see much sense in getting one of the other consoles.
At least with consoles, you don't always need t
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GGP was not talking about games on a specific controller; he was just saying that the Wii needs more good games, period.
Non sequitur. Did you even read your parent post? He said he was talking about first-person shooters.
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Well, if you're looking for an FPS there's Onslaught on WiiWare, it's very good and a lot of fun but reviews seem to be intent on comparing it to Halo (which it isn't even trying to be, it's designed completely different). There's also a lot of B list (well, not really B but not GOTY caliber like the big 3/4, more like regular A list) games like Boom Blox, Wario Land, de Blob and Zack & Wiki.
Six to start (Score:2)
Good job on the controller! For your next assignment, expand the library of desirable games to a number greater than 4.
I play Super Mario Galaxy and Animal Crossing: City Folk. Even among only Classic Controller-compatible titles, I play Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tetris Party, and Dr. Mario Online Rx. My cousin plays Mario Kart Wii, which also compatible with the Classic Controller, even though I think the excessive luck factor makes it less fun. What four titles were you thinking of?
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I doubt it, a shell cannot move the buttons, the shell locking mechanism on the CC is purely mechanical. Also the assembly gap on the top of the thing goes through the cord connection leaving no gap for the separation between the CC and its shell.
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But then you'd have to shove the whole cord into the shell and it still doesn't explain where the original ZL and ZR buttons went.
Um... (Score:3, Funny)
To me is just looks like a Sixaxis painted white.
Wavebird (Score:2)
Bring out a wii version of the Wavebird - that really was my favourite of the controllers on the last gen systems. The biggest thing (not just wavebird specific) was being able to tell what buttons you were pressing without looking down because of the different shapes. The Xbox controllers in particular took ages for me to get accustomed to.
"Borrows"? (Score:2, Insightful)
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The sticks have moved further apart, if you look at the middle buttons for reference.
this isn't a new controller (Score:2, Informative)
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It has to be a new controller because the two Z buttons have been moved. That said, it's easy to confuse it for something like the Nyko shell because its front design changes are so minimal.
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It's not. You're confusing the new Nintendo product (or should that be 'new'?) with the existing third-party grip for the classic. The top image is Nintendo's offering, the lower the third-party.
This just in... (Score:2, Insightful)
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Company makes product, plans to sell it to make money.
Seriously, how is this news?
That same reasoning could be applied to any story.
Take "Government mismanages huge sums of taxpayer funds..." for example.
Rinse, repeat. It's the same story, but occurring at a different time. That's why this is news.
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New first party controllers happen only once every few years, so this is quite unexpected news. On the other side its of course just a classic controller with hand grips bolted on, so not all that exciting.
handles (Score:2)
I really hope it has the Gamecube style handle grips, and not the PSX style nubs. I have big hands and found the GC to be a supremely comfortable controller.
The PSX derivations still hurt my middle->pinky fingers if I squeeze one for too long, and Sony should be outright embarrassed for not improving the DS3 design. They retreated when their prototype batarang style was ridiculed, and all we got was a wireless DS2 with mushy shoulder triggers.
This released picture only shows a top view, so I have my fi
Dysfunctional, but Welcomed (Score:1)
While the original Wii controller is innovative, it is too simplified to allow certain modes of game play.
I wonder if this addition is meant for Virtual Console gaming, and, if not, would it be too late to breathe new life into the already family oriented console.
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This controller is nothing new, the Classic Controller has existed since day one, this one just changes the form a bit, but doesn't add any extra stuff. It can be used in Virtual Console games and a few Wii games such as SmashBros, just as the original Classic Controller, its not meant to replace the Wiimote and most Wii games will continue to use the Wiimote, just as they have in the past two years.
Wither Wii MotionPlus (Score:2)
Shouldn't they be trying to get the Wii MotionPlus [slashdot.org] to market?