Since the original classic controller peripheral for the Nintendo Wii was announced, I was instantly wondering what the hell we would use it for. Then, Nintendo talked about the Wii’s “virtual console,” which lets you download NES, SUPER NES, N64 and Genesis games onto your Wii. At that point, it all made sense, until I took another look at the controller. The controller actually has two Z buttons on the bottom, meaning there is one more button on the classic controller than the GameCube pad. Chris Kohler over at Game Life also has noticed this problem, and decided to try and use the classic controller with GameCube games, which would really make a lot more sense seeing as how the classic controller is better designed for GameCube games over classic games. As it turns out, the classic controller doesn’t work for GameCube games. So, what the hell are all the buttons on it for?
Kohler suggests that the classic controller for the Wii may have actually been developed to support Wii games, not virtual console games. Meaning, the classic controller was developed to not alienate developers (and users) from supporting their innovative system. On the back of the classic controller packaging, it actually says that the controller is “primarily” used for virtual console games, so we may very well see the controller used for Wii in the future.
Perhaps this is even what the Super Smash Bros. team is cooking up. Director Masahiro Sakurai did say at E3 to not throw out your GameCube controllers.
I hope that the classic controller has little to no use for Wii games. Why? Well, if you end up using a classic controller for anything on the Wii, it defeats the whole purpose of the console. I would it boring to go back to old gen graphics (and games) with a regular controller. Hopefully it’ll be that users can choose to use one controller or the other, so we won’t be forced to use the classic controller, if at all.
Classic Controller Originally Meant For Wii Games? [gamelife]