Nyko Charge Station

Written by John Yan on 4/6/2007 for Wii  

Of the three latest consoles, the Nintendo Wii is the only one not to feature a rechargeable controller. This, of course, opened the door for third parties to produce one and that's exactly whatNyko has done. If you're tired of changing batteries in your WiiMote, the Nyko Charge Station just might be what you need.


The Nyko Charge Station consists of a cradle, two back plates, and two rechargeable batteries. The cradle holds two WiiMotes for charging. Each WiiMote stands vertically on the stand. On the bottom of the cradle, there are two plastic pieces that fit right in the bottom of the WiiMote's notches on either side of the connector giving it support when you sit it in the cradle. For the wrist strap, there's a slot on either side where you can hang it off the cradle so that theWiiMote stays flush with the cradle. The overall style of the cradle with its white smooth plastic matches the Wii unit well. When the new colors come out this one will stand out of place but for now the unit matches nicely when sitting next to theWii.

On the front, there's an LED for each slot that gives you a status when charging. A blue LED indicates the WiiMote's in the process of charging the battery. Once it's done, the LED will change green to let you know that it's fully charged. It's a nice quick visual cue on when the controllers are ready for use at full power. When fully charged they provide about 25 hours of gameplay. From the few weeks of usage with the product, I didn't noitce the battery life being any shorter and it was pretty convenient to keep it on the cradle and fully charged for use. Charging one will take roughly one to two hours with two being three to four hours from full depletion.

When placing the WiiMote into the charger, you'll need to push it a little to make sure the contacts are touching. The visual indication of the LEDs will let you know once you got it right. It's not as easy as dropping the controller in the cradle but it's not as picky as theLogitech Harmony 880 remote where the remote would easily lose contact with the charging pins with just a nudge of the remote.

The cradle plugs into any standard wall socket. Not that I mind but I would've liked to have seen an option to use the Wii's USB port as the power supply though. Both the 360 and the PlayStation 3's controllers use any USB port to recharge.  You're forced to use a wall socket with this product but that's not that bad.

If you wanted a better grip on the WiiMote, the battery covers that come with the Charge Station feature rubberized grips. They really help give you better handle on the WiiMote and one feature that I wish the controller came with by default. The contacts to recharge the battery are recessed enough so you won't even feel them. With the cover on, the controller feels pretty comfortable and I wasn't afraid of it slipping out of my hands when it got wet from sweat.Nyko's decision to improve the battery cover was a very smart decision.

The Nyko Charge Station does what it sets out to do and that's provide renewable power to your Wii controllers. The rubberized grips help improve the WiiMote's hold. Nyko did a nice job in designing the entire setup accounting for a few things such as the wrist strap. Priced at $29.99, the Charge Station isn't too expensive and you get the convenience of a chargeable controller. Never be left with switching batteries again with theNyko Charge Station. Now all my controllers can be powered up without the need of new batteries.