subject: "the Shaft" Wii Arcade Stick Steal The Focus [print this page] The ShaftWii Arcade Stick stole the focus and hit the headlines throughout the gaming press in late 2007 when it's original announcement hit the wires, mostly because everyone wanted to write a headline that had both Wii and Shaft in it. The Wii's continually growing collection of classic titles available for download do a lot to promote the temptation of scoring a classic arcade-style stick for the Wii, as Wiimotes and Classic Controllers really can't stand in for a classic arcade cabinet's feel.
Well, like other Nintendo Wii Accessories, the Shaft Wii Arcade Stick features top quality and extraordinary excitement and more importantly is designed to approximate a traditional cabinet layout with a ball-top stick and straight array of six large buttons devoted to B, A, Y, X, L, and R. Within the array of three small center buttons, the middle one doubles as both Select and Z. This unfortunate arrangement necessitates a lot of button reassignment hassle if you want to play games like SSBB that actually make use of the Z button. The Shaft also has a turbo mode that can be set to individual buttons, a somewhat useful feature for making some classic games easier.
Proceeding with our hands-on with the Shaft, we decided to resign ourselves to the Z-button's poor placement and get some gaming on with some downloaded classics and SSBB. To do so we had to sit on the floor, as the Shaft is a wired controller that makes use of the Wii's GC controller ports, and its cord is only six feet long. We think it's a shame the Shaft was not instead designed as a Classic Controller style Wiimote attachment, as most people don't sit within six feet of their Wii.
Once finally gaming, we discovered the Shaft is unfortunately a rather poorly made arcade stick. The precedent for quality stick components has been set quite high by a number of manufacturers recently, most applicably in the Wii's case by Hori's Wii Fight Stick.
The combination of negatives in the Shaft's design make it an undesirable Wii arcade stick solution. Its six foot cord is too short, it's Z button placement is awkward, it has only six main action buttons, and its analog arcade stick must be wrenched around to achieve response. Loaded with a decently high price of $39.95, the Shaft's value proposition as a competitive controller or mere classic gaming accessory is sadly unappealing.
