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As pretty much every gamer in the world no doubt already knows, Super Smash Bros. is coming to Nintendo Wii U and 3DS this year. Along with everyone else, we’re itching to play it, but every time we pictured ourselves taking a mallet to Kirby‘s pudgy pink face, the same thoughts kept coming back to bug us: Do we really have to play the game with Wii remotes or the Wii U gamepad? Are we going to have to buy those “pro” pads that we’re frankly not all that fond of?

Thankfully, a series of officially licensed controllers modelled on the Nintendo Gamecube controller that we once loved so dearly is due to arrive sometime around the Wii U game’s launch, and they’re preeetty! Details and photos direct from the E3 show floor after the jump!

Coming from peripheral makers PDP and with the full backing of Nintendo, the controllers are designed with Super Smash Bros. specifically in mind come in three flavours similar to the special-edition Wii remotes Nintendo unveiled last month.

There’s Yoshi:

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Princess Peach:

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And of course Mario:

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Unlike the original Gamecube controller, the Wired Fight Pad removes the “C” stick nub and instead throws in a real analogue stick to match the one on the left of the pad; something which will no doubt come as good news to serious Smash Bros. players.

We have yet to get hands-on with the new controllers, but they look great, and are exactly the kind of thing we were looking for. Well, almost.

Like other classic controllers for Wii, it looks like PDP’s new controllers will need to be plugged into Wii remotes in order to communicate with the Wii U console. Sure, if you happen to have a few old Wii remotes lying around that’s no problem, but if not that means having to go out and buy one for each controller you intend to pick up, not to mention a lot of wires and clutter under your TV and on your lap if you plan on holding any Smash Bros. parties. If they’d only made these controllers completely wireless, we’d have been absolutely ecstatic.

Still, the controllers are due to go on sale for just US$24.99 each, so we guess it’s not all bad…

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