Wiimote Remote

Club Nintendo strikes again as this week it sent out the Wiimote Remotes it promised its “Platinum members” roughly a year ago. “Gold members” were given, for gratis, a Nintendo 2006 Calendar, and “Platinum members”, of which I was very surprised to find myself to be one, the calendar and a television remote control shaped exactly like the Wiimote.

The reasons it took so long, I guess, is because there have been several design changes to the controller in the last year, mostly cosmetic. Also, Nintendo is now ramping up its marketing machine for the Wii launch at the end of the year with a Nintendo World event planned in November. See more details here .

The remote control is fun. The D-pad up and down changes the channels, left and right the volume. The “-“ button flips through the televisions AV channels,, “+” mutes, and “home” sets the timer. “a” and “b” as ell as the “B” trigger don’t seem to do anything on my television. The instructions show how you can set the remote to be used for a variety of televisions. Nice stuff. The only real difference is that the speaker is purely cosmetic, and the connector or the joystick pad is sealed off. Otherwise in shape at least it is the Wiimote.

I have still to decide if I’m going to the Nintendo World event. I’ll probably be in the final stages of crunch by then, and besides, I’ve already played most of the demos. Still, I might make time just to gauge the strength of their marketing. For Club Nintendo members I think the remote is an excellent little item to get people hyped up for the launch.