I have a concern with the compatibilty of the controllers with the Wii U, specifically the titles of the virtual console of the Wii part of the Wii U (let's call it the "emulated Wii"), and I would need to know what is my best option. Let me explain:
We recently bought a Wii U, which we absolutely LOVE. However, we had and still have our Wii, on which we downloaded Virtual Console (VC) titles of the N64, SNES and NES. One of them is Mario Party 2 on the N64. We enjoy playing this game 4-player, it being a party game. Back on the Wii, we didn't bother buying any classic controllers as we already owned 4 gamecube controllers, which were compatible with all SNES and N64 VC games. Now that we transfered our Wii data over to the Wii U, you can guess we ran into a small issue: our N64 and SNES titles are unplayable, because the Wii U doesn't support GC controllers and its "emulated Wii" does not support the Wii U Pro controller. When I did the transfer, there were absolutely no mention of this, despite many other warnings. I wish there had been, because I would have reconsidered the transfer (which is not reversible).
I understand that the Wii U is not compatible with GC controllers and that it shouldn't be, this is normal and makes sense. What I don't understand is that the VC on the "emulated Wii" of the Wii U doesn't support the new Wii U Pro controller. Because we often play 4-players on both the Wii U, the Wii and their virtual consoles. This would basically require 15 controllers for a single console (1 Gamepad, 4 Wiimotes, 4 Wii U Pro controller and 4 classic controllers), which is completly ridiculous. After searching a bit, I have considered a few options, for which I need further clarification:
1. GC controller to Wiimote adapters by third parties. However, given the fact that when you start a N64 game on the "emulated Wii" it will not start the game if you only have a Wiimote connected, I wonder if these will actually work for my purpose (will the emulated Wii recognize it as a GC/Classic controller or as a Wiimote, since the signal is ultimately sent by the Wiimote?)
2. GC controller to USB adapter by third parties. Again, will these work on VC titles or are they simply good for Wii titles that enables you to use a GC controller (ex Mario Kart Wii). Their descriptions mentions they are compatible with Wii U, but this doesnt mean they are compatible with the Wii part of the Wii U (in fact, can the "emulated Wii" connect to the USB ports at all? ) Further concern: there are only 3 USB ports on the Wii U. Also, the fact that these adapters, as well as the other ones metionned above cost nearly as mush as the Classic Controllers (around 17$) makes me wonder if they're really worth it.
3. Wait for the WiiShop titles to be ported the the eShop and rebuy them at the discounted price. Some of them already are, and it would give me the opportunity to use only the Wii U Pro controllers. However, they come out at a rather slow rate, and so far not a single N64 title. In fact, is there any guarantee from Nintendo that they will port all the Wii Shop VC titles to the eShop?
4. Buy 4 Classic and 3 Wii Pro controllers (we already have one). I really hope I don't have to do this. We just paid for a new console, having to buy 7 controllers is more than ridiculous and certainly not a good marketing strategy. It would have been so easy to make the Wii U Pro controllers compatible with the emulated Wii on the Wii U. The emulated Wii software was already modified from its original Wii counterpart, all that was needed was to remap the buttons to match the classic controller ones (they are exactely the same!). WHY? Has there been any announcement from Nintendo to update the Wii software to make this compatible?
What's your experience with this? Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!