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May 10th, 2008, 07:10 Posted By: bandit
The Shaft Wii Arcade Style Joystick
Manufacturer: Overline Gaming
Site: Buy from Overline Gaming / Buy from Amazon
Price: $39.95
  
Overview : Designed by gamers, for the ultimate gameplay experience, The Shaft for Nintendo Wii is the ONLY Arcade Style Joystick that works with both digital and analog games. The Shaft, our classic arcade-style joystick brings a new dimension of game play to the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console. The Shaft will work with all of the Virtual Console games for NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, TurboGrafix16, and Wii titles that support the Classic Controller.
Test your arcade fighting skills in digital controlled games like Super Street Fighter 2, or test your racing skills in analog controlled games like Super Mario Kart. The Shaft is also compatible with GameCube and Wii titles that support the Classic Controller, giving you the arcade advantage in these games including the recent hit: Super Smash Bros Brawl.
Turbo Mode is available to give players a unique advantage in those classic hard-to-beat games! Each button can be individually programmed to turbo for the most customized gameplay experience available. The Shaft is extremely durable with a high-impact polycarbonate case and a steel joystick core. The Shaft has a classic arcade feel and measures 11 inches x 6 inches.
Features- A Customizable Turbo Function allows you to program individual buttons to be Turbo while leaving others to work as normal.
- Full 360 Degree range of motion that works with both digital and analog stick games.
- 8 Locking points for Awesome response in Fighting Games.
- 10-Year Warranty.
Quality/Usability : The Shaft Wii Arcade Style Joystick first made headlines back in late 2007. Since than, it has been flying under the radar with no release news. Upon emailing Overline Gaming in regards to availability of product, it wasnt released yet even though it was a couple months since its scheduled release. But alas, its finally available!
Nintendo's Virtual Console games are growing everyday and those gamers who want to relive their childhood of sitting in front of an arcade cabinet and constantly feeding the machine with quarters would like an arcade stick to simulate that feeling. Overline Gaming hopes to fulfill those dreams by releasing The Shaft.
The Shaft tries to replicate the arcade cabinet feel by putting a round ball on top of a stick with six large buttons. Top three buttons are Y, X and L, while the bottom three buttons are B, A and R. The middle also has three buttons; TURBO, SELECT/Z and START. However, this arrangement is uncomfortable if you want to play some Wii games. Accessing the Z button feels awkward and out of place.
Unlike the Wiimote, Classic Controller or Nunchuk, The Shaft is not wireless nor does it connect directly to the Wiimote like the Classic Controller or Nunchuk. Instead, its a wired controller and connects to the Gamecube controller port on top of the Wii. This is great since you dont have to worry about batteries dying on your in the middle of gameplay but you need to sit near the Nintendo Wii. The cord on The Shaft is approximately 6 feet long. I know some gamers have their Wii on top of a shelf so some will need to sit right under the TV.
Having played Super Smash Bros Brawl, the Z button felt really out of place. Having to try and play SSBB with the awkward button arrangement on The Shaft, I can feel that the stick felt rather cheap. The quality of the stick was not on par to that of Hori's Fighting Stick. Arcade sticks always have that clicky feel but The Shaft doesnt even have that. The buttons feels unresponsive and doesnt give that arcade joystick feel. But I was able to set turbo to each individual button.
Conclusion : Overall, the The Shaft Wii Arcade Style Joystick is barely at the level of an arcade stick. The short cord with the use of Gamecube plug, awkward placement of the Z button and poor unresponsive buttons didnt help The Shaft. The price of $39.95 is overpriced for the quality of The Shaft. If it didnt feel so cheap, better placement of buttons, two additional buttons or even using HAPP or similar quality joystick buttons, this may be worth it.
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