I shared my little story on how I got a Wii Zapper, along with Link’s Crossbow Training, for almost nothing last week. What I didn’t mention at the time, because I hadn’t realized it, was how the Wii Zapper suffers from the same regrettable issue that the Game Boy Advance did back when we were using our Gamecube to Game Boy Advance link cables: incompatibility with third party peripherals.

Those who’ve picked up the awesome Nyko Charge Station for Wii Remotes will be aware that in order for the system to work, you need to not only swap out the pair of AA batteries in each controller for the battery packs that come with the Charge Station, but you also need to swap out the battery door covers. These covers have a port in them that leaves the charging contact exposed so that when you set the controller in the cradle, it can make that connection and charge the battery pack. The other feature of the cover is a nice rubbery grip that perhaps could make one less likely to fling their Wii Remote into their nice projector set. Along with this safety measure comes the caveat that the slight increase in profile on the battery door means the controller will no longer fit in Nintendo’s Wii Zapper, which was designed with not even the tiniest amount of wiggle room. You see, there’s a pair of hooks which snap into the heel of the Wii Remote, and it simply doesn’t reach if you’ve got that battery door on. The solution? Snap off the battery door first. It doesn’t stop the controller from working, and you get to use the Zapper as intended.

You can bet Nyko’s own Perfect Shot controller, which is by most accounts superior to Nintendo’s effort in every way, doesn’t have this issue.

It’s getting a little irritating having to deal with this crap now that these companies aren’t playing nice together. I’m going to stop using the Wii Remote Jackets now. They feel nice, but I don’t see the point since I wear my wrist strap and that’s one less thing to have to apply and remove while changing controllers.