I'm wondering if a separate softmod thread is needed. It seems like on a lot of these consoles, especially the wii, every time I revisit them the preferred methods to softmod and/or load the disc images has changed a little.
I'll just put a little reminder that the wii/wii u are bar none, the best consoles to run emulators on. They can hook up to modern tvs easily, yet they'll also do 240p natively in the virtual console if you use the multi-out.
Anyway, getting back to your question, I'm not a huge fan of the classic controller because of the analog stick placement and the unusually large buttons, but it's pretty much required for the virtual console, so you'll end up having to get some anyway.