Tag Archives | Wii Wand

Nyko One-Ups Nintendo With Wii Wand+

Despite the Wii’s innovative motion controls, Nintendo’s Wii Remote is nothing special to hold, especially compared to the elaborate design of an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 controller. That makes fertile ground for Nyko, whose third-party Wii Remotes, or Wands, feel just as mediocre for $10 less.

At CES, Nyko is showing off the Wand+, which is the same size as a regular Wii Remote, but includes the functionality of Nintendo’s accuracy-boosting Wii MotionPlus dongle, no attachments required. Best of all, the Wand+ will sell for $40 when it goes on sale in late February — the same price Nintendo charges for a standalone Wii Remote (Nintendo’s MotionPlus attachment costs another $20).

There are some other nice design flourishes, too, like a soft coating and rubber backing that includes comfortable grooves over the rear battery pack. And it comes in partial or all black.

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An Abundance of Cool Console Controllers

E3 featured a lot of brand new controller accessory announcements, but these slightly less prominent new products, from DreamGear, Nyko,  and PDP were almost drowned in the hype tsunami over input devices like Microsoft’s camera-based Project Natal.

Finally, Finally, Finally: Xbox-like controls for the PS3

shadow1Gamers with large hands have suffered with the Playstation dual-shock-style controller for more than 10 years. Ever since the Xbox first appeared on the scene, with its comfortable, ergonomic controller, Playstation gamers have longed for a crossover controller that features the analog-stick layout the Xbox uses. Well, the wait is finally over. The DreamGear Shadow is a third-party wireless gamepad for the PS3 which features the asymmetrical Xbox-type analog-stick orientation, on a pad with a slightly grippy rubberized texture, and with nicely curved trigger buttons to boot. With an MSRP of $60, some desperate PS3 players will probably be able to forgive the fact that the Shadow requires a USB dongle for connectivity.

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