The Ultimate Wii

Yeah, this one’s a no brainer, but you can’t pimp out your Wii until you own one. So buy this first.

After Nintendo made a game console you could control by waving your hands, they apparently began to worry that the player’s feet would get jealous and created a controller just for them. The balance board is a wireless platform, bundled with Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, that gauges how your weight shifts when you stand on it. Designers can use this to make more realistic-feeling skateboarding and snowboarding games, add physical dodging to a boxing game or, in the case of Wii Fit Plus, let players fly by flapping their arms . A number of games offer something for the balance board, making it close to a necessity.

Nintendo's Wii Remote Plus finally combines MotionPlus technology into the Wii remote. Up until recently, MotionPlus was only available as a device that attached to the Wii remote to allow a greater degree of accuracy in reading the player’s movements in MotionPlus-enabled games such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Grand Slam Tennis and the terrific Wii Sports Resort. The MotionPlus attachment was a rather kludgy approach; the Wii Remote Plus is how it should be.

Maybe some people are happy to just buy big packs of batteries and change them when necessary, but I far prefer using a remote charger, which is a battery pack that charges in a base unit. There are a few good chargers on the market. I prefer inductive chargers, which allow you to charge the remote without removing attachments and sleeves, and of those, the best are Energizer’s Flat Panel Induction Charging System and Nyko’s Charge Station IC. For me, the charger is not a luxury, but a necessity.

The Wii is a good platform for rail shooters, as shown in excellent games such as Dead Space Extraction and House of the Dead: Overkill. You don’t need a pistol-shaped controller to play these games, but it does add to the fun. My favorite gun, for now, is Penguin United’s Crossfire Remote Pistol, although if Komodo ever releases a follow-up to their Buckshot Lock and Load that makes it actually useable, I would be very excited to try it out.

I will never understand why Nintendo thought it was a good idea to tether the nunchuk to the remote. There are too many times when waving your hands in the air frenetically causes that cord to whip you. It’s not a problem with every game, or even most games, but when it is a problem, it’s a big, annoying one. Happily, accessory makers have fixed this. I like Nyko’s Wireless Adapter for the Wii Nunchuk, which turns a standard nunchuk into a wireless one. Hopefully Nintendo will get this right for the Wii’s next iteration.

If you use your Wii to surf the internet or play games that allow text chat, a keyboard is a very good thing to have. You can plug any standard PC USB keyboard into the Wii, but if you’re going all out, you might as well get Logitech’s nifty Cordless Keyboard for the Wii.

You can’t get more unnecessary than the myriad add-ons that turn your Wii remote into a steering wheel, a golf club or a tennis racquet, but there is something fun about gussying up the remote. For wheels you can get the basic Nintendo wheel or Nerf’s cute soft one. If you’re looking for a set of sports attachments that can handle a remote attached to a MotionPlus, I like Penguin United’s Sports Resort Bundle, although if you don’t have a MotionPlus, Nerf’s Sports Pack is a nice choice. But really, anything that doesn’t fall apart is fine.

Does that little white box called the Wii really match your room’s décor? Does it really express your personality? If not, try skinning it. Decals that fully cover the Wii come in a wide variety of designs; you can even design your own. However you want your Wii to look, it can be done. It sure is cheaper than buying a Wii made out of gold.