The latest version of Iwata Asks ran at the subject matter of the Wii Wheel and how it eventually came to fruition. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideki Konno and Kenichiro Ashida joined in a round table discussion about the prototypes, some of which look quite peculiar.

Wii Wheel’s introduction came around when Konno had prepared a steering wheel for Ashida when he got his hands on the pre-production build of Mario Kart Wii. Because of how different the experience was compared to playing the game with the lone Wii remote, they felt that this peripheral could work, seeing there are already some devices like this already on the market.

The design was mainly based on the fact that the Wii Wheel would not have a drift shaft, so that the peripheral would be used in mid-air.

Ashida: It’s incredibly light, and when I checked it out, it felt really fun. With a complex product, it’s difficult to get an image of the final design. But with this it took no time at all to picture the design.

After creating 30 Wii Wheel models, they eventually came to a design that actually worked well and was aesthetically pleasing. Of course, the peripheral would be white (staying loyal to the nature of Nintendo’s other Wii devices) and the logo and blue ring is located on the back of the wheel.

Ashida: If it were on the front, the player would always see it, but since this would be held mid-air, you could say that even on the back, it’s on the front to someone who’s watching someone else play. Since it would be sort of sad if there were nothing but a screw there, we thought it would be more fun for people watching someone play if there was a blue ring on it.

Its very intriguing to see how the Wii Wheel managed to come to the state its in now. People will not know how the experience will play out unless you pick up a copy of Mario Kart Wii when it releases on April 11th.

Source: Wii.com