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So for my birthday this year, I received a Nintendo Wii. I haven't owned a game system since the N64 came out, so it was kind of neat to have a console again, even though I'm pretty much just a PC gamer.

Despite not having owned a console in years, there have been a few games I've been exposed to since that have almost made me buy systems; Resident Evil 4 and Super Smash Bros. made me want to buy a Gamecube, while Geometry Wars on the Xbox 360 arcade puts me into a trance. So when I got the Wii, I was really excited that I would have a chance to play RE:4 (I got the Wii edition) and Smash Bros, since the Wii has total backwards compatibility with the Gamecube.

Well, lo and behold, the Wii essentially turns INTO a Gamecube when you put a Gamecube game in it. You are required to own Gamecube controllers to play GC games, and to top it off you need a GC memory card to save any of those damn games. I can maybe understand the fact that I need to use the GC controller, but the memory card too? It's such a cheap ploy. I bought a Smash Bros. GC disc, and was unable to play it for over a month.

So after I found out I needed to plunk down for some GC controllers, I went looking for some. From my past experience I knew that the Wavebird is where it's at. It's wireless, has great battery life, and is very well designed from an ergonomic perspective. The only ding against it is that it does not have rumble (to save batteries). However, Nintendo has decided to stop producing first-party controller for the Gamecube, wired or wireless, despite the fact that if you want to play GC games on the damn Wii, you have to have GC controllers. Personally, I don't find third-party controllers to be an option.

I first turned to eBay to check the going rates for controllers. Generally around 15-25 for wired, with the Wavebirds going for upwards of $50 NIB. These prices seemed obscene, so I continued searching. I found a third-party wireless controller that did the job, the MicroCon MadCatz controller, but it's no Wavebird.

I eventually found old-stock Wavebirds on the Play-Asia website. Considering that these were old Japanese controllers shipped from Hong Kong that were on backorder, I didn't think they would arrive as fast as they did (two weeks - as soon as Play-Asia had them in stock they shipped them my way). I saved over $10 per controller over buying them on eBay, and don't even tell me about the $55+ prices for these controllers I saw on the Amazon Marketplace.

You may be able to find these controllers in old stock at certain Wal-Mart stores and so forth (I have a friend that works in a rural Wal-Mart and he says these controllers are still in stock there), but it's not likely. The Target closest to me was sold out of THIRD-PARTY GC CONTROLLERS! What does that tell you about the huge crunch that the Wii sales are creating in the market for old gamecube accessories. Furthermore, many future games for the Wii will fall back on using the GC if motion sensitivity is not needed or superfluous (Smash Bros. Brawl is a case in point).

Long story short, if you have a Wii, you need to track down some good Gamecube controllers, which is a pain in the ass, unless you happen to live in the middle of nowhere and don't understand that those $30 Wavebirds you see in Wal-Mart are going for $55+ brand new on the Amazon Marketplace. It's funny, I just checked eBay for Wavebirds for sale, and I'm seeing the exact same Japanese NIB Wavebirds that I bought, but marked up. Good luck!

PS - Why didn't they at least give some sort of crippled functionality for the Wii-mote and nunchuk combo for GC and Virtual Console games anyways, if they're just gonna discontinue selling GC accessories? It seems like there are a lot of people that skipped the Gamecube, but now have a Wii, and they're experiencing my same problem.