15 Forgotten Video Game Accessories

Game Boy Pocket Sonar (1998)

Initially, I was going to have a catch-all entry for the different fishing controllers. The Nintendo 64, Switch, and Dreamcast all had their own special controllers for fishing games. However, the Game Boy Pocket Sonar was different and more outlandish because instead of helping you find virtual fish, it was a tool to help you track down actual fish in real life with an actual sonar attachment.

Released only in Japan by Bandai, the Pocket Sonar was a tool to help you out during fishing trips. It also had a fish encyclopedia built in and a fishing game in case you, for some reason, wanted to use your Game Boy to play video games. Such a crazy use for the Game Boy. Just makes me want to sit back and fish with my Game Boy while watching TV off my Game Gear.

Steel Battalion Controller (2002)

First released for the original Xbox, Steel Battalion was, on the surface, a gritty mech pilot simulator. What sets it apart from other games of that type is that you had to use a very special controller made specifically for the game in order to properly play it. By controller, I mean a massive dashboard with two joysticks, 35 buttons, and three pedals. Capcom simply did not need to go this hard, but by God, they went nuts with this one. They really wanted to be as immersive as possible.

For some gamers, playing this game is a white whale. Not only is it hard to get your hands on this massive, badass-looking gimmick device, but it also means getting your hands on an original Xbox. There is no backward capability with the Xbox 360. Instead, the Xbox 360 gave us a sequel called Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, but that was a Kinect game, so you can imagine what kind of letdown it was.

Wii Cooking Mother Kit (2004)

Peripheral designers loved to insert the Wii controller into various objects in the hopes of making games more immersive. For instance, instead of the Wii’s Guitar Hero guitar peripheral being a standalone controller like on other consoles, it featured a slot designed for the base Wii controller and worked through that. Even the Wii Mario Kart game had a steering wheel accessory that played with the console’s motion controls in a satisfying way.

Then there’s the Wii Cooking Mother Kit for those playing Cooking Mama. It’s a big, plastic Swiss army knife for cooking that you attach to your Wii remote to presumably make the gameplay more fun. It has a frying pan, knife, fork, and spatula. Many online reviews aren’t too kind to it, calling it cumbersome and rather unnecessary, but they get points for trying.