We want one of these, badly

The classic design, first seen with SNK's Neo-Geo home system almost 20 years ago, arguably ranks as one of the most iconic controllers in the history of videogaming. Back in the days of the Megadrive/Genesis, gamers would marvel at the fact that the Neo-Geo stick was actually the size of Sega's 16-bitter. It was a beast of a stick and certainly more than ready to take any punishment you were prepared to throw at it.

As we reported a few weeks back, this stick is an update of the one previously available for Sony’s PS2 console. It will mean that you get the most authentic experience possible when playing SNK’s classic arcade games on your Wii.

So far only a handful of titles have made their way onto the Virtual Console service, but fingers are firmly crossed that more will follow – this machine really is a goldmine of quality software.

There's no news regarding a Western release at the moment and to be honest it might be a bit too obscure to warrant one. However, importers shouldn't have too much trouble getting their hands on one when it's eventually released this year. It's likely to feature the same 'button mapping' setup as Hori's already released Fighting Stick Wii.

April is still the expected shipping date, so pop that down on your calendar. Or you can place a preorder with Play-Asia now if you prefer!

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