Nintendo Wii

Release: November 19, 2006 (North America)
December 2, 2006 (Japan)
December 8, 2006 (Europe)

Nintendo's Wii console was first announced at E3 2004 (under the code name Revolution) and was officially unveiled just before E3 2005. The new console is a new look after the GameCube — this one is also small (about the width of 3 standard DVD cases), but uses larger discs and comes in a more "standard" shape.

In contrast, Nintendo has broken away from tradition with the Wii's controller. Unlike previous systems, the controller for the Nintendo Wii is much like a television remote control — it can be used with one hand and relies partially on movement of the device (in relation to the television), in addition to the controller's buttons. The Wii comes with a motion sensor that is meant to be placed on top of the television set.

Alongside the remote controller is a Nunchuck attachment. For some games, this smaller controller attaches to the remote with a wire and sits in the opposite hand. It features another trigger button and an analog stick, and also uses motion sensing.

The Wii is the cheapest of the consoles in its generation, when compared with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3, initially priced at $250 U.S. The Wii is also marketed to appeal to a much wider audience, tapping into a market of people who currently don't play video games.

More Nintendo Wii Details

• The Nintendo Wii is backwards-compatible in a way that no other system has before. Not only can the system play Wii and GameCube discs, but it can also download earlier Nintendo classics, giving quick access to a large library of games that were originally published for the N64, Super NES and NES. In addition, Nintendo has announced that the Wii will also feature downloadable games from the Sega Genesis and the NEC TurboGrafx-16
  
  
• The Wii supports Wi-Fi internet access, and wireless communication with the Nintendo DS
  
  
• The Wii's CPU is by IBM (codenamed "Broadway"), and its graphics processer is again by ATI Technologies (codenamed "Hollywood").
  
  
• The system features 512 MB of internal flash memory, presumably for saving games, which can be expanded with SD memory cards.
  
  
• Like the other main systems in this generation, the Wii features wireless controllers as a standard (there are no wired Wii remotes).
  
  
• And like any Nintendo hardware these days, you can expect to see the Nintendo Wii in a variety of colours, although the initial launch saw only white systems.

Additional Hardware

Although the Wii's remote control is popular and innovative, it's not likely to appeal to everyone. For certain games, including those not originally designed for the Wii, a "classic" controller is available.