Smash Bros. fans who were hesitant to transition to a more modern method of playing will have to make the switch soon: Nintendo’s Wii U console will not be compatible with those GameCube controllers. In fact, if you’re one of the fans also preaching that Melee is better than Brawl, you might want to keep a ‘Cube or Wii around as well — GameCube games and memory cards won’t work with Wii U either.
NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime has gone on record to clarify that the Wii U will only be backwards compatible with Wii titles, not GameCube software. In addition, the GameCube controller and memory cards ports on the Wii are nowhere to be found on the Wii U hardware.
Of course, with increased internal flash storage and expandability via external storage, it’s not unfeasible that the Wii U could introduce GameCube titles to their Virtual Console offerings in the future. It would certainly be an efficient way of introducing great titles such as Luigi’s Mansion, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker,and Super Mario Sunshine to gamers that weren’t among the nearly 22 million GameCube owners. Plus, we can never buy enough copies of Pikmin, Metroid Prime, or Resident Evil 4, right?
