Hands on: Official higher capacity Wii U GamePad battery and Wii Remote Quick Charge Set

A couple of months ago, Nintendo announced a slew of new accessories for the Wii U and even some for the Wii.

Among those were an official higher capacity battery for the Wii U GamePad and a Wii Remote Control Quick Charge set. Both of these items were released in Japan last week and we’ve imported them over here to Australia to check them out, trying to play Pikmin 3 attached the wall just wasn’t getting any more fun either.

Let’s take a look, there’s also a video at the bottom with more.

Wii U GamePad Battery (2550mAh) ~$40AU

The Wii U GamePad is beautiful in its simplicity, it’s only a battery after all. However what it does is take the Wii U GamePad’s battery life from around 3 to 5 hours to a massive 5 to 8 hours. It’s capacity is increased to 2550mAh, up from a mere 1500mAh.

Now Nintendo is usually one err on the side of caution when stating the battery life of things but the Wii U GamePad battery is pretty terrible. Since we’ve just got the battery, we haven’t been able to test it for an extreme amount of time yet, but at double the size it is definitely going to last longer than 3 hours.

Installing the battery was a breeze, included in the little box with the battery was a handy tiny little screwdriver and the other battery just is easily pull out and the new one slides snugly in.

Wii Remote Control Quick Charge Set ~$55AU

Can you believe it has taken Nintendo 7 years to release an official Wii Remote charging solution? Sure there has been many others from third parties but Nintendo saw fit to wait until they release their next console to even bother.

The Wii Remote Control Quick Charge Set comes with a charging cradle, Wii Remote battery pack, Wii Remote condom jacket, Wii Remote Strap and even a Nintendo 3DS charger to power it all. So far there’s only black ones available so consider your purchase before you buy one of these.

Installation is simple, grab your Wii Remote and take out those cruddy AA batteries. Throw them at your younger sibling, you won’t need them anymore. Place the new battery pack in the slot – that’s it you’re done.

So what about changing it then? Well now you can just plug that spare 3DS charger into the base and place the Wii Remote onto the base. It snaps and holds into place fairly well. It even holds its spot with the Wii Remote condom jacket on as well.

What’s strange here is that even though Nintendo have included a black cover for the battery, the Wii Remote condom jacket is that hideous translucent. The new jacket also has that extra hole for the battery pack, so don’t even think about swapping it out.

Both items are great additions to the Wii slash Wii U lineup of accessories, the battery fixes a great deficiency in the Wii U and the Wii Remote charger is extremely overdue. If you’re keen to buy, Play-Asia have them for sale, it’s where we got them and buying them through the links above will help out Vooks.

Hands On Video