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The 8 Dumbest Wii Add-Ons

• By Dave Rudden and Patrick Shaw
• December 09, 2008 14:28 PM PST
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From swords to fishing poles to pom-poms, there's a stupid accessory for everyone!

The Wii is a hit with the casual crowd, which is cool with us. The more gamers, the better. We only have one request of them; please stop buying terrible products that add nothing to the gameplay experience. The follow 8 products serve no purpose besides making the player look like a complete tool.

8-Sports Kit

For: Wii Sports

Here's the accessory that launched a thousand crappy knockoffs. While the foam rubber equipment and decent design may not be the most egregious add-on ever (still doesn't aid in the gameplay any), we have to give Nerf guff for foisting the Wii Nerf Sports Pack on the world. Now any company with access to a Wii and a couple hundred dollars worth of scrap plastic can put together awful accessories that add nothing to gameplay. Another qualm--we've got a bat, golf club, and a tennis racket in this kit... what the heck are we supposed to do for boxing? I guess Nerf wants us to drop the gloves and bring some foreign objects into the ring.

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7- Fishing Rod

For: Sega Bass Fishing, Fishing Master, and many others

Garbage crudely in the shape of the object it's intended to resemble is showing up more and more on store shelves under the guise of "controller accessories for the Wii," and Hyperkin's Fishing Rod, which looks like a female hygiene product more than any fishing rod we've ever seen, is certainly no exception. Even if one of the eight fishing games for the Wii was even remotely decent (yes, there are honestly 8 of them now), this fishing rod peripheral just gets in the way of the game. Plus, why waste your money on this when you can get a different product that includes both a pole and a reel?

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6- Sword and Shield Pack

For: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

What would you do if you walked into a room and caught your little brother in a battle stance wielding the foam sword and shield featured in ezGear's Combat Kit? While the temptation to cave in his skull with this offensively stupid product may be strong, it'd probably be more effective to explain to them that the real Link would never be able to defend himself from Deku nut projectiles and Ganon's attack with such a puny shield.

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5- Light Sword

For: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Play.com's lightsabe... err, Light Sword should displease Wii players and Star Wars fans alike. The bulkiness of the accessory should make the ill-feeling Wii Star Wars games even more awkward (still waiting for that 1:1 Lightsaber game, Lucasarts). The rounded flourecent "sword" should make any Star Wars fans feel like they're wielding a futuristic sex toy rather than a decent replica. Save your money on this and just download the iPhone Lightsaber app.

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4- Trauma Center Kit

For: Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Trauma Center: New Blood

Unlike most of the products featured in this article, this Wii add-on happens to be for a couple of games that are worth playing. Strangely enough, the Trauma Center Kit from Deal Extreme is even more mind-bendingly worthless than most of the products on this list. With a game like Trauma Center, where the precision of your movements is the key to keeping your patient alive, a plastic set of instruments including a scalpel, tweezers, and other tools, will in fact make playing the game infinitely more difficult.

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3- Cooking Kit

For: Cooking Mama: Cook Off, Cooking Mama: World Kitchen

Brando's Cooking Mama Kit is a failure on so many levels. If the continuing sales of Cheetos, Top Ramen, and hot dogs are any indication, gamers aren't the world's greatest cooks, and most of the utensils featured in the kit are probably foreign to most players. Also, a game like Cooking Mama is not conducive to attachments. It's like Top Chef meets Wario Ware. Within a minute, you'll have to switch from the dicer to the spatula to the frying pan, and then repeat. And what happens when you need to baste?

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2- Music Instrument Pack

For: Wii Music

Wii Music has already been proven as a game that makes its players look like rhythmless dorks. Does there really need to be a peripheral that accentuates the fact? According to ezGear, yes, there does. The Wii MusicPack add-on kit features a plastic sax, violin, and drumsticks/baton to help players even further enjoy the midi music factory of the year. And you thought nothing looked lamer than your Guitar Hero Les Paul.

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1- Pom-poms

For: We Cheer, All Star Cheer Squad

Is $20 too much to ask for a Wii accessory that doesn't even work properly with the product it's primarily going to be used with? We'd say so. In addition to obviously being just some cheap shredded colored plastic that you can stick on the end of your controllers in an attempt to enhance your virtual cheerleading experience, Hip Street's Pom-Poms don't work with We Cheer (the Pom-Poms attachments are for a Wii Remote and Nunchuk while the game requires you to play with two Wii Remotes). But you're not entirely out of luck as it does work for the just as crappy knock off, All Star Cheer Squad.

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