I have the feeling that Mark Twain’s line saying “rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” will be getting used more and more for Nintendo Corporation.

By most accounts, Nintendo has had a few very good weeks lately. The release of Mario Kart 8 saw 1.2 million copies of the game sold, helping to quadruple sales of the Wii U and put it on line to be on par or even surpass sales of the Xbox One and PS4, at least for the month (although that’s not likely to last).

And during the latest E3 conference, a lot of the buzz was about Super Smash Brothers for the Wii U and the 3DS, which we discussed last time.

They provided more details about the use of GameCube controllers and Super Smash Bros. The adapter by itself will be available for a suggested retail price of $19.99. It’ll allow up to four wired or wireless GameCube controllers to be attached to the Wii U.

The company is keeping mum about whether it’ll just work with the handheld GameCube controller, or whether it’d make all GameCube controllers like the CyberBike, DDR Game Pad, Active Life Game Pad compatible as well. It also hasn’t officially mentioned compatibility with games other than Super Smash Bros (although I’d be shocked if they didn’t make it compatible with Virtual Console games). So far, they’ve only officially announced that it’ll work with one controller and game: the classic GameCube handheld controller playing the new Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

[UPDATE: as of 7/16/14, a few retailers like Best Buy have published updated product copy that states things like “Play a variety of games on your Wii U using your classic GameCube controller” and “Play your favorite Wii U games with the controller experience you know and love”. Whether this is a little bit of advanced insider knowledge or a low-level copywriters making stuff up, time will tell. It’s a shame we have to play this guessing game, but something tells me that Nintendo themselves are still figuring this stuff out as we speak as well…]

The official launch date for this adapter in North America has still not been confirmed, although they do say to expect it in “4th Quarter 2014”. You can pre-order it at Amazon for $19.99. If the price drops between now and then Amazon will refund the difference.

There will also be a $99.99 bundle that includes a copy of Super Smash Bros, a brand new GameCube controller with the Super Smash Bros. branding, and the adapter.

From the photos it looks like it’ll take up two of your four precious USB ports on the Wii U, so if you have things like a USB drive and an Ethernet adapter installed, you’re going to start feeling a little squeezed. But a good USB Hub should serve you well if you want to add additional things like a keyboard or a microphone.

Fingers still crossed that the GameCube adapter will bring all those old peripherals to life. Nintendo certainly needs all the help it can get to get old Wii users to make the jump to the Wii U, especially since publishers like Namco Bandai, Konami, and Big Ben seem to have all but abandoned the idea of active gaming with the Wii U.