Old SNES official controllers on Wii U?

[marchrius]

I have a bunch of old snes controllers and I'd love to use them on retroarch, Wii U side.

Should I buy a snes to usb adapter and connect them straight to the Wii U, or would you recommend one of those adapters snes - wii remote that make the snes controller work as a classic controller?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I have a bunch of old snes controllers and I'd love to use them on retroarch, Wii U side.

Should I buy a snes to usb adapter and connect them straight to the Wii U, or would you recommend one of those adapters snes - wii remote that make the snes controller work as a classic controller?

You can mod integrated bluetooth into them and make them wireless, and use them with PC, smartphone etc. too.

Depends if you want to be able to use them with official Wii or Wii U games. If you don't then USB adapter is probably better since it can be used on a lot more devices. If you do, then a classic controller adapter is more compatible with official games.

 

[V10lator]

As @The Real Jdbye said this is about compatibility. Anyway, as the question was how to use them on the Wii U, not how to use them on Wii U + PC, I would advice to go the Wii mote route. Think about it this way: SNES Classic Minic ontrollers go over classic port (which is the same port as the one on the Wii mote, so while off-topic you're able to use SNES Classic Mini controllers on the Wii U without any adapter) and not over USB.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

As @The Real Jdbye said this is about compatibility. Anyway, as the question was how to use them on the Wii U, not how to use them on Wii U + PC, I would advice to go the Wii mote route. Think about it this way: SNES Classic Minic ontrollers go over classic port (which is the same port as the one on the Wii mote, so while off-topic you're able to use SNES Classic Mini controllers on the Wii U without any adapter) and not over USB.

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I did consider mentioning those as well but I don't think those are sold individually and splitting up SNES Classics to sell the controllers on the side is kinda crappy, cause it means there will be a lot of SNES Classics out there without controllers since the controllers got repurposed for other things, so I don't really wanna buy from sellers that do that.
But if you buy a SNES Classic for your own use, and you want to use the controllers with the Wii U too, then by all means, go for it... Just don't keep the controllers and sell the SNES Classic on its own.

I also didn't mention it because OP is specifically looking for a way to reuse their existing controllers. Otherwise, there are some other good options, like the 8bitdo SN30 Pro with Retro Receiver. Costs a lot more, and the SN30 Pro isn't exactly like an original SNES controller, but it's pretty good. I don't think they make a non-Pro version of that (without the analog sticks), otherwise that would be preferrable as it would be closer to original controllers.

I realize you're not exactly telling them to buy SNES Classic controllers, but felt it was worth mentioning anyway.

 

[marchrius]

Thank you for your inputs! I ended up getting a hyperkin snes -> wiimote adapter and it works like a charm. I wanted to get it since ages ago but the shipping cost (+ customs) from the US was a dealbreaker for me. Luckily I found a german seller on Ebay.