Nintendo Wii

Codenamed the Revolution, the Wii is Nintendo's newest gaming console. Due to be released fall 2006. So far most of it is a mystery, but bits and pieces have been revealed.

Building off the basis of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo is using what they refer to as the "blue ocean" strategy. It is a move to target not only the general gaming public, but also those who never played games, or those who stopped or play very rarely. It has been designed with simplicity and familiarity in mind.

The system is actually incredibly compact, lending itself to extreme portability. It is approximately as large as three DVD cases stacked atop each other. It comes with a stand as well so it can sit upright if desired. To insert a game there is a large slot on the front of the system, surrounded by a glowing blue neon light. The slot can accept the mini discs used by the Nintendo GameCube, or Wii games on standard DVDs. The system will also come with a sensor bar that is needed to be placed atop the TV before use.

So far the specs have been said to be comparable to an AthlonXP 2400+ to an AthlonXP 3000+ with a possible clock speed between 2.0 Ghz to 2.2 Ghz. The GPU is comparable to an ATi Radeon X1400 and X1600 and the RAM Speed is said to be at 640Mhz. Nintendo has gone on record saying "The graphics will make you say wow."

The price has not been officialy announced. But it has been hinted at, Nintendo has confirmed the Wii will cost less than $250. It will most likely launch for $199.99, as all of the other Nintendo consoles (NES, SNES, N64, GCN) launched for that price. Nintendo will announce the price and release date by September.

Controller
The controller is what makes the system shine. Using integrated apparatus such as accelerometers and gyroscopes it will be able to sense movement in 3-D space. Using this the system can simulate things such as having a sword fight, playing almost any sports game, solving puzzles, and much more. It closely resembles a very small television remote. The controller was designed this way on purpose in order to make it easy to relate to the familiarity of the television remote. It's emphasis on it's motion sensing capabilities also help steer it away from difficult games to play, making them more natural to appeal to all groups of people. It also has various attachments which are plugged into the bottom of the controller. One such attachment, referred to as the nunchuku adds two more buttons, a joystick, and has it's own built in accelerometers. The port on the bottom of the controller can allow various other attachments as well, and they will be revealed as time progresses.

The controller was formerly refered as the Revmote by the gaming community. As the real name of the console was revealed, nowadays the controller is known as the "Wiimote", though the correct name according to Nintendo is simply "Wii Remote".

Backward Compatibility
Nintendo has confrimed that the Wii will be backward compatable with the Gamecube, which launched in 2001. It will be able to play every Gamecube game in the collection (Unlike the 360), and will also be able to use some of the GCN peripherals such as the Mic, and the GBA GCN connectivity cord. Though since of the size of the Wii, its not expected to be able to use the Game Boy Player. The Wii also has four GCN controller ports and two meomory slots, so that also should'nt be a problom.

Virtual Console


A built in feature of the Wii will be the virtual console. Games will be able to be downloaded (for a price) from previous systems including the Turbo Graphx 16, Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, and N64. The Wii remote is also designed so, when turned on it's side, closely resembles an NES controller, most likely designed with the NES and SNES in mind. It has also been confirmed that virtual console games will cost between $4 to $9 USD. This includes new titles and classics. It has also been rumored that seperate add-on controllers can be purchased resembling those specific systems, and used to play the games on those systems. An add-on Wii controller has been shown as well, designed to cover all the virtual console systems.

Launch Lineup

 * Blitz: The League
 * Disney's/Pixar's Cars
 * Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
 * Elebits
 * Madden NFL 2007
 * Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
 * Metal Slug Anthology
 * Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
 * Rayman Raving Rabbids
 * Red Steel
 * SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
 * Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
 * The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
 * Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
 * Trauma Center: Second Opinion
 * Wii Sports
 * Call of Duty 3