Sunny Man’s Blog

September 27th 2006

(0) Nintendo Wii Roundup

Gaming, Misc.

I think I’ve done enough talking about Nintendo’s latest games console, Wii. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing me talking about it anyway so I thought I’d post a final roundup of all the information we know, suspect and don’t know about the Wii. Sorry, I promise this is the last post this month on this subject :D. You can probably tell by now that I’m a fan of the Wii and I just want to spread the word.

Availability

I’m going to start off with the juicy details of when you can get your ugly mits on the Wii. It’s hitting the UK on the 8th of December this year in white and with around 20 games at launch - not including the free copy of Wii Sports included with the console! The box will cost £179.99 and this includes: 1x Wii console, 1x Wii Remote, 1x Wii Nunchuck, 1x Wii Sports, 1x Sensor Bar, 1x Wii Stand, basic cabling and one £20 voucher to download any of the content from the Wii’s Virtual Console. Also, the Wii’s Internet browser, developed by Opera, will be available for free until June 2007 via the Virtual Console as well.

The USA gets the Wii on 19th November, Japan on the 2nd December and Australia on the 7th December - Europe is last as usual.

Main Features

Nintendo have takes an unconventional approach to their newest console by reinventing the hardware used rather than just upgrading it. The Wii has dumped the traditional controller design in favour of a remote. Yes, a remote like the one you use to change channels on your TV. Why? Nintendo has said it appeals to both gamers and non-gamers by providing a new and unconventional way to traditional gamers and a familiar control to those who have never played on a games console before. The Wii Remote (or Wiimote as it’s known) detects your movements in all 3 spacial demensions and also includes accelerometers to judge the speed of the remote - this is used in games like Wii Tennis and Wii Golf.

The Nunchuck attachment plugs into the bottom of the Wii Remote and includes an analogue stick, the same spatial detection capabilites as the Remote and two extra buttons, Z and C. The Wii also boasts 4 Gamecube controller ports to if anyone still has those controllers, they can use them for any Gamecube games they have lying around.

The Wii console itself is the size of 3 stacked DVD cases and features a slot-loading disk bay that will accept both Wii and Gamecube disks. Nintendo recently announced they curbed DVD playback ability to cut costs and speed up production - who needs another DVD player anyway; especially when they’re only around £30. At launch, the console will only be available in white but Nintendo have said that more colours are to be phased in over time. The Wii won’t support High Definition but will support widescreen formats - mind you, the graphics capabilities of the Wii don’t really call for HD output anway.

Virtual Console

As I’ve said, there will be around 20 new titles for the Wii available to buy (including the new Zelda title and the much advertised Red Steel) but Wii owners will be able to purchase 20 years of gaming history for around £5 - £10 for games from classic consoles like NES, SNES, Nintendo 64 and even the Sega Mega Drive! This is a great idea and Nintendo hope that it’s version of the Xbox Live Marketplace does just as well as the original has.

Games purchased via the Virtual Console can either be stored on the Wii’s internal 512MB storage or onto an optional SD memory card that can be inserted into the SD card slot on the Wii. The use of SD cards to expand the Wii’s memory capability is a genius idea because SD cards are relatively cheap and it means the consumers don’t pay stacks of cash for branded memory cards. It also means that you can take your games and play them on another Wii as well.

The Virtual Console, like the Xbox Live Marketplace, will have it’s own virtual currency. I’m going to call them Wii Points and you can buy 2000 Wii Points for around £14 apparantly - although this amounts seems a little too exact so maybe they’ll make it a bit more logical and make it £10 for 2000 points. Like Microsoft, this is where Nintendo hope to make most of their money.

The Channels

The Wii’s interface, like the Xbox 360 and the PS3, features a dashboard like feature. For the Wii, it offers different ‘channels’. These include the Mii Channel, News Channel, Weather Channel, Photo Channel and an Internet Channel (when you’ve downloaded the Opera browser for Wii). Although the channels like the Weather and Photo channel seem useless - who really checks the weather every day? With the power of the Wii, is photo editing really an efficient process when it can be done quicker and better on a PC? But, for first time users, they may seem pretty neet such as parents drawing devil horns on their children’s heads while they’re at school.

The Mii channel allows you to create your own 3D avatar that you can place in games like the Wii Sports games. The avatar is sent to the remote and assigned to that remote so you can take the remote with you and add your avatar to a game over your friend’s house - pretty neat and fun. During E3, Miyamoto appeared in the demo of Wii Tennis and recieved an applause of claps and laughter and that’s when the first signs of the Mii channel originated from. You can view the different channels and how they work on the official site.

Pre-Ordering

So, now I’ve got all the amazing details out the way, you’re probably wondering where you can pre-order the damn thing! It looks like there is going to be a shortage, like the Xbox 360 in December last year, but not as big a one. These retailers are currently accepting pre-orders of the console in bundle form and/or on-its-own form: PC World, GAME (console on its own only available in stores; bundles online), Gamestation (in store only), Play.com and HMV.