Wii

The Wii (pronounced "we") is a seventh generation video game console created by Nintendo and a successor to Nintendo's previous console, the Nintendo GameCube. It is Nintendo's fifth major home console, not including the Color TV-Game systems. The console was initially released in America on November 19, 2006, and was released in other countries shortly after. The Wii's two main competitors were the and, but it managed to outsell both during the course of its lifetime.

The Wii comes packaged with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The Wii Remote is capable of detecting movement in three dimensions, and can be held in one hand. The Nunchuk can be connected to the Wii Remote via a long cord, allowing for greater freedom in use of the Control Stick. Motions made with the Nunchuk can also be registered through the Wii Remote.

Building off the basis of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo is using what they refer to as the "blue ocean" strategy. This involves marketing the system not only to the general public, but also those who have never or rarely played games. It has been designed with simplicity and familiarity in mind, which explains the Wii Remote and the Wii Channels.

The system is actually incredibly compact, lending itself to extreme portability. It is approximately the size of three DVD (or Wii) cases stacked on top of one another. It comes with a stand as well, so it can sit upright when in the vertical position. 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 8cm discs used by the Nintendo GameCube, or Wii games on standard 12cm discs. The system will also come with a Wii Sensor Bar that is used to detect the motions of the Wii Remote.

The specs have been said to be comparable to an AthlonXP 2400+ or 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.

The Wii is the first console by Nintendo that has the ability to update its Operating System automatically, due to WiiConnect 24 which allows the console to receive updates even if on standby mode. Most Wii consoles came bundled with Wii Sports, and is first console since the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Mario World) to be bundled with another game at launch.

Name origin
Nintendo revealed the final name of the console right before E3 2005. Prior to this, the console was simply known as the Nintendo Revolution. Nintendo stated in the beginning that the name was simply Wii, rather than the Nintendo Wii. In fact, the name Nintendo is not shown anywhere on the console itself.

The plural form of Wii is, according to Nintendo, not "Wiis" as some tend to believe, but rather should be "Wii consoles" or "systems". The two lowercased "i"'s in the name are supposed to represent two players enjoying the game together, or the Wii's unique controller.

Following the game's announcement, both developers and fans alike expressed their dislike towards the name, with both groups explaining how they felt the name displayed a sort of "kidiness" to it, and how they preferred the Revolution. Reggie Fils-Aime explained that the name Revolution was long and was hard to pronounce in some languages, while Wii would be pronounced the same in every country.

Backward compatibility
Wii is backward. It is able to play every Nintendo GameCube game, although the Game Boy Player is not compatible. The GameCube discs go into the same slot as the main Wii discs go into, even though it is smaller in size. In addition, the Wii is also able to use some of the Nintendo GameCube peripherals such as the Nintendo GameCube Microphone and DK Bongos. The Wii also has four Nintendo GameCube controller ports and two Memory Card slots. This is the first Nintendo console to be backward compatible with a previous Nintendo console. The only thing the GameCube can do but the Wii can't is to use the Game Boy Player.

Channels
This is a list of all the channels for the Wii. These are shown on the Wii Channel Menu, and can be selected from there.

Virtual Console
A built in feature of the Wii is the Virtual Console Games are available to be downloaded (for a price) from previous systems including the TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64 and Neo-Geo. The Wii Remote is also designed so, when turned on its side, closely resembles an Nintendo Entertainment System controller. The games were priced between $5 to $10 USD prior to the Wii Shop Channel's closure on January 30, 2019. The Wii has a controller named the Classic Controller, which is designed to have compatibility with all Virtual Console games.