by Edgar - 01.09.09
Is this a Wiimote beaten to death with an ugly stick? No, it’s Nyko’s Wiimote replacement, the Wand. It does look ugly, but it has an some extra technology bundled in, called Trans-Port. It’s a technology that will let Nyko sell us controller add-ons that won’t need any mechanical configuration to push buttons (see the lightgun attachment). So as seen in the video below, you slide your Wand into the gun add-on, your B button is mapped to the trigger, and the A button is mapped at the back of the gun.
The wand might be ugly, but I’m kind of liking what they’re doing with this Trans-Port technology. Just give me a good fishing controller and I’ll buy the remote. 
More info over at Joystiq
That’s neat, but they also said that Wiimotionplus may not work on the thing.
rbelmont - 01.09.09 12:41 am
It seems like the Trans-Port part might be kinda neat, but they really need to turn down the ugly a little bit.
yourlefthand - 01.09.09 10:44 am
shame it will break in about a week
narse - 01.09.09 10:57 am
It’s not *that* ugly. The D-Pad is though. But the rest is not too bad IMHO.
CrimsonFlash - 01.09.09 11:38 am
But guys!!! It has a built in speaker!
And the b-button is…. RUBBERIZED!!!!!
In all honesty, the transport thing is not that impressive, though I am a little surprised the original Wiimote doesn’t do the same thing.
Simon - 01.09.09 1:33 pm
At first, I thought the word at the bottom of the controller said “Wang.”
Honestly, I really want to try this out. I mean, a 3rd party wireless motion sensitive wiimote has potential to be awesome.
Jeff - 01.09.09 2:51 pm
it says it has a range of 25 feet. What’s the range of the regular wii mote?
Nasedase - 01.09.09 4:32 pm
30?
Edgar - 01.09.09 10:31 pm
NYKO- I design products. I make them look pretty. Send me an e-mail and maybe my firm can help make your Wand look pretty too!
Namssorg - 01.10.09 2:03 am
The red and blue buttons are terrible. Rubberized bits are OK. The D-pad is ugly. Trans-Port sounds cool. Lack of definite functionality with Wii Motion Plus is bad. All things considered, I’ll pass on this one.
Dean - 01.11.09 2:47 am
Aww damnit, so now I have to buy another perfect shot if I want to get a button support from this? I’d rather just get one that hits the A button with the lever, the double shot I think it was called.
shorty1k - 01.13.09 11:34 pm
Couldn’t Nintendo find a way to do this themselves and make their add-ons more than a piece of plastic? They could even build it into the Wii motion plus since we’ll all be buying at least one anyway (if the hardware doesn’t allow it now).
Though really when you play games like RE:4 Wii, you realize that the controller works perfectly fine in it’s default state. Here’s to hoping the wii motion plus is a step towards giving us the second axis of control for FPS’s.
P.S. I need Zelda Wii.
quicksilver - 01.15.09 7:10 pm