It’s not often that I see accessory makers at E3, but today I got to see some products from Performance Designed Products. They’ve had a chance to make a lot of accessories for the Wii and DS, including some controllers.
The main attraction were some light-up controllers; they had a transparent Wii Remote and nunchuk that would light up with several colored lights around the unit. They weren’t particularly bright, they just added a bit of color and flair to the setup. What was especially neat, though, was the repositioning of several key buttons, namely the +, – and Home buttons, near the top of the remote, closer to the thumb. The nunchuk was also attached to the remote by means of a retractable cord, something I can get behind, having gotten tangled in the standard nunchuk cord once or twice. They let me test the controllers out on a demo of The Conduit 2, but I was stuck in a wall or something and couldn’t really move. The relocated buttons are nice, though.
Most of the rest of their products were Wii and DS cases. They’ve got a rather wide selection, since they’ve acquired a number of licenses for products, including Nerf, Hasbro and Disney. The company is lining up a series of Toy Story 3 accessories, slated to come out at the same time as the movie; they also have some very nicely designed Tron remotes and other controllers, which are a sleek black with lit blue lines running through them. They also have a number of brightly-colored Nerf accessories, including MotionPlus slipcovers colored in a stark orange and gray.
My personal favorite products were their line of Epic Mickey accessories; they had three on display. One of them was a simple remote holder, shaped like a paint bucket and able to carry two remotes. There was also a stylish nunchuk controller, made into the shape of a paintbrush, which may be a bit odd if the nunchuk doesn’t handle that control, but it does look nice. The highlight was a remote battery charger made to look like a scary tree in a haunted wood, with Mickey looking on, frightened. I’m not sure that any of it lit up, but I sure hope something does, like the eyes of the tree.
Keep checking NintendoGal.com for updates and further impressions.
