Introduction

It took a little longer than we had initially thought but Nintendo finally sent us a brand spanking new Wii console to try out. The Wii has certainly generate a ton of attention from not just the Nintendo faithful but from outside the hardcore gamer crowd. Indeed, Nintendo has been aggressively marketing their latest console to women and older people who might not normally pay attention to video games. But is the Wii both different enough and fun enough to face against the hardware powerhouses of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3?

For those of you who have not yet picked up a Wii you will most likely be surprised at the amount of sheer stuff that is in the console’s box. In addition to the white colored console itself you get a plastic grey stand to place the Wii in from a vertical position. You also get the Wii’s power cord which has a power brick that’s similar in looks to the Xbox 360’s brick but of course far smaller. You also get a set of AV TV connection cables. There are component TV cables for the Wii but they are in short supply for the moment. Of course you get the shining star of the Wii’s plan for console game uniqueness, the white colored Wiimote controller and the nunchuk attachment. The Wiimote we received comes with two AA batteries, which put it ahead of the non-replaceable PS3 controller batteries. Finally there’s the sensor bar, a flat grey addition with an extra long cord that attaches to the back of the Wii. The sensor bar is, of course, the key to the Wii’s motion sensing features and is designed to be placed either above or just below a TV set. There’s a small clear stand included to help steady the motion sensing bar onto a flat surface.

As you can see from the included photos, the Wii is tiny compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360; it’s clear that Nintendo intended to have the console designed so it can be easily transported to pretty much anywhere. The “front” of the console contains the slot-loading disk drive a la the PS3 (and you can see a blue glow coming out of it when you turn on the console). We are all for slot loading disk drives by the way; kudos to Nintendo and Sony for eliminating that annoying tray moving out of the console. Also on the front is the SD memory card slot; this is basically the Wii memory unit since you can use to not just hold Wii save games but also your Virtual Console games you download as well (more on that later). Depending on how you position your Wii, the GameCube compatible controller and memory unit slots are either on top or to the side of the Wii; they are normally covered up via a plastic door like covering. On the back is the power connection, TV cable connection; two USB slots and most importantly the sensor bar connection. While the console has a power switch it basically goes into stand by mode when the power turns off; there is no switch in the back to turn the Wii completely off like the PS3 does. By the way, the Wii does have an ATI logo on the console’s surface in addition to the Nintendo logo.