Bringing the arcade Joystick to the Wii console
The Shaft, an arcade-fighter style joystick complete with turbo for the Wii’s virtual console, is currently available for pre-orders. The site says you can customize it so only some of the buttons are turbo and a “Full 360 Degree range of motion that works with both digital and analog stick games,” though I would honestly be kind of worried if it didn’t. It comes in white, pink, and black and has a 10-year warranty, though no word on whether it’s limited or unlimited.
They’re only taking pre-orders at the moment, and plan to ship in mid-December, just in time for Christmas. If you want to get one you should probably jump on it now, as they say it will normally retail for $79.95, but they’re selling right now for $39.95 for one and $69.95 for two.
I’m not sure how much use gamers could get out of this, considering the primary game most people would use it for is Street Fighter II and the HD version isn’t coming out for the Wii, but I suppose for those who don’t have a Xbox 360 or a PS3 this could be a good option to bring the arcade home. There’s always Virtua Fighter 2…
Update: I talked with a representative of Overline Gaming, the company selling The Shaft, via e-mail.
If you look in the picture above you can’t see it, but in some of the other pictures on their Web site you can see a wire sticking out of the back. The Shaft is wired, but apparently this works better for fighting games.
The Shaft is a wired controller. In our experience, wireless controlles don’t give adequate response in fighting games, so we chose to make it wired.
Also, on the 10-year warranty:
Our 10-year warranty will cover anything except intentional damage (like stomping on it). We will replace any defective units with a new one for 10-years of the purchase date.
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Tags: arcade, joystick, The Shaft, virutal console, wii
