I admit, I held off on buying a Wavebird for quite a while. A wireless controller for my Gamecube, while a cool accessory, didn't seem like a real necessity to me. Yeah, I'd like to play from my bed, but did I want to spend $35 on that luxury? So, needless to say, I was quite excited when I opened up a wedding present from a similarly gaming-inclined co-worker, and found, along with a shiny new copy of Warcraft III, a Nintendo Wavebird. I immediately plugged it into my Gamecube, and I don't know how I ever lived without it.

Now, the wireless game controller has been something of the Holy Grail of console accessories ever since the days of the NES. Most attempts, dating back to the NES Satellite (which was actually not a wireless controller, per se, but rather a wireless controller port that you plugged standard controllers into), were infrared models. What this meant was that you had to have a direct line of sight between the controller and the receiver that plugged into the console, or else the game wouldn't respond to the controller. Essentially, this led to awkward playing positions, latency between pressing a button on the controller and seeing a response on the screen, and general frustration overall. What there was not, however, was any of the freedom that these wireless controllers offered.

The Wavebird changes all that, though. Instead of using infrared transmission, it actually uses radio signals to transmit inputs between the controller and the receiver that plugs into the Gamecube controller port. The benefit here is that, much like a traditional radio signal, as long as the receiver is within range of the controller (more on this soon), the game will respond, regardless of where the controller is in relation to the receiver. So this means true wireless freedom, as you can play with the Wavebird just the same as you would the standard Gamecube controller and not notice much of a difference at all other than how far back from the television you're sitting.

And you truly won't notice a difference, because the Wavebird's shape is almost identical to that of the standard Gamecube controller, with the exception of some extra bulk along the bottom for the transmitter. However, Nintendo designed that part of the controller so that your fingers don't even get near it, so you shouldn't even notice the extra mass. Other than that (and the lack of rumble, which is a minor concession, IMO), everything is in exactly the same place as you would be used to from the standard controller, so picking up the Wavebird is a completely natural play experience.

As far as the range is concerned, Nintendo claims 20 feet on the packaging, and that's a claim I can believe. Now, I know some have found the actual limit to be much higher, but I haven't seen anything higher than the 20 feet that Nintendo promises, so it either has to do with the walls in my apartment or the actual Wavebirds vary. Either way, while I didn't see any outrageous results from testing the range, I will say that the Wavebird should work quite well from any point in any normal sized room with no problems.

One thing to note: Since the Wavebird may not be the only device in your house to utilize radio frequencies, there is a small possibility that it could cause problems by attempting to use the same frequency. To accommodate for this possibility, there is a channel selector on both the bottom of the controller and the receiver. As long as both the controller and receiver are set to the same channel/frequency, then they should work together fine. The numbers on the selectors can be kind of hard to see, as they’re very small, and etched into a black dial, but you generally only have to change them once and then leave them alone from that point on, so this is a very minor quibble.

I will also note that the Wavebird does require two AA batteries, but Nintendo was kind enough to include your first set with the unit. There's no power indicator like there is on the Game Boy Advance, so you kind of just have to guess when the Wavebird's batteries are running low. This is slightly inconvenient, but the Wavebird isn't going to be sucking up batteries like a CD player, so you should run into this problem rarely. There's also an on/off switch on the unit to conserve said batteries.

All in all, I'm extremely happy with the Wavebird. It's an excellent first-party controller with the added bonus of not tying you down with a cord. While I don't know if I would have actually gone out and bought it for myself, since I already had two perfectly good controllers and I'm not that lazy (well, I am, but I'm cheap, too), if I were in the market for an additional or replacement controller, I'd definitely spend the extra $10 for the Wavebird. Given the small price difference between the Wavebird and the standard controller, there's really no reason not to.

And if I can play Super Mario Sunshine from the bed, well, that's just fine by me.



Recommended: Yes