SUNFLEX USA snakebyte Premium Remote XL+ : Great Product, Great Price

I recently obtained the new snakebyte Premium Remote XL+ Controller for the Wii. This is a Wii remote with the Motion Plus Sensor built in. I've done a good bit of testing and here are my thoughts.

First, at $34.99, it is cheaper than the Nintendo manufactured and other "after-market" equivalent Wii Motion Plus integrated controllers. In these uncertain economic times, five dollars is five dollars: Nintendo's is $39.99.

But is the savings worth it? Are you better off with an authentic Nintendo Controller.

In the that order, I answer : yes, no.

The XL+ is unassuming. It has the same form factor as the standard Wii remote, it feels the same in the hand, the weight is roughly the same. It does have some nice lighting effects with colorful LED lighting on the front, but its not overtly flashy either. This may sound picky, but the symbols on some of the buttons- like the 1 and 2 buttons, were not quite straight and were not quite centered. It has a great built-in speaker, better than in the Nintendo versions. I like is that sync button is located on the front of the controller, very convenient.

I could not use my rechargeable battery packs. The way the battery door is designed, it did not allow for them.  The battery door stays in place with the help of a small screw, rather than the typical clip in design, and so the rechargeable battery packs out there won't fit. I'm really not crazy about this, but the XL+ does come with a pair of Energizer 1300 mAh rechargeables, some excellent batteries, as well as a USB cable that can be plugged straight into one of the USB ports on the back of the Wii and to one on the bottom of the XL+ to charge. Note that the Nintendo manufactured versions don't come with batteries of any kind. Its a good thing th XL+ comes with the batteries, because if it didn't on top of being unable to use the rechargeable packs out there, it would be a very frustrating situation.

Gameplay was good. It's comparable to the Nintendo built models in accuracy and responsiveness. I didn't notice that this unit gave me any distinct advantages, nor did it detract from the gameplay. I played Wii Sports Resort, Mario Kart Wii, and New Super Mario Bros., and on all, I felt playing them was just the same.

What it really boils down to is this: If you need a new Wii Remote, and you want one with the Wii Motion Plus, you'd be best to spend five dollars less and get a comparable product. You get double duty on the savings if you don't have rechargeable batteries already. They are costly, and the XL+ includes them, so all in all, if you bought the Official Nintendo product plus rechargeable AA batteries, you'd spend about $50.00. Despite some minor shortcomings in the design, it is a great buy.