Prototype Wii Remote and Nunchuk for... GameCube

Very cool stuff. I remember seeing an article on IGN that stated that the GCN’s life would be extended by a peripheral in development for several years late in its cycle. I think it was probably confusing this for that.

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I thought this was fascinating as we haven’t seen any early remote designs after the prototyping phase where there were all sorts of shapes and concepts being thrown out there. I wonder if this is the controller the press went hands-on with at TGS 2005 - when the tech demos were Pilotwings and a retrofitted Metroid Prime 2.

Though I can’t help but think the buyer was using it in the wrong console - the Wii had GameCube ports after all!

I also didn’t notice the Wii remotes and classic controllers at E3 2006 had pause and back buttons instead of plus and minus! Maybe I need to dig out some old issues of Edge and NGamer magazine to double-check…

Tell me more.

Looks like there’s still the old impressions up on IGN: TGS 2005: Hands-on the Revolution Controller - IGN

Blockquote Demo #6: Toy Plane
Set in the watery hub of Mario Sunshine, this demonstrated that not all controls are created equal. The remote could be held like a toy airplane, fingertips support its base, which allowed the player to tilt it forwards to dip down, back to gain elevation, and twist it left or right to turn turn. The objective was just to steer the plane through rings in the sky. Of course the first thing that came to mind was Pilotwings, so it’s easy to see how these simple applications of the controller could be grown into something more complex. It was pretty intuitive to pull off dips and quick turns. Miyamoto joked that you could have a controller peripheral shaped like a toy plane to really make it interesting.

A similar concept shows up in the E3 controller/concept video at 6:07 here: https://youtu.be/EUDMg5b-n2w?t=367

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Ah, I think that made it into Wii Sports Resort?