The Five Best Accessories for the Nintendo Wii

When the Wii came out, its motion-sensing remote controller was a revelation, but it was also a pain, constantly misreading or ignoring our movements. Then Nintendo created MotionPlus add-on, which improved the remote’s sensitivity for games that took advantage of it like Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. It took a while, but Nintendo finally put MotionPlus-capabilities into a standard Wii remote and called it the Wii Remote Plus. It makes the MotionPlus attachment irrelevant, and will hopefully encourage more MotionPlus games.

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Introduced with the game Wii Fit, and still only available by buying it bundled with that game or the new Wii Fit Plus, the Balance Board has proven to be good for more than just yoga-inspired workout games, having been used to, among things, let gamers snowboard, skateboard and dodge blows. The Balance Board both makes games more fun and more of a workout, and should be considered a necessity for any serious Wii fan.

Note: You can't buy the Balance Board by itself; you need to buy it bundled with Wii Sports or Wii Sports Plus

The first thing I would advise to anyone who buys a Wii is, buy a charging system for your remotes. The Wii remote sucks the life out of batteries in no time; when I first got the Wii I found I was changing batteries every couple of days. Replace batteries with a battery pack and charger and you’re all set.

Nyko is the first manufacturer of a charger to get everything right. It’s an inductive charger, which means it can recharge through the Wii remote’s silicone sleeve, and it is designed so you can charge it without removing accessories like the MotionPlus. It has an elegant design and works flawlessly. It is hard to imagine how it could be improved; I'm almost embarrassed by how much I find myself raving about it.

Ever whipped your arm or your face with that cord that runs from your Wii remote to your Wii nunchuk? Stings, doesn’t it? Nyko’s Nunchuk Adapter turns your nunchuk wireless. It works with almost every game (I have found it didn’t work with the homebrew games I tried) and helps you avoid whip marks. Unless, of course, that’s your thing.

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If you don’t use the Wii Internet Browser (a.k.a. The Internet Channel) then you might not have a lot of use for a Wii keyboard. But a keyboard is really the only practical way to use the Wii to surf the net, and while any USB keyboard will work, Logitech’s is quite nice. I’ve also heard that some games support keyboard entry, such as Animal Crossing: City Folk.

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