OK, so somehow, despite the endless possibilities, you’re board of the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. Well no problem, Nintendo is way ahead of you and you’ve got quite a few options.

The Classic Controller:

The Classic Controller is just that, a traditional gaming controller. Its cord (which comes from the bottom) connects to the expansion port of the Wiimote. It was made specifically for Virtual Console games, but nothing is stopping normal Wii games from using it. For some reason, you can’t use it to play old GameCube games. For those you have to have an actual GameCube controller (which hooks to the top of the Wii).

There is a mysterious square port in the back of the controller whose function has yet to be revealed. It has been speculated that the port will attach to the Wimote, giving it motion sensitivity. If that were the case, the Classic Controller would become almost the same thing as the Sony Sixaxis controller. This sound cool to me, so I hope it is the case. If it were, possible game developers would find it easier to port between the two systems.

In any case, not all our other options are this traditional.

The Wii Zapper:

This is a gun attachment for both the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. The Wiimote fits on top of the barrel area, and the Nunchuk fits into a back handle. The trigger of the gun replaces the normal “B” trigger on the back of the Wiimote.

The gun is not like the old Nintendo Duck Hunt gun, which could somehow actually see where you were pointing (of course it could be easily tricked). So in order to have real ‘line of site’ capabilities, you have to calibrate the gun in the game. The calibration process is usually fairly error proof and once you’ve done it, it has quite a smooth feel and leads to very natural game play. For me, there is a little bit of confusion about whether to put my right or left hand forward, but I find I like pulling the trigger with my right hand, which is how I normally hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk anyway.

So far, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicle, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 and Ghost Squad and Links Crossbow Training have been designed for use with the Wii Zapper, but it isn’t required for any of them.

The Wii Wheel:

This isn’t out yet, but it is a simple steering wheel with the Wiimote smack in the center. There is a button on the for the trigger. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to use it so I don’t know how intuitive it’ll be. I have some fundamental question about how the controls will work that just haven’t been answered, first among them: “Will this really add to game play?” I guess we’ll find out, but until then, we can speculate about how much use it’ll be.

Third Part Accessories:

A ton a third party accessories have been released, but most of them are just shells, and do not add any functionality. From swords and shields for Zelda to golf clubs for Wii Sports, it is clear that the possibilities of the Wiimote are still being explored. During this experimentation phase, we’re going to have a lot of failed designs and a lot of failed game control schemes. But once a more unified theme starts emerging, I think the potential for games everywhere will be much higher.

For those of you who don’t have a Wii, or who do have a Wii and would like to understand their inner workings and know all the options better, I’ve compiled this guide to Wii input. We’ll start with an explanation of the most obvious, and the driving mechanism for most of the system, the Wiimote.

The Wiimote:

The Wiimote, officially called the Wii Remote, is an extraordinary breakthrough in the gaming world. The Wiimote, as any gamer knows, has almost complete motion detection abilities, which really breaks down the barrier between console gaming and arcade gaming. The Wiimote can detect movement in any direction, but can’t directly detect rotation. Instead, it locates the Wii Sensor Bar to figure out where it is pointing. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work when your pointing away from the Bar. Interestingly, the Sensor Bar doesn’t actually sense anything, the Wii Mote does all the sensing.

In comparison to its only motion sensing competitor, the PS3 Sixaxis controlle, it has pluses and minuses. Plus: The Wiimote — through the use of the sensor bar — can automatically detect whether or not you are pointing on the screen, something the Sixaxis controller can’t do without calibration. This makes it easy to use the Wiimote like a virtual mouse. Minus: The Wimote doesn’t actually have full rotational detection like the Sixaxis does, and basically cannot get any rotational functionality if it doesn’t see the Sensor Bar.

One unique feature of the Wiimote is the speaker set in the middle, which allows sound to come out. This, I find, is very useful in multiplayer games. When normally all the sound would be coming from one place, even if it only concerns one person, the Wiimote can deliver indivisualize sounds cues to each player.

The buttons on the Wiimote are simple, one direction pad with an “A” button underneath it and a “B” trigger behind it as well as a “1″ and “2″ button down at the bottom. In the center, there are “-”, “Home” and “+” buttons. And lastly, the Wiimote has a dock on the bottom which can connect to and communicate to various other attachments, including, next up the Nunchuk.

The Nunchuk:

The Wii Nunchuk comes with the Wii, and connects to the Wiimote though its dock. The Nunchuk has motion sensitivity, but no rotational abilities. It has an analog stick and two trigger buttons in the back — “C” and a smaller “Z”. Typically, you would hold the Wiimote in your right hand, and the Nunchuk in you left hand. The possibilities of control between these two devices are endless. Between them you have 13 axis of movement and 9 buttons.

There extra buttons and the analog stick help bring the Wii up to a normal amount of traditional controls. With the non-traditional aspect of motion sensitivity, it isn’t really necessary, but it gives traditional gamers a better feel of control and gives traditional game developers an easier time porting games. But, the movement detectors in the Nunchuk assure Wii fans that Nintendo is serious about taking gaming to the next level.

Unfortunately, few games so far have really taken advantage of the creative possibilities waiting in the Nunchuk. Hopefully developers will get the hang of things soon.

There are many other attachments designed for Wii input, and I’ll be covering the basics of those in a future article.