Once you go black, you'll never go back.
Memorex, the nice people who produced a DSi charger kit and system shell that I reviewed awhile back, recently sent me one of their new products: the Wii Game Controller Combo Pack. The box held a snazzy black Wii Remote, a similarly stylish black Nunchuck (called a “Sidekick” here) and a little black cube that plugs into the bottom of the Wii Remote. After playing with it for several days in various circumstances, I’m come to the conclusion that it’s a worthy accessory if you’re still in the market for Wii controllers. In fact, despite the lack of a Wii Remote Jacket, this black controller is pretty awesome and has become my default Wii Remote.
What’s so special about a black Wii Remote? After all, there are first-party versions readily available. This Memorex version, though, improves the basic technology in a few key areas. First and foremost, it’s pretty. A ring of bright blue LED lights surround the D-pad, and a similar blue ring shows up on the body of the controller. The Sidekick has a similar ring around the analog stick and another on its body to indicate that it’s synced up. The Sidekick is wireless, which is a plus. Both halves of the controller feature nice rubberized grips and large, sturdy, somewhat rubberized buttons.
No, that's not a Wii Motion Plus.
The Sidekick must be initially charged by plugging it into the back of the Wii (via USB cable). The syncing process could probably go quicker, but it’s basically this: you plug a little black cube, which is the wireless input to the Sidekick, onto the bottom of the Wii Remote, which by the way doesn't contain Wii MotionPlus functionality. You sync it by pressing a button on the Sidekick and then it’s off to the races! The only trouble comes when loading up games; in what I can only describe as a minor annoyance, I found that I had to re-sync the Sidekick (never a hassle) every time I loaded a game from the Wii’s Home screen or exited a game and went back to the Home screen. Because the sync button is just a tap away, it’s not really a problem.
This is the controller they use in Tron. FOR REALZ.
The controller looks awesome with the blue LED lights, and it performs just as well as a normal Wii Remote, with one nice advantage: the D-pad is shaped like a circle, somewhere in between the Xbox 360’s D-pad and the 3DS’ Circle Pad. It’s far more comfortable than the first party Remote’s miniscule D-pad and I found certain Wii games (like Donkey Kong Country) easier to play with this Remote. One irritation worth mentioning is that the “sync cube” fits a little too snuggly into the Remote’s ventral port. You have to wiggle it a little while depressing two buttons on the side to make it come loose.
The only real downside is that the cube does not act as a Wii MotionPlus (barely a concern, given Nintendo’s support of that device). So if you want to rock some Wii Sports Resort or Red Steel 2, this isn’t the way to go. For the other 99% of the Wii’s software library, I’ve got to say that Memorex has done a fine job here.
The whole shebang. Not too bad. By the way, it's about $40. Just FYI.
