Nintendo Wii Fanboy

While these pictures are from scans and thus aren't the best quality, they come with a bonus bit of information: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core players will have a choice of two control schemes: Wiimote with full motion controls, or a more traditional control scheme. Just what we wanted!

This latest Guilty Gear is due out in Japan near the end of July.

Over at the Consoles & Conkers forum, site veteran jwdvd posted (registration required) a sweet little mod he performed to his Wii Classic Controller. In taking out the existing buttons, he replaced them with those snazzy SNES buttons you see above (he is in the UK). He says the mod only takes about an hour and is fairly easy to perform, allowing those of you with an extra pad sitting around to perform this mod yourself. Just don't try and put the d-pad in there, it won't fit right.
For those of you without the time to register over there, head past the break for more pictures.

While there's still no official, announcement-style confirmation that Beautiful Katamari is coming to the Wii, we're tentatively jumping up and down with glee around the Wii Fanboy offices. The rumors have been glomming together into a beautiful, spherical whole, we're almost convinced that the King of All Cosmos will be decrying our lack of rolling skill this winter.

Several sites are reporting that references to the Wii title are popping up everywhere -- most recently on GameFly, showing a release date in November. Blogosphere detectives also stumbled across a listing for Namco Museum Remix on the Wii, a title that seems somewhat superfluous considering we have the Virtual Console ... unless something special is done to update the collection. That's definitely something to watch.

On the Katamari front, however, and we must stress this "however" quite strongly -- this latest "confirmation" could simply be a matter of GameFly picking up other rumors. We've seen retail slip-ups and placeholders spawn rumors before, and they often come to naught. But with so much buzz around it, we hope to hear something one way or another from Namco on the possibility of a Wii Katamari title. Creator Keita Takahashi hasn't hesitated to speak up before ... but perhaps the smashing success of the Wii has changed a few minds? We'll keep you posted.

As much as we want to believe that the Wiimote is the end-all-be-all for video games, we have to concede that there are several genres in which a traditional controller is a more appropriate choice. Nintendo has already noted that Super Smash Bros. Brawl will use a standard controller, but ... which is it? Though Gamecube controller support has yet to be officially confirmed, we have to assume a player may choose between the GC standard and their own classic controller, offered for twenty dollars.

What's the problem? Well, the classic controller sucks. If you want four-player Smash (and my God you do), you'll need to spend an additional eighty dollars on peripherals that you might never use again. Furthermore, as it plugs into the expansion port, you have to deal with the awkward Wiimote just sitting in your lap. On the flip side, how many retailers have been carrying copious quantities of Wavebirds? They're still out there, of course, but Nintendo may have to conduct a Wavebird relaunch campaign for those of us who don't already have the gear. What are you hoping for, and how do you think Nintendo can pull it off?

Engadget got their hands on a Classic Controller for the Wii and, noticing it has a remarkable resemblance to the SNES controller, they decided to do some side-by-side comparison shots, as well as some of the remote itself next to the Wiimote from all angles, for the vast series of tubes we call the internet. We've stolen included their photos into our post, which are embedded past the jump.

[Thanks Barb!]

Do you have your abnormally large grain of salt in-hand? Good, hold on to it through this one, as there is no official confirmation from Nintendo regarding this claim.

However, according to Vooks, gamers in Japan can receive a free VC controller by purchasing 5,000 Wii points (5,000 Yen, or $41.85 US). They fail to link to any credible source or official statement from Nintendo in their article, so as of now we're considering this a HUGE rumor.

[Thanks Mykie!]