It doesn't make much sense, especially considering the game's five years old. So the question remains: at those prices--about half those of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox is the Wii worth the investment for first-time buyers?
The answer, as usual, is, "It depends. The Wii was an aging, fading star last fall, and today it's a console that's feeling decidedly last-gen: it still isn't HD, and its appeal beyond budget family entertainment and nostalgic gaming is dwindling fast. That doesn't mean there aren't a ton of excellent, first-party Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games worth buying, and some interesting bargain-bin exclusives never seen on any other console that would be fun for grown-ups and families alike.
The Wii was the cheapest gaming console before, and it remains the cheapest now. But, other than the impending release of Zelda: Skyward Sword, there isn't much to look forward to for the Wii. At this stage in its life cycle, the Wii isn't really a console to invest in. Buy the Wii only if you're looking for a kid-friendly gaming console with a solid library of older, affordable games.
With that caveat established--if you're still interested--let's take a look at the system in greater detail. Hardware The Wii is arguably the easiest to set up of the three game consoles: even the box comes in clearly labeled sections that resemble Apple's packaging.
The console hasn't changed a bit since , unlike both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox , which have seen redesigns and performance improvements. The thin, small, minimalist box almost resembles a set-top device. The Wii now comes in black as well as white, and a limited-edition red version was briefly offered last fall for the holiday season to commemorate Mario's 25th anniversary.
No matter the color, the clean, almost innocuous look makes the Wii one of the least imposing consoles of all time. In addition to Nintendo's sizable library of Wii games, in a pleasant but odd tip of the hat, the Wii is backward-compatible with the GameCube, thanks to four GameCube controller ports and two memory card slots that lie tucked away behind a side door.
Odds are slim that you'll tap into the GameCube library, unless you're a hard-core Nintendo system owner or a garage-sale shopper. To be honest, we'd rather have other features instead--we'd trade the GameCube jacks for an HDMI-out port without blinking. Two rear USB ports work with plug-in peripherals such as microphones, but will otherwise rarely be used.
In the front, below Power and Reset buttons, an SD card slot can read photos and video off cameras, or archive downloaded games and save files to expand the limited internal MB of storage space on the Wii. There's no Ethernet port for direct-wired Internet connectivity, although the Wii does have internal A separate USB-to-Ethernet adapter is available. While we appreciate the economical size of the Wii, its features are out-of-date and difficult to upgrade compared with the more PC-like Xbox and PS3.
The slot-loading disc player doesn't even play DVDs. Wii controllers connect wirelessly through Bluetooth and are powered by AA batteries, although we recommend one of the rechargeable packs that can be used instead. There are no physical controller ports on the Wii. The Wii's system menu has a grid layout, with downloadable games and applike channels displayed on a series of pages that remarkably resemble Apple's iOS, although the concept predates Apple by a year.
System software can be updated over the Internet relatively painlessly, but other online features are severely hobbled, aside from certain Internet-connected channels and the Wii Shop.
The gyroscopic technology combines with a built-in accelerometer and infrared sensors on the tip of the Wii Remote to offer more accurate position-based motion sensing than the original Wii Remote.
Unfortunately, few games incorporate MotionPlus, so odds are you won't notice the difference unless you happen to be playing one of those games Zelda: Skyward Sword is one of them, as is Wii Sports Resort.
The new remote's capabilities keep up with Microsoft's Kinect and the PlayStation Move, but both of those peripherals utilize a camera mounted near the TV, while Nintendo's system only requires an IR-beaming sensor bar attached above or below the TV set.
Other features on the Wii Remote remain the same: the clean button layout can be used in a remote-style or horizontal control-pad-like layout, and a variety of plug-in peripherals such as the included Nunchuk or a retro-compatible game controller give the Wii some flexibility for various games, though an increasing number of titles just use the Wii Remote on its own.
Set-top device that could have been Before the iPhone redefined the idea of Apps, the Nintendo Wii offered up its own grid of Channels with a variety of Internet-connected information functions--in their own way, apps.
The potential was huge, especially since Channels could be downloaded directly from an online Wii Shop, but only a few were ever made, and no significant ones in the past couple of years.
A Web browser remains the most useful, but navigation gets awkward with the Wii Remote, not to mention some sites have difficulty showing up at all. Other Channels offering global weather, news, and quirky polls felt like gimmicks, and their novelty wore thin.
The Wii does have a downloadable Netflix Channel , and it works wonderfully. While the app doesn't have HD streaming, navigation with the Wii Remote is effortless, and Netflix's streaming library offers the sort of entertainment that the DVD-free Wii couldn't previously provide. We'd like to see more channels like these, but at this point in the Wii's life cycle it's highly unlikely they'll ever arrive.
Where's my entertainment? The biggest failing of the Wii, in that regard, is its awkwardness as a set-top box. Netflix aside, there aren't any useful channels or apps that make the Wii anything that anyone would want to use except to play games on. That's fine enough considering the Wii's a game console, but today's systems are transforming into multipurpose devices quite rapidly.
Again, of course he'd say that. He's not going to reveal the next Nintendo console during a Friday morning chat. But it sure seems like a Wii 2, or whatever you would want to call it, could nestle in nicely as the hot gaming machine of Christmas other than that PSP2 we hear may be coming out in the fall , of course, and that Nintendo 3DS that's coming to America in March.
Reggie, however, just doesn't believe it's time to talk about this kind of thing yet, probably because he'd like people to be thinking of buying a new red Wii or Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nintendo's big things for this fall. I'd be so surprised if Nintendo actually did call the next console the Wii 2. I expect the next console to be equally unique. The A. By Stephen Totilo. We'll call it Doo.
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