Wii docking? Seriously? (Powerplay Dual Charging Station (Wii))

Name: ryanando

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Product:	Powerplay Dual Charging Station (Wii)
Date:	30/06/08 (199 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: charges your remotes ready for play

Disadvantages: won't be able to use skins with them

I was rather chuffed (thats a good thing) when I got a Wii from my lovely mother for my birthday. She knows how to keep her 21 year old happy! She was also kind enough to buy me a charging station to go with it (Yes, you have to buy them seperatley and there are a few different ones out there)

Straight away I hooked it up to my Wii, a scarily easy experience for me, I had expected it to be some sort of uber crazy set up regime. Thankfully not the case (You go Nintendo!!) The docking station has one (thats 1, count em) wire that plugs right into your USB socket on the back of the Wii and you are ready to roll. Or jump around like an idiot. Or smash your bulbs....hmm...Anyway!

The station I have has space for 2 (more counting!) controllers to charge in and space for one nunchuck (a little extra addon to the basic controller that needs no charging) to sit on.

Aesthetically it's as pleasing as the Wii its self, coming in the same shiney white colour with a nice smooth shape to it. It has two small lights next to your controllers to tell you if / when they are charged too (which comes in handy)

Along with this docking station came a handy little contraption. Basically a little unit that fits into the battery slot of your Wii controller with what is obviously the housing for the rechargable batteries. It has two small metal strips on it, about a centimeter high and half a centimeter across each, so it doesnt ruin the look of the controller in the slightest. This makes me a happy gamer!

There was a sheet of paper one *may* call an instruction manual...it had pictures and words, but I cannot recall any of it being usefull in setting this up. Just as well its easy!

Problem number one:

Don't expect to be able to play your Wii any time soon. I was not really blessed with any sort of patience so I attempted jumping right into gaming with a half assed charge behind me. Needless to say this did not work. Fortunatley this is more a problem with the user, not the product. It takes a good couple of hours to build up a full charge the first time you use it as I suppose is only to be expected. (grumble, moan)

Thankfully now that the thing is charged I pretty much let it live in the docking station (when I'm not kicking some sweet, sweet zelda shaped butt or blowing some zombies to bits) so it's always there for me when I need to take out some gaming frustrations.

Problem number two:

If you like the little rubber skins that go with the remote, this causes a bit of hassle when trying to charge. Nintendo obviously don't approve of you being naughty and using rechargables so none of the skins take account of the forementioned metal strips that are so vital to your charge. You CAN peel the skin off a bit to sit it in the charger, but my experience of the skins is that they aren't all that durable when you're pulling the on and off.

Thankfully for me, I nearly killed myself trying to get a skin on to a remote only to have it snap at every point conceivable, so it's not really a problem now that I refuse to use them!

Problem number 3:

It teases me by having two slots whilst I only have one remote. Again thats more MY problem (grumble, moan)

As another little handy function it comes with a USB port in the back of the Docking station its self, so, if you so wish to be horribly mean to me and get 4 remotes when I only have the one, you can connect another docking station directly into the back of the first one rather easily.

Over all its a rather fantastic gadget thats currently saving my crazy self the price of a million and five batteries. It looks good and (after some searching) doesn't cost a full arm and a leg (around about £20 depending on where you go)

Serious gamers, go buy yourself this! Non serious gamers...give your Wii to someone who deserves it.

(also on ciao)

Summary: A handy little gadget for us serious gamers