Nintendo now selling ‘high-capacity’ Wii U GamePad battery

The Wii U GamePad’s wireless nature is kind of a figure of speech, what with how often its out-of-the-box battery life requires a charge. Nintendo’s high-capacity GamePad battery hasjumped shores to offer a solution to the annoyance, as long as you’re willing to pay $32 for it.

Tired of tethering your Wii U GamePad to a wall socket? You no longer have to: Nintendo has finally made the screen-toting controller’s high-capacity battery pack available to US gamers. The 2,550mAh battery first debuted in Japan this summer, promising to boost the device’s middling 3-5 hour battery life to almost eight. The upgrade took months to crawl its way west to Europe, and is now available to North American buyers in Nintendo’s online store. The price of an extending gaming session? About $32, give or take shipping. We’re glad to have it available, but admittedly, we wish it came just a little sooner.