My orange Pelican GCN Retro Pad arrived in the mail today (brand new!) for $15.99 + shipping from a site called Cap'n Games. It's a controller specifically designed to make up for the lack of proper d-pad on the GCN controller while playing games on the system's Gameboy Player.

It's supposedly a "cheap alternative" to the elusive Hori Gameboy Player Controller, but I couldn't find any on Amazon, or eBay. There are a few inflatedly priced Hori's floating around however, so this knockoff may have become the more scarce (yet less valuable) of the two . This also seems to have been the last one the site had in stock, so I feel exceptionally lucky for finding it - especially at such a solid price.

The controller is sturdy, like an extra-thick SNES pad, and is damned comfortable to hold. The buttons have a great feel to them, and the Genesis-esque D-pad is both fluid and responsive.

Now all I need, to get the Gameboy Player on my HDtv, are some GCN component cables and I'm golden. Until my next paycheck though, I'll just stick to all the 2D-friendly GCN and GCN-controller compatible Wii games I own.