Is the GameCube WaveBird Controller any Good?

I'm planning to play Wario World for the GC on my Wii. I don't fancy playing it on the "rumbleless" Classic Controller Pro, so I'm gonna pick up a GC controller. Is the WaveBird a good pad? I've heard it works on infra red and is a bit unresponsive. I'm not even sure if it'll work on the Wii. I obviously have a Wii with GC ports.

Apparently there is some sort of very, very, very slow reaction time from the button press to the character responding. I personally think it's all BS and is just as responsive as the wired controller.

Anyway, yeah. It works perfectly fine on the wii.

@insinuendo: It doesn't have vibration, but it's wireless (assuming you don't lose the dongle).

I have four Wavebirds I got back in the GC days (same with official component adapters which apparently are worth a lot now).

@insinuendo: Yeah, i loved it, but it has no rumble.

Wavebird is a awesome controller. I never experienced lag input with it. It was as responsive as the wired ones. But I don't think it vibrates.

I have four and still use one with my Gamecube. They're excellent controllers. I have never experienced issues with responsiveness; don't worry about that. It does not have rumble. That's the only downside. Your batteries will last ages in it.

Great

, what's not to like about a wireless Gc controller. Perhaps won't cut it for pro Smash players though.

@insinuendo:

Buy the wiiu gamecube controller. The analog stick is better. From my experience the GC ones have a bigger deadzone and can be quite touchy. Ive realized this because of the amount of 64 games I play on the Wii. Part of that surely deals with give/take range,though, I'm sure.

I have an extended sensor bar, like 50ft. cable. Since switching over to that I have noticed lag with the wavebird as well as other peripherals (Guitar Hero instruments, Tony Hawk skateboard). WIth the standard sensor bar, they all worked fine. That said, I do have a favorite controller. The MicroCon mini by MadCatz is one of my favorite controllers ever made. They make a wireless version, but I don't think in the mini. It's generally quite a bit cheaper than the WB and a better controller IMO.

Or like Heirren said, just get one of the GC controllers. HORIs are a little closer to the original size while the PDPs are smaller. Not sure how important the wired/wireless is to you. Or what about the pro controller? Do those work for GC games?

Yeah, it's one of the best controllers I've ever used. Played all my Gamecube games with the wavebird.

Only downside is there is no rumble.

@SolidTy: They're half the price of a Wii U now.

@-paranorman-: Wow. unbelievable. I got them when they first came out. I never would have imagined official GC component cables would skyrocket.

@SolidTy: Yeah, it's better to just use S-video. Or a Wii.

I heard some guy managed to clone the DAC chip in the cables. He was even able to get HDMI out of it. So look forward to that, I guess.

@Gorillanator: it's kinda pointless to use s-video on GameCube as you're still stuck at interlaced 480i, component cables allows you to output in 480p. I have both the official d-terminal cables (Japanese version of component, same thing) and monster s-video cables, def want the component cables. I managed to get mine from a 3AM eBay auction from a guy is Hawaii.

I installed the HDMI mod in my GameCube. He didn't clone the DAC chip, but he did figure out a way to convert the digital video signals to analog. I've done an HDMI mod to my gameboy advance which I've been enjoying. Hdmi mods are actually very easy to do, it's not like game companies like Nintendo use voodoo video signal standards.

IMO the component cable (can be found at $170) is a much better solution than the HDMI mod. The HDMI isn't cheap, the FPGA dev board (which is the DAC here) is about $80-$90 shipped to your door...then you have to install it yourself or find an installer to pay. If you install it yourself then I would highly recommend a desoldering tool, a good one will run you quite a bit. The guy's DAC code is great but the physical implementation is bad.

For what it's worth, I also found image quality slightly better using official component cables.

On topic. I like the wave bird (have several) but I would really recommend picking up a smash bros4 GC controller with the long cord. Wave bird is less responsive (only noticeable in melee I guess) and it lacks rumble. There's already enough latency in a modern LCD tv setup, no sense adding more into the chain when it can be avoided.

It works with RF, not IR, which means it doesn't need direct line of sight, but it is subject to wireless interference from other devices. It worked fine about 95% of the time.... in the early 2000s. Wireless stuff is everywhere now, so I'm not sure how much interference you'd run into.