The Logitech Speed Force is one of the rare third-party accessories with official approval from Nintendo, and with the highly respected pedigree of other Logitech force-feedback wheels, it’s impossible to ignore. The wheel can be bought separately, but if you’re going to spend the money, you’re better off going all the way and purchasing the accessories kit that includes the pedals and lap attachment as well.

Setup is simple. The wheel has two grips that can be tightened onto a table, counter, or the lap attachment. The pedals plug into the wheel, and the wheel plugs into the wall and a GameCube controller slot.

The buttons are laid out pretty much the way you’d expect them to be, with the control pad on the left, the A, B, X, Y cluster on the right, and the start button near the bottom in the center. The Z button is now a round face button above the control pad, where it is much easier to access, and L and R are now designed like paddle shifters.

The paddles are slightly troublesome, since getting that digital click unique to the GC controller requires pulling the paddle all the way back and squeezing a button on the back of the wheel. This means that most of the time, you’ll need to jam the paddles quickly, which can be difficult if you’re in the middle of a turn. Perhaps it’s no different than learning to drive a sports car with paddle shifters, but since most people haven’t had that opportunity, it certainly takes some getting used to.

The C-stick is completely absent, which eliminates any vertical analog movement. Not a problem for most racers, but when F-Zero was demoed on the Speed Force at E3, one of the biggest problems was the need to control your machine’s lift with the control pad, instantly removing any sense of intuitive control. Although it’s clear that a game like F-Zero would be better off with its own specialized device; other developers may also have trouble moving their full control schemes over to the Speed Force.

As far as the accessories are concerned, the lap attachment is more convenient for most typical living room setups, but since you’ll need to squeeze the wheel between your legs, it can be quite cumbersome at times. If you can get a sturdy table at the right height, you’ll find it much easier to keep a grip on things. The pedals are sturdy and precise, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be anything holding them to the floor. The shape of the pedal attachment keeps it fairly stationary on carpet, but on hard surfaces, you’ll need to set up something to block it from constantly sliding away from you.

Enough with the nitpicking: playing with the Speed Force is an entirely new experience if you’ve been using standard controllers all these years. The wheel pulls against you, realistically simulating the way your vehicle should react when you run into the dirt or get swiped by another car. At first, you may be tempted to just let it pull you however it pleases to avoid damaging the mechanism, but you’ll soon learn that the only way to succeed is to fight back and keep your car under control. Paired with the foot pedals, the feedback gets your whole body involved and pulls you into the race that much more. In addition, there are various other types of feedback, including a rough knocking sensation that occurs whenever you drive over wooden planks or potholes.

The level of satisfaction the wheel has to offer varies greatly depending on the game. I’ve tested it with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Mario Kart: Double Dash, and F-Zero GX with vastly different results.

It’s possible that it could just be due to the fact that the game was released some time before the Speed Force, but Need for Speed is just far too difficult to control. There’s simply too much force feedback resistance from the game, forcing you to fight the wheel any time you get bumped by another car, run into the dirt, or sometimes even just going uphill. I managed to get enough of a handle on the cars to run the courses, but failed miserably at any attempt to compete with the other racers.

Mario Kart is a tough one to judge, because although the control doesn’t seem as intuitive as it does with a controller, it’s tough to pinpoint what the specific difficulty is. It could be a simple matter of adjusting to using the Speed Force for that style of racing, but I could never seem to keep up with my opponents. Since Mario Kart is still in development, there’s a chance that controls still need some tweaking before release.

Unfortunately, F-Zero GX is the real stinker of the bunch, and the experience many of my colleagues had at E3 with the Speed Force on this game has left them with a bad taste for the device in general. To put it simply, F-Zero is fast. In fact, it may be too fast to use this kind of wheel, since it takes longer to react. The way some of the buttons are mapped is also quite baffling. In order to do a side-attack, you’ll need to use the paddle’s digital click. This makes sense until you realize that your lean is mapped to the analog sensitive paddle. As a result, you find yourself leaning past your target and slamming straight into the wall or off the course. On top of that, the spin attack is a mystery. The way the Nintendo representative described the move was that you had to click the paddle while wiggling the wheel from side to side. I sacrificed several races attempting to accomplish the maneuver without even managing to do it by accident. Also, as mentioned before, the vertical controls being mapped to the control pad feel like an awkward mistake. As much as I like the Speed Force, I honestly feel that Nintendo would be better off removing the compatibility from F-Zero and looking into creating a specialized flight stick, perhaps one that even uses the same pedal attachment.

Then there’s Burnout 2: the shining beacon in the sea of racers that single-handedly makes the Speed Force worth every penny. Somehow, using the Speed Force with Burnout 2 has almost no learning curve. It feels perfectly natural, and the only thing that may take time to learn is power sliding using the gas and brake pedals. Ripping around corners and setting up massive wrecks could never be more fun, and in fact, I enjoy it so much that I haven’t even considered playing the game with a normal controller.

It’s important to remember that with its force-feedback features, games must specifically support the wheel in order for it to function. This means that older games like the original Burnout will only prompt you to enter a suitable controller if you try to plug in the device. There aren’t a huge number of games compatible with the Logitech Speed Force. (You can see the full list in our profile.) However, the lack of support has more to do with the lack of racers in general on GameCube. Many of EA’s titles and other important racers support the Speed Force, and there’s absolutely no doubt that as the only officially licensed racing wheel for the GameCube, it will have far more support than any competitors.

The Logitech Speed Force isn’t without a few faults, but overall, it is a top-notch product that works well when programmers give it the proper attention. Burnout 2 fans will have no regrets, but others may want to watch future game reviews before shelling out the cash.