I’m sure I’m not the only person that was disappointed by Nintendo’s Classic Controller for the Wii, the uncomfortable shape meaning the thumbsticks are in the wrong place for extended use and the general flimsiness of the pad leading to a pretty poor experience overall.  Thankfully Snakebyte have thrown their hat into the ring with the ‘Snakebyte Retro Controller’, and I have to say that it is a massive improvement over Nintendo’s effort.

The ‘Retro Controller’ retains everything the Nintendo original pad has in terms of features, buttons, etc., even down to the ability to clip it onto your Wiimote, whilst improving on the fundamental design of the pad with a much more comfortable shape.  It also breaks the usual trend with 3rd party peripherals of poor build quality by being able to stand up to quite a bit of abuse, which is handy when you forget how frustrating some of those SNES and Megadrive games were!

Retailing at £14.99 it is a couple of quid more than the official ‘Classic Controller’, but it is worth every penny just for the comfort, or for £20 you can pick up the wireless version of the pad if you really can’t cope with a foot of cable.

The guys from Snakebyte were also kind enough to send me one of their ‘Premium RGB Cables’ for the Wii, and I’ve been struggling on what to say other than it really does improve the picture quality, especially on old CRT TV’s where ‘fuzzy text’ can sometimes be a problem.  The features of the cable are:-

Other TTB Posts Like This One

• Snakebyte Wii Remote XS & Wii Motion XS (Wii Review)
• E3: PDP Unveils Squeeballs & The Gametrak Freedom Controller for the 360
• The NEO GEO Stick 2 Coming to a PS3 Near You Soon
• DJ Hero’s Turntable Controller Uncovered
• Bubble Bobble PC Arcade Stick FTW!