Nintendo Wii Review

Wii is a seventh- generation home video game console released by Nintendo, primarily competing with Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. Among the three consoles, Wii leads in terms of worldwide sales and has broken the record for best-selling console in just a month.

Succeeding Nintendo GameCube, Wii is the fifth home console of Nintendo. Among the three competing consoles, it is the cheapest. The console comes with revolutionary motion sensing controllers providing a unique gameplay, seen never before in Xbox or Sony’s PlayStation. Wii is one game console which does something different by offering fresh and original gameplay compared to the high definition presentations of Xbox and PlayStation. These latter two Game Consoles are designed to provide great quality graphics under their same old gameplay, whereas, the Nintendo Wii came up with a new controller and a new way of playing video games very much different than the way we used to. . Wii consoles are powered with Broadway processors working at 729 MHz It has an ATI Hollywood graphics card clocking 243 MHz

BODY DESIGN
Wii consoles are very small compared to Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. The console comes in a polished white color and is less than 2 inches thick and 8.5 and 6 inches being its length and width respectively. The console is roughly the size of 3 DVD cases stacked together and weighs around 1.2 kg or 2.7 lbs making it the lightest seventh generation console. Positioning of the console can be done in both ways- horizontal or vertical. Wii consoles are available in two colors – matte white and matte black.

MULTIMEDIA
This wonderful console has an in-built Wi-Fi connectivity which is a boon for online gamers. Besides games, Wii users, with the help of third party devices, can log on to the internet for accessing more games. Nintendo Wii cannot play any CDs or DVDs but it has built-in Wi-Fi, a decent web browser and free online services. Nintendo Wii’s forte is in its online content. The Wii community lobby that can be accessed through the internet provides features like the Virtual Console, WiiConnect 24, WiiForecast, Netflix and Wii News.
A variety of games ranging from the latest to the old ones from different older systems like Sega genesis, NES, SNES etc can be downloaded from the Virtual Console. Movies and TV episodes can now be streamed directly to our TV Sets through the Wii Console.

MEMORY
Wii comes with an in-built flash memory of 512 Mb which can be expanded up to 32 GB through external storage like SDHC and SD memory card. The console has a slot loading disc drive which is compatible with 12 cm optical Wii disc as well as 8 cm GameCube Disc. This disc drive cannot play the regular CDs and DVDs.

CONNECTIVITY
Wii offers Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connectivity to surf the web and encourage online interaction in the Wii Network. It has an AV multi-out port and a USB 2.0 with Ethernet adaptor to enjoy enhanced web connectivity. The Nintendo Wii can support 10 remote wireless controllers in standard mode and 6 controllers in “One-time” mode. This large number increases the fun-factor for multiplayer games. It has 4 GameCube controller ports and 2 slots for GameCube memory cards. The GameCube ports give an option to the players of playing games of its predecessor. The Wii System comes packed with two controllers(a Wii-mote and a Nunchuk attachment), an AC adaptor, a Wii Stand(for vertical positioning), AV cables, a sensor bar with stand, 2 AA batteries for the controller and a copy of Wii Sports, which is a 5 game compilation featuring games like boxing, tennis, baseball and the likes.

PERFORMANCE
Compared to GameCube; the Nintendo Wii is twice as powerful and runs a lot quietly when compared to Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox. Wii has a 480 px resolution which is not very high but the gameplay makes up for the graphics. This game console gives a whole new experience compared to the other two seventh generation consoles. Wii games cannot be played lounging back comfortably, and, therefore it is somewhat a very good change compared to our sedentary lifestyle when we play video games.
Due to the 480 px resolution, the graphics lack the realism we experience with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The surround sound system of Wii also is not up to par with its two competitors. The controllers drain the batteries very quickly. On top of that, the number of game releases is very low compared to its competitors.

VERDICT
Yes, the graphics are not that good and the resolution also does not give a feel to the game being played, but if you wish to enjoy a unique gameplay or a family activity, then Nintendo Wii is worth its price. Price of Nintendo Wii is $199.