The Aviator combines two controllers into one, placing the throttle controls traditionally placed on a separate unit for flight controllers right on the base of the stick, giving players relatively easy access to all the buttons, sliders, and toggles they need to succeed in games like Ace Combat 6, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., and the Blazing Angels series.

One of the first fruits of the union between Saitek and Mad Catz, does Saitek's console debut soar, or does Mad Catz keep it grounded?

Loved
Sturdy As She Goes: I've been purchasing Saitek peripherals for quite some time now, and have generally been impressed with their construction and overall feel of their products. The Aviator does not disappoint. The controller is deceptively light, but very sturdy, making it just as easy to play with it sitting in your lap as it is with the controller resting on a flat surface.

Smooth And Responsive: The aviator performed admirably in both Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360 and the PC version of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.. After a brief adjustment period I found myself flying more naturally than I ever had with an Xbox 360 controller, banking and rolling with a twist of the stick. Flying games just feel more natural with a stick, and the Aviator does the trick nicely. I should also note here that the installation on my Windows 7 PC was a breeze. I didn't have to install drivers or fiddle with settings; simply plugged the stick in and it reacted like as if the PC were an Xbox 360.

Hated
Two Thingsism: The Saitek Aviator is one thing trying to do the work of two things, and as well as it handles the basic functions of the games I played with it, it doesn't come close to the experience of having a separate joystick and throttle control at your disposal. Moving the stick around with one hand wrapped around the base of the joystick simply feels off, and you wind up throttling blind because your hand on the stick obscures your view. There's also a problem if you have to consistently push one of the face buttons during battle, as there is no way you can grip the stick, access the throttle, and press the buttons at the same time. It works well enough, but it could never replace a two-handed setup.

More than anything, whether or not you should pick up the Saitek Aviator depends on your experience with flight controllers. If you've never experienced the joy of a dual stick/throttle setup and are simply looking for a reasonably inexpensive way to add a little more realism to your arcade flight sim experience, then the Aviator could very well be the controller for you. On the other hand, if your flight sim tastes run more on the simulation side or you've gotten used to a controller like the Hori flight stick that shipped in the Ace Combat 6 premium bundle, you'll most likely find Saitek's single-stick offering fails to achieve liftoff.

The Saitek Aviator Flight Stick was manufactured and released by Saitek / Mad Catz in January 2009. Retails for $49.99 (MSRP, seen for as low as $29.99 online). Manufacturer provided an Xbox 360/PC unit for purposes of review. Played several hours of both Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360 and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. for the PC using the controller.

Still preying on RRoD fears, at least the Overcase doesn't void a console's warranty - unless removing a faceplate violates a warranty, which I doubt it does. The case features extra cooling that continues past powerdown, like the fan on a 1997 Mercury Sable station wagon.

Reminds me of the Gary Busey Outer Helmet Protector Protector.

MUST watch: ZooZen transforms the 360 into a beauty from a beast [MaxConsole via Hot Blooded Gaming]

These have been designed by Dave Rollins, are made of acrylic, and are going for the entirely reasonable price of $20. The only downside? No Wavebird.

Anyone interested, you can get 'em from Etsy.

video game controller ornaments are very merry indeed [technabob]

Is it worth buying a piece of plastic to slap onto your controller? Let's see.

Loved
Fanboy Look: If you're a big fan of Modern Warfare 2 and want everyone to know it, this is a great wait to do that. The vinyl faceplate snaps tightly onto the controller leaving very little to tell it's an aftermarket add-on.

Feel: Once locked in place, the faceplate doesn't really change the feel of the controller at all. And that's a good thing. The only seam you'll notice lines up with where the controller halves are screwed together, so it even looks like your controller came splashed with Modern Warfare 2 art.

Hated
Flimsy Alone: If you plan on not leaving this faceplate on all of the time you'd better be careful where you store it. The thin vinyl feels like it could snap if bent, sat or stepped on.

I'm not a big fan of customizing my gaming equipment to advertise a particular title, but if I were this $15 faceplate seems like a pretty good option.

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller Camo Faceplate was developed and produced by Mad Catz for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on Nov. 10. Retails for $14.99 USD. A camo Playstation 3 faceplate was given to us by Mad Catz for reviewing purposes. Played several games for several hours with the faceplate snapped onto a controller.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

On walls around me hung a Wii bowling ball controller attachment, a Wii pool cue, Wii pom poms, and more.

Who makes this stuff? Two amiable Orthodox Jewish brothers — black pants, white shirts, beards, and an offer to their guest of some kosher pastries — sat across from me, cheerful about what they've built and the amazing gizmos surrounding us.

I was at the second floor offices of CTA Digital, a block from where Brooklyn, New York touches the East River, in a short, aged office building, up an elevator painted with an old yellow floor ad for Domino sugar. I was in the spotless show room where Leo and Sol Markowitz's line of sometimes-ridiculous, sometimes-useful — and apparently hot-selling — attachments for the Wii and other electronics line the walls. (See their offerings online, then imagine that a lot of that is hanging on the walls of one room that's also big enough for a couple of couches and a big-screen TV.)

The brothers Markowitz are some of the guys who saw in the Wii not just a gamer revolution but a chance to make money selling people things to attach to their Wii remote.

And 200,000 units of their Wii bowling ball controller sold worldwide later, they say, they were pleased to be surrounded by the plastic products of that opportunity.

"We smelled it right away," Leo told me, recalling his first sensations of the Wii's imminent success.

The Wii peripheral market is big and, despite other industry slumps, growing. Of the 58.4 million gaming peripherals sold so far this year in the United States, the NPD group reports that 18.4 million of those are for the Wii. That's up a million from the same date last year.

So even though Sol, an avowed Kotaku reader, playfully cut his brother off early in our meeting about Wii add-ons to remind him that "real gamers don't like the Wii," enough people do like these attachments. They like the tennis rackets and the baseball bats, the imitation light sabers and shotguns. Maybe not the pom-poms — a weak seller — but people like buying Wii peripherals and business is no joke at all. It's good.

CTA has more than 30 employees, a warehouse in upstate New York and design and development teams in Asia. Maybe most importantly, Leo noted, "We have five people who think of things to make 24-7."

They think of things like... the bowling ball. "Why wouldn't you buy it?" Leo said to me, when I ask him what the point is. I argued that people had been Wii-bowling with no ball-shaped shell around their controller just fine.

It makes the game fun for plenty of people, Sol said. "It makes it more exciting." He knows that "real gamers" won't care as much.

This bowling ball was a dream project, a year in the making and spurred by research that showed them that Wii Sports bowling is the most popular activity on Nintendo's console.

"We all knew that whoever comes out with bowling, it's going to be huge," Leo recalled.

Those CTA engineers got to work, trying to craft a bowling ball something-or-other that could fit around a Wii Remote. They didn't want people to chuck a bowling ball controller through their TV, so they tried to design a bowling ball shell that wouldn't function if you didn't wear the shell's wrist strap. Couldn't get it to work right, Sol said. They settled on a design that has two wrist straps and  is sealed with a sticker that must be broken in order to first encase a Wii remote in it. You rip that, you assume the risks.

The bowling ball's good, though it's holes are positioned only for right-handed bowlers. An ambidextrous design hadn't worked. But have no fear, fellow southpaws. "We probably will get into the left-handed business," Leo told me.

I met with the Markowitz men and a helpful colleague for over an hour. Leo repeatedly bounded from his seat on a couch across from me to grab secret prototype after secret prototype of CTA gaming add-ons that will make the bowling ball seem pedestrian. They're secret still, but they're wild.

CTA's been in this business for 16 years, Sol explained. They started with cell-phone add-ons, then moved on to iPod attachments. Now they do gaming add-ons too, like PlayStation 3 chat pads, Xbox 360 cooling devices and iPhone steering wheels. The Wii's been the big one for them lately, and gaming's up to a quarter of their business, though they won't say how much money CTA makes. They sell their attachments worldwide, to electronics stores that once ignored them or shunned gaming.

They say that even Bed Bath & Beyond is on board now. The brothers recalled that the retailer — not exactly a gaming powerhouse — consented last Christmas season to trying to sell 30,000 of CTA's Wii add-ons, simple things like controller charge stations, and sold almost all of them. The retailer asked for more — asked for the top sellers, even. So, the brothers told Kotaku, CTA has sold Beth Bath & Beyond Wii Sports kits to sell and even a Wii controller shotgun. No word if it's sold next to shower curtains.

Leo showed me a smart one: A belt and holster designed to hold a Wii Remote for users of Wii Fit. He rightly pointed out that the game requires players to use the Remote to start their exercising but then forces them to either put it down or needlessly hold it as they work out on the Wii Balance Board. The holster holds the Remote, freeing the user's hands. And it swivels, letting someone point the Remote to navigate menus without having to un-holster it. That seemed to address a Wii Fit user interface issue.

I asked the brothers if they saw themselves as being in the problem-solving business, the fun business or — gesturing to the Wii Music Kit that lets you embed the Wii remote into shells shaped like a violin, a trumpet, a dog paw — the novelty business.

"We see what the problem is [with a game] and figure out what we can make for it," Leo began.

"We are in the fun business," Sol cut in.

Leo laughed. "We're in the business to sell and make money."

CTA's bowling ball controller may make the company stand out, but they are not the only creators of imaginative Wii add-ons. Mad Catz makes controller shells shaped like Ubisoft's Rabbids characters. Nyko director of marketing Chris Arbogast told Kotaku that one of his company's most creative Wii add-ons was going to be their Party Station: "a combination charging station / beverage container / chip bowl." It's not coming out. "Although it generated a lot of buzz and consumer response, it was not cost effective to produce and was tabled."

Arbogast noted that some of the more imaginative controllers, while fun or aesthetically pleasing don't fit his company's strategy. "We decided on particular accessories that allowed us to incorporate new technology or offer features that were not previously available, like button relocation on our Action Pak pistol grip or rumble in our Kama." Their next big product is their new Charge Base IC.

CTA is well aware that some of this wilder stuff doesn't work. The Wii Music kit has been a slow seller, not helped by relatively slow sales of the Wii Music.

The brothers seem undeterred. They say that their new Wii Sports Resort kit, which includes a bow-and-arrow add-on, a Jet-Ski-style handlebar and even a frisbee shell, is selling great.

And don't worry, those of you who might feel you're too cool for these kinds of attachments. Leo and Sol are making some products for you in mind too. Just wait. Brooklyn's keeping busy.

The peripheral comes with software that can teach you how to play the piano or play music by following along on-screen prompts.

The game includes two difficulty modes and can also record up to four 3-minute songs.

I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to start adding plastic peripherals for my DS to my growing pile of plastic console controllers. What about you?

Assuming word doesn't come down from on high that I should break this bad boy open and get down to business, I'll be tossing Neft N-Strike Elite to the Ümloud! onto the pile of swag I'm amassing for the December 9 event.

I do recall playing this game at PAX 2009 while I waited in line for an APB demo. The consoles for it happened to be set up close enough to the line for the PR rep to lean over and let us take turns shooting virtual Nerf darts at targets and robots. I was sort of "meh" about the whole thing (but totally grateful for something to do in line), until the guy told me that the Wii peripheral gun you plug your Wiimote into is actually a real Nerf gun you can use outdoors. On your brother. Like I would have done right then and there if he'd been around.

If you want the game for yourself and you're not going to Ümloud!, it's out now.

OK, not a real baby. A baby doll, of course. But it takes doll-playing to the next level by incorporating motion control (and balance board support!) into 18 game modes designed to test even the most darling little girl's resistance to saccharine depictions of parenting.

Not only that, this hellspawn will actually cry through the Wiimote's speaker. You quiet baby down by rocking, burping and teaching him/her/it to walk. There's even a feeding exercise. I'm sensing a Wiimote breast pump attachment down the line. And way to make everything creepy, Owen ...

This is the special edition, by the way. The regular game comes with a "holster" so you can attach the Wiimote to any other implement or household pet and pretend that is the baby, I guess. Baby and Me releases Nov. 10. I'm sure Luke will review it when he gets back.

Baby and Me Special Edition Puts Everything Else to Shame [Aussie-Nintendo via Go Nintendo]

The listing says the weights don't interfere with the IR capability so, hell, why not hook it up to Dead Space: Extraction or Madworld for a real workout?

Wii Weights (2lb Dumbbells) [Everlast, thanks fusioncam]

More than just an extremely pretty face, the Fender Telecaster 'Player's Edition' comes complete with fast-action ‘Shredderz' fret buttons, an exclusive addition to the model with a rapid action that the company says is perfect for difficult solos. The Telecaster also has four different methods for kicking Rock Band into overdrive - the optional Electro-Harmonix Overdrive Pedal, the back tuning button, the old-fashioned tilt mechanism, and a new touch sensitive pickup, conveniently located above the strum bar.

The Telecaster retails for $109.99 and is now shipping to stores across North America. It's a little on the pricey side, but it sure has a hell of a lot of character.

Looks awful. Though, with that GIANT LIGHTSABER, we're sure a few will be scooped up by the Old Republic art team.

Vader Wii Sensor Bar Impedes Our Quest for Social Normalcy [Gizmodo]

It looks like it should be wearing heavy boots and mulling around a mall complaining about things. Or transforming into Spawn in front of a backdrop of flames, for an ill-advised Spawn/Go-Bots crossover. Or even skulking around the waters of the North Atlantic.

One thing it doesn't look like? Something that, as part of a play-and-charge bundle, is worth $70 (which is the pack's asking price).

Xbox 360 Controller Mixes Black, Red and Black (and Red) [Gizmodo]

Due out September 29th for the Nintendo Wii, Activision is touting Rapala: We Fish as the "first fishing title developed specifically for Wii", injecting just the sort of over-the-top wacky humor that is completely absent from real fishing. Play as one of five characters or use your Mii to participate in 24 tournament events in eight locations around the world, with more than 50 "wacky" species of fish to catch, each with their own facial expressions and personalities.

That's slightly terrifying, actually.

Along with fishing, We Fish also includes a boat racing game, in which players try to knock their opponents' catches off deck as they race towards safe harbor, which is another exciting element completely absent from real fishing.

"We love Activision's fresh, colorful approach to Rapala: We Fish," said Kelly Brockpahler, Rapala. "It doesn't matter if you are a fisherman in real life, this game lets players of all ages and abilities have a ‘laugh out loud' good time!"

Check out shots of the pack-in rod controller and box below, and keep an eye out (ouch) for Rapala: We Fish next month.

It's interesting that Blizzard is going to Razer to create official peripherals for StarCraft II, seeing as they've maintained and still maintain a strong relationship with the Steel Series folks. I suppose there's plenty of Blizzard to go around. Why Razer?

"Razer's high-quality gaming products have long been popular among our global community of players, and we're pleased to now be collaborating with them directly," said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. "Through this partnership, we're looking forward to working with Razer to develop a line of peripherals that will complement the fast-paced action of StarCraft II."

Currently the only product Razer is showing is the nifty StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty messenger bag pictured here, but they've keyboards, mice, and headsets on the way, the last of which should be great for communicating over the internet with people you were supposed to be connected to via LAN.

The main cradle connects to the AC, AV inputs and Sensor Bar connection on the back of the Wii console. The center slot houses a built-in fan that is aligned with the vent on the bottom of the Wii console, keeping the system cool.

The station also contains two slots to charge your Wii remotes in an upright position or two sets of rechargeable Wii Remote molded 1800 mAh batteries which come with the system. It also has charging docks for four rechargeable AA batteries in another bay.

The station includes rests for two nunchuks and their cords, an LED display for a digital alarm clock and when plugged in to the AC adapter that came with your Wii two stripes on the stand light up blue. The back of the device has AV, Component and S-Video ports for the appropriate connection on your television.

The only thing we don't know is the price, which could very easily become a deal breaker for what appears to be an otherwise solid concept.

Update: It looks like Overstock has it for $40.

[Thanks Eric]

Mad Catz loves branding accessories, especially when it comes to big titles, and there most likely won't be a title bigger than Modern Warfare 2 this year, so they've got a full range of accessories being prepared across all major platforms. No specifics were given regarding what was coming when, but it's easy enough to imagine the sorts of things the company will come up with.

"We are excited to partner with Activision and Infinity Ward to create branded controllers and accessories based on what is one of the videogame industry's preeminent franchises," said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz. "We look forward to offering unique and exciting accessories to fans of the newest release in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, as we continue to grow and diversify what we believe to be the industry's leading portfolio of branded videogame accessories."

I've got my fingers crossed for night vision goggle skins. Look for more info on the new Mad Catz line as we get closer to the game's November release.

Being a patriot, he eschews Japanese components in favour of American HAPP parts (though you can ask for Seimetsu/Sanwa parts if you're picky), and there are two variants available, a Ryu and an Akuma.

The sticks are for the 360, and include a rechargeable pack that can be juiced from your console's USB port. And finally, for that extra touch of old-school authenticity, he's measured the exact dimensions of the button layout from the old SFII arcade cabinets and replicated them on the surface of these sticks.

Being hand-made, they're not cheap, with both going for $190. But hey, for a hand-made, wireless controller, that's not too bad.

Mekishiko916 @ Etsy [Etsy, via technabob]

The Band Hero DS drum grip is a piece of rubberized silicon that slips over a DS Lite. And is designed to better enable the feel of rapidly playing the drums than, say, tapping on drum icons on the DS' touch screen.

The peripheral will come bundled with each copy of Band Hero DS, which will also include a single DS Lite-compatible guitar grip.

The drum grip, like the rest of Band Hero DS is not compatible with the DSi. In the case of the drum grip, it simply doesn't fit the system. I touched it briefly when it was wrapped around a DS Lite at an event in New York City last week. It felt snug and the pads felt comfortable to tap.

The grip puts drum pads over the DS Lite's d-pad and face buttons. The game's executive producer, David Nathanielsz, told Kotaku that the reason for adding the peripheral was to make it more comfortable to rapidly tap to the game's drum patterns. "They have this really nice push-back, bounce-back feel to them," he said. "They fit your thumbs well. If you start banging on that d-pad [without it,] you'd get blisters and you won't have that feel."

Kotaku will have more about Band Hero DS and developer Vicarious Visions' thinking behind the new peripheral and the game later today.

Here's me holding the Wii version of the controller for this September's Bass Pro Shops: The Strike, a fishing game. It sells for $40 without the fishing rod shell, $50 with. You can see the remote embedded. What's interesting is where the nunchuck goes.

In the lower part (I'm sure there's a technical name for it, but I'll just say it's where your line would be coiled), you would find this compartment. It's tricky to see here, but note that circular divot. That connects to the reel you'd turn to reel your line in with your left hand. The top of the nunchuck's control stick is going to nestle in that. So when you're reeling line in, you're actually making full circles with the stick.

See? Nunchuck in compartment.

And here you can see that the C and Z buttons are still press-able via a couple of buttons laid over them by the shell. The C button is used to adjust the amount of drag on the line. The Z button cuts the line if you don't feel like catching the fish you've hooked.

And once it's back together, you're good to go. Snap the controller/rod back and then forward to cast your line — releasing the trigger at just the right time for the perfect cast. It worked for me — at least on the Xbox 360 version today. Using that system's proprietary controller, I caught a sparkling magic fish. And a 12-pound bass. The Xbox 360 version will retail for $40 without the controller, $80 with. (To see how another fishing game incorporated the Wii controllers in a less fancy way, check out this listing for the game Hooked.)

This is the Blaze 3-in-1 Game Selector, and while it looks a little clunky, it makes up in handiness what it lacks in attractiveness. Working like a switchbox, the device replicates the cartridge slot of your DS and clips to the back of your handheld, allowing you to insert three DS carts at once. A small lead then runs from the device to your DS's actual cart slot, and you change games by flipping a small switch on the top of the unit.

The 3-in-1 Game Selector runs for about $13, and if you're stuck playing DS games in a spot where it's inconvenient to keep bending down and rummaging through your bag to change a game (standing on the subway?), that's not a bad price.

blaze 3-in-1 selector lets you switch nintendo ds lite games on the go [technabob]