There is never a short supply of third-party hardware, with their over-stylised exteriors and their bargain-basement price tags, to temp the unwitting customer. Do you buy an official controller, or do you buy its cheaper counterpart? For those of us with a limited income the answer isn't always so easy. For the price of an Official Gamecube controller you could buy two, almost identical third-party equivalents. Or, what about that memory card? The same price as the Official one but with double the memory. Enough free saves to last at least twice as long.

Reality doesn't always meet expectations, however. Those two controllers you bought, while they looked innocent enough when sitting snugly in their boxes, when removed seem to have been constructed by a limbless gibbon. With razor-edged plastic, button-design that was arranged by Satan himself, and an assortment of unnecessary design features and extra functions, they pale in comparison to the real thing. And that memory card you bought with a capacity two-fold of the Official one? It works for the first few days without a problem, and then, you find your save files mysteriously erased. First just a small glitch, but when it happens again, and again, you'll find that �14.99 taking a one-way trip to the trash-can.

Third-party peripherals are, for the most part, cheap and cheerful. They don't have the same amount of time, or money, spent on design and research. They exist to offer an affordable alternative to the Official equivalent. But in the long run is it really worth it? Would you rather have an unresponsive, uncomfortable controller made by a company who you have never heard of, or spend that little extra for that piece of Nintendo perfection? The choice is yours.

As a footnote I would like to point out that Third-party peripherals vary in quality. While the vast majority are bad imitations of a superior product, there are a small few that are at least acceptable, if not exceptional.

By thecreepingmess